Guild Wars 2

Adamantium.3682:

Aerlen.5326:

I’ve watched LP’s, these people aren’t having fun, they are beating the game to say they beat it and nothing else.

I disagree with this on principle. Who are you to say that “beating the game to say they beat it” is not fun for some people? It may not be fun to you, but it sounds like Tribulation Mode was clearly not designed for players like you. That’s okay. Just move on and let those who do enjoy it have their fun. Why do you have to denounce it?

I’ll give you an example: have you ever played Metro 2033 at maximum difficulty? Well there is a point where you have to go trough a corridor full of mobs with a NPC, if the NPC die, you loose.
The best way to do this is just run the kitten out of there.
It’ really, really, really easy.
But when you reach the safe zone you notice that, wait NPC is fithing the mobs and get ista kitten d. Game Over, try again.
So this point become one of the hardest in the game, not because was designed so but because the IA gets buggy, you are no longer fightning the game, you are fightning the stupid bad programmed IA.

Tribulation is the same thing, just made on purpouse.
This proves how Arena Net isn’t able to get real difficulty in jumping puzzles without using the engine’s flaws.

That shoudn’t be allowed, nor by players, nor by programmers, because if you thing to something like Ninja Gaiden and compare it to Tribulation you’re insulting Ninja Gaiden.
Ninja Gaiden is tough, but it’s fair, you’ll never lose because “Oh what the kitten fake ground? How could i possibly know?!” in Ninja Gaiden you lose because “Oh man, i should have dodged that, i should have parry that” etc-

This is why tribulation mode is bad, not because it is “hard” which is not, as i previously said hard means it takes skill to beat, tribulation requires trial and error and metagaming, but because it used the engine flaw’s against the player.

Aerlen.5326:

Leablo.2651:

Ivonbeton.6814:

It’s how all games work and when you get punished hard for not knowing what to do (yet) or not being able to do it, it’s called difficulty.

This division you make between supposedly “mechanical difficulty” and “real difficulty” is imaginary.

It’s subjective, not imaginary. For example, to protect yourself from the absurd knockback physics, you can learn to conduct battles in more advantageous locations, and put your back to a wall. At this point, though, it certainly feels like you’re fighting the design more than you’re fighting the enemy, who is otherwise not so threatening.

Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, people are able to perceive the causes of difficulty differently, because in fact the causes are different. You are seriously underestimating players if you think we can’t tell the difference between something that is hard because the enemies are hard and something that is hard because gameplay is broken.

This existed all along in World 1 also, but that content was, overall, easy enough that the bugs and other problems could be overlooked. That’s no longer the case in World 2, which uses any excuse to throw you off a cliff. Even Ninja Gaiden was not this blatant, and like all of the good classics, that game had a variety of powerful weapons that served to both balance the gameplay and add fun factor. Even Mario could spam fireballs.

It seems to me that this indie-driven interpretation of the genre is not so much trying to recreate the feel of the classics so much as they are trying to one-up each other in seeing who can distill the entirety of the gameplay experience into difficulty and nothing more. On the other hand you have modern games that do higher difficulty the right way, like Demon’s Souls or the perennial shmups whose gameplay principles have not changed in the last two decades – games that keep the fun factor high even as they turn up the difficulty. Instead of daring people to play the game just so they can say they finished it. Which is precisely the area where World 2 and TM have gone.

I am amused that throughout this entire LS content, I’ve gotten to read replies defending glitchy content as “retro gaming” and “real difficulty” by people who weren’t even alive or old enough to hold a controller yet when the golden age of NES was going on. If they were, they’d understand the games they keep referencing are the best of the NES library and games that had glitchy knockbacks and IWTBTG type deaths were the ones that ended up in the bargain bin and had their titles forgotten because they were that incredibly broken and not fun for the majority of gamers. Jeckyl and Hyde, Athena, Back to the Future, Wizard of Oz, Friday the 13th.. all games with broken and glitchy game play. Ever hear them mentioned as classics in the same high regard as Metroid or Mario? NO! Because the glitchy punishing game play and poorly designed levels weren’t fun!

I really agree with the quote of trying to “one up” each other and make indie games about soul crushing difficulty. Guys, this isn’t “retro” gaming, it’s really not. I see Ninja Gaiden brought up a lot. Well here’s the thing about that game – yes it had a high difficulty level… but it was also fun. Lately, it seems people make hacks and indie games just to create the “impossible” game. I’ve watched LP’s, these people aren’t having fun, they are beating the game to say they beat it and nothing else. Back in the NES era, these games would be tossed in the bargain bin and never heard from again. The average player wants a good degree of fun mixed in with the difficulty. I never finished Ninja Gaiden but I didn’t need to, Ninja Gaiden was fun to play. I’ll never finish TM and it’s not fun at all for me to play, I’m not missing out on a thing by skipping it either.

But seriously, as a gamer of 35+ years, I can tell when I’m fighting the game and when I’m fighting the game engine/design and a good designer always makes sure a player is only fighting the first one.

Sir, you completely hit the point. +1

skullmount.1758:

Maybe that’ll be the reward for World 3/4? Not sure what they can do, if they remove the current set of weapons for the next release. Only weapons left are the underwater ones.

Yup, i believe that underwater weapons will be in World 3, and hopefully armors in world 4.

Luigi.1584:

No, its bad idea. It will ruin GW2 society. Weapons are enough.

Why? They would be super cool and if you don’t like them you won’t buy/create/use them.

I personaly like the idea of going around like a 8-kittenaracter, indeed all my weapons and my backpack and my miniature are 8-bit themed!

Gotejjeken.1267:

Back in April, I completed all of W1 of SAB / all achievements. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it was a cool throwback in a modern game. The experience was pretty casual, and could be made ‘hardcore’ by gathering all the baubles, not dying, etc.

It would seem as if that has all changed. The whole of W2 and Tribulation Mode seem designed to be purposefully hard. Or rather, cheap. They turned a platformed inspired by legend of zelda and other old RPG games into…Battletoads? Memorize a bunch of things and call it good.

Mind you, I have not been past the rapids in world 2 or world 1 tribulation mode, however I really have no desire to either. Is this what any developer wants from content? SAB now boils down to this:

1. Buy infinite continue coin
2. Bash your head against every death possibility / read Dulfy
3. Die a lot anyway (tribulation mode)
4. Complete after hundreds of deaths and many hours
5. Call yourself ‘good’ and flash some weapon skins

Basically, if I want an unfair game to play I will go play one of the many better ones (see: Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden, I Wanna Be the Guy, Super Meat Boy, etc.). If I want a skin to flash I will just go grind out a legendary…

As a bit of an aside, for those who say the IFC is not necessary…have you completed all content without it? If you have, may I ask roughly how many deaths and how many hours you’ve put in?

Whole point is that those games you’ve quoted, they aren’t unfair they are just hellish hard.
In super meat boy you’ll never die because an invisible trap popped out/fake ground/crappy platforming/crappy camera.
In those you die because YOU, the player, deserved it. In tribulation mode you die 100 times, where just 10 are you actual fault… i am very disappointed by anet for this mode, as i said in my own “cry” topic hard means that takes skill to play, tribulation takes just patience and memorizing/reading guides.

Tribulation mode aside, SAB is great, i’m really having fun.

ThiBash.5634:

…but for the wrong crowd.

You yourself advertised Tribulation Mode as being “not for everyone”, “where lives are cheap”. As for the first part, people can more or less accept that…provided you keep the Tribulation elements out of the main game. Finding out the hard way that some things will kill you instantly isn’t fun. And while the dart traps are somewhat visible, not all of them are. Especially the Gong Pagoda bit would gain a lot from having them appear on both sides.

this.

CryxTryx.9208:

CryxTryx.9208:

Here is where you’re wrong OP. He reached his target audiance. SAB is a game with in a game. Anet obviously gave him artistic licence to develop content geared toward players with a higher skill level.

Higher skilled players? LOL. After they added infinite continue coins, all “skill” requirements went out the window. Now it’s just a matter of patience and time.

And without that infite coin you cannot complete that, because hidden traps are… hidden, no hint, nothing to understand why they are there or how to avoid them… until you die.

Will we ever see super skins for armors and clothes? Light armor could be the classic mage, medium something like Link’s clothes and Heavy like the classic knight:
example:
light: http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2010/173/8/d/black_mage_by_magma_red.png
medium : http://images.wikia.com/zelda/images/1/18/Link_(Sprite)_The_Legend_of_Zelda.png
heavy: http://www.rinoadiary.it/soluzione/final_fantasy_i/immagini/strategie/jobs/sprite_knight_psp.png
They may pixel-glow like super weapons, it would be super awesome:
Anet please!

Hinado.6291:

Tribulation mode is fun but most of the difficulty comes from not knowing the path..
After the first playthrough it’s quite easy and only takes about 30min to 1h per path (in world 2, 10-20min in world 1). I wished it would’ve been more difficult after knowing all the traps…

I like the design very much, reminds me of my old plattformer days… Also many of the spikes are pretty clear.. World 1 has different ground hights wich tell you pretty much and on many parts the way just seems so easy that there just must be a trap..
Just always choose the most difficult way and you avoid a lot of them.. Also try to walk on the edges of plattforms as often as possible to avoid a lot of them..

Yeah, i got it now, still…
I just hate to loose because there was that unpredictable spike which hit my finger.
Example: platforming: jump from a to b, ok, i just i fall who’s fault ?
Mine. I deserve to lose.
There is the checkpoint just in front of me, no mobs, nothing weird, well let’s go, then spikes pops out of nowhere and… who’s fault?
Mine? Why? How coud i ever know? There wasn’t no hits, nothing to tell me about that trap.

Can you see my point?
It’s true the ground fake ground sometimes can be avoided, but traps cannot, the only way to do so is to already know that they are there, and this is metagame.

The point is that if they did put something on those traps and platforming was a bit better if would have been incredible cool.
Hard =/= Unfair
I play many hard games, never found them unfair, they offered a real challenge without be a kittenes.
What is see here is bad design of jumping (well, we all know that, i can say that when you understand those buggy mechanics it works…sometimes.) what i’m complaying about are those invisible traps, no way to detect them aside from metagaming.
Hard means it reaquires skill to play, when you pass those invible traps you’ve proved that you died so many times to finally understand where it is, there is no skill in that = it isn’t hard, it is unfair.

As title, with traps going out of NOWHERE, crappy jumping puzzle and a lot of latency (rocks have already hit WHILE they jump) Tribulation isn’t challening it shows the bad side of GW2.

It’s seemed like the dev team though: Hey, we know our platform is crappy as hell, let’s make it more annoying by placing invisible and unpredictable traps.

I can’t even think how unfair and stressing will be world 3 Tribulation.

And just a final word:
Games are ment to enternatin, be challening hard (not unfair hard) and be something to relax whit.
I’m fine with trial and error, but before you can figure it out how long is the trap where are safe spots etc, it just become annoying.

Same as title, i love the living world, it adds the game that fresh new contnent every few weeks, but i wonder... i a year or more, when the story will be a LOT ( i hope) more developed how will be possibile to see that Cursed Shore is still under Zhaitan’s bane, with all NPCs talking about the upcoming battle, and things like that.

I’d love to see an update like "Repopulating Arah" where, thanks to living world those areas will change over time, moving mobs and old arah dungeon to a new location.(Fractals?)

Ereiz.2174:

I have the same problem.
I can search items, but cannot view the items stats.
I cannot buy or place order on items.
No error messages. Just the buttons buy and place order are grey as not available.

Ohoni.6057:

This happens to me ALL the time.
1. I can view and search items for sale and the Gem store.
2. I can collect items that are waiting for pick-up in the store.
3. I cannot actually purchase anything from the store, no matter what the conditions. The “buy” button is grayed out, even if I have plenty of money, am offering plenty for it, etc. It is in no way user error.
4. I cannot sell anything of mine. If I go to the “sell” pane, instead of showing the proper interface, the little “loading” circle spins for maybe 10-20 seconds and then the pane goes blank and stays that way for the rest of the session. I can still go to other panes, but any time I return to the “sell” pane it remains blank.

This^

Nicolle Rodgers.4926:

Is your mailbox full?

I had 9/10 Mails, so i wasn’t, but when i deleted one the mail with the chest appeared.
Thank you both.

Hi all.
I wanted to get one consortium chest before the event runned out, but after the purchase i haven’t received it, my gems are gone, the Consortium Chest is in the “Recent Purchases” but it never reached me. Where is it?

Hi all!
After killing karkas after karkas for 3 days, i joined the last battle to slay those things.
But when the Ancient Karka whas almost dead i suddenly get stucked in graphic.
I had to relog in and teleport me back to the nearest wp but it was too late, the boss was slain and after doing 99% of the event i coudn’t get any loot.
So, what did i get after this event? Nothing.
I waited a LOT because NPCs the first day were bugged.
I killed tons of karkas.
I joined in the last battle (destroying my armor).
All this for being pissed off by a still not stable engine.
Thank you Arena Net, you gave me a unforgettable event.

Is Fahd still bugged? I’ve waited a lot in front of him, no event triggers, i’ve talked to the chest and it gave me nothing (now i can’t talk to it anymore) what am i supposed to do?

xVOLTRON.7826:

Canach still bugged on Blackgate.

Same here, he is spawned but when i talk to him he’s show as a green target.

bamono.7098:

Trying it out now will report back

Edit: JK Download stopping at 92%

Same here
EDIT:
The download just restarted from 92%
EDIT2: “Connection error(s) detected…. Retrying”

Hi all.
In the personal quest “Eye of the Sun” Arlon is missing: the cutscene shows that he should be near the boss, but he isn’t.

After a bit i investigate the area and another cutscene started letting me complete the quest.
So i believe that he is there but we can’t see it, I hope you’ll fix soon this bug.

Greetings, Even.