Guild Wars 2

The devs clearly stated that this sort of gear treadmill crap would not be a part of the game. That’s the thing that makes it stand out against the dismal field of horrible MMOs I have no interest in playing, and the primary reason I bought it. Violating that has completely killed my desire to play at all, and I won’t be spending any more money in the cash shop.

Can’t have just one kittened decent MMO without gear treadmill.

Here’re all of mine. Yeah, I’m an altaholic. And a music nut.

Sylvari necro: Djerv – “Immortal”

Charr warrior: Blind Guardian – “Lionheart”

Human mesmer: Arcturus – “The Chaos Path”

Human thief: Death – “Scavenger of Human Sorrow”

Norn engineer: Dødheimsgard – “The Snuff Dreams are Made Of”

Asura guardian: Rhapsody – “Triumph for My Magic Steel”

Asura elementalist: Borknagar – “Quintessence”

Charr ranger: Agalloch – “Into the Painted Grey”

The only reason I don’t like having world completion stuff in PVP areas is that there’s always a battle going on nearby when I’m trying to reach POIs or vistas and I feel bad about not pitching in. I don’t like being the person heading the opposite way while everyone else is rushing to face the enemy. So I end up running to the fight instead (not that I’m much of an asset I’m sure) and 2 hours later I haven’t increased my completion percentage at all. Lots of fun, but that stuff just wasn’t getting done.

I finally went and got my W3 completion finished a couple weeks ago when my server was dominating all the maps.

Jayne.9251:

And I can appreciate you taking an alternate path and deriving enjoyment from playing opposite of who you are in real life, it’s the Internet after all, a lot of people do that and not just in MMOs. But for me? My toons resemble me… well maybe with different shades of hair colour And online in other areas of the net? I’m pretty much wysiwyg too.

For me it’s an exercise in putting myself in another’s shoes. It’s what roleplaying is to me, and I do it in both video games and pencil-and-paper rpgs.

But I don’t do it in social interaction. I don’t get a kick out of misleading people. I’m not really social in MMOs but I’ve never hidden who I really am if I had to interact with folks. But I also don’t volunteer information if it’s not relevant.

The most appropriate class/ profession for me is a thief or rogue because the way I’d approach a dangerous situation is to hide in the shadows and use whatever advantage or surprise I could to keep a fight short and unfair. Everyone talks about thieves being really great and even OP, so considering all of the above I should really enjoy playing one, right? Nope, I haven’t really gotten a big kick out of it yet and have been playing my sylvari female necromancer, human female mesmer, and charr male warrior a lot more.

I’ve never been hit on in an MMO. It seems to be a common thing based on what I’ve read but it’s never even come up in my experience.

I’ve also never been treated with kid’s gloves or given free stuff while playing a female character.

Jayne.9251:

I’m not saying this is the rule, there are exceptions, but when women create characters they tend to try to replicate themselves, at least with their first/main toon, more so than men do.

I would hope that it would be more than just an “exception” that people actually have imagination.

When my brother played D&D he always played a male paladin with exactly his own personality. 20+ years of the same character. I get that people of both genders will often play as themselves, but it strikes me as really boring. It’s not as weird to me the first time or two someone is playing a game with a character creation feature, but after a while I would think it would get old.

KOTOR was the first game I played like that. I made a character just like me who did everything just like I would. It was okay. But then I made a different character who was opposite gender and made all decisions differently from myself. Keeping track of and maintaining consistency with a thought process that didn’t come naturally was fun, and the game was far more rewarding when I took that approach.

Jayne.9251:

Women tend to pick MMO characters that closest resembles themselves. Men pick MMO characters that closest resembles their fantasies (if they play female toons).

Wouldn’t they all play as humans if that were true?

ASB.4295:

There are two kinds of people: Players that identify with their characters and play as themselves or an idealized version of themselves, and players who live vicariously through their creations, which don’t have to have any personal connection to them.

People who only play as themselves have difficulty thinking from the perspective of another person. Not only do they only play as themselves because of that, but they also cannot understand why someone else wouldn’t do the same. So they think it’s appropriate to give people who have a different viewpoint tons of grief, including bizarre accusations.

You don’t see anyone going, “People who only play as themselves suck/ are sad/ lack imagination/ are jerks/ are creepy.”

Here’s another way of looking at it: if you were a novelist would all of your characters be the same gender as you?

My characters in-game are not a representation of me. They’re characters. They are a variety of races, genders, and professions, and they make different choices and decisions than I would.

Playing myself is boring. I do it all day long already and it’s completely instinctual for me, as it should be. Playing someone who is nothing like me takes effort and imagination. My one character who is based on myself, created during early access, has barely seen any action.

That. Would. Be. AWESOME.

The only thing I’m unhappy with is that I’ll be out of town during the grand finale. Actually, going out of town is going to make me miss four whole days out of a really awesome Halloween event, which is brutal as hell. I wish I could take the game with me.

I’m not planning anything during next year’s event.

My female sylvari’s grin while riding the broom is wide-eyed and malicious, like she’s ready to wreck someone’s day. She’s got huge, creepy, totally black eyes already though so that might have something to do with it.

Modus Pwnens.1932:

If people are posting because they gambled and they’re disappointed, that’s fine and, to a degree, I can commiserate because I too opened quite a few with no luck.

But if people are posting because they gambled and they’re disappointed and they feel that they have been wronged, that’s a very different situation.

But if they’re posting because they gambled and they’re disappointed, and they don’t feel like it’s worth buying gems in the future because they expect to get ripped off, then that’s just the free market at work, rather than entitlement. ANet isn’t entitled to further gem sales.

That’s why I don’t like the “this is entitlement” attitude. It’s business, and the customer has every right to complain if they don’t like a product, as well as refuse to buy it again, even if the product was accurately advertised. I only really consider it entitlement if the people who are complaining keep dumping money into keys, expecting someone to take pity and fix their problem for them, instead of exercising their only real power as a consumer. Then again, that’s probably not entitlement so much as insanity.

Infidel.8412:

The majority of people I see complain say they opened 10 or less chests. Really? You want the chance so high that everyone gets it? You won’t want it near as much as when it was rare to have.
The horns that are given for free are barely acknowledged (except for the people who want to complain about those as well), but I think people would rage if they, the devil horns, were a head skin item in the chest. They would suddenly be so angry they couldn’t have them.

I haven’t seen people demanding that severed hand dagger much. It’s lame. It doesn’t cost much on the trading post, either, because nobody wants it.

The two weapons that people really, really want are the cool ones. And I’d want them even if every single other person around had them. I don’t care about rarity, showing off, or any of that crap. I don’t want other people to be jealous of my possessions, it would be uncivilized of me, an unwanted remainder of caveman instinct. I like being unique, but based on my own creativity, not based on RNG luck or money.

A lot of people don’t like the horns because they look like crap on their characters. They look great on mine, so I’m using them and I think it’s awesome that they were free.

Refeuh.8493:

How do you feel about the current “solution” for “normal” players (i.e. not spending thousands $ on chests and not playing 25 hours a day 8 days a week), which would be :

- see the permanent Staff skin as a long terme goal (a bit like an armor set from a dungeon) that you will be able to craft when you’ll have gathered the resources

Yeah, I’d go for that. Currently I have no interest in dungeons, but as a general concept, a crafting option, even a brutally demanding one, would be fine.

- use the very cheap 4h skins when you want to look cool during the event, in dungeons, etc.

No, not interested in rentals. I actually don’t want any of the clothes/ skins for participating in the event and being festive; I’ll participate and be festive anyway. However, I’m a Halloween junkie so I want these items year-round, especially because my main is a necro. I bought the witch costume and coloured it black. I don’t use the hat, but rather the free horns because, to my surprise, they actually look great on my character. That setup is going to be my necro’s permanent town clothes.

Also, what’s your view on T3 racial armor. They’re very nice looking, but cost 120gp; how is it different from the newly introduced weapon skins for the Halloween event ?

I will not pay 120gp for gear, period. I don’t really even like the way the racial armor looks. I’m transmuting the appearance of my dry bones karma set onto my exotics because I like the way it looks far more than any of the actual exotic gear. But if I did really like the T3 racial armor I still would not spend that kind of in-game currency on it, much less real money to buy the in-game currency. I’d do like I’m doing with that scythe: shake my head, say “that blows,” and let it go.

Last time I looked at what it was going for on the trading post was last night, and it was down to 19gp. That’s still brutal but if it were going to stay that way over the long term I might be willing to play my butt off and make enough money for it. But I know that before I raise the gold for it the event will end, making the supply of scythe skins finite and causing the price to skyrocket. Not to mention my character has other expenses at the moment. So nope, gotta let this one go.

Blueroseknight.7954:

I respect your arguments but disagree that the BLCs were handled poorly. I think that ANet took advantage of a basic psychological principle and used it to make money.

We don’t know yet. It doesn’t matter whether the idea was great on paper. You don’t want to anger your customers and get them to stop buying your product (everyone playing already owns the game, so we’re talking about gems.) A few days of selling a huge amount of gems will only really be worth it if it doesn’t cause people to stop spending for months afterward.

Is it smarter to charge 450 gems for five chances at a highly desirable object, and let people buy these repeatedly in their quest for success, and then buy gems for gold to get them off the trading post? Or is it smarter to price them kind of high (like 1500 gems or something) and let people buy them outright? In the short term there’s no question whatsoever that the first approach is more profitable. In the long term it is a question of how the customers react.

Since I believe people generally have more money than sense, and very little self control, I’m expecting the BLC lottery or something just like it to return next event. But I don’t really know.

I don’t care about rarity. If everyone in the game had that scythe skin I’d still want it because it looks great and fits my necro. If it were just a rarity issue people would want all of the weapon skins instead of just the scythe and chainsaw greatsword. The high demand for those two specific items is keeping the prices on them high.

Then again the prohibitive cost actually will stop me from getting what I want, rather than convincing me to pull out my credit card. So maybe regarding the folks who will pay a huge amount of real money you’re right about showing off. But I really don’t care about that sort of thing at all. I wont get something I think is ugly or lame because it is exclusive.

Halloween is my favourite time of the year. I expected cool things with the event but not the sheer amount of decoration and ambiance. I don’t really even care all that much about the scavenger hunt and costume brawls, though all of that is very fun. I just like walking around and looking at Lion’s Arch. It’s perfect.

Arche: I haven’t paid gems for keys, and thus I haven’t lost out on the gamble.

Again, it’s simple: ANet is doing this because they view it as more profitable than other methods. A really low chance of success, real money cost to take a shot, and people paying even more to buy gems to convert to gold to buy them outright off the trading post all equals lots of money. If people stop buying gems with real money out of disgust then ANet has miscalculated. If people keep buying them then they haven’t. Telling a company what you will and will not pay for in the future is not entitlement, it’s business. Now, demanding a refund when you haven’t actually been deceived, that’s different.

Hinoreth: No, I mean that the game doesn’t pay out real money rewards to the players. If it did then that would be actual gambling. You can convert real cash to gems, gems to gold, and gold to gems, but not gems to cash. Your paying money in is just an investment in your own entertainment, with no chance of a cash return. You can’t get rich playing the game, except with in-game currency.

IndigoSundown: I agree with you on that. Either rewards should scale up or waypoint costs should be appropriately downleveled, preferably the former. And although higher level characters with better gear should be somewhat stronger than lowbies they are too strong. A couple times without thinking I’ve used an elite skill during an event that took out an entire wave of mobs, which I’m sure wasn’t fun for everyone else.

Hinoreth.5978:

It’s a lottery that you pay real cash for, and they don’t have the odds of winning detailed anywhere so that folks can make an informed decision. Isn’t that illegal in the US?

No, because they’re not paying out real money.

Dungin.2983:

Chests were not meant to be the only thing in this event; they were focal because they require no effort other than purchasing a key. (or some cheap chests off of the TP)

Or because they legitimately really like the items a lot. That’s how I feel. I really want that scythe staff for my necro. I don’t even care if every other player in the game has it, I want it because it fits the character I’ve built, and I want the scythe appearance to be permanent, not just when fighting. For my necro the only armor I even like is the dry bones karma set. I’m in the process of acquiring my exotic gear now, and I’ll be using fine transmutation stones to make it look the way I want, instead of sticking with the relatively rare exotic set appearance it comes with. It’s not even about showing off, just having the look I specifically want.

So yeah, I think plenty of people want these things because they’re just freakin’ cool. I mean, come on, a giant chainsaw greatsword? Its absurdity just makes it even more awesome. There’s a reason that two of the skins cost 40-50g on the trading post and the others are about 10g apiece. People want the cool ones and don’t want the lame ones, even if they’re rare, even if they initially thought it would be easy to get them.

Still, as much as I want that scythe, the avenues for getting it are not worth it to me, so unless something changes I’ll go without.

roqoco.4053:

Agemnon.4608:

roqoco.4053:

Artificial Barrier?? I would say it’s a lot more artificial to be able to go into an area filled with dangerous creatures and be able to wipe them all out without raising a sweat.

The problem with that logic is those creatures aren’t dangerous to those who are powerful enough. A fighter jet may be dangerous to you, but to Superman it’s no credible threat. If you have the strength/adept enough in magic/whatever then you could handle what you couldn’t before.

Like a level 80 wolf is actually so much more powerful than a level 1 wolf? Why? Really, the whole premise of that is totally ridiculous. The fact is that it is levels themselves that are an artificial construct and the idea that you should be able to go back a few levels and fell giants with one blow is something that completely trivialises the effort you made doing the content at level.

Yeah, it’s a way to gate you off from later content, not a reasonable depiction of power progression in the world. Which is why Destiny’s Edge members who have felled dragons’ champions are the same level as you in your early story missions. Nobody is being Superman here. Going from level 1 to level 80 as a warrior means having a significant edge in fights with the toughest combatants who used to knock you around; it doesn’t mean that you can take all of them down Kill Bill-style with minimal effort as though they’re floppy, 80lb weaklings. Without level scaling one Hammer Shock would kill everyone around you, which would be quite silly.

Cerise.9045:

@Azoetia

“voting with your wallet” doesn’t really apply with it comes to real money stores in MMOs.

There are people who play thousands of dollars each month in Maple Story just to get a tiny stat bonus(literally less than 1%) because of anomaly with paid stat resets.

Even if most people think it’s stupid to pay $1000 to do 0.5% more damage and never spend that kind of money on the game, the people who do pay for it will keep doing it forever and that’s how Nexon is such a successful company.

The real question is how many people really want Guild Wars to be that kind of game?

That’s why I also say use the forums to complain, as well as any other means of correspondence available. Customer complaints can make a difference and there’s nothing wrong with voicing your opinion on what you got for your money. And I should also say spend gems on stuff that you think is priced reasonably (for me this is the town clothes; they’re a little pricey but you know you’re getting what you’re gunning for, no screwing around) while not paying for stupid stuff (BLC keys, with an infinitesimal chance to score a skin.)

But you know, if none of that works, well, you’re kind of out of options and don’t really have any means for control anyway. So at that point it doesn’t matter what kind of game you want. I just don’t think that’s the case here. We’re already seeing the devs respond to the complaints.

Healix: “If their goal was to actually make money off of this and not just keep it rare, it completely backfired for me at least. The second I heard about the drop rate I decided not to try at all, since in general, I’m very unlucky. If their goal was to make money, I would think selling a box with a random skin in it would have sold more, with the currently expensive ones being more rare than the others.”

This is how I feel. I haven’t blown any money on keys but I would probably throw some money at two or three of the weapon skins outright in the gem shop, or even on the sort of RNG you described above. But I won’t pay 50gp for weapon skins, and I especially won’t pay for enough gems to buy that much gold. So if they want my money there’s a way to get it and this isn’t it. I’ll take the witch’s costume, though, since that’s sold outright and not RNG. Gotta support the approach you’d prefer, not just punish the one you hate.

“Entitled” is a hilarious word bandied about constantly by fake libertarians who crow about “personal responsibility” even in the most bizarre and inapplicable contexts. Business is a two-way street, even though these folks are ideologically committed to not seeing that with ridiculous conviction. Unless you’re specifically demanding a refund or threatening a chargeback despite not having been lied to, you’re actually exercising personal responsibility by complaining and refusing to continue making purchases.

If you’re a customer of a business you have every right to complain if you think you’ve been mistreated or that the product blows (sometimes a product is exactly as advertised but it still sucks or has an aspect that sucks.) You also have every right not to continue giving money to that business. Period. Let the business determine on their own whether or not they need you to keep buying gems. Don’t keep reaching for your credit card because some internet nobody told you “blah blah blah you’re entitled and want stuff for free for your money because I only comprehend one kind of argument” and treated your decision like it’s something shameful. If you don’t like how something is going, then vote with your wallet and make sure they know why you made that decision. If enough people feel the same way it will make a difference. And if you’re unreasonable and your expectation is marginal then it won’t.

Telling the devs “I think the drop rate on these skins should be higher” or “I think I should be able to buy the skins in the gem shop outright” isn’t unreasonable, but it’s not what ANet think will make them the most money. They think you’ll keep buying BLC keys from the gem store. If the gems-for-a-tiny-chance approach puts people off of buying gems and sales plummet after this enormous initial surge, then they won’t do it again, because they know a huge short term gain isn’t worth destroying customer trust in the long run. If you succeed they may find that it’s more profitable to just sell cool stuff that folks want outright without the RNG. However, if you complain but keep on buying crap they’ll happily keep taking your money, changing nothing at all, and you will have nobody else to blame for that but yourself.

That’s actual personal responsibility. Not the “take what you get and shut your mouth” approach these fakers are espousing.

No, not really. Steamrolling stuff is fun for about 2 minutes and then it’s boring. As it is I have some fun in lower zones with a high-level character. That “feeling of being more powerful” is there due to the fact that it puts you a couple levels higher than the area and you have your elite skills, but it’s not so easy that it’s trivial. Still have to worry about getting outnumbered by mobs.

It’s extremely irritating. Combined with how slow and useless it is, I tend to use the staff for the AOEs and then immediately switch back to my other weapons so I don’t have to hear it.

By itself it’s a pretty cool sound. It would be a much better fit with an ability that has a cooldown. But hearing it over and over, it just becomes irritating.

I’m also not fond of the scepter auto attack sound. It’s like you’re bopping someone with a light club. Since it causes bleeding it should have some nasty stabbing or scratching sound.

Edit to add: Bug fixes is still a bigger deal. I’m so paranoid about the devs screwing around with everything except actual bugs that I don’t want to make anything else a bigger deal than that.

I say vote with your wallet. If you’re opposed to real money RNG, then don’t spend money on it going forward, and if you feel especially screwed then don’t spend money on gems at all and send them an email saying why. The reason they took this approach is that it’s good for their bottom line. Make it not be a money-maker and they’ll alter their approach.

The worst thing one can do is to complain about this and then turn around and pay into it again. You can bet they’re banking on people who got jack squat the first time doing it again at Christmas because their anger has faded. If people complain but still keep reaching for their wallets then they deserve what they get.

I really want several of those weapon skins. Spending money on RNG to get them blows and I don’t think I’m going to unless I by some chance have leftover gems after buying other stuff. Just wish the gold cost of the scythe staff wasn’t so brutal on the trading post.

EdwinLi.1284:

We’re missing a large chunk of the bigger picture they have for Trahearne and that is his past History with each Order.

I might not hate Trahearne so much if the picture had been filled in from the beginning. As it is I don’t see the character as having any credibility. It’s a bunch of “because this person over here said he’s awesome” garbage with nothing impressive taking place on screen.

And the downright sycophantic way that the NPCs talk to and about Trahearne is honestly stomach turning. Even though I think my character deserves more of the credit than Trahearne does I’d feel uncomfortable about her having her boots licked like that. It’s just over the top.

This whole thing about “why should the game stroke your ego?” makes no sense to me whatsoever.

This isn’t like Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. You’re not a (very important) soldier fighting at the Black Gate of Mordor, holding the line against impossible odds, just hoping that the real hero will accomplish what needs to be done and destroy the One Ring and take down Sauron. Mount Doom doesn’t erupt in the distance, followed by the collapse of Barad-dur. You don’t celebrate with your comrades as your enemies flee and are destroyed, hoping the real hero so many miles away has survived.

I can definitely see getting some fulfillment out of that.

The personal story in this game is more like that episode of Reaper where the Devil keeps giving his useless kid the recognition for everything Sam does.

And bad characters, too. I’ve read the poorly written Edge of Destiny book, and between that and the game I’ve come to hate Logan and Eir, despite initially liking and rooting for them.

If the heroes that you’re supposed to look up to are awful there’s something wrong. Somebody made a big mistake along the way.

bojangles.6912:

If you are looking to try and compare it to other games who use a sub based then total sales of the game won’t be help at all. Reading through this people have said 2 mil sold. I will bet money not even close to 2 mil still play the game. Started a new character the other day and the starter zone was bare. ToR has tons of people in all zones still. Rift has people. Heck, even LotR has people.

We can’t read anything by that. SWTOR has severely consolidated its servers in response to the drop in subs, and it’s also an altaholic’s paradise. Right now in GW2 people have spread out of the lowbie zones, lots have hit 80 and haven’t tired of Orr yet, and some folks who have hit the top have just become dedicated WvWers. In addition, not everyone who is going to make alts has finished with their mains or plays multiple characters concurrently. Gauging by feel and by how many people are in zones isn’t going to tell us much one way or the other because of all the mitigating factors that obscure the picture. I’m wouldn’t even hazard to guess what the average number of active players per day or week or month is because there’s literally nothing worthwhile to gauge it.

Nyaochan.1756:

@Azoetia:
Hey, I’m not exactly a social butterfly either (I am also an introvert, to the point where I have no friends irl, and I’ll barely even make conversation with my own relatives), however, if someone makes an effort to talk to me in-game, i usually try to make it a point to reply back (though I’m guilty of giving people the silent treatment…).

I’m polite to people. If they talk to me and I’m not oblivious with my character sheet or trading post window open I’ll talk back. But unless it’s really interesting I start looking for a considerate way to excuse myself pretty quickly. I’m not going to fail to thank someone for rezzing me or helping with a fight where I’m getting my butt kicked.

lorazcyk.8927:

@azoetia
Isn’t the main difference between introvert and extrovert that while we may prefer to have less friends and less social outgoings, we want them to be more meaningful than the average friend and social outgoing the extroverted has?

The main difference between introverts and extroverts is that extroverts gain energy from social interaction while introverts are exhausted by it. So yes, we do want our relationships with people to be more meaningful because it’s not worth the energy expenditure to deal with shallow relationships. I simply do not form these sorts of deeper and more meaningful connections with people inside of video games because to me it is an extremely shallow and uninteresting interaction to begin with. That’s fine as a baseline for uncommitted actions in combat and rezzing folks, but it doesn’t extend to conversation.

There is a difference between introvert and anti social, I think you meant to say you are anti social.

Antisocial gets bandied about like it means opposed to forming connections with people but it actually has a specific definition that has no relation to that at all. To quote Wikipedia, antisocial behaviour is “behaviour that lacks consideration for others and may cause damage to the society, whether intentionally or through negligence.” According to the APA, antisocial personality disorder is characterized by “…a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.” Trolls behave in an antisocial manner (although I wouldn’t say that it necessarily says anything about them in real life.) I’m actually extremely polite and considerate in-game, just distant.

Nyaochan.1756:

Attempting to force people to bond on a more permanent basis is usually not a good idea, and this generation seems to be more about getting things done as quickly as possible, and less about getting to know the people you’re playing with (because talking = things not getting done). I don’t feel that way personally…I’m always open to friendly chat with random people, as long as they are mature and polite.

It’s not just a generational thing. Some people just function differently on a basic level than others. There’s a really serious difference between introverts and extroverts. The design of modern MMOs is gradually becoming more and more welcoming to extreme introverts like me, with GW2 being the most so far. It’s a very different MMO in regards to social requirements than in times past. There are people playing these games who didn’t play them at all before, and many of them are not like you and don’t think like you, and cannot even if they want to because they’re simply wired differently. It’s not as simple as getting someone like me to “open up;” it only works on a case by case basis with very specific individuals. A message board with strangers is something I can handle, whereas instant messaging is not. The game chat is more like instant messaging.

I’m certainly not blazing through the game. My main is level 71. But I also don’t want to talk or be buddies. I’m perfectly content just running around with folks wordlessly doing DEs and skill challenges.

lorazcyk.8927:

Good point and I do that too, but to me it doesn’t feel any more social than standing in a line waiting for a bathroom stall to open up :P Simply being around others people is not social to me.

However, to me, as an extreme introvert, it is highly social. The game is perfect for my level of social needs, with the option for more if one desires (and I do not.)

Zappa.9064:

Maybe we need to agree to disagree, but I just don’t see a way yet for MMOs to encourage player interaction and create the same kind of stoires that single player games can.

Why not? The personal story is completely segregated from the rest of the game experience. Even though you can bring a friend to help you in the combat part, it is a single player oriented story in which anyone helping you gets no say in any conversations or decisions. It can be as complex, deep, interesting, or grey as they want it to be since it is meant for only one person at a time.

And just because you’re a good guy doesn’t mean you have to be corny and hokey about it like my sylvari, norn, and human characters are.

BrunoBRS.5178:

and again, you’re a nameless hero, one of thousands of nameless heroes. they can’t make everyone suddenly be the special chosen one of whatever, that’s just stupid and silly. so they give you the title of commander and put you as second in command, leaving a character to take on the lore-glory (like Kormir) and you to take the triumph at the present (unlike Kormir, Trahearne didn’t even get a promotion, and you’re just as celebrated as him).

Making every individual player the hero of the whole world in their own story makes no less sense than making every one of millions of characters played by over a million players second in command. Your personal story does not sync up with the rest of the world anyway. The fact that one group of people has gone in and defeated Zhaitan doesn’t mean that another group goes in to find a dragon carcass and NPCs saying, “A little late, huh? We could have used the help; maybe fewer people would have died.” When you go to WvW you’re not wondering, “Wow, I wonder why there’re hundreds of us Trahearne sidekicks all kicking each others’ teeth in.”

Fact is, when you play your personal story your character is separated out from everyone else’s and their stories, which could very well be identical to yours if they are the same race and answered questions the same in character creation. For the personal story to make sense you can’t look at it in relation to everyone else running around in the world. Trying to make it make sense in that context (like being a sidekick to the real hero who does little of the work and gets nearly all of the glory) actually causes me more cognitive dissonance than just keeping the different aspects of the game distinct from each other.

Books from the point of view of a sidekick can be interesting but I don’t play video games to be the spare. That’s fine at the beginning of the story, not at the end.

I’m 31 and I love the game. Though I am severely critical of the personal story aspect and have some other quibbles I’ve quit playing any other online games because GW2 does a significantly better job of meeting my gaming needs.

I don’t play this game for difficulty in PVE. I play to explore the world and experience its atmosphere. I like the occasional really hard encounter to spice things up, and I receive that. For my skill level I’ve had some really brutal encounters in this game, but not a whole lot of them.

For a real challenge I play things like Mega Man 9, Contra, or Castlevania III. The challenge is the entire point of that sort of game instead of being an elitist gate to experiencing content. And that’s what I bet game companies are trying to avoid. If you make a really awesome world you’re proud of you want people to see all of it. If someone can’t because they’re just not good enough and can’t get good enough (I know it’s hard to believe, but there are avid video game players who are severely untalented regardless of effort) then it can feel like a waste. More importantly those folks don’t stick around spending money once they’ve beat their heads against the wall enough times.

Ultimately though I don’t experience a real sense of accomplishment from video games, so that may be why I view it differently. There’s nothing that I or anyone else can do in a video game in the entire world that I consider to be truly worth bragging about. The first time I beat Contra on NES I said “Yeah! I’m awesome!” Ten minutes later I wasn’t even thinking about it. And I didn’t tell all my friends. And if I had they would have said, “Yeah, I remember that game. So anyway…”

Edit: However, there does need to be balancing. The difficulty level is all over the place, sometimes without any rhyme or reason. Plenty of people have viciously complained about some of the personal story quests being too hard. I myself have found them to bounce back and forth, one being stupidly easy and the next being frustrating. I haven’t found any to be impossible though, and my skill level with 3D-era games (as opposed to old platformers) is pretty miserable.

I don’t like other MMOs and I do like GW2. Even before launch I expected a huge amount of the standard MMO audience to disappear within one or two months because I figured that any game that is making me happy couldn’t possibly make them happy. The population is fantastically higher than I was expecting it to be at this point. Something to keep in mind though is that the players have spread out since the first couple of weeks. At that point everyone was packed like sardines into the lowbie zones. Now they’re in all of them and Lion’s Arch. Plus, lots of folks who have reached max level are just doing PVP and aren’t out in the zones at all anymore, except perhaps when waiting on queues.

TheFatness.5072:

However, I feel inclined to be on WoW because I know that game like the back of my hand, and I know everything about it. With Guild Wars, I unfortunately see tons of forum posts about how bad it is, no end game, etc.

Play what’s fun to you. Don’t let other people’s perspectives overrule yours. Other people’s complaints shouldn’t matter to you, only your own. It’s understandable for you to want to stick with what you know and are good at. You just have to decide if it’s worth it to you to go through the entire acclimation process with another game. Eventually you will have to do so or stop playing because no MMO will last forever.

I also feel as though I am sort of playing a single player game, because sure I always see people, but no one ever talks, etc. Maybe it’s because I am on a lower pop server, or it’s because my guild is super inactive.

This is an aspect of the fundamental design philosophy of the game that is going to divide people. It is not a single player game if other people are playing, period. It may not be the kind of multiplayer you like but it is perfect for me. As far as people talking, you pretty much have to find a guild you like or make a really strong effort to meet people. Just understand that this game strongly appeals to people like me who don’t want to talk, and the pinball aspect of “event, event, event, event” with this game’s style of active combat means that people have less time to type. Most are probably using vent.

SWTOR sold just as many copies if not more than GW2 at launch and that game is heading down a dark path right now. The heads of Bioware left the company because of how badly everything is going.

SWTOR was brutally mismanaged. It didn’t start bleeding subs until the game-breaking updates started being pushed out. Early on it held onto an abnormally large percentage of its player base, considering its monthly sub and how many features it went live without. The first two updates really sent folks packing.

Then the forum posts, and the fear of the game having no future come into my head.

The idea of the game having no future is such an absurdly premature concept that it’s truly laughable. I mean, it’s possible, but based on nothing whatsoever. It hasn’t even had its first major game update yet. Furthermore, it doesn’t rely upon a monthly sub from its subscribers.

On the other hand, I fear not being good enough to strive in GW2 like I do in WoW. I am a beast tank on all the tank classes in WoW. I don’t PvP because I am filthy awful at it. That’s one of the biggest fears I have with GW2. What if I suck at this game in PvP like I do in WoW? I will never be accepted into most communities, because GW2 is all about PvP. It’s been that way since GW1.

Do WvW, which is relatively low-pressure since a lot of it is zerging, and get your bearings. There’s more to do in it than just zergs but until you know what’s going on your server needs warm bodies regardless of skill. There’s nothing you can mess up really that will make things worse for them than if you weren’t there, especially if you focus on lower-populated borderland maps. See if any of them don’t have a queue, and then you know you’re not taking the spot someone better could, if that even matters to you. It really doesn’t though, as there’s always going to be non-PVPers there taking up space doing their world completion POIs and vistas.

As far as I’ve seen the community here is pretty chill and since the gear ceiling is fairly low and there is no dps-tank-healer trinity it’s a lot less common to pull elitist crap on folks.

Oh, and to OP: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. “The game is unpopular/ dying” is an extraordinary claim. Your evidence is not extraordinary. I can be convinced of your viewpoint but it will require more than what you have presented. Especially since your anecdotal evidence is no more valuable than mine, which contradicts yours.

I agree. I get that ANet doesn’t want anyone playing a bad guy, because never, ever could villains also have the self-preservation instinct to also oppose the dragons, amirite?

Sure, whatever, force me to play a good guy. But being one of the good guys doesn’t mean you have to be gee-golly-gosh saccharine sweet all the time. It’s cringe-inducing.

If you don’t like waypoints then don’t use them. It’s that simple. Their very presence doesn’t force you to jump around with them. It’s an option.

I have a real problem with people complaining that I shouldn’t be able to play the way I want to because community!

These posts basically come down to, “Please, ANet, remove other people’s options. I’m so terribly concerned with what they are doing. I want them to be forced to play the way I do, otherwise my experience is not fulfilling.”

In other media the sidekick can be the most important character. Tolkien said that Sam was the real hero of Lord of the Rings and I agree.

But I don’t play video games to be a sidekick. It’s not a character study when I’m playing the character. It’s just a question of “is this fulfilling or not for me to live vicariously through?” The answer is no.

Yeah, spend 20 minutes to make a norn and do the very first part of their story. You’ll be very happy with your charr.

This is the only game that I know of that gives me exactly the amount of social interaction I want, with the option for more. The only one.

Increase the social requirements of this game and I don’t have any other MMO to go to. I’ll just watch Netflix and play Super Nintendo.

I can appreciate simplicity and I can deal with naivety and predictability. But that’s not what I find to be the problem with the GW2 personal stories. The problem is that they’re very nearly the most corny stories I’ve ever experienced, and the dialogue is unnatural and cheesy to the point that it makes me feel sympathetic embarrassment. I blush when I hear and read some of these lines. On top of it the voice acting is all over the place. Some of it is great (Tybalt, Rytlock, Zojja) while a lot of it is really poor. And I don’t mean poor as in not convincing. I mean stressing the wrong words in sentences so that they don’t make sense.

The norn are the masters of overwrought cheese. “I will do [minor thing nobody cares about] and my LEGEND WILL GROW!!!” I love Nordic stuff and I expected to really dig the norn, but they’re completely insufferable dorks instead of intimidating warriors. The norn personal story dialogue is not fan-fiction worthy. None of it. Every character. It’s all bad. And don’t even get me started on the decision to pronounce all Nordic and Nordic-flavoured words in an English phonetic way. It doesn’t sound more universal, it just sounds ignorant and hokey.

The charr story is far better, as is the acting. But then there’s Emer Whipmane, a well-written, flawed, and morally grey (see, it’s actually possible in this game) character whose voice acting completely ruins her. It stood out painfully.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying “nobody should ever make friends in games.” I’m just saying nobody owes you anything and expecting folks to want to know you is severely misguided.