Guild Wars 2

Actually, the Game Update Notes – March 18, 2014, which I did read, says nothing about the items being useless. It only states:

Trading
Rumors tell of a merchant interested in items from major events in Tyria’s recent history, including Blade Shards. Players are encouraged to hold on to these items if they are interested in trading with her when she appears.

This to me sounds like one NPC for all the past items.

The shutting down of the vendors and the attitude of players saying that we should know to be reading forums, updates, etc. makes the assumption that we have been given reason to before. As a new player, I never experienced an “end game” or had reason to expect these items would become useless trash.

In all the other games I’ve played, important announcements were always in game and would in some cases link to forums for additional information. I never had to scan forums daily to make sure I wasn’t getting screwed. I battled for thousands of belongings, and somehow, I deserve that it is now just more junk.

“Urge to quit rising!”

…and for those that are relatively new but busted a ton of time into Lion’s Arch only to be left with a couple thousand useless belongings? I got lucky and traded in two thirds of my heirlooms but what about the rest?

I haven’t been playing this more than two months and never experienced an “end game” before. Imagine just how overwhelming all of the content in this game is to a new player.

This situation punishes new players, and then adding insult to injury, we have a community of “you should know betters” in the forum. Let ArenaNet decide what to do.

I agree with the OP and several supporters. I don’t see the harm of giving people a break instead of letting them get screwed.