Guild Wars 2

If I bought a vacuum-cleaner I’d be kinda angry if the shop suddenly exchanged it for a broom… or started fiddling with the wiring for that matter.

Sure, a product can be subject to change.. But as consumers we certainly can voice our opinions as well! Don’t go number 1 on us and then call it rain.. That will only lead to unsatisfied and smelly customers!

http://www.arena.net/blog/guild-wars-2-design-manifesto

I love new content! keep it coming.. Was the first time in many years I actually had game-fun during Halloween

Would love even more skins and customization options!

It’s just a shame they’re going back on their own word.

Quote L. Murdock:
The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative. We’re going to add tons of new high-level content to Guild Wars 2 in the future. As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out complimentary Ascended and Legendary items (to say nothing of the other rewards you can earn by playing the content).

Pochibella.8394:

Here’s my take:

They are coinciding invite-a-friend with the new content release. Now, most of us know that all of our friends who really wanted to play GW2 bought it and are or have played it. Our friends who didn’t want to play it are playing pandas or the new Rift expansion or something else. So, the way Anet is trying to hook our “friends” who didn’t already try GW2 is to give them the things missing from GW2 that are in the other games…ie. gear treadmill under the guise of “progression”

Not gonna work. They may come over for the weekend, but seriously, the ones who want to play WoW are gonna play WoW and Rift’s expac is brand new. All this is doing is messing up GW2 for the people who have already been playing.

Honestly, I wouldn’t care 2 cents what the stats were on the armor if you couldn’t wear it in wvw. However, it is only a matter of time before stepping into wvw without AS gear is like playing WoW’s bgs without heirloom gear leveling up. And with the state wvw is in right now, it doesn’t really need another strike against it.

Agree!

It will deter people without /insert-new-gear-tier-here/ and have detrimental effects on WvWvW, not to mention the gate it will set for /insert-new-dungeons-and-areas-here/

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.

Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores.

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

Truly appreciate your response!

However, “Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill.” unless the Ascended gear can be as easily obtained through similar ways as Exotic (crafts,BLT,etc..), this is an extreme fail..
I still fear this update will provide gating and bottlenecks.

A new tier of gear was so not needed.. not unwelcome, but not needed.
What is unwelcome, is restrictions and stat-barring = “the gear grind”

exeon.7430:

Some of the replies in this thread is so much full fail, how can human beings be so simple; even if they’d be 11 yrs old…

I am GLAD about the changes. I fully support them. They add to the dimension of the game. The game’s point is moving forward. There’s so much one can do after getting bored. Arenanet is bringing content to us and you guys are whining about it. You are like beggars who put conditions…What is wrong with you.

I applaude Linsey Murdock and the Dev team for this audacious content patch. Keep bringing it! The majority loves it!

Right.. that is why this is the biggest thread to date (not even mentioning all the other threads that haven’t been merged yet)

Right.. that is why this is the biggest thread to date (not even mentioning all the other threads that haven’t been merged yet)If you are glad for the changes, good for you.. But the vast majority of us in this thread are strongly against it! as it goes directly against what was promised by developers and their published philosophy for GW2.

Right.. that is why this is the biggest thread to date (not even mentioning all the other threads that haven’t been merged yet)If you are glad for the changes, good for you.. But the vast majority of us in this thread are strongly against it! as it goes directly against what was promised by developers and their published philosophy for GW2.This advertised update is a blatant sell-out.

Right.. that is why this is the biggest thread to date (not even mentioning all the other threads that haven’t been merged yet)If you are glad for the changes, good for you.. But the vast majority of us in this thread are strongly against it! as it goes directly against what was promised by developers and their published philosophy for GW2.This advertised update is a blatant sell-out.Please, no no no..

I just had another look at this “The Golden Rules of Guild Wars 2” by Ben Miller
http://www.arena.net/blog/the-golden-rules-of-guild-wars-2

And I absolutely feel like I’ve been slapped in the face..
What was the point of the promises and the awesome design ideas, when you’re selling out now?

snip from the oh so Golden Rules:
————————————————————————————————————
Do it well or don’t do it at all
With a game as big as an online world, you need to pick your battles very carefully.
Every feature you choose to invest resources in something means some other element gets less attention in one way or another.
Hopefully, at some point, you get a good idea of what it takes to make a profession, a skill for that profession, or whatever the feature or set of features at hand may be.
You get a sense for the overall resource cost of any particular element.
When that happens, you start seeing how parts contribute to the whole, and you are able to see where some features would drain resources away from more important core areas.
With Guild Wars 2, we tried to err on the side of doing a few things great, rather than doing everything less than great. What does that mean?
It means that we focused on the core of the experience instead of the unnecessary trappings. It also means we chose to cut features.
If you make the wrong decisions about what you focus your development resources on, you may create an aberrant experience.
But when that focus is applied correctly, you end up with the superior level of polish that is only possible through the devotion of sufficient time, energy and talent.

Purpose: This enables us to focus our resources on the most important game elements we want to make great.
The result is a game that has a consistent quality bar, and thus a consistent feel.
If any feature isn’t going to be able to meet that bar without hurting something else, then it needs to go for the sake of the greater whole.
It’s a vicious jungle those little features live and die in.

Respect the player
We respect you—as a player, as a human being.
This game we’re making may end up competing with your real life.
It might fight for your free time alongside your friends, your family, your work, and whatever else you might be doing.
Because of that, we want to give you a meaningful experience, not one that is a vapid waste of your time. Whatever your reasons for spending time in Tyria, we don’t want to waste it by doing stuff that isn’t fun.

That’s why we make our content epic. That’s why we have giant nightmare demons to fight, global allegiances to form, immense keeps to siege, and giant catapults to fire.
Tyria is a place that will foster relationships with new friends, and provide you a rich experience to share with old ones. It’s our version of a playground on the grandest of scales.
Finally, we are building an online world, but we are always careful to leave space for its most important element, the one we designers would like to step out of the spotlight for: its heroes—you.

Purpose: To keep us honest.

I hope you enjoyed exploring the now not-so-secret herbs and spices that help us make Guild Wars 2 such a delicious experience.

Ben Miller
Game Designer

Smartbean.5960:

Wintyre Fraust.6534:

Xeres.3724:

And, BTW, the amount of replies to this topic – even if they were all unique and all were in favor / disapprove of this topic – it’s still a fanstastically small percentage of the player base.

And yet the official blog by Linsey Murdock says that they did this in response to player feedback after the game went live. So that means they have betrayed their core philosophy based on a fantastically small percentage of the player base. The only way to get a good sampling of what the player base really wants (or doesn’t want) is to do a log-in poll. There has been no such poll, so based on what “player feedback” are they supposedly making this fundamental shift in game policy?

So now we have over a hundred pages and over 5k responses of “player feedback” that dwarfs any pro-progression posts on these forums; if GW2 is so responsive to “player feedback”, where are they? IF this was truly a “player feedback”-driven addition, then the current overwhelming player pushback should have them take the Agony/Ascended “end game” mechanism out of the content update, now that they realize that no, we really do not want this.

Comparing apples to apples – player feedback to player feedback, each as a “miniscule” portion of the player base, those against the Ascended mechanic win. If ANET is really responding to player feedback, they’ll take it out of the update.

Unfortunately, this “item progression initiative” has been in the works for much longer than the game has been live, and they’re only trying to spin it as the developers being responsive to community concerns.

/Signed

+1

it’s scary..

critickitten.1498:

….uh, hi.

Big fan of you guys, ANet. Have been ever since I bought GW1 years ago. I’ve been in and out of many MMOs during that time and I wanted something that would stick. I found that in GW1: a game which allows me massive flexibility in my builds, and lets me basically “doll myself up” however I like, with item skins being the big thing.

When GW2 was announced, I was one of the biggest fans of the idea. I was so eager to get my hands on the game that I pre-purchased, happily throwing down 60 bucks for a game I knew I’d love. And I have….but recently, like a mesmer’s illusions, reality seems to be shattering the world I’d built all around me and is forcing me to confront the possibility that this game might become the sort of game I can’t bring myself to keep playing.

I was already discontented enough with legendaries, an item which demands an immensely impractical amount of my free time to obtain. But I’d shrugged it off and was looking forward to more updates until….this ascended business, and the “agony” talks.

Now, as one of your long-time defenders and biggest fans, I must ask this. And keep in mind I don’t mean to offend. But….are you out of your minds?

Let’s review in case you don’t understand what I mean: you just proposed a brand new system of gear that will be essentially REQUIRED in order to run your new dungeon efficiently, due to this “Agony” condition. This is the antithesis of GW1, and while I know “new game, new rules”, you promised us a game that would be new while staying true to the principles of GW1. This is standard MMO design, and it’s clear from this thread that very few people want this. You’ve become exactly what you were building this game to fight AGAINST.

I can’t help but feel a bit betrayed by this. We don’t NEED more “gear progression”. We need bug fixes, and more unique skills/traits, and other things that will increase variety in the game. A gear treadmill is not what we need. And if, as you say, this is “just the start” then I worry that one day I won’t be able to convince myself to defend you.

I can honestly say I won’t participate in the new dungeon if it’s going to boil down to this “Agony” business. And I probably won’t encourage other people to buy this game any more if this policy continues, either.

My sentiments exactly! +1

Personally I like Orr, a lot..
It’s supposed to be annoying (hard), after all, you’re far behind the arch-enemy’s lines..
Why would there be safe-points?

:)

EmoxiHaX.1726:

this isn’t pokemon

it isn’t waterpolo either..

I think it would be nice to see Rangers with newly charmed “babies” and respectively “grown up” versions after a while, would certainly add a level of immersion..

I’m all for anything that can help a playerbase getting more out of their game!

I can’t imagine what it is like being any kind of colorblind, heck I probably see more than I should.. (darn Asura gadgets)

I found these lovely peppers to illustrate for us “normal-visioned”; what colorblind people see compared to what we see.

… Charrs furballs! All brings a new meaning to seeing red in the heat of battle!

I’d very much like if the character outline could be toggled off and still keep the other “eye candy” on.

Currently it’s tied to Post-Processing effects in visual options.

Please let us be able to further adjust what details we want and don’t want..

Kind regards

Oh lord yes! Would love a Preview option for the BLT

Most assuredly an improvement!

+1 for First person view / close up-by head zoom ala GW1.
+1 for even further zoom-out-ability

Don’t like the pricing of the Waypoints, then run!

;)

Masquerade hat & Winged set, my favorite look for her so far.. The colors change based on my mood grin

Ooh!

/cheer/ Anet

I have to disable camera shakes and really focus on camera control in tight areas, in order to play for longer periods (>20mins)

I’d love a further zoomed out view and the ability to go into first person view too

I am 33 and loving GW2…

No matter how much time I have, be it a day or just half an hour – Tyria always have room and something for me to enjoy.

This is one of the Things I so love about GW..
Learning and honing skills – rather than mindlessly slapping on bigger and shinier stats
to be able to get even bigger and shinier stats
to be able to get that ultimate big and shiny stat that leaves all new players in the dust…

Here, the “big and shiny”… isn’t a stat… it’s being skilled.
Use knowledge and cleverness to predict, adapt and defeat your foes.
If you need numbers telling you how awesome you are, show us your best killstreaks..
Need something to set you visually apart from the most casual players, show us your legendary and mystic stuff!
:)

Oh god yes! Even bought gems to get more character slots and transmute stones, love it to bits !

:) /happy/

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and playstyles!
You certainly upped my Ele’s game!

Keep the awesomeness coming

Kind regards