Guild Wars 2

Couldn’t agree more.

I’ve quit playing this game several times out of sheer boredom, each time returning in the hopes that something new would be introduced. Each time I held on to the hope that ArenaNet would finally put out something truly worthwhile, and each time I’ve been disappointed.

While the second season of Living Story is, in my opinion, better played out and better written than the first, it’s not nearly enough to compensate for the utter lack of change being made to this game. And yet for some reason, it’s become the primary focus of the game. A couple hours of well-written albeit effortless story missions with little to no replayability have become GW2’s center, and it’s not working out.

Any good MMO must be consistently updated and polished to get progressively better and maintain its freshness, to keep its player base interested and to draw in new players. After two years of this game being out, no remotely significant change has been made to the way the game is played in any way whatsoever.

- No new professions and no sign of its coming anytime soon.
- No new weapon types or weapons kills.
- No new weapons for any professions
- No new skills (aside from terrible Antitoxen, etc)
- Still-broken or otherwise inferior utility skills, racial skills, and elite skills.
- Poor itemization
- Same old dungeons, same old paths, same old rewards.
- No significant balancing.
- Poorly balanced and blatantly inferior/superior traits and builds.
- No new crafting skills or changes made to them.
- No new PvP or WvW maps (excluding Ktrain of the Mists)
- One tiny new zone with no quests.
- Stupid bugs and glitches that have been around the entire time.
- No otherwise meaningful changes.

The list can go on and on. I’ve dropped a good amount of money for ANet because, at first, I had incredibly high hopes for this game. I had thought I’d finally found a promising MMO that wasn’t going to sell out. Instead, I dropped money for a company that has made a habit of continually letting down its players and failing to meet expectations.

It’s been two years. TWO YEARS. For a game to be out this long and to still retain the vast majority of the things that were wrong with it since launch is absolutely unacceptable. It’s even worse that the game is devoid of significant updates. Time has proven that ANet has, voluntarily or not, become just another money-making machine that milks its players dry with promising bait.

Suffice it to say, I find myself drifting further and further away from this game, which is sad because I really, really enjoyed this game when it was still fresh to me, and at times when I thought more was coming. But with each disappointment, my patience and my respect for ANet has diminished. How long must players wait?

Better communication and feedback with its player-base would make a hell of a difference, but it’s been nothing but darkness for the past two years.

dodgycookies.4562:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 × 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba Product Series:DT01ACA 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 ($98.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $560.22

After reading through all the info posted here and comparing prices for parts and whatnot, this one fits my budget best. I can certainly afford some of the more higher quality/higher price components listed here but yours sits most comfortably with me. I don’t need the best right now; that can come later. Will this build allow me to play WvW and GW2 on the whole with reasonable smoothness?

Avelos.6798:

For wvw I think the spec list I provided with the CPU and the GPU should let you do that. Keep in mind though that is far from the best, but is even further from being the worst.

Approximately how much would your build cost? Do you know?
I assume it’s reasonably close to dodgycookies’s list in terms of price and performance, since you’ve both kindly listed for me budget systems that still perform well enough to fit my needs.

Avelos.6798:

If you’re talking about upgrading that Compaq, I don’t think it’d be worth it. The Athlon line presented in it seems familiar but I think finding a better CPU along the line would prove costly. As for GPU, to get a game capable one for GW2 and install it, let alone even use it would likely also prove costly because you’d likely have to upgrade the power supply in it, whiiiiich could further lead to having to replace the motherboard if for example it’s all using proprietary BS.

dodgycookies.4562:

you essentially need a brand new everything if you wish to upgrade to the recommended i5 cpu for wvw. The only thing salvageable from that old pc is the dvd drive, the case itself and possible the hard drive

There’s a few things to understand. Motherboards are not all the same, they are built with sockets to fit specific cpu families and only those families. Yours has a AM2 socket and no chip maker makes a cpu that uses that socket anymore. You cannot stick a modern cpu from either amd or intel into that motherboard (which might not even accept any upgrades due to proprietary bios and power circuitry).

You two both seem to know what you’re talking about, so I’ll take your word for it. I assumed it’d be a simple matter to just get new parts to upgrade the computer, but I suppose things are never that simple, especially when it comes to technology.

I don’t have a tight budget or anything but I’m not made of money either. I’ll take a look at all the info posted here and do some research regarding all the linked components to see what’s best for me. I don’t want “top of the line” stuff just yet; I’d like to get a system that at least allows me to play WvW with my friend, and upgrading further can happen over time.

Thank you, everyone, for your detailed and constructive responses. I really appreciate it and have some info to work with now.

Hello,

I’ve been wanting to upgrade an old computer of mine so I can play GW2 with better settings. I have an old Compaq Presario desktop (I don’t play GW2 on it). I’m very aware that it’s a P.O.S. but I’ve heard that building your own desktop is more affordable and better than buying overpriced gaming computers, and after doing some research into the matter, I’ve decided that it’d be cheaper to just build on the remains of the Presario than to buy a new tower.

I’m familiar with tech but I’m no expert; upgrading computers is a bit new to me. I’ve done some research and learned that MMO’s are CPU-intensive, which makes sense when I think about it. The Presario has a crappy CPU since it’s a budget computer so I know for sure I need a new one. I’ve watched a video on how to change one out and have examined the computer, so I’m sure I could do it.

Same thing goes for the graphics card but I have one seated in my friend’s unused desktop. I believe it’s an NVIDIA GeForce 9400 (I bought it for $40 a few years ago). It’s nothing great but I’m familiar with how to integrate it and whatnot. I know it could play GW2 decently at the least but it’d be nothing great and most likely needs to be replaced as well.

I’d like to also be able to get parts that allow the computer to handle other games too, and not just GW2. I’m willing to upgrade the RAM if I need to (which I probably do). Ultimately, I’ve tried to do some research but the technical aspects are slightly confusing; some help from people would be great.

My bottom-line question is this:
For a technical gaming experience ranging from good to great, what CPU/GPU/RAM should I purchase, particularly for being able to play WvW?

Please try to explain in relatively layman terms since I’m no pro and it won’t do too well to drown me in technobabblejargon.

I’m not sure if there’s any point to posting the specs of the Presario, as they’re pretty much all guaranteed shiet, but here’s a page with all the basic specs: http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/compaq-presario-sr5710y-athlon/4507-3118_7-33549735.html

Thank you in advance.