Guild Wars 2

Okay, before we all get heated since there are other topics like this one out there let me clear one thing up. Livin story has become nothing but champion farming. This game, is champion farming. I can’t load into any map without seeing people asking where the train is. I honestly don’t see how people can run around for hours farming these champs. It’s stupid and honestly annoying.

What gets under my skin i how the living story is becoming cancerous to the game. Sure, I like that Anet is trying to do something. But look at Tequatal. It’s like they sprinkled sugar on him and within one week it was all licked off by us. I’m getting bored because living story is nothing but some dumb skin, a mini-game, a zone hat’s only there for a few weeks. (I still have no clue why the portal to the crown pavilion is even there.)

So what is it I do now? Well I started playing the original Guild Wars again and browsing the forum more. That’s how bored I am and this game should honestly be re-named to Grind Wars 2. There’s nothing exciting to do anymore! I can go WvW orSPvP but after about a good hour or so I feel like doing something PvE wise. Oh wait, scarlets minions are attacking Blazeridge Steppes! Meanwhile in mapchat… [x waypoint] Champs up!

Things have gotten stale. I find the forums more entertaining than the game itself right now.

That’s a good point you’re bringing up.

However, people entertain themselves with this farm and keep on playing and in the end, this is the only thing that matters for NCSoft.
Unfortunately, any argument that is about the “good qualities” of the game will always loose to what makes people pour in more hours and money.

I attribute most in-game behavior to game design rather than simply human nature. The best design takes human nature into account and provides incentives to the best behavior. (I’m thinking here of elements like non-competitive resource nodes and mob tagging—brilliant.) Game design can have unintended effects of course and I believe the champ train is one of those unintended effects. Can you imagine a designer intending to create them?

That said, I don’t think there is a causal relationship with the living story. If anything, they exist because the living story is not being told in a deep and meaningful way, i.e., the champ train exists in a living story vacuum. The living story is simply not providing an incentive strong enough to dethrone the champ train in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

Yep. 123456789101112131415

I don’t see any difference between GW1 and 2. GW1 = I want something expensive → uwsc 24/7. GW2 = I want something expensive → champ farm 24/7

Headless.3718:

I don’t see any difference between GW1 and 2. GW1 = I want something expensive -> uwsc 24/7. GW2 = I want something expensive -> champ farm 24/7

Champ farming is much more mindless than uwsc or doasc or any other sc in gw1 was.

The Meat Wagon.7194:

Headless.3718:

I don’t see any difference between GW1 and 2. GW1 = I want something expensive -> uwsc 24/7. GW2 = I want something expensive -> champ farm 24/7

Champ farming is much more mindless than uwsc or doasc or any other sc in gw1 was.

For some bosses in GW2, you can just stand somewhere with a ranged weapon, hit 1 on autoattack, and go make yourself a sandwich or watch a youtube video. The only thing more mindless in GW1 was 9 Rings.

Imagine if they used 1 year of development time on: fixing clipping, adding tons of new armor skins, fixing bugs at the roots, adding new zones, furthering the actual story of Guild Wars.

Now think about what could have been, and what we got. Some people like the living story there’s no doubting that, but just take a moment to think about how much quality and greatness that time could have gone to.

living story like the name implies is about the story. champion farming came about with an update that had nothing to do with the living story at all. The two arent related at all!

Also rewards arent the living story, rewards are rewards just like if you take part in a competition, say car racing the competition isnt about the trophy / money you might win, its about racing!

HackworthGW.8251:

The Meat Wagon.7194:

Headless.3718:

I don’t see any difference between GW1 and 2. GW1 = I want something expensive -> uwsc 24/7. GW2 = I want something expensive -> champ farm 24/7

Champ farming is much more mindless than uwsc or doasc or any other sc in gw1 was.

For some bosses in GW2, you can just stand somewhere with a ranged weapon, hit 1 on autoattack, and go make yourself a sandwich or watch a youtube video. The only thing more mindless in GW1 was 9 Rings.

And that is why so many players champ farm it is so easy and the reward for doing it is pretty well

They change.3526:

Okay, before we all get heated since there are other topics like this one out there let me clear one thing up. Livin story has become nothing but champion farming. This game, is champion farming. I can’t load into any map without seeing people asking where the train is. I honestly don’t see how people can run around for hours farming these champs. It’s stupid and honestly annoying.

What gets under my skin i how the living story is becoming cancerous to the game. Sure, I like that Anet is trying to do something. But look at Tequatal. It’s like they sprinkled sugar on him and within one week it was all licked off by us. I’m getting bored because living story is nothing but some dumb skin, a mini-game, a zone hat’s only there for a few weeks. (I still have no clue why the portal to the crown pavilion is even there.)

So what is it I do now? Well I started playing the original Guild Wars again and browsing the forum more. That’s how bored I am and this game should honestly be re-named to Grind Wars 2. There’s nothing exciting to do anymore! I can go WvW orSPvP but after about a good hour or so I feel like doing something PvE wise. Oh wait, scarlets minions are attacking Blazeridge Steppes! Meanwhile in mapchat… [x waypoint] Champs up!

Things have gotten stale. I find the forums more entertaining than the game itself right now.

i agree i think they should do the living story like they did with Flame and Frost to Last Stand at Southsun they made since and the stroy was good and they were connected

Headless.3718:

I don’t see any difference between GW1 and 2. GW1 = I want something expensive -> uwsc 24/7. GW2 = I want something expensive -> champ farm 24/7

The difference is that ArenaNet ignored the speed clearing unless they got out of hand. Whereas in GW2, they’re catering to it. Their content is focused on the concept of farming and time gating – be it champions or achievements or dailies.

GW1 might have had its farms and its grind, but except for early level Nightfall done just so that there could be little low level content as possible without high leveling quest rewards, ArenaNet didn’t cater to this. They just let it existed.

And I don’t see why the argument of “it’s what keeps people playing so they’ll bring more of it” should hold any water with Guild Wars 2. There’s no subscription. As long as enough people play – even if it’s just coming back for a few days for the new content – then it should be enough.

But eh, Anet will be Anet. They’re just not the same Anet they once were it seems.

What makes GW2’s world living?
Take WoW or any MMO X for example, say it adds 1 new quest each week and then delete it another week after – does this makes the world living?

Personally, I don’t see the world around me changing in GW2. Players can’t impact or change the world.

Relax. They just need one outstanding story (e.g. Livia), or outstanding world event (e.g. organized Centaur invasion against Kryta) to bring back the fans. Just one.

CHIPS.6018:

Relax. They just need one outstanding story (e.g. Livia), or outstanding world event (e.g. organized Centaur invasion against Kryta) to bring back the fans. Just one.

actually they need more flow and more time to put into these content updates. its a story but its disjointed and need a bit more ironing maybe they should have spent more time with each chapter(each chapter in reality being three or four updates) taking a month or so. each update(every two weeks) bringing us more stuff to do toward the chapter end before they moved onto(giving us more info on the the threat and about each part) and gave a us a bit more stuff in game that connected each chapter together. as for the overall picture i think they did an adequate job. it is a story if you find all the connecting pieces. they could have expanded more into the areas giving us more info about the molten alliance and/or aetherblade more intro into scarlet before we saw her. if we had more info to understand why they formed and group maybe we would feel more passionate about fighting them. the only thing is the holiday should remain the same. holidays should be more of like a break from achievements and living story for everyone

I agree with you OP. I would rather get nothing for 6 months to a year, and then get a really good expansion at the end of it. Right now interest is falling off massively from my friends in game and people are getting more and more grumbly.

Contrast that with the fact that every time an expansion came out in GW1, or on the release of GW2 my guild exploded with activity and people were generally happy. And activity remained steady from one release to another.

They change.3526:

But look at Tequatal. It’s like they sprinkled sugar on him and within one week it was all licked off by us.

O__O In one sentence you managed to capture TQ so perfectly. xD Even then, I believe over 90% of the players thought that sugar was bitter. But yes, the majority of the minority that did it have stopped/grown tired.

<—- Waiting on ESO…. anyone have game suggestions for me? after 1.5 k hours logged there just isn’t enough end game here for me to even bother coming on weekly anymore.

I agree with many complaints here, especially the never ending Champion faceroll that goes on during many Living World Events. Some Living World releases seem completely inconsequential to an actual living world, and I don’t see Living Story actually meaning what Anet meant when they spoke about it at the begining of the year….

….except that Anet might actually be starting to actually “Change” the world. All of the Trees around Viathan Lake has been cut down. Theres a giant illusion preventing us from getting to the center of the lake to see where those construction sounds are comming from. Its a great lead up to the next living world release in a few weeks. We’ll see if it has everlasting Zerg faceroll mechanics or not, and hopefully it isn’t.

I hear ya. The last few updates have not given me an urge to log in the game at all. Last one I really was enthusiasthic about was Zephyr sanctum, why? We got a new zone, albeit tiny. But the last few – the “huge content updates” they keep advertising are nothing more than achievement point grinds with no real substance.

It’s ironic that they keep saying how they want to eliminate “kill 10 rats” grindy quests but then their entire content is based on same kind of AP grind!

Give me a shout when there’s actually new zones we’d love to see, worthwhile content update and maybe some new elder dragons.

I haven’t played living story… since august (the horrible queen’s pavilion). Not going to play it ever again… nor will I play any PvE anymore.

The queen’s pavilion was the nail in the coffin for me too… Havn’t logged on since, and looking at the releases i’ve missed out on, i don’t even care anymore, they are stupid beyond belief, no gods, no dragons, instead were having a party 24/7, with the spontanious boss upgrade now and then, a new path to TA.. yeh. I for one think LS is just a way for them to keep the small playerbase they have active, until they roll something substantial out. I mean look at GW2 if there was no LS, people would leave fast and soon after reaching lvl 80. And after a whole years gone, we only have one new zone, and constantly disappearing events new players don’t even get to experiance. Whoever decided on turning GW2 into this sinkhole, or perhaps it always was, should be fired.. Fans have waited for ages, and you serve them everything you stated you wouldn’t in your manifesto, that alone should prove to everyone it’s time to abandon ship.

incognito.4019:

<—- Waiting on ESO…. anyone have game suggestions for me? after 1.5 k hours logged there just isn’t enough end game here for me to even bother coming on weekly anymore.

Elder Scrolls Online is so bad. Tedious monster encounters. Awkward PvP. Stiff character animations. Quests are traditional. Even if it’s still in closed beta, the cities are easily packed, it’s like a cattle farm because it’s one server worldwide. It’s too bad Bethesda did not let Todd Howard lay hands on ESO. It’s like a slap in the face for Todd Howard, he’s been developing since The Elder Scrolls: Arena.

So what you’re saying OP, is everyone is having fun except for you. You’re correct. Horrible game design.

Nobody is having fun in Living story, except people without a brain.

They change.3526:

Okay, before we all get heated since there are other topics like this one out there let me clear one thing up. Livin story has become nothing but champion farming. This game, is champion farming. I can’t load into any map without seeing people asking where the train is. I honestly don’t see how people can run around for hours farming these champs. It’s stupid and honestly annoying.

What gets under my skin i how the living story is becoming cancerous to the game. Sure, I like that Anet is trying to do something. But look at Tequatal. It’s like they sprinkled sugar on him and within one week it was all licked off by us. I’m getting bored because living story is nothing but some dumb skin, a mini-game, a zone hat’s only there for a few weeks. (I still have no clue why the portal to the crown pavilion is even there.)

So what is it I do now? Well I started playing the original Guild Wars again and browsing the forum more. That’s how bored I am and this game should honestly be re-named to Grind Wars 2. There’s nothing exciting to do anymore! I can go WvW orSPvP but after about a good hour or so I feel like doing something PvE wise. Oh wait, scarlets minions are attacking Blazeridge Steppes! Meanwhile in mapchat… [x waypoint] Champs up!

Things have gotten stale. I find the forums more entertaining than the game itself right now.

This! I was afraid I’m the only one who hates this grindfest. Living world is now so boring and easy to complete. In my opinion thing called “meta achievement” should require a lot more than killing things, which can be completed within few hours, and then I have 2 weeks of waiting for new achievements, doing the same dungeons/events over and over again. Some people don’t like temporary content, but that’s how mmo works, every event passes and it should be an Achievement to complete it, not someting to do in your spare time to get another back skin… Community in GW2 seems to not want Anything challenging, but I personally am bored as hell.
I’m also thinking about original Guild wars, I heard that they have endgame there :P

Iv said it once before but i’ll say it again………

I genuinely think that the biggest mistake ANet has made was changing tack to make their updated/living world events so frequent.

While the events last year where not always perfect, the quality and depth of content in terms of new game play, crafting mates, achievements, rewards etc meant that it felt more like a “special event” rather than just an “game patch”. By committing to pushing out new living world content pretty much every month, ANet is no longer giving its dev and writing team long enough to develop new and interesting content. Because of this they are forced to fall back on a set of templates around materials, grinding and limited rewards rather than allowing their teams to make something genuinely new.

This is why each living story update and this year’s Halloween event just feels “less” compared to last years living world content. It is just the same skeleton templates from previous events populated with less content because the dev team is only just getting over writing the last living world event. Same maps, same style rewards. just chuck in some zerg events and champions and push it out there.

With the exception of Halloween, iv treated pretty much every Living World update this year as background noise. If iv fancied a change iv run with the zerg but 75% of the time, i just ignore it.

In summary, I still love this game, that’s why as a 26 year old gamer im still playing regularly over a year since release, but ANet if you want to avoid killing off your own fan base you should go back to doing fewer but bigger, better and longer lasting event. Quality of release, not quantity.

Thats my thoughts anyway.