Guild Wars 2

I am in a small guild. We have something like 20 members, 7 of which are kinda active. When I say kinda active I mean we go to work, some of us have little children to take care of and so forth. We have trouble getting organized enough for our weekly Saturday Evening Dungeons. It’s often that we find ourselves with just four of us, lacking one for a full party. And we don’t like PUGs too much because we don’t know all the dungeon permutations and fast run routes that everyone else looking for a PUG seems to assume is the order of the day. We don’t really suck at the game (I actually think we’re quite decent) but we like to take our time, do it without taking shortcuts, smell the flowers and enjoy the ride. Except for the Manor dungeon. Because that one makes me curse frequently and loudly, and then I stop playing the game for a couple of days. I got a bit sidetracked there, sorry.

Point is, the morale in our guild is low. We don’t want to join a huge guild because we like our small, tight-knit group of IRL friends. But the game seems to be fond of telling us it is not intended for the likes of us. We were eagerly looking forward to try out guild missions as they seemed to be something that’d help us rekindle the interest in the game and lift the morale. Cue me staring at guild upgrades in disbelief.

I guess I was hoping GW2 will be all like, hey, you guys are cool too, I’ll start inviting you to my pool parties from now on. What actually happened was GW2 apparently telling me something impolite about my mother. Way to kill my guild dead.

I don’t do that whole attempted developer blackmail where I threaten to stop playing until my demands are met. I mean this plainly and matter-of-factly. I don’t see any of us playing this game a lot anymore. I’m interested to see where the living story goes. I wish there was more to interest me because I want to continue playing. I actually hope I’ll get over this train wreck. But honestly, this is just too much. As if ascended gear wasn’t a horrible offender already.

Get your affairs in order, GW2. I hope I can at least find something good when we revisit in a year or two.

I’d just like to join the choir and say that random drops from gem store items are bullkitten. This is the second time I’ve ever posted on the forums and I absolutely don’t mean to whine, but I think this is important. It’s bad, bad, bad.

Just like my previous (and before this, only) complaint about the Fractals gear grind, I’m posting this one because the gambling goes against everything ArenaNet has been saying. You don’t get random drops from dungeons, you get currency with which you buy dungeon rewards. Because that makes sense, right? So how does this not translate to gem store? Actually, how does this not translate to gifts as well? I wouldn’t be posting this just to complain about the unbreakable choir bell, but in principle it’s the same thing.

Stop the gambling. It’s ridiculous. I do not want to play a gambling game. If I did, I’d go to a casino. I have moral issues for associating myself with a gambling institution. Don’t make me a gambling enabler just for playing this game.

I have been kicking myself for missing out on buying the Halloween mini pack, because I thought it would be cool to occasionally buy a thing or two to commemorate the events… and then came Lost Shores and minis were random. But they are also monster drops, apparently, so that made it somewhat acceptable. And now comes Wintersday where minis are just simply gambling. That is bullkitten. And I know you know it’s bullkitten.

So how about you fine ArenaNet folk stop trying to turn me away from this game, eh? I quite like it, even though it falls short in certain respects. I expect it to evolve, not devolve.

Doable isn’t a concern. Ease of acquiring isn’t a concern either. It is not about stat points. You know all gear without an infused slot is going to be worthless 15 minutes after its Ascended counterpart makes an appearance.

People do not go “oh, well, I’m not too concerned that I can’t go so-and-so deep into this fractal dungeon”. People will go “any equipment without an Infused slot is not a worthwhile investment”. As anyone from any game with an auction house will tell you, an item insignificantly weaker than a max stat item is, for all intents and purposes, worthless.

This is the first time I’m posting on the forums. I’m not a fan of public whining and I have no intention of sticking around just to whine. But I have some serious concerns.

Ascended gear is the beginning of gear grind. It just is, there’s no way around it. Infused slots seem to play into the agony mechanics so it’s logical to assume that, as patches arrive, we will see infused stuff as a necessity to play more and more content. This means, stats aside, you are required to have Ascended gear. This makes crafting absolutely useless because all gear without an infused slot is useless. Or will be soon enough.

Let me just add to this that I actually like the concept of Agony, Ascended gear and Infused slots. They remind me of Guild Wars. It’s nifty, really. It took me a while to figure out it also invalidates the entire premise of Guild Wars 2 game design and stated ideals they’ve been talking about for years. I hope someone, somehow will fix this.