Guild Wars 2

For now the guns lay silent, no more will we hear them roar. For reasons yet unknown, we are tallying up the score. Names on shreds of paper, families torn apart. They know not when it ended, just when it got its start. Out of a clear Tyrian sky, a deadly beam found each, building, wall and spire, heard as far away as Divinitys Reach. I won’t forget the faces, the blood curdling screams, as the city that survived the centuries, was tearing apart at the seams. They came from the air, the land and beneath the sea, to ravage and destroy those like you and me. The air befouled, as the buildings burned, medieval were the pyres, even in the mornings calm, you still can smell the fires.

Now its time to gather those that cannot rise any more, and lay them beneath their beloved soil, they won’t suffer anymore. We’ll miss them each in many different ways, with the coming of each new dawn and ending of each new day.

Answers will be slow in coming, all any of us will know for sure, is the once clear waters of Lions Arch are tainted forever more.

To quote Gwen in “Eye of the North GW1” – “this time it’s personal”…

Guild Wars 2 is a generic mmo. Guild Wars 1 was a complete, well thought out world of imagination and loads of fun. Anyone reading this should know. If you loved GW1 you will not be happy with GW2. they share a name only. Jeff Strains vision is no where to be found in GW2. Anet has said they feel pretty much every aspect of GW1 was wrong and purposely made GW2 the exact opposite. Recently the co-founder of Anet left to join Dead Labs founded by Jeff Strain (founder of Anet, and driving force behind GW1.). MMO’s are all making the same mistake it seems they make their game a WOW clone and it fails. Hopefully the future is brighter. SWTOR is a 300 mil failure financially. Blizzard put their new mmo back into alpha testing and moved some of it’s development teams to work on other projects. All the mmo game co’s need to do is listen to the players. But they absolutely refuse to do so. I think I can safely say in 5 years or less, MMO’s will no longer exist as they do today. Even a former developer from WOW said they killed the genre. There are no inventive or creative games anymore. They all seem the same. I read an article the other day that said as of it’s posting GW2 had sold 3.6 million copies, but only had approx. 460k of regular players. That is a pretty big gap. I’d call it a failure except they do not live on subs. I suppose it’s possible the 460k of players bring in enough money via in game purchases. But I doubt it. Chat in game seems to lean towards little or no real money being spent. Most say they would never pay real money for anything offered.

Sad.. I was so excited when they announced GW2. Now.. I play because it’s free and just to pass the time.

Sytherek.7689:

I have been a developer on AAA titles and specifically, MMOs. This article is less about criticizing ANet and more about them making the game more fun.

RNG is bad for MMOs. Here’s why:

1) RNG as implemented fosters player rancor.
I post that I haven’t found an item after opening 100 chest, someone else post they found it in the 2nd chest and they don’t see a problem.

2) RNG as implemented isn’t fair.
Nope, life ain’t fair. GW2 is not life, it is a game. It is entertainment. Frustration is not fun.

3) RNG as implemented isn’t fun.
Putting a desirable item behind RNG is a recipe for making people frustrated. Something that always drops is meaningless; something that never drops causes frustration. A balance must be struck.

4) RNG as implemented is illogical.
People who want the item do not get it. People who don’t want the item do. Since items cannot be sold in the trading post, this again creates frustration.

GW2 would be a better game and more fun if:

1) Allow rare drops to be sold. Remove account binding.

2) Improve the chance of a rare item drop the more a person tries to get it. I suspect ANet will say they can’t do this due to “technical limitations”.

3) Sell rare drops in the trading post for gems. People with money can buy the drop; people who have oodles of time/will can hunt for it. Please don’t hypocritically say rare things should be special, and then let people buy/sell “legendaries”.
RNG is fun and entertaining.

Excessive RNG is bad and frustrates players. Frustrated players don’t recommend the game and don’t spend money in the store.

Computers cannot randomize, they use a peusdo randomizing routine. Currently the “best” uses atmospheric noise to determine a seed number. But it still is not true randomizing. Why? Random is a concept, once you write code to emmulate it, the event is no longer random. QED.

That said RNG’s are very faulty and prone to work improperly. Some uses are easily manipulated and easily over worked. They will be the main cause imho for the demise of online games that exist based on microtranactions. In short, once the laws catch up with online games I feel fairly safe in saying the use of RNG’s as a money maker will be stopped, or at the very least governed by existing gambling laws.

After reading all the concerns, I feel the new mega server system was neither wanted by the players, or needed by the players. I say to Anet, listen very closely or accept the full blame for this being a world class bad idea.

The focus of Anet should be increasing in game revenues, while maintaining the playerbase, and enticing new ones to join.

Anet was like this in GW1. They ruined the loot so bad there was no reason to pick it up. Sorry to say, they are doing the same here. Most of the players I have talked to this week say they are just waiting for a new game and they’re gone. The high traffic here is not the result of a superior game, it’s the result of no monthly fee.

Carighan.6758:

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

Interesting, a game with a handicapped central character that ignores, and even penalizes the needs of those players with real handicaps?

I like how you use this social justice warfare to single out the aspect skills, forgetting about other such penalizing things as:

• Having to move your character.
• Having to use skills in combat.
• Having to utilize the inventory.

All of these can be major problems for some players. Yep.
And? You’d say “They’re normal”, right? :P
So why is the jumping puzzle-y aspect of the aspect skills not normal, especially in GW2, a game which uses vistas and JPs as one of it’s core elements?

Actually if you read my earlier posts I’m not focusing on or complaining about the use of aspect skills, I’m questioning Anet removing my ability to help others with the aspect skill clear on porting (Mesmer). I realize the game can be a real challenge. I have a friend playing that can only use one hand and has his computer setup to play the game with voice commands, to move etc. I can’t help him get to some points now because of the skill clear on porting. That is what I meant by penalizing.

When I stopped playing Guild Wars 1, the loot was worse than here. The weapons had a high requirement of attribute points and were considered trash. People complained for years, nothing changed. I don’t see anything changing here either. In fact it’s getting worse.

It really seems like they don’t care at all, what we want. They smile, they make jokes in videos, and they do as they please. It’s up to us as players, to decide. Do we take it and go on not enjoying the game, or do we go? I’m putting GW2 on a shelf, my circle of friends have gone back to another MMO we played previously. I hope things get better here.

./swordsalute

Later ya’ll!

We have a crazy competition in our guild of who can achieve the most fall damage. I just hit 21 mil, but my question is, what is the holo dragon nearby? I’m in a valley under “Silent woods” I dropped from a tree near the POI.

I have a feeling the people that got several from a low number of coffers did so early on in the event. I doubt it happens now, since I have a feeling Anet has “adjusted things” since then.

One thing for sure is I will not be spending ANY real money in game anymore. I used to buy stuff here and there because I felt like GW2 deserves something above and beyond the price of the game. But now.. nope..

Grileenor.1497:

Vol.5241:

I really don’t see what the fuss is about.

The only difference between an expansion and the living story is how the content gets pushed out

Expansion – content comes out all at once
Living Story – content is gradually pushed out

People naturally hate change and still think of the old MMO mentality. Expansions are just as dated as paying for subscriptions.

Easy one.

Expansion = quality content coming out, when ready
Living Story = mediocre or worse content coming out due to schedule

Expansion = getting whole guilds back to the game for months
Living Story = getting less and less people back for days if you are lucky

Expansion = good advertising in the whole MMO community
Living Story = only some in Anets team and some hardcore fans really care

Expansion = Something you talk about still for years (Nightfall? EotN?) with story and immersion
Living Story = Very few updates are remebered like a halloween or winters day equivalent, but no immersion or story

Expansion = Full blown story lines in game giving rich playing experience
Living Story = some blogs on the web site for those who visit

I could go on, but I think the point is clear. LS, even when it is getting better can never hope to accomplish what good sound expansions can and will offer.

Spot on, well said and explained!

The shoulders are designed to fit norn and char. All the other races look like a 4 year old stole Joan Crawford’s football pads.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Pacifica.9576:

Can we take this statement to mean that no “expansion” content has been worked on? Since I assume you’d have to know the method before you developed it all

We’ve said this before, so it shouldn’t be a spoiler, but it’s clear that the message hasn’t totally gotten out there yet:

For the past year, we’ve had some larger projects going on in the background we haven’t discussed yet. Our major focus however has been on making the core Gw2 live game as solid as possible, details of what’s coming still to address that core game experience can be found here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/
For the projects cooking in the background, we’ll go into more detail on those in the future.

I hope you put out a press release to this effect otherwise this is what others that have left see..

“So right now we’re not really looking at expansions as an option,” lead content designer Mike Zadorojny told me on his visit to London last week.

“It’s something that’s on the table but it’s not something we’re focused on, because what we want to do is – our idea here is that with Living World, we can do what expansions would have done but do it on a more regular basis.”

I pressed him to tell me whether there would be a Guild Wars 2 expansion this year and he shook his head to indicate no. What about next year, I asked?

“If we do this right,” he answered, “we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.”

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-03-its-unlikely-guild-wars-2-will-ever-get-an-expansion-pack

seeing articles like this, then hearing a different story here is making us a little dubious to say the least.

Si vis pacem, para bellum, if you want peace, prepare for war.. Time to take down another Dragon..

Made this little collage, enjoy.. (I hope lol)

With so many plans to rework existing areas so soon, I’m guessing the budget was axed for new development. Hope things pickup soon.

Dante, you read my mind. The current loot system is comparable to a frat boy on all fours getting spanked with a spiked paddle asking for more. It’s the war games syndrome. “Strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” More use from blue and green items.. O.o what the …

Anet, the loot system at launch was fine, who or whatever made you change it should lose all decision making power. If ESO launced today, we’d lose about 80% of the accomplished players which will cause raiding guilds to implode and make even more ghost towns pop up. You are using the same logic you did in gw1 after factions and look at all the ghost town camps you made. I keep trying to stay positive about gw2, then I read about the future plans and I just want to scream.

Bring back the 6, write more storyline quests and rollback the original loot system, or get ready to be another casualty on the mmo highway to boredom.

Want to know why players go through some areas quickly? They are experienced and can think on their feet. One or two runs and they have a pretty good idea how to beat the bosses etc, because they have played so many mmo’s and console, and single player games you will be hard pressed to create anything they haven’t seen before. It’s the nature of the beast. You can double and triple the difficulty, give the bosses immunity to conditions, crowd control, and so on, and all you’ll do is remove any chance for the other players to EVER see all your hard work. Why does every mmo miss this simple premise?

Guys the loot is imaginary, it doesn’t exist. Stop worrying about it, and to hell with the economy. Honestly if you can solve the economic problems of the world, great. Imaginary economies? No one cares. People are walking away from a game with no monthly fee, box sales are down, and you think making things harder will fix it?

TILT!

Gw1 people hung out, talked, teamed up and had fun. Then you started worrying about loot etc, in all my years of playing it, I never saw and IDS drop, or most of the other “rare loot”. I just shrugged it off, most didn’t. Instead they farmed and farmed, you added anti farm code. The battle raged on and on, and in the end you wasted so much time and money, imagine what you could have accomplished if you just stopped being silly and listened to all the players, they would have said they were bored out of their minds. Finally gw1 became an avatar driven chat. Which was so sad because you created a wonderful world and then took a really bad turn and never got back on the right track. And kitten it you’re doing it again. Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sound familiar?

For those wondering what “scaling” means, it means the larger the group the harder everything gets. Think Grenths temple on crack. Better start saving your gold, you’ll need it for all the repair bills.

Anet, make the game WE want to play, not the game YOU want to play. It’s just that easy.

Strange game, the only winning move is, not to play…

John Smith.4610:

Fungalfoot.7213:

The reason why ANet won’t do anything about flippers hijacking markets is because it benefits them greatly to see these higher prices. Remember that gold as a currency is tied to gems which can be purchased for real money. They hope to drive new players into purchasing gold in order to catch up which is exactly why they keep on nerfing popular farm spots.

Unfortunately this short-sighted greed is having an extremely negative effect on the game as a whole. Short of getting extraordinarily lucky a new player will have no way to ever compete on the market. They’re strangling their own game trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of it.

I don’t agree. The best result for the game and therefor the best result for ArenaNet is for the markets to work as efficiently as possible (usually). Fortunately, the nature of the trading post provides a lot of natural force for markets to work efficiently. While nothing is 100% perfect, the large majority of every part of the game’s economy runs incredibly efficiently and we put a lot of effort into making sure that they remain that way.

I wish one gaming company online would have the courage to say “We don’t want an economy, we won’t foster greed in the players. We won’t be a part of this downward spiral of the human condition. We care about creating a world to visit and journey through. A world of what could be, not reflecting what is. A world where there is a uniting force, a unified goal, bringing all the different facets of all that is good and laudable in those walking it’s imaginary streets.” I guess I truly live in a fantasy world, since it seems the reality is, greed and avarice are all that matters to gaming companies today. It is no longer an art form, a form of expression and experience. It’s just another revenue stream, that has no redeeming effect and no positive influence. Guild wars 1, was a wonderful world. While there are glimpses of it in Guild Wars 2, sadly they are far and few between. Greed is the underlying factor, it motivates every step in the game, it drives every story, and infests every journey. It is to weep.. Too bad the BLTC made it through the LA attack. I wouldn’t have missed it at all.

Gw1 was a Co-Op, Gw2 is an MMO. Heroes won’t work.

I’m no Fanboi but I find myself seeking her out and Jory and Kas. The dialogue is wonderful. It’s funny I didn’t care for this festival last time, now I’m loving it. Go figure LOL It’ll be sad to see it go, but onward !

CC Danicia.1394:

Please don’t delete them!

You can hold on to your extra blade shards, as the team will be adding something later which will allow you to convert the shards to something of value. Dev will be announcing more on that later. Thanks!

Any chance you can increase the stack size? I have a few thousand of them.

It’s really odd, with so many ghost towns, you’d think this game was 5 or more years old. Not as young as it is.

SPOILER ALERT

Developers please read:

I see a point of concern. If someone is not able to move their character quickly, and/or use Aspect skills, the battle with Aerin could be very problematic. Coupled with not being able to bring help, it might be rather impossible for some. I know a friend I’ll have to warn about it. The fight was tough but doable for my Mesmer (died and ran back several times). Melee, I’ll let you know when I get my Guardian there. As is, it’s a real run and gun, you can’t stand still for more than a second or two. Not sure how to adjust it, without ruining it. It should be an Epic fight, but… Hmmmmm

We need Vabbian Armor from gw1. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Paragon_Vabbian_armor

Attachment is my attempt at paragon in gw2

Factions, Nightfall, EOTN, where expansions, they brought in new land areas, new cultures, new armor, new weapons and new classes.

Will we ever see that? If not then expansions will not be coming. The Living story is short term fluff content. It’s a cheaper way to add something to do. I’m having a hard time figuring out what a reported 400 people are working on. My only conclusion is they have many separate projects , each their own LS so they can appear to have been created on a two week schedule. When in fact they are being worked on through the year and released every 2 weeks. If all 400 work on one LS event, with all due respect, ON WHAT? The last few events were so buggy they were barely playable. How can that happen with over 400 sets of eyes etc.

Honestly I’m baffled. Colin if you really want the player backing for the LS I think perhaps a series of fireside chats, one a month showing how these are created, what exactly goes into them might sate players like myself and many many others. I definitely think a video chat with yourself and the other teams etc, would be very well received. And a good PR move. As is, just read around the net. The LS is not getting great reviews.

First not asking for all Guild armor to be an outfit, just the 3 types on the npc that we buy as skins (Guild Archmage etc.,). It would really be great to rep our guild during outings. But with so many wondeful armor sets that we work hard to obtain, reskinning them is simply not an option. Making a guild outfit, would really help. We could switch to it for guild missions etc, then go back to our regular looks.

Please consider this.

I found an easy solution, for today at least. I guested on another server I used to frequent. What a difference, I ran with people and had fun the entire time. As soon as I get enough gems and they have room (it’s full now) I’m transferring. Til then I can guest.

Thanks for all the kind words. I play my Mesmer a lot, her name is Mysti Shadowcaster (Norn). If you ever need a port, look me up. I was doing that on the guest server and someone wrote me a really nice note for helping. I sat here smiling like a little kid. It really made my day and couldn’t have come at a better time.

That’s me in action below:

Dry Top reminds me of Monument Valley.

Ascended armor and weapons = hamster wheel + gold sink.

Raine.1394:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

The problem ultimately stems from the games design philosiphy. Everyone is equal, everyone is special and everyone gets credit for everything.

In traditional MMO’s you have to compete for kills and resources and loot from bosses. This means you have a much higher overall rarity to items that drop because only 1 person gets it. In GW2 EVERYONE gets full rewards for everything. This means the items are significantly less rare and mostly seem like junk because everyone is getting them.

Getting a rare (blue) item in a traditional MMO is rewarding and makes you feel accomplished. In GW2 getting a rare (yellow) item seems like a waste of time because everyone is getting yellow items.

That is why loot seems like crap in GW2.

It’s actually simpler than that. Loot seems like crap in GW2 because it is crap. In other competitive games like WoW RNG is on your side. Good, exciting, loot will simply be yours over time—you are rewarded for playing the game, which is as it should be. In GW2, not so much. The experience here is crap, crap, and more crap over time. The simple answer is that this is because of a bad loot system. It’s actually that simple.

I’ve said this for years, some games are pro player some are pro game. GW2 seems to think a groin shot each time we open a chest promotes us to play more, and keep coming back. OR buy something. The exact opposite is happening. Players are leaving.

scerevisiae.1972:

The tedium that has been introduced by reducing trait point acquisition is so much worse than the previous system – i struggle to find any enthusiasm for grinding out 5 levels just to see any improvement – i hate it.

I’ve leveled 2 characters from 20 to 80 using birthday gift, & Tomes during the Escape from LA. Now I’m leveling my last with Birthday Gift/Tomes via the festival. After 10 years of mmo’s I’m tired of leveling.

The new GeForce 320.18 WHQL driver is now available to download.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-320-18-whql-drivers-released

Please visit the link below and read the article first, then reply.

re: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/say-goodbye-to-armor-repair-costs-and-hello-to-free-trait-resets/?utm_source=client

The End of Repair Costs: Me personally I don’t mind either way. I’m sure some will scream bloody murder and demand repair costs be put back in game.

Event and Champion Loot: Reduction of raw gold from Champion bags. Meh, the loot is so horrible I stopped fighting them unless they are part of an event. I mean how many crafting mats do I really need?

Mystic Forge: As long as this is governed by the RNG, it’ll always be a gamble. Decon the stuff instead and sell the ectos lol

Trait Resets: Again I don’t have an opinion on this pro or con. I’m sure someone will complain about it. It’ll be fun to read why. LOL

Your thoughts?

Maybe it can be attacked by the Charr and then they can have a large seafood dinner. Then it can be rebuilt as an Asuran island getaway! But seriously nuke the Karka.. annoying little ….

AndrewSX.3794:

… talking, exposing, discussing…

For this reason, one can speculate he may have overstepped his boundaries. While full disclosure from the developers is appreciated it is rare in the industry. In some games I’ve played the developers were basically under a gag order and were not permitted to post on the forums.

Whatever the reason, people come and go. We may never truly know why.

I agree with others here that have said they will believer it when they see it, and in our case, download it. I will go further out on a limb and say they may consider an expansion when and if, China and Korea are a huge success. I think every resource is focused on that.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/198469/As_Chinese_release_looms_Guild_Wars_2_sees_record_MMO_sales.php

Sytherek.7689:

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

Computers cannot randomize, they use a peusdo randomizing routine. Currently the “best” uses atmospheric noise to determine a seed number. But it still is not true randomizing. Why? Random is a concept, once you write code to emmulate it, the event is no longer random. QED.

Awfully non sequitur and pedantic of you. I could give a dissertation on psuedo-random number generation (I have, actually), a discuss the merits of KISS versus the Marsenne Twister, or the use of true stochastic sources in quantum computers, but none of that is relevant to this thread.

The algorithm is a non-issue, unless they’re using a short-period, repeating algebraic or multiplicative algorithm with a non-stochastic seed (say, the character name). If they are being so simplistic, that lends credence to folk who think their character name reflects “luck.” I assume ANet is using a reasonable yet simple (for speed) randomizer.

I could post papers and statistical studies, but that would further drag this discussion off topic.

On topic: The randomizer used is important, but I believe the problem lies in their APPLICATION of that randomizer. The problem is in usage, not algorithm.

I can sum up my thoughts on this in two ways, a dissertation is either ver batum regurgitation or the restating and often mis quoting of reputed facts. At best speculation at worse, hyperbole. (Unless you yourself do ALL the work, develop ALL theories and document all results, you are at the mercy of someone elses work, or lack there of.)

To that end, here is a picture of a rabbit with a pancake on his head. Which is indeed factual, and makes more sense than this entire argument. RNG’s will be used until the lawmakers say otherwise. Case closed.. This kangaroo court is adjourned.

Ok, I showed up, attended the entire session, only goofed once, and received 5 gift bags and a key that resulted in 3 greens 2 blues. The Clocktower rewards a non unique skinned chest (Exotic). Halloween in GW1 was so much better, what am I missing? To be honest, loot in game is really sad. I hope Wintersday is better.

Do I need high mf, and luck before the loot gets better?

This happens to all MMO’s it’s caused by the leveling process. The players become a herd, and migrate to the next area. Finally culminating in the last area they achieve OR the place where all levels can chat. LA was like that and now, well… This coupled with there being no reason to hang in lower areas. Some may pop in an out, but they go where their friends are.

It was Taimi

Wow! Very nice!

Droks Run. Beacons Perch to Fort Rankner, to Droknars Forge.

I have been trying and trying to get to this Master Crystal. I refused to use Dulfy. I wanted to figure it out myself. And I finally made it. Best of all I could port players that weren’t as fortunate. After getting there, I set my graphics to highest and took wonderful screenshots. (My hands are still tingling lol)

Where you ask? Click and see

Pure Heart.1456:

1-shot kills have been condemned since the beginning (Dungeons).
no-one likes being one-shotted.
It’s not a smart way to create challenge.

Hence, in my view,

Anet has failed to realise that 1-shot kills aren’t fun, and has failed to create an inspired challenge mechanic.

Being one shotted is proof of poor game mechanics. The gaming companies say it is compelling. It is, it compels you to go somewhere else. LOL

The Breechmaker becomes a giant water slide and is run by the Asurans, since they claim it is stolen technology. The rest of Lions Arch is turned into Six flags over Tyria. Complete with the aforementioned waterslide, arcade, and food court. Saves all those blade shards as you’ll need to convert them into admittance tokens. See ya there!

I loved the excuse SWG Devs gave when Jedi wanted to wear armor.. “It stops their ability to use the force..” and then Clone Wars on the Cartoon network had Obi Wan and Annie in armor. LOL

Like one player said on the SWG forums “Reality? You want reality, if the game was based on reality I’d swing once and your head would be laying next to you..”

Something to be remembered. GW1 was NOT an MMO. It did not have open world. There is going to be a learning curve on AN’s part, with dealing with more players in one area at one time. They have sever load and population load issues, etc already. In my opinion if they let these events run, they would have server issues, plus the game loses the “Live” feel. Things happen in a linear fashion. To keep things flowing they must begin and end. It’s no fun to miss them, but it simply must be as it is.

Artemis.6283:

they totally destroyed it… don’t see a reason to play it tbh….

Agreed, and we have to pay to trigger the boss? Walked in, saw how it is, and left.

Well, many Commanders that run event trains say it’s like herding cats so… This was inevitable.