Guild Wars 2

I would like to share a quote by Colin Johanson:

“COLIN: We’ll stop to sleep when the game is the best possible game we think it can be. We’ve seen the population of the game steadily rising lately and we’re not going to sit on our butts and congratulate one another, we’re going to try and build on that momentum and make the game even better. There is so much coffee in Seattle no one can sleep anyway.”

I think that is the only official word we have received regarding the player-base isn’t it? If you take another player’s word before you take his word, you’re crazy. Sure he’s gotten a bit excited about some stuff in the past, but as of right now that is the word from ANet.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

The playerbase has massively declined since Lost Shores – stop spreading false hope.

Or you could stop spreading wrong data.
Anet data has shown a major increase in the playerbase and concurrent players.

And you trust anet?

I’m sorry, what should we trust with this data? Your eyes don’t cut it.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/7133/Februarys-Flame-and-Frost-Update-Detailed.html

Also, to whoever said they’ve seen a drop in sales lately so it is probably shrinking… come on. Do you expect them to sell a million copies every month? It is not about the amount of copies they’ve sold, it is about the amount of player retention they have maintained. Use your head.

Are you not tired of just completely repeating yourself over and over, lothefallen? We get it by now. You’ve stated over and over that you think the combat system is too shallow, it’s too casual, blah blah.

Seriously, the majority of your recent posts are just simply bashing the game, mainly the combat system. This game is not GW1, you have to let that go. GW1 is still alive, however; maybe they’ll welcome you back.

To top it off, you’re writing this content off as fluff before it is released. That’s pretty silly by itself.

So… I don’t think so. Maybe, but we’ll have to WAIT to see.

Only a few JP please. I bought this game for action RPG combat not for Mario.

I’m pretty sure having level designers work on the “Mario” parts are not hindering the people working on the “action RPG” elements. Many players enjoy the jumping challenges and I think it is cool they can do their own little thing, tucking it away in corners.

Flamenco.3894:

The problem with the GW2 community is that they live in a bubble where everything is roses and when somebody says a bad thing about GW2, the bubble is threatened to burst so they turn into demon killing machines.

That’s not the problem at all. Part of the problem, though, is some people think well thought-out, constructive counter arguments are coming simply from fanboyism, as you virtually stated. The truth is some players are so deep into hating on the game that they can’t dig their way out.

On a thread just a few moments ago you claimed GW2 had a great community, but the game just wasn’t any good, by the way. It sounds like you’re not much of a fan of the community, though?

I’m defending the game, but not because I’m afraid the bubble may burst. I’m defending it because I enjoy the game for what it is. It is not all roses, but it simply does not deserve some of the hate it is getting – especially your critique of “below average”. That has got to be a joke.

The answer I would give to the OP is perhaps in the future we’ll all get along a bit better, but we’ll never all just get along.

Eladriel.7295:

Scratches head.. Are we talking about the same community here? GW2? Cause my experiences with gw2 isn’t the same. My experiences was that GW2 community was worse than wows community. Unless the good people are finally coming out of hiding.. Maybe there is hope..

We’re still in the early stage of developing a whole new community. Guild Wars 2 brought together an odd group of players. Players from Guild Wars and players from the other side of the MMO world like WoW, Rift, EQ2, SWTOR, AoC – the list just goes on. Guild Wars really had a special place when it came to categorizing MMOs and that was due to being different than the other guys.

When you bring these players together, you expect for some to be disappointed. I think the playerbase that are just not satisfied with the core gameplay will eventually thin out – maybe it already has. I think this is nothing but good for the community. There will always be complainers, there will always be players that just are not satisfied and wish to be heard, but there will always be players willing to let them know how it actually is. I think this makes a good community and we’ll eventually get there.

I don’t know if I should take this as an honest post, but I do hope so. I personally like the community. We have a few bad apples that try to ruin it for everyone else, but besides that I have really enjoyed my time with the forums and in-game chat.

I wish we could attract more players that share your attitude, random gamer!

Based on your forum activity, you’re not going to get the answer you’re looking for. You’ve decided you don’t enjoy the game. You’re bashing every little thing that isn’t molded to your specific tastes and assume its a game breaking issue.

You don’t like the dungeon design, you don’t like jumping puzzles, you feel Fractals ruined the game, you don’t like the battle system (claiming it was a last minute addition to compete with Tera – hah), you simply do not like ANet, and you claimed to not enjoy the holiday events.

This is just what I get from your posts with a quick glance. Face it, you don’t like GW2 and you refuse to. Every thread you reply on, whether the thread is positive or not, you turn it into a “Yeah, but this part is bad.” thread.

What did you want to accomplish with this thread? We get it, Guild Wars 2 isn’t a game for you.

Birdy.4816:

mrauls.6519:

You keep using plural words which would indicate you’re speaking for you and several other people. Who’s this “us”? You’re speaking for yourself, yooooo

Do you have any actual input? as in, do you disagree with my analasis. my entire party just now through part 2 were like “…. well never again” they are just awful grindy and long paths.

Meanwhile you have all the easy mode people farming CoF for “dat epic fire armour” and getting it so easily in 1/10th of the time.

there should be some consistency.

How much consistency should there be? What is wrong with having a dungeon that takes an hour and having a dungeon that takes 10 minutes?

I feel having a set of dungeon armor that is more painful to get than another set is very acceptable. I also feel we have multiple paths to choose from for exactly this reason. If you don’t like this path, do that path. If you want to get the bonus tokens for all paths, do all paths.

I’ve noticed you just complain a lot in your posts.

mrauls.6519:

I don’t see anything wrong with dungeons having different difficulties. It makes getting dungeon’s armor and weapon sets more worthwhile.

What it sounds like to me (notice how I’m speaking for myself), is that you’d like Arah to be toned down so you can more easily get the armor set you like so much :/

I like how you avoided what I said with that unrelated response though :P

+1 sir.

MarcusKilgannon.5048:

I’m curious as to why they think an person-to-person trading system would be harmful. I’m going to try to dig up the reasoning behind that.

Would anyone be able to expand on the guild update next month? It sounds great, but does this include an interface update? Like guild member sign in notifications, MOTD pop up upon log in, last seen on messages etc.

Could you please explain the benefits of a person-to-person trading system? I’m not saying there isn’t one, but with the on-demand mailing system and the awesome TP, what would this system have to offer?

Selling items has its place on the TP, as does buying items. You can exchange items with your friends using the mailing system and there’s no use for the un-traded items section as we don’t have enchantments of that sort.

I may be missing something, but I just don’t see the benefit.

Birdy.4816:

Its quite amusing, fanboys will say “Oh look, there is a patch every month, A-net are awesome” but these patches barely ever adress anything or nowhere near enough.

Not only are you expecting too much from a MONTHLY patch, but you also come off as one of the guys that will never be satisfied. Arena Net has released a significant amount of content and fixes over the last few months. Maybe they didn’t release exactly what you wanted, but you cannot say they do not release enough stuff.

EverythingXen.1835:

WvW might be because of the termination of free server transfers. A lot of WvW guilds used this to bandwagon onto “winning” servers before the deadline.

Not saying the population hasnt dropped… but I havent seen it a drop so big that it concerns me much at all.

As stated before, Colin has commented that the player-base is steadily growing in population. He did not list any numbers, but this is enough information to prove that the population isn’t dropping. I would personally hold this as a factual statement as this is the closest to ANet’s statistics we’ll be getting.

To OP: If you noticed fewer players running around your server, it could just simply be your server. I would try guesting around to see if you can find where the players are.

AcidicVision.5498:

@Ursan, yes. For now. When Ascended if fully rolled out then legendaries are going to get a stat inscrease to be a bump higher than Ascended. This has been the plan for them for forever now.

As of this moment they are vanity items. A year from (maybe longer?) now they will be best in slot items.

It was not stated that they will be better than Ascended, they will simply be bumped to match Ascended.

Since in this moment you claim they are vanity items, when they are bumped to match Ascended, they will remain vanity items by your own claim. They will still only match Ascended, not exceed it – it will just be the prettier skin.

Some ANet posts have stated that they are working on “something” for a grouping system, but that’s all they’ve said. I like the idea of a grouping system, but I do not find a rated dungeon finder system very attractive.

It would be neat to have a system that just finds players that meet certain search criteria that are also looking for likewise players. We would then group up as usual and jump into the dungeon. I, personally, would prefer this system over the usual dungeon finder. I can’t quite put my finger on the exact reasons, but it has more appeal to me.

I couldn’t dig up the original confirmation of a dungeon grouping system, but here is another that references the original! That’s enough!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/dungeon-finder-system

As GrandmaFunk stated, you either get credit for the event or you don’t. The quality of loot is not determined by the amount of damage dealt or whatever. Some people are under this impression, but some people seem to have trouble reading.

I can’t completely remember, but I’m pretty sure the 2 shield parts are not separate events meaning they should contribute to your credit for the event.

happyjedi.1372:

Anakin.9765:

It would be very unwise for them to just say “Sure, we’ll pay the taxes!” In your eyes, they’re not losing anything. But, your eyes are wrong.

But they ARE NOT losing anything.
We do pay the gems value, taxes and even a tip (the 50 cents).

Just because they do not pay out of their pockets does not mean they are not losing anything. Cutting profits doesn’t count as a loss?

You simply do not understand how it works, do you?

They have stated they are working on “something”, but there’s obviously no ETA.

In the meantime you’ll have to make do with third-party websites and in-game chat.

I would like to point out that a certain large PAY-TO-PLAY game charges $25 to transfer to any server, low-pop or not.

In this game, however, you get the option to transfer with in-game coin if you so wish. The exchange rate for gold > gems is set by the players based on, I’m assuming, the volume of exchange.

I think this is an awesome system compared to the systems I’ve used in the past. I feel the price variations based on the server population is quite genius, too.

Also, we have the guesting system.

Simply put, they’ve done an awesome job with their server systems.

Well, I’m excited about it. Removing everything below blues from Champions is a huge deal. This will increase chances of getting greens, yellows, and oranges by quite a bit – it just takes a very basic understanding of odds.

It is quite frustrating killing a champ and getting a porous bone and with this patch, this shouldn’t happen.

nerva.7940:

still no reason to kill champs.

I assume you’re one of the people who do not have a basic understanding of odds?

morrolan.9608:

The proof will be in the pudding, somehow I doubt that we will be satisfied.

I feel the truth is some players will simply never be satisfied with GW2 and ANets decisions – at least not vocally.

You would think a lot of the stuff in this topic would be considered completely off-topic, but I think it all will kind of indirectly relate to the future of GW2.

plasmacutter.2709:

Kill an NPC and they are dead FOREVER? Nope – can’t be done in a MMO.

— looks at Traherne —

Yes it can, Do It Now ANet

Yes, even this comment.

Malediktus.9250:

Rajani Isa.6294:

Malediktus.9250:

John Smith.4610:

That UI is for US Tax, VAT is added into the price. We pay 20% on all transactions from Europe.

You are offering virtual goods and no creation of value. Why not just take the tax hit? Its not like you are loosing anything.

Wow. Nice way to insult the people who made the game.

If it has no value, why are you wanting to buy it?

Uh, we all paid for the game. The stuff inside the gemshop was created once and just gets duplicated any desired amount of times or in some cases like character slots are created automatically by the system and take a tiny bit of space on their servers. Space costs almost nothing today.
I dont see the creation of value there.

The gem shop helps to pay salaries and keep the lights on. Taking any kind of a cut from the gem shop will lower profits, but keep the same amount of overhead – especially since you claim datacenters are so cheap.

It would be very unwise for them to just say “Sure, we’ll pay the taxes!” In your eyes, they’re not losing anything. But, your eyes are wrong.

I would like to add to the Tarnished Coast suggestion. I guest over to TC quite a bit for the simple reason that there’s people spread all throughout the world doing the PvE content.

I am in no way interested in RPing, but I’ve hardly noticed it. It is just nice to see all of the zones I’m running through full of other players.

Leamas.5803:

I have a trivia question for you…what’s the longest running video game tile in history? I’ll give you a hint…it was an adventure game series that started in 1977 and had no graphics at all, it spawned 13 sequels/spin-offs, most recently in 2009, with a short-lived MMO. Good writing and lore is what propels a game that long…not graphics. I can’t speak for the MMO since I didn’t play it, but the other games I played in the series were excellent….and you actually had to think.

Wasn’t completely sure until you mentioned the MMO.

I wasn’t able to play the original Zork as I wasn’t around at that time, but I do know the history.

But, of course you had to think. I’ve not played a text-based game that was good or bad where I didn’t have to think – doesn’t mean it was good, though. I don’t have hands on experience, but for the number of attempts at creating sequels the game had to be worth reviving.

I think a degree of thinking is good for any game and I will agree with whoever stated it that GW2 doesn’t require much thought. Other games require planning and tactics due to their mechanics and it feels like Guild Wars 2 is missing some of that. Some of the bosses around the Cursed Shores require tactical play with smaller groups, so it would be cool to see that expanded.

Anakin.9765:

Anakin.9765:

You’re not judging ESO a little early on, are you? It seems people are expecting a game like Oblivion or Skyrim, but online with tons of people. This is not what they’re doing. This is not something they can do.

It is an MMO. To make such a series into an MMO, they will have to sacrifice many things. You’ll have the story, you’ll have some Elder Scrolls spice, but you won’t have Skyrim.

This isn’t speculation, this has been brought up many times in news releases. They just recently realized the game would be nice with an optional first person view. I want the game to do well, don’t get me wrong, but it is not going to be what you described.

Also, if you feel GW2 forced you down a linear leveling path, I would find it hard to believe you have ever played another MMO.

I don’t think many are expecting Skyrim Online. For me personally, I’ve checked out the videos, read up on the features and followed the lore since Morrowind. It’s the first real competitor to be released since GW2 launched and I’m eagerly waiting to try it out.

It’s being developed by a different studio that did the single player games though, so I’m not getting my hopes up too high. I’ve heard a few things that worry me, like not being able to venture into other fractions areas unless you’re part of that fraction. But hey, it’s definitely worth a look!

The person I quoted seems to be expecting Skyrim Online very much so. Do you disagree? I wasn’t saying everyone is expecting it, but he seems to be.

GaiusJuliusCasear.7253:

I know I am waiting for Elder Scrolls Online. GW2 wasn’t as fun as I was thinking it would be. I know I like to craft which for GW2 is a huge gold sink.

Also, I was disappointed largely with the change to the Neco from GW1. I loved being a Necro in GW1.

There are thing I enjoyed about the game certainly, but the game has turned off so many friends and even my wife from playing. It is fun for those that love to play the TP or do dungeons all day long.

ESO will let you do what you want to do. GW2 has me feeling forced to do a single path to 80. If you start as a profession you often will be leveling in those lands. However, there are a fine amount of hearts and just a very simple personal story for you to do.

ES games I often hardly touch the main for a while. Heck, I run into more dungeons and find bandits then sell their stuff off. I have never been poor for long in any ES game.

The fact is that GW2 has some heavy competition coming soon. If they made the economy more enjoyable I might bother. I know my wife doesn’t like playing since the way she pays for armor is by me funding her. GW2 is easy for us at 80, but I knew a lot of people that didn’t find that one path and found themselves getting bored before maxing their levels out.

You’re not judging ESO a little early on, are you? It seems people are expecting a game like Oblivion or Skyrim, but online with tons of people. This is not what they’re doing. This is not something they can do.

It is an MMO. To make such a series into an MMO, they will have to sacrifice many things. You’ll have the story, you’ll have some Elder Scrolls spice, but you won’t have Skyrim.

This isn’t speculation, this has been brought up many times in news releases. They just recently realized the game would be nice with an optional first person view. I want the game to do well, don’t get me wrong, but it is not going to be what you described.

Also, if you feel GW2 forced you down a linear leveling path, I would find it hard to believe you have ever played another MMO.

Kakeru.2873:

Anakin.9765:

Kakeru.2873:

Blacklight.2871:

Kandrick.8054:

Anakin.9765:

Again, I don’t see leaving the current system resulting in a dead game, especially not soon. I do, however, think the game would start to grow at a higher rate if the system was tweaked.

I don’t know, maybe we just have different takes on what a “dead game” is.

By dead game I don’t mean nobody playing it. To me a dead game is one that is shrinking. Once a games player base starts shrinking it’s very difficult to pull it back into line. Investment gets cut, updates reduce, more people leave, difficult to attract new players and the cycle continues until they eventually pull the plug.

The bottom line is that most other games make returning to them a bit of a chore and something you need to be committed to. GW2 keeps the red carpet rolled out long after you’ve left, so you are always welcomed back. They even hold the door open for you. So when people leave, it will tend to be for shorter periods, with a much higher chance that they will return. That’s how the game will stay alive.

You never need to quit GW2. You just go off and play something else for a while.

The thing is, this statment is wrong. I know many a people who have out right quit the game. Just because it becomes free to play after you purchase it, it doesn’t mean u can never quit.

In saying that everyone free to play mmorpg people have played actually never quit becuase it’s free and they can go back any time they want just like GW". But that isn’t the case. Normally people quit for reasons like not liking mechanics or game breaking problems that aren’t fixed or never get fixed. Or a ever dying spvp community which is sending pvpers away to actual competitve pvp games they won’t come back.

And I have to say I disagree. He said “higher chance that they will return” not that everyone will come back. It only seems logical that free-to-play games are more appealing to jump back in simply for the ease and the free part.

You saying you know people that quit and won’t come back doesn’t make his statement wrong. I’ve talked to many people that say they don’t worry to much about staying hooked to the game for the simple reason they can come and go as they please. I know many people that have this attitude.

I won’t say it is the general attitude, but I would say the percentage is quite a bit higher here than for a pay-to-play for obvious reasons.

I would also like to point out that I feel like many players that quit this early on in a game’s life are simply realizing it is not the game for them. Let’s just face it that many players came to GW2 without doing their research and expected the typical MMO.

Again, I’m trying to not generalize, but this is just the vibe I’m getting.

Also your speaking too much from experience the cast is the competitive pvp community is drying up this is fact, the total amount of NA competitive teams is 2, and EU i’m not sure (even know i’m from eu :/).

There’s no way to tell we are both speaking out of experience neither of use are right. While I know a lot of people who once they dislike a product they move onto the next product. Not stating that as fact though.

I agree that what I was stating was not fact. That’s why I clearly stated that was from my personal experience and I was trying to not generalize everyone.

I was just letting you know that your experience with players quitting and not returning is not an attitude shared among everyone. I would still argue that free-to-play games would have a higher percentage of players returning for content patches. This isn’t fact, this is simply based on my own little sample. That and it would seem more likely.

Saying neither of us are right is kind of silly as we are both on opposite sides. One of us has to be pretty much right, right?

Having fewer competitive PvP teams is expected, I would say. The system we currently have just isn’t that great for e-sports, but I suspect the changes being made in the near future could have an impact on this.

EasymodeX.4062:

Anakin.9765:

I would also like to point out that I feel like many players that quit this early on in a game’s life are simply realizing it is not the game for them. Let’s just face it that many players came to GW2 without doing their research and expected the typical MMO.

That, or they are discovering that GW2 is, in fact, a typical MMO when ANet advertised something different.

I just have to disagree. I was referring to players quitting due to lack of raids and crazy gear progression. We have very little.

What is this? Are you saying goodbye? This is the Players Helping Players forum, what do you need help with? It would appear your mind is pretty much made up at this point.

The update you’re referring to that was stated to have an expansion’s worth of content isn’t quite finished. In fact it is just getting started, correct?

" amounts to little more than a few corpses in two zones…"

Oh, come on. You’re just making up stuff to justify your goodbye post aren’t you? Ugh.

Kakeru.2873:

Blacklight.2871:

Kandrick.8054:

Anakin.9765:

Kandrick.8054:

The number one problem is terrrible loot. I have not received a single exotic since the Nov patch (barring mapping or special events). Even rares, which are really not worth much at all, are indeed very rare. It just seems pointless playing sometimes as there is no reward in a reward based game.
I already know droves of people (over 100 players in my original guild) that have left because there was no incentive to play.

I am still playing because it’s free but I am acively looking for something to replace it with which is a shame. It could be a good game but at the moment it just isn’t. Every boss or dragon ends in disappointment as soon as you open the loot. Nobody will continue with that for too long, even the fanboys will have had a gutfull sooner rather than later.

So without a loot rule change I think it will soon be a dead game.

Again, I don’t see leaving the current system resulting in a dead game, especially not soon. I do, however, think the game would start to grow at a higher rate if the system was tweaked.

I don’t know, maybe we just have different takes on what a “dead game” is.

By dead game I don’t mean nobody playing it. To me a dead game is one that is shrinking. Once a games player base starts shrinking it’s very difficult to pull it back into line. Investment gets cut, updates reduce, more people leave, difficult to attract new players and the cycle continues until they eventually pull the plug.

The bottom line is that most other games make returning to them a bit of a chore and something you need to be committed to. GW2 keeps the red carpet rolled out long after you’ve left, so you are always welcomed back. They even hold the door open for you. So when people leave, it will tend to be for shorter periods, with a much higher chance that they will return. That’s how the game will stay alive.

You never need to quit GW2. You just go off and play something else for a while.

The thing is, this statment is wrong. I know many a people who have out right quit the game. Just because it becomes free to play after you purchase it, it doesn’t mean u can never quit.

In saying that everyone free to play mmorpg people have played actually never quit becuase it’s free and they can go back any time they want just like GW". But that isn’t the case. Normally people quit for reasons like not liking mechanics or game breaking problems that aren’t fixed or never get fixed. Or a ever dying spvp community which is sending pvpers away to actual competitve pvp games they won’t come back.

And I have to say I disagree. He said “higher chance that they will return” not that everyone will come back. It only seems logical that free-to-play games are more appealing to jump back in simply for the ease and the free part.

You saying you know people that quit and won’t come back doesn’t make his statement wrong. I’ve talked to many people that say they don’t worry to much about staying hooked to the game for the simple reason they can come and go as they please. I know many people that have this attitude.

I won’t say it is the general attitude, but I would say the percentage is quite a bit higher here than for a pay-to-play for obvious reasons.

I would also like to point out that I feel like many players that quit this early on in a game’s life are simply realizing it is not the game for them. Let’s just face it that many players came to GW2 without doing their research and expected the typical MMO.

Again, I’m trying to not generalize, but this is just the vibe I’m getting.

Avatar.1923:

i didnt do a survey,
but i think there is 3 types of players who could be interested im gw2 long term;
-fractal runners type of players, hardcore pve.
-wvw tactical mass pvp players.
-pvp players.

but right now the focus is on the open world.
its great, but its hard to nail…
and hard to create talks and such.
as it is, its the single player part of the game mostly.
i dont think its great for an “mmo”.
but i could be surprised after seeing the guild
missions.

How did you come to that conclusion? I like all three of those play-styles and then some. I’m sure I’m not the only one, too.

I enjoy clearing dungeons, I enjoy teaming up with my guild for large-scale tactical PvP, and I’m guessing the third style is meant for the structured PvP? I also enjoy that.

I am pretty excited about the future of Guild Wars 2.

And yes, I think we’re in for a surprise with guild missions.

Plague.3174:

What I can say is that I don’t feel rewarded for what I’m doing at lvl 80.

Made cof, arah and ac more than 50 times each and I don’t feel fine with having to farm months to get legendary stuff that adds just a different “look” and no special stats to your character.

Meeting everyday people with full mf set and having to carry them and their “pirate bird” all the way through the dungeons makes me angry.

That’s pretty much Guild Wars, though. They tend to not focus on stat progression, but on cosmetic progression.

Although they did add in a bit of stat progression to please the crowd.

Crowds of people complain there’s too much of a “gear treadmill” then there’s crowds of people complaining there’s not enough.

Who do you please? Can you please both? How?

You said it in away that made me think you think everyone feels that way. You, and many others, may disagree with that specific mechanic, but that doesn’t qualify the rating of a poor game, does it? It may help you form that opinion, though.

I do agree that the system is a bit too much, but it is not a complete make or break “too much”. I wouldn’t mind seeing them tweak some variables, but that would anger another crowd I would assume.

Also, my experience has shown that players that leave do tend to return, if not only for new content. That’s just my experience, though.

Apparently something is working if Colin can claim to have an increasing population, though. Of course there are no facts to support this – only his quote.

Kandrick.8054:

Having poor loot in a loot based game surely makes that game poor no ?

I’ve noticed many people doing exactly what you just did and it is quite silly. The game is in no way “poor” simply because of the loot.

You just said you’ve done aaallll of this awesome stuff, but then you say the loot is bad so the game is bad. What about all of that other stuff you’ve just discarded simply because you finished it? This one system does not solely determine the quality of the game.

So, no. That surely doesn’t make it poor.

Kandrick.8054:

Anakin.9765:

Kandrick.8054:

The number one problem is terrrible loot. I have not received a single exotic since the Nov patch (barring mapping or special events). Even rares, which are really not worth much at all, are indeed very rare. It just seems pointless playing sometimes as there is no reward in a reward based game.
I already know droves of people (over 100 players in my original guild) that have left because there was no incentive to play.

I am still playing because it’s free but I am acively looking for something to replace it with which is a shame. It could be a good game but at the moment it just isn’t. Every boss or dragon ends in disappointment as soon as you open the loot. Nobody will continue with that for too long, even the fanboys will have had a gutfull sooner rather than later.

So without a loot rule change I think it will soon be a dead game.

Again, I don’t see leaving the current system resulting in a dead game, especially not soon. I do, however, think the game would start to grow at a higher rate if the system was tweaked.

I don’t know, maybe we just have different takes on what a “dead game” is.

By dead game I don’t mean nobody playing it. To me a dead game is one that is shrinking. Once a games player base starts shrinking it’s very difficult to pull it back into line. Investment gets cut, updates reduce, more people leave, difficult to attract new players and the cycle continues until they eventually pull the plug.

By this definition I’ve realized “dead game” is a term used extremely loosely.

The point, though… do you actually think by leaving the current loot system the game will reach your version of a dead game? It has already been stated and quoted quite a few times that the player-base has seen steady growth. We can say this now with backup from Colin’s interview on MMORPG.

Ravenear.8659:

Time will tell.
I have come to this game as i fought it will be free from gear trademil – GW1 fan… im disappointed – i havent loged since fractal update to show that i dont aprove where GW2 is going.
Im waiting for ESO.

The introduction of Fractals seems like nothing more than giving the people who wanted gear to grind for something to do. I don’t see an issue with this, to be honest. I would be turned off if we were required to grind Fractals for gear so we could do other content like all the other games, but we are not. Sure, there’s a slight increase in base stats, but the main part is AR for continuing on within Fractals.

Seeing as they have already added in a whole new system for getting the gear you’re talking about (laurels), I would bet on them expanding it even more.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Kandrick.8054:

The number one problem is terrrible loot. I have not received a single exotic since the Nov patch (barring mapping or special events). Even rares, which are really not worth much at all, are indeed very rare. It just seems pointless playing sometimes as there is no reward in a reward based game.
I already know droves of people (over 100 players in my original guild) that have left because there was no incentive to play.

I am still playing because it’s free but I am acively looking for something to replace it with which is a shame. It could be a good game but at the moment it just isn’t. Every boss or dragon ends in disappointment as soon as you open the loot. Nobody will continue with that for too long, even the fanboys will have had a gutfull sooner rather than later.

So without a loot rule change I think it will soon be a dead game.

Again, I don’t see leaving the current system resulting in a dead game, especially not soon. I do, however, think the game would start to grow at a higher rate if the system was tweaked.

I don’t know, maybe we just have different takes on what a “dead game” is.

This is one of the few suggestions that I’ve actually liked. I can’t think of any reasons for this to not work.

Not sure about the leveling system you suggested, but I like the idea!

I have found myself closing the menu to continue a pointless (literally, no points) fight, but your conclusion that it simply was not thought through is kind of silly. What’s the point of you continuing the fight after the match is over? There’s not one. What’s the point of ANet adjusting the way matches transition? I personally don’t see one.

Am I missing something?

Not trying to sound hostile or offensive, I just don’t get it.

Also, this isn’t exactly a suggestion. This is more of a rant. What would you suggest actually be done? Not show the board? Freeze gameplay and then slap the board up? Those are suggestions.

Vorch.2985:

They seem to be focused on incentives to go out into the world. I feel that overall, laurels and Guild Missions are steps in the right direction. I truly hope that some guild missions and bounties take place in the areas with lower populations.

As far as loot goes, I don’t believe that poor loot is a problem. I think that they problem lies in the risk/reward ratio. As the game is right now, you are more likely to get a reward for killing a bunch of trash mobs for half an hour than spending an hour taking down a dragon. Champions are challenging, but why fight them if you can kill 20 normal mobs for a better chance at loot? Rewards need to scale properly with risk

That said, they have made sure to provide basic high end gear that is completely RNG free. It’s some of the cooler skins that require rare drops or Mystic Forge RNG that kitten people off.

As far as GW2’s life span, I believe that it is sustainable. As long as each month brings something new to the game (which seems to be the plan), there should not be a problem. WvW culling needs to be addressed and PvP needs some more loving (yay, new map!), but overall, the game should be fine.

From MMORPG.com:

MMORPG: One last question: do you guys sleep?

COLIN: We’ll stop to sleep when the game is the best possible game we think it can be. We’ve seen the population of the game steadily rising lately and we’re not going to sit on our butts and congratulate one another, we’re going to try and build on that momentum and make the game even better. There is so much coffee in Seattle no one can sleep anyway.

I was going to bring up Colin’s statement on the population growth, but you took care of it. I think this was a smart way for ANet to not seem desperate while letting the player-base know that the game isn’t slowly dying – in fact (quoting Colin) the population is growing steadily.

Just this statement alone makes me excited for Guild Wars 2’s future. The only thing that will be the determining factor for the future is the amount of players you can keep hooked.

But, of course, to hook players the other points brought up come into play. People don’t like the random system, but that is just how drop-systems work in many cases. Guild Wars 2, however, uses random elements in a ton of core mechanics and it upsets a lot of people. I may be one of very few, but I like the reward system. No, I’ve never been a lucky person, but I love the gamble. I like the chancing. For me this is an important part of the reason I play – you just never know. The reason I bring this up is because I enjoy this system and it makes me want to play… while on the other hand it may make other players quit. I think if they find a balance with their random system then it could please both crowds which would eventually help even more with the population growth. But, if there is actually some weird wizardry going on with their loot system, it would be nice if it was at least known. Literally anything can happen with a pure RNG, but it doesn’t appear to be pure.

In the end, I think Guild Wars 2 has a bright future.

Another reason I quoted Vorch was his signature. It has a link to an archived page for a forum of the early days of Guild Wars 1 and this may shed some light on what GW2 is going through. Every MMO that I’ve played at launch has went through the whole “[insert name here] is dying and will be dead by next year!” discussion. Most of these discussions are started by players that played the game expecting “this” and got ‘that" and these players were not satisfied with “that”. I feel that once the players that expected “that” realize this isn’t their game, we’ll be seeing much less of these topics. That could really make the forum a much more positive, bright area for the future.

I know I veered off topic here and there, but I got to it eventually!

Here’s that link:
http://tinyurl.com/atdw3yr
This will take you to an archived page at archive.org.

I have not been disappointed with any of the jumping puzzles I’ve done so far. They really add something else to the game. Its a fun type of challenge that you really don’t expect in an MMO, but it fits so well.

Also, Josh, your communication with the community is quite impressive. You don’t see it very often with games as large as this one. Quite cool to see “Well, when I made this I didn’t expect that.” Just something about that makes me appreciate Guild Wars 2 even more.

Quite simply… not me. It will be awhile before a precursor makes a difference for me.

There was a post awhile back that asked about a group tool. A member of Anet closed the topic with the comment that they were “working on something” if I remember correctly. I’ll try to dig it up for reference.

This does not mean it is a group finder tool specifically, although it could be.

I didn’t come up with the post I was referencing, but here’s another quote:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

We’re very aware our LFG system is lacking, an it’s high on our list of things to rework. We have some other very pressing issues to handle first, but as someone who built/runs dungeons, and often PUG them, I dislike our current obscure and non-informative system, and re-building it is high on my list of things-to-flail-my-arms-about-to-talented-people-who-can-do-something-about-it, so that they do something about it.

This was posted a few months back, though.

Kacigarka.5176:

Yes. If they increase level cap, current level of Legendaries (80) will be bumped up to 90.

Best in slot is best in slot. Nothing to discuss here.

Everyone with brain know what that means

So stop speculating, they said yes and now all we can do is wait if they broke promise or dont. Thats all.

Everyone that agrees with you is simply taking that line out of context. I know this was an older post, but come the kitten on. Use that brain you claim to have.

To actually understand that line, you’ll need the full quote – this can be found a bit above your post. That line, in context, states they will remain BiS. I’m a bit confused as to where people are getting “They will forever and ever and always be the best ever.”

Can someone with a brain explain this to me? That statement clearly relates to the event outlined in their quote, which is the ascended gear release. It makes sense considering it was stated that LEGENDARIES WOULD REMAIN best in slot. Terminology can be difficult to understand, but everyone with a brain would use a bit of comprehension and make that out to mean “With the release of the new tier, we are going to have to bump the legendaries up a bit to remain best in slot.”

With that said, you should expect your level 80 legendary to remain level 80. All MMOs have BiS gear that is referred to as BiS. Saying something is BiS is not saying it is forever BiS, but that it is currently BiS. It currently remains BiS because nothing has overtaken it. We should expect something to overtake our current gear – this is the way MMOs work.

remains != always

Something that remains to live can be killed, right? Although I would assume something that will always live could not. Difficult stuff.

EDIT: Also, sorry to necro a post, this just bothers me.