Guild Wars 2

What a disappointment. I was hoping the update would bring something, but we got nothing. It’s hard to believe how swiftly a good game was destroyed by poor design decisions.

But, I’m done hoping things will get better. I’ve accepted that anet doesn’t care about their players and the current development team isn’t interested in keeping the vision of this game alive. I’m just hoping they at least still read these forums, because I want them to know they lost yet another customer. I’m not going to spend a single cent on this game again or ever purchase another game they make.

I only wish I knew who was actually responsible for this disaster so I could avoid wasting money on any other games that they’re involved with.

I’m glad that attempts at fixing the trait system are moving forward, but I can’t help but feel that the changes in the May 20th patch are ultimately too little, too late.

Personally, I think that if the changes to improve trait acquisition had been combined with fixes to the level distribution of trait points or another major change then I’d be feel like things are moving in the right direction. As it stands right now, it seems like anet is going with the minimum possible to appease the players. Of course, it’s possible more changes are coming and I suppose I could interpret the recent patch as the first of many to come, but then why haven’t the plans to fix these issues been communicated? The trait system, and character progression by extension, has been fundamentally broken and needs major fixes, not minor tweaks.

While I’d love to see a major fix rolled out right away or even a rollback to the previous system, I don’t actually expect that to happen. I understand these things take time. What I don’t understand is the lack of communication. Maybe I just missed it, but I haven’t seen any anet replies in the forums or blog posts to the issues raised in this thread, and sure if there was any official communication then someone here would be talking about it.

A lot of people, including myself, have already talked about the issues with the trait changes in this thread. But, I don’t feel like I’ve fully expressed how upsetting this change really is for me. So, for whatever it’s worth, here goes.

When I first got GW2, not too long before the April 15th patch dropped, I fell in love with the game. The heart system and exploration is wonderful. I love the events and joining random people to complete them (an aspect of the game which the megaservers hurt more than help IMO). Everything about the game was accessible and fun. I even enjoy WvW even though I’m usually strictly a PvE player in most MMOs.

I always felt that the character progression, which is easily my favorite aspect of RPGs, was lacking. But, that was easy to overlook with so many other great aspects of the game and for the most part the trait system was enough to hold the progression together.

The trait changes, for reasons already explained in this thread, completely broke the character progression. It felt like an assault against my enjoyment of the game. Luckily, I had some low level characters grandfathered in so I didn’t have to hunt for traits, but even still, leveling up is almost unenjoyable now.

I’ve been patient. I’ve tried to play with the new trait system. But it’s doesn’t work and my patience is running out. I really want to wait for this to be fixed and continue enjoying the game, but I’m getting to the point where I’m ready to just be done. And frankly, after this experience I’m starting to think I’m almost ready to be done with any NCSoft games. Which is a shame since I was looking forward to trying upcoming games, but not if those games are going to have the same lack of direction and poor implementations we’re seeing right now.

While I’m ranting, let me ask the question that’s been on my mind: why hasn’t anyone been fired over this? I know that would sure make me feel better even if it doesn’t actually fix the problems. Just to clarify – I’m not suggesting that anet should find a scapegoat. But, honestly, if this trait system was someone’s “brainchild” then that someone should not be working on this game anymore.

I know this post may be hyperbolic. But I can’t think of any other way to express how angry I am. I’ve never been this upset over a videogame before. It’s like I’m in a bait and switch marriage and I’m just stuck hoping the person I’m with will change back to the person I fell in love with in the first place.

Anet, please just communicate with your customers and let us know what the hell is going on!
I’m going to hang on for a little longer and hope that there will be some good news soon.

I seriously doubt I can say anything constructive that hasn’t already been said about the trait changes. I’m really impressed at how well so many people have pointed out the flaws in the the updated system. Although, that actually just makes me more disappointed in anet that they let this go live in the first place.

Even though I don’t have anything terribly exciting to add, at the very least, I do want to add my voice to the chorus and say I do not support this update and it will certainly prevent me spending additional money on the game until it is fixed.

Aside from the poor implementation of various aspects of the update, such as acquiring traits, the part that bothers me the most is how the trait points were pushed back to higher levels. When I first read about the feature pack update, I was excited to see big changes coming. That excitement was quickly dashed when I saw the changes to the level experience for traits. It was clearly a bad idea. I just hoped that somehow there would be some additional changes that would make up for it. Obviously that didn’t happen.

Before this patch, I had just started playing not too long ago and I was having a blast leveling up characters and trying out different professions. This may not be normal, but I play MMOs to level up characters, not to grind the end game, and I was excited to find an MMO that actually seemed to cater to me. However, after this change, I’m questioning if this really is a good game for me after all.

Also, I’d like to add that I’m really disappointed by the lack of developer response to all the criticism about the change. I don’t have any great expectations from them, but a little openness goes a long way after dropping a kitten like this. So, what does everyone here think? Is there any real hope that anet will fix this blunder in the near future or are we all just stuck?