Guild Wars 2

Yeah, the workflow needs to be smoother for sure. We’ve already got automatic deposit for materials, why not have auto-open for many things? There’s so many consumables where the only use case is opening and adding. Well, just add it then. Karma, luck, trans charges, soggy miner’s bag of soggy miner’s logs – just auto open and add.

The same logic applies to the leveling process and heart completion, why do I need all this clicking?

elikal.7356:

I dunno exactly why; I used to love GW2 as one of my most fav. MMos ever. And I played a lot, so I have good basis to compare. But somehow I simply did not feel the magic when I returned. Just a few impressions.

First, all skills of all classes have been so completely reworked, that they are kinda beyond recognition. I have 9 max level chars, one in each class, I spent a lot of time to learn and improve, to have best gear and to know the best rotations in my chars, and here it was as if everything I worked to learn was taken away. I know classes are reworked now and then. I went through a lot of changes in my years in WOW. Or EQ2 or LOTRO. But I can not remember ever returning to a MMO and found all classes changed so much, that essentially all I had learned was out of the window.

Now when you start anew, that may not be such a big issue, you learn from scratch. But when you have 8 different max level chars, it is a wall of new learning which simply feel tiresome.

Second, the new WvW Borderlands. OMG. I used to love WvW so much, but this new BL WVW map is just… hilariously bad. It is a friggin maze! In the old map, you could navigate by just looking around. Here, so much walls block my view, so the only way to naviagate that uber complicated map is by opening the map ever 20 seconds. >.<

Finally, the new zone(s).

You know, normally, when I have had no expansions with new zones, there is a feeling like a new world opened to me. Here, I enter the new zone, and from the first plateau there is one small spiral way down. And then a split to a second small spiral way down. Everything feel so crammed and small, so railroaded. There is no feeling of a wide open area, but so many small walkways. And like EVERY SINGLE mob cripples, stuns and pushes me back. And since there are so many small tunnel-ways, I have to fight my way through ALL of them mobs. Added the fact that the classes were so reworked I hardly know anymore what I am doing, I found myself dying all the time! Some group of mini dinosaurs: dead. You cant walk into a corner to pull them there, you can’t walk around them, because the tunnel-like setup prevents that.

And finally the time gating and mastery gating. I think enough of that was written already, but that was like kinda the final nail in the coffin. It just stopped to feel like fun, and seriously began to feel like work. That’s NOT how a good expansion is done. With some good rework, it can one day be a passable expansion. But it will surely never be recognized as one of the great expansions of MMO history.

I’ve long felt that their games straddle the fine line between challenging and annoying. I cannot stand the obsessive snaring in this game. It ruins it for me. It’s bad enough we magically slow down when running for our lives, then we have to deal with infinite snaring and jerking around while running. It gets old, and quick. I really should have known it’d be a big pain in the kitten after what SW and DT were like.

While I like Guild Wars 2 immensely, I would say that it didn’t live up to my initial hopes of what the sequel would be. Like many things in life, I feel I can best summarize my feelings with a list.

Where it exceeded/met my expectations:
1. Opening the game world and removing the invisible walls of the first game.
2. Adding one of the best combat systems in the genre, IMO.
3. The current character progression system is noteworthy, and a drastic improvement over its shape at launch.
4. The amount of account inventories like dyes, wallet, etc. I’m a believer in the minimizing of having an inventory.
5. Events, open world bosses, and the overall gameplay are fun and accessible
6. The succinct skill bar – love this

Where it did not meet my expectations:
1. The lack of the trinity. Seriously, I loved played healer in Guild Wars 1 and lament its absence or deference to other classes.
2. The story. It’s awful. It reeks of fan fiction, SJW crusades, and shallowness. Compared to even Wildstar, it’s just so magoo. The first game wasn’t exactly TES quality, but it was still more engaging than this game’s.
3. The Mesmer. Aside from the Monk, Mesmer was my other main. I love the resource denial mechanic, and I feel like that’s absent from this game. Everything is condition based. Sure boons approximate the idea of an enchantment, but the first game really feel like Magic the Gathering with its nuanced skill system.
4. The lack of MMO standards like mounts, healing potions, large amounts of instanced dungeons like seen in WoW/LoTRO, customizable UI.
5. PVP cannot even compare to the first game.

VaLee.5102:

To begin with, this is not a discussion about masteries or hero points, but the expansion as a whole.

We all know there was a large group of people who were asking for challenging content in GW2, and I was one of them. But I think the way they implemented in HoT was something like “They want hard content? We will give them hard content! YOLO!”.

You don’t make a whole expansion cattered just for the a certain group of people, there needs to be a balance. There were other MMOs that went full hardcore and we all know how they ended.
Now you got the situation where the more casual of the players (which are quite a lot) are uttermost frustrated and are not enjoying the content.

They could’ve left the meta events in the maps and raids as challeging content, while leaving the general maps accessible for those who are just interested in exploring, gathering, doing little events, etc. That way you would please both groups of players.
Adventures are a good example of content done right, you have the Bronze tier pretty much accessible to anyone, while the Gold tiers will probably be done by those who want a challenge.

I don’t think any of the hardcore players really enjoy random packs of elite mobs placed everywhere for no reason either.
The new maps feel like Orr on release, with more leaves. And we all know how Orr ended up, even now after the nerf, the only people who go there are the ones doing the Cursed Shore train and the ones going for map completion.

And please think about this in general, do not mindlessy reply, do you think releasing an expansion designed to a single target audience is good for the game in the long run?
Do you think the casual players will quit the expansion maps after the hype is gone? And if yes, how will that affect the game in those areas?

Keep in mind that a lot of the casual players cannot afford to improve, they have limited gameplay time, real life responsabilities, etc and they just want to relax a couple of hours a week for example.

I don’t think releasing content with a single audience in mind is a good idea. The people I know who play this game, and myself, enjoy it when it’s the open world with a lot of people. My only real problem with the direction of the new content is the increasing presence of snares. It just gets old having 5 mobs yank you around while you’re just trying to run by. That needs to be dialed back. I think they’ve got a good organization about targeting content to player types. The hero points have champions on them is a bit much, but it’s not gamebreaking.

I’m with you, man. I love the new trait system and progression. Makes me really excited for the future.

Wolfeng.3784:

Base game is 10$ (being offered as a free bonus for prepurchase)
Character slot is 10$ (being offered as a free bonus for prepurchase)

I don’t see how they got it wrong.

Am I a veteran as it stands right now? I’ve been playing this game since beta.

Mo Mo.1947:

ANet gives the patron consumers what they’re asking for and all the sudden it’s a conspiracy that ANet, a business, expects to generate more sales by making this offer?

Did the OP not know that capitalism was a thing?

First off,, this isn’t capitalism, this is enterprise and marketing. Two different things. Nice try.

You can’t possibly see the grey area in this? You can’t possibly see how this is damage control and not some genuine act of satiating customers’ demands?

Has anyone else experienced some massive CPU spikes – like 114% – when in game? It seems to be triggered when I attempt to load the black lion trader.

Gomssi.7246:

Destai.9603:

So I have to prepurchase to get my veteran reward?

Seriously? Why can’t you just make it for old accounts when they purchase it.

Why is that so hard?

Loyal… veteran players get rewarded. That’s the whole argument earlier.. that “loyal” players are not getting rewarded… if people are “loyal” which many are, they will start pre purchasing, which many did, because they are “loyal” to the game, it wouldnt matter if they throw down money now… or later.. so they would do it now to get minor incentives.

You seem to have a different problem with Anet, not the player slot. You want something else right?

I want ArenaNet to truly honor their long term players by giving us something small like a character slot when we purchase the game. I don’t want to be herded into pre-purchasing something that’s being sold as a reward for being loyal. It’s an attempt at damage control and subtle pushes to do something rather than an actual attempt to please long term players.

neonis.3974:

Destai.9603:

Look ArenaNet, I get that you’re in damage control mode and it was a very tactical move. Yet, you’ve still not done the right thing and made the character slot available for any preexisting account. Instead, you do the wrong thing and make it a prepurchase bonus. That’s not a veteran reward and I’m not prepurchasing because of this.

I really hope you guys can learn to listen before making some decisions. Your history says otherwise.

Anet runs a business not a charity.

At no point am I asking for something for free, without merit or reason.

A veteran reward should be dispensed to veterans regardless of preorder or prepurchase. It’s a thinly veiled PR tactic that wasn’t considered until they got chewed out for yet again another stupid decision. And even then, they still cannot give the community exactly what they are asking for.

I’m not participating in this early acccess, prepurchase, give-us-money-ahead-of-time culture that’s taking gaming by storm. This is exactly why.

Look ArenaNet, I get that you’re in damage control mode and it was a very tactical move. Yet, you’ve still not done the right thing and made the character slot available for any preexisting account. Instead, you do the wrong thing and make it a prepurchase bonus. That’s not a veteran reward and I’m not prepurchasing because of this.

I really hope you guys can learn to listen before making some decisions. Your history says otherwise.

So I have to prepurchase to get my veteran reward?

Seriously? Why can’t you just make it for old accounts when they purchase it.

Why is that so hard?

sharkswithlazers.7632:

When I heard that you guys finally released the Pre-Purchase for the game, my wife and I rushed to your website to purchase the Heart of Thorns expansion. We don’t care that you chose to give the game free to new players because we’ve spent three years loving your master crafted game. The amount of dedication poured into the making of this MMO is apparent. The quality of life in this MMO greatly surpasses your competition and we have been avid fans of this franchise ever since we discovered it during your pre-release of GW2.

It’s disheartening to us to see that other veteran players are blowing up the forums because they want free stuff. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to put so much effort into making a game and when you finally release the pre-purchase for its expansion that the player base would be so negative and calling you guys “soulless corporate husks” for just trying to market this game.

My point is, I’m super hyped for this expansion, and I’m sorry that rather than hearing from your players about how excited they are as well, you’re getting ragers angry that they didn’t get free stuff.

I’d say people by and large are not calling them corporate husks but are expressing how frustrated they are at the lack of options.

I won’t purchase this day one or pre-purchase it for several reasons. Firstly, No character slot included in base edition. They set precedence with GW1 and people have asked for a long time to get a character slot. They chose not to. Secondly, No expansion only upgrade option. I’m happy they have a version that includes the base game, it’s a great marketing decision. However, I’m paying for that implicitly. I want just the expansion and the price to match that. I’m not asking for a ton of frills or the other bonuses and I get that ArenaNet has to make money. I’ll buy the expansion some time after but I won’t rush in when they have missteps like these.

I personally am a bit put off by the overly layered approach in Dry Top and Silverwastes. The map has become a less useful tool in figuring out what paths I should take and the game world has become more focused on jumping puzzles and less on exploration. Many of the subzones are gated by some event, which makes exploration all the more difficult. There are some areas in SW and DT that I still have no clue how to get to. I personally like the Shiverpeaks a lot. I don’t mind secret areas and layers, just don’t make it painful.

At some point one could conceivably run out of content. I don’t think it’s the moment you ding to 80.

There’s so much more to do.
1. Achievements
2. World Exploration
3. Living Story
4. Obtaining armor sets
5. Obtaining ascended gear
6. Jumping Puzzles
7. PvP

This game is what you make it, really.

So, uh, how will new Sylvari be born?

You know, this whole NPE is really in the way of enjoying this game.

I’m using the Map to find something and I have an arrow that’s in the way of using the map. I press ESC and it bounces. Why? Why do that? I’m at full health, out of combat. Furthermore, if I’m on one screen, it’s for a reason. Stop with the clutter already.

Any tutorial feature needs to be toggled. I’ve played this game for 700 hours, I know when to heal.

/endrant

I agree with you, OP. I’d like to see a slot; I’d also like to see race mater more.

In ESO, there’s racial skill lines that you can level up. We could add some racial trait lines in this game to make things matter more.

Zackie.8923:

Especially the music… the tone the mood the environment , everywhere is depressing.

Verdant brink is dark and the music is so heavy and down turning.

Can we at least have lions arch have a lively and bustling town music and mood after the reparation?

Please put in lively catchy townfolks music.

You should play Derelict Herds by Opeth while you play. Really cheerful music.

How big is the expansion in terms of zones?

JonPeters.5630:

Wanted to run a potential idea past you all. Comments welcome.

Tome of Courage -> Signet of Courage
Passive: PBAoE Heal every 10 seconds.
Active: Light of Deliverance

Tome of Wrath -> “Feel My Wrath”
Shout that grants Quickness and Fury

We like the idea of tomes and if we did this we would hope to bring them back in a future Elite Specialization.

Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks,

Jon

The tomes really inspire the idea of a loremaster for me. You could have utility skills called Tales or something that boost the Tomes. The shouts really indicate the profession’s heritage of monk and paragon, so why not build upon that with Chants and Songs?

I really like the idea of making tomes more powerful and useful, can you elaborate on your idea at all?

My thoughts on the NPE are pretty simple.

It’s annoying.

I used to cherish the minimalist aesthetic that existed. Hearts used to be completed and things just happened. I knew where to go and I moved. Now for every little thing, there’s some bouncy icon demanding attention and taking me away from the game. Another good example, I was in LA and there’s some POIs lit up and demanding my attention. Or how about the healing skill telling me when to use it. Really? I feel like there should be some toggle on this.

IMO, this game had a lot of polish up until this and the trait update. Both are unnecessary. Hopefully that can be changed soon.

I rebooted and it didn’t seem to remediate the problem. Even ran speedtest,

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4138748347

I’m getting hardly over 10KB/sec. It’s been super slow yesterday and today on both my computers.

INF.8496:

i have been playing game since beta, and really love it, but why did u lie back there? – You promised no monthly payment and no more buying stuff (patch, etc.), saying everything in future will be free, couse you dont want to be like another games (which was one of main reasons i bought the game).
Now, you are just like another games, where ok patch, fixes, events, updates are free (for example like in WoW), but expansion is paid. Its shame you ruin game philosophy (that you can be proud of + make propagation strategy on it) + you dont keep your promises

Thomas

Software costs money to make. Online games with constantly evolving content costs money to maintain. ArenaNet deserves to be paid for their content. If this makes you uncomfortable then I suggest finding a different game.

Absolutely. The game’s launch heralded in a new approach for MMOs and should be experienced from a lore/history perspective alone. I still wish I had a solid crew to play that game with; I miss monk and mesmer a lot. If you do, don’t expect the combat to be as fresh as GW2’s. The game is older and has some clunkiness to it, but it’s still a classic and worth the money.

SirBlunticus.4258:

Shpongle.6025:

SirBlunticus.4258:

I’m sorry but this game is too amazing to not have any endgame content.
Fractals and playing dress up isnt end game content.
The game was great, until I hit 80….now its boring, nothing to do.
I love crafting in any mmo, I usually horde mats and such. GW2 theres no reason to, why waste my time when all crafting is for is the nicest gear, but there is no reason to have it unless you want to run a 5-man fractal (5 MAN!?, might as well call it an expert dungeon)
There are too many games out there that have everything gw2 has and much more.
Devs need to figure out a way to keep people engaged at 80, fractals and playing barbie dress up is not it.
WE NEED RAIDS!

There already are raids like triple wurm, tequatl, jormag etc.

But yeah there’s no 20 man dungeons, although I think that would be fun. But not 20 man, more like 10 man or 15 man, that’s enough or it stops feeling like a dungeon.

I really, really hope we will get to see Underworld in GW2 some day.

I am terribly sorry sir but these examples are perfect for my original post. How are these considered raids??? They are more like dynamic events or something. Not a raid, no way. I tried teq once….made it all the way to the end….didn’t know mechanics or anything for that matter and it was simple. What raid have you ever played where its that easy. Raids are supposed to punish you for not knowing mechanics, be tough for people who want it easy.
These so called “raids” are not even close…go play RIFT and they have these events all day long! (tougher than teq though mind you which if I’m not mistaken is once a day)
If you like these type of “EVENTS” go play rift…you will be satisfied.

There are no raids in GW2 sorry folks. If you think there is go play an mmo with “real” raids. Then tell me how simple teq or your GW2 (raids…lol) are.
I just don’t understand I guess…lmao

Having players go to other games to get the experiences they want means less money and fun for GW2. People aren’t clamoring for a gear treadmill, they’re clamoring for content that requires more than 5 players and a some degree of coordination. That’s in no way against GW2’s egalitarian philosophy.

RSLongK.8961:

Open world raids yeah, instanced no. instanced raids are in all other games out there.

Which is exactly why this game should have it.

mtpelion.4562:

Greetings, time traveler! You’ve arrived in 2014!

Unfortunately, expansions in this day and age are a bygone thing of yore. We still pine for them due to nostalgia, but game publishers have learned that they can make substantially more money doing substantially less work and with substantially less risk by simply nickel and diming the market with DLC.

If it is an expansion you seek, I suggest you return to your original timeline. Here, we just read about them in history books.

Rift, WoW, SWTOR, and many others beg otherwise.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Our actions have no direct impact on how things will turn out. Nothing we could have done would have shaped Lion’s Arch differently, and they can’t because it’s a one time event. Destroying a cultural cornerstone like Lion’s Arch was a bad idea – especially when nothing is done to replace it with something both hopeful and monolithic. To have progression and change, you need to open up new zones quicker and more completely. I personally dislike sweeping world changes on a frequent basis – once every few years is ideal. The focus should not be on destruction, the focus absolutely needs to be on opening the world that’s already so beautifully crafted.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

There might be some overlap between “end game” and “playable content” that may be causing some confusion.

I’m surprised to see so many people against end game, but it appears that some people, including myself at times, tend to use that phrase as a replacement for “high level content.”

Do I want a gear treadmill? No.

Do I want to see some new content like additional dungeons, world bosses, and the like? Of course.

It doesn’t have to require level 80 before it is accessible, but most new content is added at that level (see: dry top) to give people a sense of progression.

I’m surmising that, when some people mention “end game”, it doesn’t mean “gear treadmill for incredibly powerful weapons/armor” but rather “workable content.” Regardless of what it drops or how difficult it is. Due to the connotation “end game” has picked up from other mmos, though, it makes the users cringe.

Then again, we’ve gotten “end game” additions with the living story, so I’m kind of sitting on the fence here.

I’d like something more difficult and permanent ( a dungeon would fit the bill, fractals maybe). Would that be considered “end game”?

What did anet mean when they said there would be no “end game”? Were they saying “no gear treadmills” or “we’re barely going to release expansion content at all?”

Southsun cove and Dry top give evidence against the latter. Personally I’d just like to see that (and maybe a few more fractals) at a more consistent, predictable rate.

Yeah, I want more character advancement and roleplaying personally. The base game is great for exploration – we just need more of it released.

Vayne.8563:

This game isn’t designed for people who want the “old style” end game content. I thought that was clear way before launch. This game is designed for people who don’t.

So the people who don’t like this game leave, but not all of them do. Many in my guild are playing 2 years and still enjoying the game.

And they’re not looking for more end game content, at least not the kind you seem to be talking about.

Keeping people in the game that want this game is what Anet is doing. Losing people from this game who want a completely different game is inevitable.

People aren’t asking for traditional endgame – just something. Seems to me that because some people don’t like raids, dungeons, and new zones means that they shouldn’t add them. There could be faction missions for the Orders, the Pact, your nation, etc.. There could be town games (those 30 activities promised at launch). There could be something more than the same content for 2 years and the scant amount of content seen in living story. One quest chains does not make an MMO. If they don’t want to add this kind of content, they shouldn’t call their game an MMO.

Clerigo.9475:

On the topic of “communicating with you”, it seems like this trend of “i dont care on what you have to say” amongst players seems to be of no end.

I appreciate the devs finally managing to have some time to come here and tell exactly what is ahead on the path to the future of GW2.

But what i would appreciate even more would be to see players trying to find a middle ground for the themes being discussed.

I see people saying “please anet dont deliver more dungeons, dont add mounts, stay the path”….i just dont get it and to me is just makes no sense at all.

Whats wrong with adding more dungeons for those players that want to do them?? lol, i mean, does it hurt your wvwvw gameplay?? does it hurt your spvp play?? will adding more dungeons affects your pet movement??

what in balthazars name is going on here???

Sometimes i feel like people..no no…not sometimes, people really dont know what they want!! Thats it!! Gamers are just confused all around!!

If the game starts decreasing in population, areas completly empty, wvwvwvw (see what i did there) and spvp deserted, ppl will start screaming at ANet for more population, and dont realize that maybe players are the main reason for that situation.

Whats wrong on giving a bit of everything to everyone??? I JUST DONT GET IT!!!!

Population is required for the continuous development of a game, unless the 50k ppl that will remain playing this game a few years from now ( i can mention other “revolutionary” games that are in that situation and others that no longer exist) are willing to spend crazy amounts of money every month to keep gw2 going.

A very “duh” way of keeping the popultion wealthy is to make sure everyone gets a bit of what they want in the game, without largely impacting the game (lyssa forbid if a 10 man large dungeons or raids were added in this game..i mean…pray to lyssa because that would ruin everything…)

If people want more meaningful dungeons to play and have fun with friends, why not deliver them??

If people want more fractals, why not??

If people wants more meaningful content in large cities and in the world map, to add some life and population to it, why in Mhenlo´s name not do it?

Man, if i was enjoying the game, doing dungeons and pve in general, and i saw a post in the forums from many people asking to deliver this or that to wvw or spvp, why in Glints forsaken fangs i would say “no” instead of, at least saying:

“hey thats not a bad idea at all, maybe if we did it like this, or in this way, or like that, we could find a way to deliver that to the game” <<<<————————— DO THIS!!!!! Geeezuzz!

Couldn’t agree more! It boggles my mind that some people don’t actually want an expansion and, even worse, think that term itself is up for debate.

All I want is to see more of the game as it was upon release – that’s what I bought, that’s what I was sold, that’s what I love.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Many in the community aren’t pining for new instances, ArenaNet. Please don’t feel you need to add that. Thanks from a community member. =)

And furthermore, it’s not just new instances I’m clamoring. I’d rather have new zones and bosses/event in them. I’d rather have an expansion of the Orders and their storylines. Just because someone says they want new instances doesn’t mean the want WoW-style raids. I want more instances and zones in the Guild Wars 2 flavor. That’s why I bought the game. They need to accept the fact that there are players who want organized, instanced group content. For those who don’t like that content, don’t play it.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Many in the community aren’t pining for new instances, ArenaNet. Please don’t feel you need to add that. Thanks from a community member. =)

Many are.

Mike O Brien.4613:

I know some are concerned about whether ArenaNet is communicating with you and listening and responding to your feedback. As you saw with yesterday’s announcement, we do. All of us at ArenaNet play the game with you, chat with you and read your forum posts, and work on the things that we think will most delight and entertain you.

We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: we don’t talk speculatively about future development. We don’t want to string you along. Creating fun is an uncertain business: sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t; sometimes we go back to the drawing board over and over before we get something right. If we make optimistic promises and then can’t deliver on them, everyone suffers. So when we attend a trade show or give an interview, we’re there to talk about what we’re getting ready to ship, not to speculate on what we might ship someday.

Don’t read that as meaning that we don’t want to talk with you about the longer-term roadmap. The intention of the CDI threads is to talk with you about the roadmap. We want to talk design philosophy with you and hear how you want to see the game evolve. When those discussions trigger development, we’ll work internally until we have something we’re proud of before we’ll announce it.

A lot of the questions I’ve seen posted this week are as simple as this: does ArenaNet have an agenda to never do something? That’s almost never the case, and if it is the case you deserve to know and we’ll make sure we get more clear. In general the simple truth is this: when we’re not currently working on something, it’s because we’re working on something else instead that we think is more important for the game and community.

Our developers post on these forums on a voluntary basis, and in addition to developers, we have a community team who can clarify and be the bridge between players and developers. They’re ready to engage you on these topics. And I know it’s hard for the community team to engage players across all the forums and sites where these questions are being discussed, so I’m going to support the team in consolidating and focusing as necessary, so that we can be clear to the community where you can go to get a response.

See you in-game,
Mike O’Brien

Thanks for the response. Some people are upset that the game has not substantially expanded in the 2 years it’s been out. One can’t help but compare them to other games – f2p and p2p games that add new zones, dungeons, instances, large player content, new battlegrounds. For instance, Wildstar has added more content in the few months it’s been out than you have in 2 years. Something’s wrong. Players have been telling you something is wrong since you announced the new vision in November 2013. Fact is, you haven’t listened until it was too late. My main gripe with the direction of this game is your company’s utter refusal to acknowledge MMO standards. You can’t in good conscience say the Living Story compares to the original content and even your competition. The Living Story is one quest every two weeks. One quest.

You want to do whats’ the most entertaining for the community? Come to the forums and post a poll. Be prepared to implement things you may not want, but the community does. Many in the community want new instances – raids, dungeons, etc. – that doesn’t they have to be like WoW or whatever. You need to add that.

This would be great if you could have control over how much information and what kind of information is displayed in it.

Zacchary.6183:

I’ll be fine with this game having mounts, so long as:

1.) They DO NOT provide any form of boost.

and 2.) I have a toggle option to hide them all.

This sounds entirely reasonable.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Destai.9603:

Hjorje.9453:

Honestly this is a post I thought about doing myself. Every week there is three or four new threads talking about needing mounts in game. We don’t need them. It would be just like Farming Flats.5370 said, slow the kitten servers down. Do people not realize this. Is it that hard to understand.

So because they can’t update their technology, we shouldn’t have a feature that many have been clamoring for?

This has nothing to do with updating technology, slow servers or “many” players clamoring for a feature. Mounts are absolutely unnecissary in the game and against GW lore since lore existed.

Period.

FULL STOP.

Nope. Not stopping. They keep deeming anything resembling MMORPG standards UNNECESSARY. There’s a lot of things are that unnecessary – like decorative backpacks – but people get them. Even if it were cosmetic, mounts would be a great addition. And exactly which lore is it against? Link me.

I suppose that may be why humans lost to the Charr, they couldn’t ride a horse into battle. Meanwhile, Charr have tanks in their capital. That’s lore driven. By your logic, it’d be more okay to add that than a horse.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I have a warrior… I find it very boring to play. Not because the warrior does a lot of damage and trivializes encounters more thoroughly than other classes, but because of the class mechanics.

Even with my main (engi) I didn’t go for one of the DPS-optimized builds. I’ve tried out many things, and I’m happy with my build.

DPS is not my top priority.

I created a warrior because I thought I wanted to have a dungeon runner, but I too found it boring. I didn’t really connect with any of the skills.

Many reasons, character theme, skill set, challenges – it’s not always about min maxing. I play a Guardian main because I love how the class feels. I play a Ranger out of tradition. I still manage to get some good roleplaying out of it. That’s what the game is about for me.

Xar.6185:

They really should just sticky a thread about

• Mounts
• Duels
• Cantha
• Elona
• New Race
• New Class
• New Legendarys
• Precursors (Crafting & Scavenger Hunt)
• Guild Vs Guild
• Guild Halls
• Player Housing

After that just merge all the threads that pop up about those topics into the corresponding one or delete the new thread while giving the “A discussion already exists about <InsertTopicHere> post your thoughts / concerns here <ProvideLink>”

A few of those were promised shortly after launch and have all be forgotten about. Mounts and duels are standard for the genre, with duels being great for practice. You could even have those in the non-existent Guild Halls! As for Cantha, Elona – yes, some of us actually to explore more of Tyria than one tiny corridor of a zone.

Maybe they could give us an update on these things.

Hjorje.9453:

Honestly this is a post I thought about doing myself. Every week there is three or four new threads talking about needing mounts in game. We don’t need them. It would be just like Farming Flats.5370 said, slow the kitten servers down. Do people not realize this. Is it that hard to understand.

So because they can’t update their technology, we shouldn’t have a feature that many have been clamoring for?

Xenon.4537:

I am just really really happy that you tried Wildstar first, hated it, and then came to GW2 and loved it. That just made my day. I’m sick to death hearing about Wowstar, and spiteful because many of my friends quit GW2 to play it.

My friends didn’t stay very long in Wowstar though, so don’t read in to that. They hopped to the next shiny game less than a month later.

I think Guild Wars 2 has a way better combat system, even without the trinity. I tried it the first month, then logged back onto GW2. This game really has a great UI without all the flash and distraction that Wildstar has.

laverinth.5126:

Though I took a break for a few months, I’ve been a fan of GW2 since launch. (I didn’t even stop playing because I was bored of it.) The problem is, as much as I love it, I can’t find one character to stick with.

I want one to focus on, to make ascended gear for, multiple sets, you know. One to master. I just can’t pick a class and stick with it. It’s like there’s something about every class that bothers me. But the rest of the game is so great that it’s frustrating.

I messed around on Wildstar a bit. Can’t really play it to end game because I can’t do raiding, but the thing is I knew exactly what race and class I wanted to play. Straight off. No problems. It was a spellslinger. I like ranged classes and I like handguns.

So I thought, what can I do in GW2 that would be close to that? A P/P thief would be fun if it was actually viable for anything. P/P engineer works in pvp situations, but isn’t as great in pve without kits. Might still lean toward it, but you know.

I have an 80 in every class but ranger and mesmer. The mesmer playstyle just isn’t for me, and I don’t want a class where I have to have a pet out all the time. (It’s not even that ranger isn’t fun. I have one that’s lvl 67, but the pet just bothers me.) Maybe I’m incredibly picky, but I need to be happy with my main choice, right? It just seems like no matter what I try, something bothers me.

A lot of it probably has to do with how much I hate the meta builds. They make me angry. I don’t like being pigeonholed into a certain few specs, and this seems to be the case in pve – save maybe for fractals. If I was better at pvp I would switch my focus. Maybe I should anyway, though I really like the pve storyline content. And maybe it doesn’t even matter, since I don’t focus too heavily on dungeon runs. I should just make a set for them and switch everything off when I need to. No big deal.

Anyway, I’m just frustrated. Looking for someone else who has similar issues, maybe.

When I first started, I was an altoholic. The Guardian was my main focus until I maxed him out and then I floated around on my alts for a while. I’m really guilty of having class envy – where I’ll make a character because I like how they look or how their skills look/function. My thought is pick one or two guys that round out pretty well. Mesmer is actually a good bet for that because they are pretty favorable in instances and JPs, but if that’s not your thing, Guardians make a great main character as well.

Boneheart.3561:

Destai.9603:

My recommendation is approach this game casually.

Proofread and condensed the advice for you, most of that was pretty confusing and incorrect.

Gee, thanks for wasting your time removing my actually valid concerns about the game.

And what exactly is incorrect? Does this game have roleplaying? No. Do the choices you make during character creation matter through out the entire game? No. Does the choice of your Order matter beyond the few missions you have with them? No. Can a profession specialization with any amount of group efficacy? No. If I went full heal on my guardian, I’d be useless to some groups.

This game has its strength, and the reasons I play it. It’s a good casual game, but my warning is that you can’t expect it to be as deep as WoW or EQ2 in a traditional sense. That’s a perfectly valid concern. Have some people gotten thousands of hours out of the game? Sure have. What they’ve done for that long escapes me, as I’ve teetered off at 700.

chemiclord.3978:

Destai.9603:

4. Raiding. Again, a feature ArenaNet consciously decided wasn’t a good idea (hint, they were wrong). The only content you’ll find for large groups of players are the open world bosses, which usually get downed in a matter of minutes. Tequatl is an exception to that.

I do want to comment on this.

Believe me, I enjoyed WoW’s raid endgame (actually spent time with a top 100 raiding guild during Burning Crusade), but I held no delusions whatsoever that the vast overwhelming majority of WoW’s player base thought it was worth their time. (I remember something like 2% of the players ever got past Kalecgos in Sunwell Plateau).

The main reason we saw the “Looking for Raid” difficulty in Cataclysm was for that very inclusiveness that you snidely demean Arena.net catering to. Raid instances are as a rule a lot of resources for very little player return… so I can understand why a developer wouldn’t want to focus on it.

Now, that said… I don’t think Arena.net’s open world bosses are the answer either for those who want larger-scale, complex experiences, but… I can understand why Arena.net is trying to avoid raid instances.

LFR is inclusivity done right. It allows a personalized environment, where lag can’t destroy a group and people don’t have to deal with competing with hundreds of players. On top of that, it allows for organization and group coordination. The cool downs on the world bosses are prohibitive because you’re bound by the timing of the server.

My problem is the fact that very little group content exists beyond zerging the open world. This stems from the fact that ArenaNet is outright ignoring standards of the genre and creating a hollow game. I’m not saying raids in this game should be exactly as they are in WoW; they can keep the non-gating ideal, but allow for larger planned groups of people.

Braxton.3926:

Hi all,

I’m from the world of EverQuest 2 and a little bit of World of Warcraft.

Can someone explain to me the similarities and differences between those MMO’s and GW2?

Might someone be able to explain exactly what you do in GW2 and how?

When I tried it last it seemed like all you do is get the POI’s and find stuff on the map, and then find randomly located NPC’s who may or may not give you things to do.

I’m used to the type of questing system where you know a NPC will be around a certain area, they will give you a specific quest, you finish, you return it.

Can someone explain in detail how all this works in GW2?

Thanks.

First things – do not expect the depth of those games in this. It’s simply not here.

With that being said, there’s still plenty to do.

First and foremost, you begin by leveling. Each of the vanilla zones have loads of content, and map completion in each zone will net you a lot of experience and you’ll get to see as much of the game as possible. Dungeons can also round out your experience. At the minimum, you should complete each path once so as to experience the whole of the story. Think of events and hearts as quests in this game.

Next, there’s crafting. It’s a well designed but somewhat irrelevant until you get them to max. Cooking can be useful, but in my time I’ve very rarely used any cooking ingredients. I don’t feel like they make a huge difference.

There’s also jumping puzzles, which are cool areas that offer some reference (vaguely, at times) to some bit of lore. I suggest doing these as you clear a zone.

Once you’ve reached max level, there’s a few more options to you. First is event and champion farming. This will get you lots of gold and karma. There’s also fractals, which are longer and harder versions of dungeons for the raiders at heart.

There’s also PvP, but I can’t speak much to that.

Having played both of those games (still playing WoW), I can say I miss these things.

1. Reputation. There’s a load of opportunities for this in the game, but they haven’t felt the need to implement it.
2. Grouping tools. We have a LFG tool, but it’s nowhere as robust as WoW’s.
3. Roleplaying. The lore is very shallow at this point, especially in comparison to EQ2 and WoW. You have emotes, but there really isn’t a sense you can dig too deeply in this game. For instance you would think the deity choice you make as a human would somehow matter like the one you made in EQ2. Nope. Those choices are a waste of time because ArenaNet is on the inclusiveness bandwagon and wiping out all of the glory that RPGs actually have.
4. Raiding. Again, a feature ArenaNet consciously decided wasn’t a good idea (hint, they were wrong). The only content you’ll find for large groups of players are the open world bosses, which usually get downed in a matter of minutes. Tequatl is an exception to that.
5. Class specialization. This is open for debate, but classes can all heal, tank, etc. Some are marginally better at it, but the game is chaotic when it comes to group play.
6. Mounts. Again, another feature that would add depth and play customization that’s been thrown out.

My recommendation is approach this game casually. It’s fun, but it’s not deep IMO.

Angel McCoy.1832:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Angel McCoy.1832:

We felt it was important to allow you to customize your PC and in doing so, we gave up some of the opportunity to customize the story to every single PC in the game in every single moment of the game. Instead, we try to bring you moments where you are singled out with customized text in conversations (which you may not even always notice because you don’t see the other options).

Okay, this downright sounds contradictory to me. You want to allow customization to the PCs, but part of that is customizing the story. And you give the establishment for these via the biography options (and later choices)! You have shown you can do these.

All I meant above is that we have a limited amount of content we can make each time. We have a huge number of variables for characters. There is absolutely no way we could put in a special dialogue tree for every possible character combination.

The Living World takes you from where the Personal Story dropped you off and carries you forward through your story. The story.

With the Living World, we’re making a story that everyone can enjoy. You don’t have to be a specific race to play certain content anymore, for example. The customization comes in the personalized dialogue you get when it makes sense to the story.

For example, if it makes sense for an asura to have special dialogue just for them, we do that. If you’re talking to a Priory scholar and you’re a member of the Durmand Priory, you may get a special greeting or additional information that others don’t get. And so on.

Wow, a special greeting, how deep! Essentially what you’re saying is that all the player’s choices are irrelevant so everyone can enjoy it. How inclusive. And boring. If you guys can’t make the whole world seem living, like the threat of the 5 other Elder Dragons whose leiutenants are napping, then why not go a more traditional route? You guys had such a strong start now it seems like the teams are just juggling to release this living story stuff rather than giving players actually meaningful content where their choices are preferences matter.

This game is nothing like WoW – I don’t get at all where that idea comes from. World of Warcraft has well defined class roles, loads of group content (that’s mostly instanced), an open world unrestricted by loading screens, and content that requires dedication and raiding to advance this game doesn’t have the depth of WoW. On the other hand, GW2’s combat is far more reactive and interactive. Guild Wars 2 has plenty of drop in, drop out content. That’s fun, for a while. I’d rather have quests for factions, raids, mounts, and quests. Both games are great, but they’re incredibly far apart in implementation and philosophy.