Guild Wars 2

+1 on Circa Survive!

Makes some very good points.

Just scrolling through the Auctions for lvl 80 hammers and previewing them. They all look so plain, tiny and dull in my Char’s hands.

Also why dont we have any tower shields? All the shields in this game are small bucklers or little triangle things. I want an epic shield that looks heavy and takes a man to wield.

I had an image of my warrior in my mind. Now it’s shattered and I will forever look like an oaf with toys.

Tolmos.8395:

Dgenerate.1948:

So… Has the game gotten any better? It was pretty bad when I left. Way too casual and unrewarding. How’s the playerbase? I haven’t played since about 2-3 months out of release.

If by “casual and unrewarding” you mean “Not like WoW, lacking in raids and not based on vertical gear progression”, then the answer is that the game is still GW2 and has not become WoW yet. Sorry.

As for the playerbase- larger servers are pretty packed. I haven’t seem what the smaller ones look like but Tarnished Coast has a lot of zones that still push me into overflow.

Working towards better gear is a solid incentive for a player to keep wanting to play a game. It’s a big part of what made WoW, WoW. Not trying to make this a GW VS WoW discussion, but wanted to point that out.

To me GW2 was trying to sell an experience, which although beautiful, does not create enough interest for extremely competitive-minded players like me. Honestly when I played GW2, I got the same feeling I got when I play single player RPGs. I don’t know how to explain it, but I guess I liked the feeling of working towards being recognized for my efforts.

Magnetron.5823:

There are like 5 people playing right now, its very hard to do a dungeon.

So it’s pretty much a ghost town compared to release?

So… Has the game gotten any better? It was pretty bad when I left. Way too casual and unrewarding. How’s the playerbase? I haven’t played since about 2-3 months out of release.

Vynestra.8279:

Hi,
I just bought the game and downloading now. I was hoping leveling would take time and deliver lots of fun.
Is the game made to level fast (Like umm….WoW?) I hope not. :-)

I’d cancel and ask for a refund from your CC company.

My friends have quit, I have quit, and last night I saw only 2 people logged on in my guild of ~100 people. I give this game 1 month before it’s pretty much dead.

I’ve said this once, and I’ll say it again. I bet there will be a major decrease of active players in a month or so. But who cares? They got our money right?

This game is for the carebear gamer who wants everything handed to them. I’m not sure what it is, but for some reason gaming companies are starting to think gamers want “equality” and “sameness”, instead of challenge and reward.

Chiatroll.7109:

You can’t compare the content at launch of a new game to the amount of content for a game with 3-5 expansions and have it look favorable.

/facepalm

We aren’t. We are expressing how we feel about GW2, but Anet fanboys are “A=A” when it comes to bringing up anything that criticizes GW2.

Dusk, not once did I mention in this thread do I want this game to be like WoW. Your fanboy attitude makes you seem like an extremely ignorant idiot. I did however have high expectations that this game would bring the genre one step further, but instead I feel like although Anet did a good job in some aspects, they did extremely poorly in some of the most important aspects. Do I expect them to be able to do some extreme change? No. But I do hope they take into account what people are saying here, and maybe mold the game to eventually be something more than half-decent. There will never be a “perfect game”, but I think you will find that you will soon become the minority very shortly if things remain the way they are.

Okay now I need to just laugh. “Satisfying gameplay”? Really? Obviously not. Good games dont thrive off of just “satisfying gameplay”.

All the complaints of that nature popping up here are from idiots who walked into this game thinking it would be WoW 2. I don’t feel any sympathy for those kids whatsoever.

Ah so they should have expected less.

Killing world bosses and completing dungeons aren’t doing the job of making players feel the “sense of accomplishment” either. Shouldn’t be hard to see that with all the complaints popping up here.

DusK.3849:

Lance Coolee.9480:

I’m a fairly casual player

Knew this was a lie when you continued

Lance Coolee.9480:

and have already completed my story, leveled one craft to 400 and have gotten 100% map completion.

This requires several hundred hours of gameplay, at least 250 but likely over 300, so given that the game’s only been out for 27 days, getting to where you are now would require over 9 hours per day, or three times as much as the average MMO player spends on an MMO (Daedalus Project). That’s far from casual.

Lance Coolee.9480:

There are just not enough calls for action in the endgame.

When playing through, the next steps were logical, you progress from one heart or DE to the next until you’ve enjoyed that content (or outleveled it) and moved on. The whole while you actively kept an eye out for those “epic DEs” that meant something really cool and rewarding was about to happen.

However, once you hit 80, the gameplay experience drastically takes a turn for the worst.

First, there’s no next logical step to follow when attempting to find where the action’s at. What I would expect to be rewarding end game content would be any of the epic dynamic events on Orr (Cathedrals come to mind), any of the Dragon events (Jormag, The Shatterer, Tequatl) or any of the explorable dungeon runs.

The action’s all over the place. You can’t go anywhere without some nearby event telling you what’s up.

Lance Coolee.9480:

Second, the cost to navigate the map is astronomical when the destination isn’t yet known. It’s easy to validate the cost of waypoints at 80 when the user knows where they are going, but when we’re not really sure what’s going on across the map, it’s easy to drop 10s and get nothing in return.

So stop being anti-social and ask in /map what’s going on.

Lance Coolee.9480:

And then there’s the issue with LFG and dungeons. I’ve read a few topics on the subject (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Dungeon-Finder-Sorely-Needed/first#post203347 seems to be the most responded one by ANet), and all I can say is this: I am a User Experience developer and if there is one thing I’ve learned in my career it is that you simply cannot force a user to use a tool, regardless of how well thought out you think it is; simply put, it either works or it doesn’t. Right now, the LFG tool DOES NOT WORK for what the audience wants it to do. We want something that connects us to content.

I can agree with you there, an LFG system would be great.

But aside from all of that, you’ve failed to mention how endgame is a “boring standstill.” I mean, you just blasted through the content about three times as fast as moderately dedicated players. Considering that the game launched with several hundred hours of stuff to do, what more could you want?

So you are saying that he’s not a casual player. Are you saying that this game is not for hardcore players and caters to ultra-casual players? I think at this point we can fairly say that this game, is truly revolutionary in the sense that it purposely gives you less content, replay-ability, or sense of accomplishment than any MMO on the market.

It’s kinda sad huh?

I give this game one month before we see a massive drop in the player-base.

Lol.

Human, transgender, jeweler/tailor

Play the game as an Adventure game with some multi player aspects. Don’t expect too much, even right now you are too excited. Go into it with a mediocre mindset and never expect to excel at anything nor be bad at anything. Don’t expect to stand out, everything about the game is about blending in.

How is GW2 not a grind? Oh I see, finally a game where you can experience everything with little effort. Mediocre Wars 2

Welcome to Fun at First but then Surprisingly Boring Wars 2

Where you expect to a lot, but end up getting very little.

From what I’ve been told over and over on this forum, don’t make gear a priority. This game isn’t about gear, but the “experience”… lol I know right?

Yup. And casual = boring. This game rewards the casual and punishes the dedicated players.

You dont get it. For most people complaining, it’s the core mechanics/gameplay that is lacking, not some small simple bugs. We are talking about major design flaws, which in it’s current state only a few people actually enjoy for an extended period of time.

I agree. People who like “progression” wont like GW2. The game is simply unrewarding, which is fine for the ultra-casual fans who support the game.

JazzyJay.1367:

Dgenerate.1948:

JazzyJay.1367:

JDaddy.2658:

If you are calling this the best MMO with only 4 weeks of playing it, you are delusional, this game is nothing new, its Warhammer+Diablo sugar coated with nice graphics, WoW is and forever will be the best MMO in the market, 8 years and running baby!

What makes WoW the best? Certainly 8 years can’t have anything to do with it. Ultima Online has been online now for 16 years. Everquest has been alive now for over 13 years.

Forever is a long time. WoW will be forgotten some day.

Yet none of those retained the playerbase of WoW. Not to mention made a consistent millions of active players pay $15/m for it.

WoW won’t retain that player base forever either. Those mmorpgs I mentioned were at the forefront and revolutionized the genre which WoW has added too. Mmorpgs just weren’t as popular back then. Hell, internet wasn’t as widely available back then. Technology changed and WoW took advantage of newer technology at the right time. In my opinion a good deal of WoW’s success was due to timing. Once people are invested, they don’t want to give it up.

I always joke with one of my gaming friends that I am going to delete my WoW characters and be done with it. I haven’t done it yet, but it is very tempting to me… Not because of Guild Wars 2, but just because I will be acknowledging that I am done forever. I just don’t think I can ever enjoy it again.

/facepalm

Sava.2381:

Dgenerate.1948:

Amnon.4769:

Another person who bought a game he knew nothing about. Is it such an alien concept that GW2 is not a game based around loot rewards? If that’s what you’re looking for, then go back to WoW.

Then what is the point of Anet making an MMO? Since this game isnt based around loot rewards, why didnt they just save themselves the money on production and just make an arena based game? Your answer makes no sense. People play MMO’s for LOOT.

You think everyone want to play a game ONLY to collect better loot endlessly? No. We finally have ONE GAME that is not based around getting endlessly better loot, against all the loot hoarding games that favours no-life life style. One game. Is that so bad? There’s a TON of loot centric games for you to choose from.

You dont seem to fully realize the level scaling either. With the level scaling we avoid the problem of EVERY other themepark mmorpg: Most of the world becomes useless after you level past it. Now you can USE the whole world after getting to max level because it scales, it’s great!

Also, I LOVE the sPvP BECAUSE it’s an even playing field. No more do I have to feel worse player just because I dont have time and will to farm gear all day long every day. What’s the point of PvP anyway if your gear just does the work? Is it not nice to know that it was actually you who won that fight and not your epic gear?

Cant we have this one game where everything is not more of the same? Please.

Hi, you obviously didnt read the entire thread so, I’ll forgive you. Look ~10 posts before this and you’ll see I have already acknowledge all the points you go over, thanks.

JazzyJay.1367:

Dgenerate.1948:

JazzyJay.1367:

JDaddy.2658:

GW2 is fun and all but i doubt its ever going to reach the amount of people WoW has. WoW is better in every aspect, this game requires very little skill to be good.

Like wow requires skill? lol

More or less the same amount of skill this game requires, just in different aspects.

Just curious, honestly, what level are you currently in this game?

The comment above implied that WoW requires skill. Very little in my opinion. It bores the hell out of me. I feel like at least with this game, mobility matters. Skill can change the outcome.

32 and 30 on an alt. What difference does it make? It will play the same at higher level. I am in no hurry to hit the top, because once I do, I won’t play much. Are you judging me based on my level? Lol

I was asking to see how much you have experienced the game. And how did mobility not matter in WoW? I’ve done many raids and dungeons where you need to to dodge, LoS, etc. in order to do well in a fight. The new things in GW2 gets old really fast, just wait a couple more levels and you might find yourself in the state of “I wont play much” much faster than you think.

What I have been told by the GW fanboys is that this game isnt about loot. It’s about “exploring” and “adventure” and “the experience”. Let’s just face it, this game is a flop and probably only good for the people who like Adventure RPG games like Oblivion, but with a multiplayer aspect.

JazzyJay.1367:

JDaddy.2658:

GW2 is fun and all but i doubt its ever going to reach the amount of people WoW has. WoW is better in every aspect, this game requires very little skill to be good.

Like wow requires skill? lol

More or less the same amount of skill this game requires, just in different aspects.

Just curious, honestly, what level are you currently in this game?

JazzyJay.1367:

JDaddy.2658:

If you are calling this the best MMO with only 4 weeks of playing it, you are delusional, this game is nothing new, its Warhammer+Diablo sugar coated with nice graphics, WoW is and forever will be the best MMO in the market, 8 years and running baby!

What makes WoW the best? Certainly 8 years can’t have anything to do with it. Ultima Online has been online now for 16 years. Everquest has been alive now for over 13 years.

Forever is a long time. WoW will be forgotten some day.

Yet none of those retained the playerbase of WoW. Not to mention made a consistent millions of active players pay $15/m for it.

Best MMO? Nah. This game has some cool features and gimmicks, but I am already bored. I’m no WoW fanboy, havent played in a couple years, but that game is by far superior. Anyone who argues is a potato?

I know right? Makes little sense.

Prepare to get flamed by GW Fanboys saying you’ve been pre-programmed by WoW to thinking you should be able to swing with two weapons.

His post wasn’t straightforward… he doesn’t explain why he wont be continuing to play. At least I went through the trouble of explaining why I wont be sticking with the game… he just leaves it up in the air…

Also, I want to thank the people who have constructively explained this game’s philosophy to me. I will now look at this game from a different viewpoint and whether I like it or not is not important. I don’t see myself playing much longer, it’s just not for me. It’s all a little too bland for me.

I was wondering why I was being called a “kitten” for my honest opinion.

Amadeus.5687:

Dgenerate.1948:

In the end I think this game is a little confused as to what it really wants to be. It doesn’t accelerate at any aspect and I’m finding it hard to find motivation to keep playing once I’ve done everything once.

I think, I will call what this games does, is heading the right direction of what a really good MMORPG should be, they are taking the very first small steps in changing the genre in a new direction. I actually agree with you, there is no need for level. There is a lot of things that would need to be implanted for that to work of cause. But I really do honestly believe that the sPvP system is an perfect beginning of what will be the standard for PvP in MMORPG’s. Now they just need to take that step and implant it even more in WvsW and out in the open PvE world. Creating a game where everyone play’s on equal ground, with more fun and hard challenges to compete in.

But it is heading the right way, trying to create a world (that still need works) but a world non the less where the force that drives players to play is the fun of the game, not a carrot hanging down from the sky saying: “If you do this, you will have this” and then send you of doing the same thing as yesterday, to get the same carrot (Looking at you daily dungeon in other MMORPG’s!!)

I think the problem with sPvP and maybe one day sWvW, is that although PvP in this game is different, it’s not different enough. It all feels the same, but on a much more mediocre level. It’s fun for a little while, but you don’t really get anything to show for it. And no, it doesn’t have to be gear.

Freohr.7905:

I wonder if we’ll ever see a thread in which people can disagree without calling each other “fanboys” or “wow zombies”. Probably not.

Anyway, I agree that there is probably a lot of people coming to GW2 with a WoW-mindset and, yes, this mindset should be left at the door because this game isn’t World of Warcraft or any of the assorted WoW-clones. Nonetheless, there seems to be a clique on these forums that derides anyone that even remotely criticizes ArenaNet over its reward policy or thinks differently to them.

This game isn’t GW1. GW1 was far more of a niche game than this. GW2 already has a massive amount of box sales and players. Anyone that actually thinks nerfing the rewards across the board was a good idea is the sort of person who I can’t take seriously. Like it or not but a large demographic of the MMO community likes rewards. A lot. Assuming that this is a mindset that is entirely Blizzard’s fault is infantile. People like to obtain things, that’s basic human nature. I would venture to say that those that don’t care about rewards are very much in the minority. It’s fine for these people to say “go back to WoW” but I assure you even if this is something some players want, ArenaNet and NCSoft certainly don’t want it to happen.

I saw a screenshot on these boards where someone who had been doing DE-chains had ended up getting something ridiculous like 31XP. Who cares if they want to farm DE’s endlessly? It’s their game. They enjoy it. Who cares! Why is this an issue? Why are people childishly ranting over it and calling each other names? Personally it’s not my thing but I don’t see why ArenaNet should nerf the rewards so hard that doing it becomes pointless. If the monetary rewards were too high in comparison to doing other things then fine, they needed to be toned down, but I don’t get these XP nerfs, or monetary nerfs in dungeons that are so harsh that people wanting to farm the same path can’t even pay for their repairs (if true). No, I’m not supporting easy-mode 20 minute runs of Cathedral of Flames or other dungeons. Certainly, make the dungeons harder! But if someone likes one path more than another or one is minimally easier than another and they want to farm it then why is it an issue? ArenaNet is never going to be able to balance all the dungeons paths so that they are of equal difficulty. And this punishing of anyone who finds the easiest route and uses it seems draconian.

Another thing I don’t get is the nerfs to Story modes. I always sort of thought of Story modes as the easy playthrough of a dungeon and explorable as, let’s say for arguments sake, the “heroic” version. Why should people be penalised for repeating story mode? I’ve heard they get no rewards now whatsoever if they repeat them. Or at least nothing worth mentioning. Perhaps they just aren’t good enough to do explorable or maybe they just don’t want to. That’s fine and of course the rewards for explorable mode should be far greater, but I don’t understand ArenaNet’s reasoning in just nerfing any rewards from the dungeon into the ground because people aren’t conforming to what the company wants them to do. Exerting this amount of control over the playerbase isn’t going to be taken well.

There are some players out there that can farm the same dungeon over and over with a long-term goal. Even if they don’t get rewarded per dungeon, they know that eventually they are going to get an awesome set of armor. Most people don’t work like that though.

Maybe some poster out there can persuade me and others out there that may think the same way as I that these changes are actually a good thing. I’m always willing to listen to a rational argument. Trolls and the customary insults of “omg go back to wow you noob” will be ignored however.

Great post.

From what people are telling me in my thread, this game isn’t about rewards or having gear/progression. It’s about experiencing the game. It’s pretty much just an Adventure game disguised as an MMO.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/GW2-my-personal-opinion/page/3#post189554

Good morning

Looks like the thread title was changed by a mod or whoever, which is fine since they are my opinions.

I am glad to see there is much discussion going on. Anti kid, I think you are pretty much right when it comes to team play, zerging and strength by numbers seems to be the core to group events.

From reading over the posts from members who seem to understand where Anet is coming from, I have come to the conclusion that this game is more of an adventure game with an MMO feel to it, it’s a game for Oblivion players who want a multi player experience.

My next question then is why have a leveling mechanic at all? They could have come up with some more clever mechanic to restrict you from moving on to new areas or fighting things that would be too difficult for you to take on.

In the end I think this game is a little confused as to what it really wants to be. It doesn’t accelerate at any aspect and I’m finding it hard to find motivation to keep playing once I’ve done everything once.

DusK.3849:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/guild-wars-2

Inb4 “Hurr durr, that’s only a random sample of > 500 players, there’s no way that could present an accurate projection of overall approval of this game”

Hell, I even rated the game as great when I first bought it and started playing. Now after playing for a couple weeks, I still love some things about it, but I’d be very careful about recommending the game to anyone looking for a rewarding game.

DusK.3849:

Dgenerate.1948:

Five more days, most of them will be gone anyway.

And you will likely see a steady decline in numbers over the next couple of months if Anet doesn’t keep their playerbase happy.

What you fail to realize is that their playerbase is happy, because a vast majority of their playerbase consists of people that bought the game knowing what it was.

The whiners are a vocal minority who came to GW2 thinking it would be WoW without the sub fee, only to be shocked that an MMO can be different too.

Where do you get these numbers? I see A LOT of people complaining. Everyone has things they like about the game, but there are plenty of things people DISLIKE, and those usually have to do with the overall gameplay.

Five more days, most of them will be gone anyway.

And you will likely see a steady decline in numbers over the next couple of months if Anet doesn’t keep their playerbase happy. I don’t expect them to make any huge changes, but something definitely needs to be done.

I think Anet will be reading these posts. And they will be taking into account what we say to some degree.

Eh, i’d hardly call it teamwork. More so a “common goal” in which many players partake in. Teamwork in this game rarely goes past healing someone when they are down.

Elysian Rose.5283:

Dgenerate.1948:

These are the answers I wanted. Thank you.

In my eyes, this game will just be one of those “play once all the way through” games. Guess this game wasn’t for me after all.

We can hold out hope for a huge patch, can’t we?

I’ll still keep the game and check in every so often. There is still some fun to be had.

These are the answers I wanted (This includes Carpara and Dusk). Thank you.

In my eyes, this game will just be one of those “play once all the way through” games. Guess this game wasn’t for me after all.

Duckzor.4327:

Uh. No. Last thing I want is another gearbased battlegrounds area.

WoW is over there —>

Why the MMO aspect to the game then? Much easier to have just an Arena based game, obviously sPvP is all you guys who are replying care about.

evilbottom.2186:

So basically you wanted a trinity, you wanted loot to make you powerful in lower leveled areas, and you don’t like a balanced PvP.

Tell me, why exactly did you buy this game? Did you even read a single article on it beforehand?

Again, why make an MMO if in the end, the gear you earn makes little difference? Would have been much easier to just make an Arena game.

Amnon.4769:

Another person who bought a game he knew nothing about. Is it such an alien concept that GW2 is not a game based around loot rewards? If that’s what you’re looking for, then go back to WoW.

Then what is the point of Anet making an MMO? Since this game isnt based around loot rewards, why didnt they just save themselves the money on production and just make an arena based game? Your answer makes no sense. People play MMO’s for LOOT.

Sin.8174:

Yawn

Anything else?

You gonna just troll? How about explaining your yawn?

Anet, what have you done? This game has some great things about it, but A LOT of terrible things about it.

I’ll start with what I like:

Tasks – These are fun! I love em.
Map events – These are also great!
Graphics: Beautiful!

Okay now on to the bad:

The “roleless”, “jack of all trades” play style that you have come up with is… just boring. Sure there will be some people who say, “some professions can do things better than other professions” or “then you’re doing it wrong”, but in the end, there are no dedicated roles which just makes the gameplay boring, and not promote much teamwork.

This whole game is just everyone attack attack attack attack attack attack (throw in a couple dodges and heals/purges). This pretty much applies to anything where there is organized group play (WvW, sPvP, Dungeons).

Gear and level equalization. This blows. The fact that you equalize EVERYTHING from level to gear, just plain sucks. There is very little reward to “working hard” to earn gear when the benefits you gain from it wherever you go are just watered down. I am sure there are many like myself who would love to use our gear to it’s actual advantages (especially in PvP), rather than get killed by a bunch of lower level players or mobs.

Where are our traditional “battle grounds”? Keep the sPvP maps, but I want to use the gear I EARNED on these maps, not some hand-outs like in sPvP. sPvP is fine, for the people who like that kind of stuff, but for someone who believes in using the gear he has earned, it’s not.

In the end, this game has let me down. It has pretty much watered down every aspect of the feeling of earning something, and catered to lazy, casual players. Although I have long ago stopped playing WoW for similar reasons, I am just using it as a comparison, at least they were able to keep me from getting bored much longer than this game.