Guild Wars 2

When people know their profession well enough, they don’t need to communicate unless something goes horribly wrong.

When people are unsure of something, they speak up. Currently, GW2 has pretty easy content so there is a pretty decent level of confidence.

The fact remains, that the game gives you all you need to be communicative, but it is down to the players to use it. I chat in /map all the time with people. Have a laugh etc. If you don’t engage, don’t expect people to engage you first. Just get chatting. Job done.

Had a great group in Arah and we were talking all the time about the next boss and tactics etc.

I’ve been in plenty of PUGs in past MMOs and it’s been silent as well – simply because half the players want to just get through the content and they know it well. Find a group that is unsure of the content and you’ll have an open dialogue.

So I bought a pet bundle from the item shop – I figured i’d sell the one that i didn’t want.

Do I then plonk this in-game cash I earned from the pet, into the bank and never touch it again, for fear of RMT giving an alt a bolster?

The pet has gone on the market for 7g btw – that’s probably enough to get me to level 70 through crafting.

Ath.2531:

Flynch.6034:

Ath.2531:

Flynch.6034:

DR is fine, it is the loot drop regularity (or lack thereof) prior to DR kicking in that is the issue.

DR is not fine. It never was and never should be. I would rather have an overall loot drop rate decrease across the board instead of a gimmick jumping in my face at unpredictable times and with unpredictably bad outcomes.

I have zero issues with it as it is not my playstyle to stay in one place and spam mobs for drops. I have nothing against other players doing it – but they will have to face the DR as a deterrent.

It is not a gimmick – it is an effective way to stop bloating from previously insane botting. Hopefully when the bot situation is well in-hand they can lower the DR criteria, but as of now, it is fine and really doesn’t affect me in any way whatsoever.

Notice that i’m not saying ‘us’, but ‘me’ instead. Something the forum needs to also start adopting imo.

Even though im almost serious this is trolling at its finest, let me repeat your words in fewer words: “Botting does not affect me. Also, i don’t farm so i don’t mind farming being nerfed”

What should the forum start adopting? the “ME” rule?

Please, whatever it is you were doing, go do that instead of being in the forums passing around this silliness.

I’m not sure what you felt was ‘trolling’ about my post – I was stating my own opinion that I feel no need to farm, I have no desire to farm and as such I have no issue with DR.

If I am in isolation then so be it. If I am not in isolation, then my opinion is equally as valid. But I would never presume to think my opinion was shared by a majority or even a minority.

That said, I should have foreseen the obvious attempt to defame a post that agrees with DR.

I’m done with this forum.

Ath.2531:

Flynch.6034:

DR is fine, it is the loot drop regularity (or lack thereof) prior to DR kicking in that is the issue.

DR is not fine. It never was and never should be. I would rather have an overall loot drop rate decrease across the board instead of a gimmick jumping in my face at unpredictable times and with unpredictably bad outcomes.

I have zero issues with it as it is not my playstyle to stay in one place and spam mobs for drops. I have nothing against other players doing it – but they will have to face the DR as a deterrent.

It is not a gimmick – it is an effective way to stop bloating from previously insane botting. Hopefully when the bot situation is well in-hand they can lower the DR criteria, but as of now, it is fine and really doesn’t affect me in any way whatsoever.

Notice that i’m not saying ‘us’, but ‘me’ instead. Something the forum needs to also start adopting imo.

DR is fine, it is the loot drop regularity (or lack thereof) prior to DR kicking in that is the issue.

It’s a fantastic game with plenty of potential and a solid structure behind it, but I do agree that the loot table is way out of whack at the moment.

It’s one thing to not be concerned about getting nice drops, but it’s another when you are constantly reminded of the bad system because there have been zero good drops for a good long while.

I don’t chase loot but I do enjoy getting a nice surprise once in a while. But I get the same loot from the Svanir Shaman as I do from Jormag, and the time investment is vastly different between the two.

I recommend just reporting them once. If they are a bot, there is a very good chance that others will report them too, and the bots will be logged as such.

Actually, in theory, the more bugs they squash, the more experience they will gain and in doing so, will prevent bugs cropping up in newer content.

3 months in? Of course there are going to be bugs. But they will be handled. New content is an absolute priority to keep things fresh and exciting – and along the way, they will learn how to avoid pitfalls.

There is no good reason to stall on producing new content just because some bugs have not been rectified as yet.

Blaeys.3102:

Why does this chart threaten so many people or inspire them to come into a thread like this and try to rile people up – or advocate for another game over and over and over (in a GW2 forum)?

Can we not just see the numbers for what they are and allow people to make of them what they will? Whether they represent the entire universe’s opinion of a game or not (hint – no survey/contest/etc does that), they do represent advocacy of the game by a legitimate source or group of people. Whether that source meshes with your view of the world is another topic completely.

I say congratulations to ArenaNet for receiving this particular honor from this particular source – and others should be allowed to do the same without the same 2-3 people always jumping in and trying to make them feel like idiots for doing so.

I dont care how this compares to WoW, Star Wars or any other game (even those other games on this list). Frankly, Im sick of reading about those games in these forums (again from the same 2-3 people over and over). There are other non-GW2 forums where I could read those comparisons if I chose to do so.

A game I like (and whose forum I am reading) was recognized as good. That is the only thing that matters.

Because under the pretence of ‘loving the game and want to help it change for the better, in their opinion’ they have a much more vicious agenda. Of course, it’s hard to prove this. But it’s been long enough for it to be apparent.

Do you think a global event channel might help to get more people invested in them? Or do you feel that it would just be nothing but spam?

Here’s my L80 main – went for an UltraMarine colour scheme with Vigil armour

Open world wins it hands down.

If anyone played Vanguard, I think they really nailed the open-world ‘spelunking’ to a tee. I really enjoyed exploring and finding massive cave networks with their own loot tables and elite mobs etc (3 dot, 4 dot)

And even though the game never really took off, it was still great fun being alone and smashing through mobs, just to find that next yellow item. Itemisation in GW2 is a separate issue mind you :P

I haven’t explored GW2 fully yet (literally and figuratively) but i’d really like to have some epic caverns to explore that had specific loot (aesthetic style preferably).

Raine.1394:

A PTR would be impractical with an event per month, just not enough time for them to fulfill their purpose and finish the release. It would be good for the game to cancel the monthly events for now. They are a great idea on paper, but don’t work in real life.

I don’t know about that though. Rift had a fair amount of content releases and events etc and I think they had a PTR – I might be wrong on that though. Been a while since I logged on.

They should have BLK keys have a higher chance of dropping in low-mid areas. Might help boost things and get people out of LA

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

actually i got enough gold to buy 2 dusk now, but i got it all from the tradepost. 1 month ago when i hit lvl 80 and got kittenlly geared, i started farming mobs for my precurser and realized i was getting nowhere, so i started researching the trade post and look at me now. the reason i made this post wasn’t for myself, it was for everyone else who wants to be rewarded for the time spent playing. i felt it wasn’t how i pictured gw2.

So you have an immense amount of gold, far more than the ‘average’ player has by God knows what factor.

You utilised the TP to do so. But now you are saying that GW2 isn’t what you thought it would be?

Did you expect to get 800g in 3 months by farming mobs? I’d say divide that by 10 and you’re still way over the margin unless you are a dedicated farmer.

I’m conkittensed by the whole thread now. It was your choice to use the TP, it is the choice of others (by a majority imo) to play the game and gather gold and resources how they see fit.

before arenanet nerfed all drops you could make 20 gold a day off farming events in the cursed shore without getting lucky. if the game would have stayed like that, i believe i would have made even more than 800g in 3 months.

Seems to me that 20g a day was seriously imbalanced. I’m glad they nerfed it. Else everyone would be loaded, and the market prices would simply increase anyway.

lol so now that it’s 4g per day you think it’s balanced?

It baffles me as to how you think 4g a day isn’t balanced.

let’s do some math here. dusk costs 300g, if i would farm DE and mobs to get that gold, it would take exactly 75 days just for only that component. oh and when i said 4g i meant 4g in 12 hours of non stop farming.

This is the disconnect. You want the precursor as soon as possible. I do not. It could take a year as far as i’m concerned.

If players were making tons more cash, the precursor price would also skyrocket on the TP. It’s almost irrelevant how much we make, but it’s more important to keep players on a steady enough keel and not have dedicated farmers dominating the market.

And yes regarding the 4g a day I was also talking about dedicated farmers.

but still the prices for some of items are way far off of what most player’s income is.

Which is absolutely where it should be. We’re only 3 months into the game. If everyone had everything available to them, there would be almost zero progression, neither horizontally or vertically.

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

actually i got enough gold to buy 2 dusk now, but i got it all from the tradepost. 1 month ago when i hit lvl 80 and got kittenlly geared, i started farming mobs for my precurser and realized i was getting nowhere, so i started researching the trade post and look at me now. the reason i made this post wasn’t for myself, it was for everyone else who wants to be rewarded for the time spent playing. i felt it wasn’t how i pictured gw2.

So you have an immense amount of gold, far more than the ‘average’ player has by God knows what factor.

You utilised the TP to do so. But now you are saying that GW2 isn’t what you thought it would be?

Did you expect to get 800g in 3 months by farming mobs? I’d say divide that by 10 and you’re still way over the margin unless you are a dedicated farmer.

I’m conkittensed by the whole thread now. It was your choice to use the TP, it is the choice of others (by a majority imo) to play the game and gather gold and resources how they see fit.

before arenanet nerfed all drops you could make 20 gold a day off farming events in the cursed shore without getting lucky. if the game would have stayed like that, i believe i would have made even more than 800g in 3 months.

Seems to me that 20g a day was seriously imbalanced. I’m glad they nerfed it. Else everyone would be loaded, and the market prices would simply increase anyway.

lol so now that it’s 4g per day you think it’s balanced?

It baffles me as to how you think 4g a day isn’t balanced.

let’s do some math here. dusk costs 300g, if i would farm DE and mobs to get that gold, it would take exactly 75 days just for only that component. oh and when i said 4g i meant 4g in 12 hours of non stop farming.

This is the disconnect. You want the precursor as soon as possible. I do not. It could take a year as far as i’m concerned.

If players were making tons more cash, the precursor price would also skyrocket on the TP. It’s almost irrelevant how much we make, but it’s more important to keep players on a steady enough keel and not have dedicated farmers dominating the market.

And yes regarding the 4g a day I was also talking about dedicated farmers.

JemL.3501:

Flynch.6034:

JemL.3501:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

actually i got enough gold to buy 2 dusk now, but i got it all from the tradepost. 1 month ago when i hit lvl 80 and got kittenlly geared, i started farming mobs for my precurser and realized i was getting nowhere, so i started researching the trade post and look at me now. the reason i made this post wasn’t for myself, it was for everyone else who wants to be rewarded for the time spent playing. i felt it wasn’t how i pictured gw2.

So you have an immense amount of gold, far more than the ‘average’ player has by God knows what factor.

You utilised the TP to do so. But now you are saying that GW2 isn’t what you thought it would be?

Did you expect to get 800g in 3 months by farming mobs? I’d say divide that by 10 and you’re still way over the margin unless you are a dedicated farmer.

I’m conkittensed by the whole thread now. It was your choice to use the TP, it is the choice of others (by a majority imo) to play the game and gather gold and resources how they see fit.

before arenanet nerfed all drops you could make 20 gold a day off farming events in the cursed shore without getting lucky. if the game would have stayed like that, i believe i would have made even more than 800g in 3 months.

Seems to me that 20g a day was seriously imbalanced. I’m glad they nerfed it. Else everyone would be loaded, and the market prices would simply increase anyway.

is not imbalanced is just a way to farm, having to play with TP to get gold is just awkittenl the other option is to buy gems which some people cant, but so many can, so wouldnt done anything to anet bussiness, the people who used to farm and saw ‘’you are not allowed to farm’’ and ‘’all the profit ways you find arent as intended’’ already left the game by like 99% of them.

Except you don’t have to play the TP at all. You can chill out and play the game and just go with the flow – or you can stand around the TP til you have a mountain of gold, blow it all then have nothing else to drive you forwards as playing the game wasn’t appealing enough anyway.

that doesnt even make sense…you are saying everyone must have the same ammount of gold or everyone must do the same as you for farm gold…if you think 20g a day was 1 hr log in you are so wrong so wrong, in a game where you require to to farm, you must let the players decide how to farm, not tell them ‘’you are not allowed’’ ‘’this wasnt as intended’’ could be once, but everytime a method was found…lol. Some people dont come to cry to forums, they just leave, they dont care if you make 1 g or 100 g day, they care about how much they make.

First off, there is no requirement to grind/farm. Let’s get that out of the way.

There is no content that is gated to the degree where players have to farm or grind. It’s that simple.

GW2 allows players to farm as much as they like, if they perceive a goal as a ‘must have right now’. However, they have put a DR mechanic in place to thwart bots. Players can still get gold through pretty much any avenue in the game. GW2 is not putting a gun to their head and forcing them to grind a 20ft square area in a L80 zone.

I have plenty of cash, I have bought everything that I want at the moment, and I have not once farmed for any of it.

And no of course I’m not saying everyone should have the same amount of gold – that’s ridiculous and not sure how you got that from my post – i’m stating, quite simply, that what you think you need, is not what the game requires of you.

So grind away for the gold, that’s fine. But to come here and say that it’s too hard to amass vast quantities of gold from doing one activity endlessly for your own short-term goal is selfish at best.

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

actually i got enough gold to buy 2 dusk now, but i got it all from the tradepost. 1 month ago when i hit lvl 80 and got fully geared, i started farming mobs for my precurser and realized i was getting nowhere, so i started researching the trade post and look at me now. the reason i made this post wasn’t for myself, it was for everyone else who wants to be rewarded for the time spent playing. i felt it wasn’t how i pictured gw2.

So you have an immense amount of gold, far more than the ‘average’ player has by God knows what factor.

You utilised the TP to do so. But now you are saying that GW2 isn’t what you thought it would be?

Did you expect to get 800g in 3 months by farming mobs? I’d say divide that by 10 and you’re still way over the margin unless you are a dedicated farmer.

I’m confused by the whole thread now. It was your choice to use the TP, it is the choice of others (by a majority imo) to play the game and gather gold and resources how they see fit.

before arenanet nerfed all drops you could make 20 gold a day off farming events in the cursed shore without getting lucky. if the game would have stayed like that, i believe i would have made even more than 800g in 3 months.

Seems to me that 20g a day was seriously imbalanced. I’m glad they nerfed it. Else everyone would be loaded, and the market prices would simply increase anyway.

lol so now that it’s 4g per day you think it’s balanced?

It baffles me as to how you think 4g a day isn’t balanced.

Snores.7806:

The thing is, some of us cant dedicate the time needed to farm dungeons. 3 screaming kids in the house and a 60 hr a week job means I can’t spend that amount of uninterrupted time glued to a keyboard. At release at least I felt I could get some progression just playing casually, catch up with the power grinders and compete on a relatively lvl playing field.
Now I have an 80 (he’s only 3 wks old) Ilve hit the wall. Open world has just become a giant pita, hours of gaming for little reward and no progression. I can’t even get through Malchors Leap with all the bugs and randomly spawning mobs. Between WP and repair costs I’m hemmoraging gold at a frightening rate.
I’m down to playing an hour a week now and soon I’ll be gone. the fact that Ilm still here, surfing the forums and looking for answers should show you how much I actually enjoyed my gameplay at release. I’ve come to the conclusion that GW2 is no longer a casual PvErs game. Go HC dungeon grinder or FOB2WoW ? Because thats all I’m hearing from Anet and the community.

What goal have you set that requires you to keep up with anybody though? I work hard during the week, have a couple of days off where I come on the forums while playing GW2, but apart from that I probably have 1-2 hours a day. Serious question, as the game will still be here and whatever you are working towards will still be here.

If it is gold you are grinding, then just purchase some if you feel you don’t have the time for it. It’s not a crime, in fact, you are helping Anet keep content flowing.

JemL.3501:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

actually i got enough gold to buy 2 dusk now, but i got it all from the tradepost. 1 month ago when i hit lvl 80 and got fully geared, i started farming mobs for my precurser and realized i was getting nowhere, so i started researching the trade post and look at me now. the reason i made this post wasn’t for myself, it was for everyone else who wants to be rewarded for the time spent playing. i felt it wasn’t how i pictured gw2.

So you have an immense amount of gold, far more than the ‘average’ player has by God knows what factor.

You utilised the TP to do so. But now you are saying that GW2 isn’t what you thought it would be?

Did you expect to get 800g in 3 months by farming mobs? I’d say divide that by 10 and you’re still way over the margin unless you are a dedicated farmer.

I’m confused by the whole thread now. It was your choice to use the TP, it is the choice of others (by a majority imo) to play the game and gather gold and resources how they see fit.

before arenanet nerfed all drops you could make 20 gold a day off farming events in the cursed shore without getting lucky. if the game would have stayed like that, i believe i would have made even more than 800g in 3 months.

Seems to me that 20g a day was seriously imbalanced. I’m glad they nerfed it. Else everyone would be loaded, and the market prices would simply increase anyway.

is not imbalanced is just a way to farm, having to play with TP to get gold is just awful the other option is to buy gems which some people cant, but so many can, so wouldnt done anything to anet bussiness, the people who used to farm and saw ‘’you are not allowed to farm’’ and ‘’all the profit ways you find arent as intended’’ already left the game by like 99% of them.

Except you don’t have to play the TP at all. You can chill out and play the game and just go with the flow – or you can stand around the TP til you have a mountain of gold, blow it all then have nothing else to drive you forwards as playing the game wasn’t appealing enough anyway.

exionn.8152:

Flynch.6034:

exionn.8152:

actually i got enough gold to buy 2 dusk now, but i got it all from the tradepost. 1 month ago when i hit lvl 80 and got fully geared, i started farming mobs for my precurser and realized i was getting nowhere, so i started researching the trade post and look at me now. the reason i made this post wasn’t for myself, it was for everyone else who wants to be rewarded for the time spent playing. i felt it wasn’t how i pictured gw2.

So you have an immense amount of gold, far more than the ‘average’ player has by God knows what factor.

You utilised the TP to do so. But now you are saying that GW2 isn’t what you thought it would be?

Did you expect to get 800g in 3 months by farming mobs? I’d say divide that by 10 and you’re still way over the margin unless you are a dedicated farmer.

I’m confused by the whole thread now. It was your choice to use the TP, it is the choice of others (by a majority imo) to play the game and gather gold and resources how they see fit.

before arenanet nerfed all drops you could make 20 gold a day off farming events in the cursed shore without getting lucky. if the game would have stayed like that, i believe i would have made even more than 800g in 3 months.

Seems to me that 20g a day was seriously imbalanced. I’m glad they nerfed it. Else everyone would be loaded, and the market prices would simply increase anyway.

alcopaul.2156:

Flynch.6034:

If they didn’t ‘weigh’ your RNG before this thread, they certainly should now.

Just, wow. Wow.

if that will be so, then ill be vindicated. then this thread is right all along.

Considering the motto of the group who lobbied against the Ascended gear was ‘we are clearly the majority’ based on a 10k post threadnaught that repeated itself ad-nauseum, you honestly believe that Anet would ‘weigh’ the RNG against so many if you were indeed the majority?

Taking this thread into account, you do neither yourself nor your camp any favours.

If they didn’t ‘weigh’ your RNG before this thread, they certainly should now.

Just, wow. Wow.

exionn.8152:

actually i got enough gold to buy 2 dusk now, but i got it all from the tradepost. 1 month ago when i hit lvl 80 and got fully geared, i started farming mobs for my precurser and realized i was getting nowhere, so i started researching the trade post and look at me now. the reason i made this post wasn’t for myself, it was for everyone else who wants to be rewarded for the time spent playing. i felt it wasn’t how i pictured gw2.

So you have an immense amount of gold, far more than the ‘average’ player has by God knows what factor.

You utilised the TP to do so. But now you are saying that GW2 isn’t what you thought it would be?

Did you expect to get 800g in 3 months by farming mobs? I’d say divide that by 10 and you’re still way over the margin unless you are a dedicated farmer.

I’m confused by the whole thread now. It was your choice to use the TP, it is the choice of others (by a majority imo) to play the game and gather gold and resources how they see fit.

Akiko.2364:

guess it’s a matter of perspective, I don’t even have two gold! …. (and I do have 2 level 80’s)

think the most I have ever had was about 6… when I once lucked out and had a White Dye drop…. but I don’t mind. I still enjoy playing with no money and have no intention to work to farm more… if I get some I get some.

Bingo! This is what I like to see and hope to see far more of, on the forums in particular.

ShaiHulud.7410:

Naqaj.6219:

Funny enough, once you ditch the usual MMO-mindset of MUST-AQUIRE-MORE-STUFF!! and just play for fun, non of these issues have any impact on your game.
I get enough gold for what I need just from playing the game, even have some spare to trade into gems. I have full exotic gear and am now replacing trinkets one by one too. Haven’t farmed a single minute, simply because this game doesn’t require you to.

Because you are the average-casual type of gamer. If you think like this that doesn’t mean we all need to think like this.

Probably you say: ’’It’s enough of what I have at the moment’’. Even though what you have is, for example, a sword that everyone else has, an armor that everyone else has etc.

But there are some players like me who want more out of their gaming experience. I want to strive, to compete, to come out in front. To have a 500 gold sword because I love it’s unique look and because I know that only 2 % of the population has it.

To have a cultural Tier 3 armor set because I know I am unique and not looking the same with 90 % of the server population.

And I wanna achieve this bymyself. By grinding. And when I say grinding I am expecting a reward also. And not being cut off from any means of acquiring gold except grabbing my wallet and buying their pathetic gems in order to conver them to gold.

So you want to grind for an item because you want to be pseudo-unique, yet you don’t want it to be too grindy.

If you take the grind out of the equation, everyone and their dog will have the item by the end of the week.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish here.

Work out what you need the gold for – then ask yourself how badly you want it.

If you want it right here, right now, you put some RL cash on the line (which is more than likely less than a standard monthly MMO sub) and purchase the gold.

If you don’t require it this very second, then work towards it and view it as a long term goal.

The game is 3 months old. Anet are a business. They have given us 2 choices – work for it, or RMT it. Fair enough imo considering I don’t have to spend a single penny if I choose not to as there is no sub.

puffintoast.6501:

Narkosys.5173:

Very nice idea but goes against the idea of nerf loot in order to force players to buy gems to keep up.

You’ve been paying attention, Narkosys. This one elicited a wry, cynical grin.
’tis a great idea though, and under different circumstances would work a treat.

Forcing players to keep up? This I do not understand and you’ll have to explain this to me.

Who are we keeping up with? Or who are we meant to be keeping up with, more accurately.

Note: One time reply – let’s not derail this thread.

Conner.4702:

Actually this would just move the problem around. What actually needs to happen is to give people natural reasons to visit areas.

It could be treated like a breadcrumb system. So you have the boosts every alternate day, and the areas that have the boosts lead to a large scale event that already existed with a nice chest at the end. There could be multiple boosted areas each day and have them on a random rotation.

Educating the players and providing knowledge of events and their rewards in different zones might go a long way in spreading the playerbase out more. They are more likely to then revisit these events to get chests outside of the XP boost days.

Yup a well thought-out solution. I’d love to have something like this as an added motivator!

1. Anet sends out an email to hibernating accounts.
2. Have a 2 week reply/click link window. No clicky = auto-move.
3. ???
4. Profit

I certainly appreciate your points and I shall not defend the game, but will merely say that it is still young and i’m quite positive they shipped the game with a skeletal structure (even though i’m loving it at the moment anyway) that has lots of content but it is highly repetitive.

Maybe (hopefully!) check back later and Anet should have a lot of this stuff cracked. You put across your points very well and you are the kind of player i’d like in the game

Lots of if, buts and maybes there I know, but good luck with your endeavours!

JemL.3501:

Dont worry Trahearne will become corrupt by the next dragon because he was infected for being next to zaithan so much time and you will need to put an end to his fallen life like you did for apatia…

I can really get behind this idea, but perhaps instead of just straight-up killing him, the player has to make the choice whether to sacrifice a long-standing companion to ‘cure’ Trahearne for the good of the Pact, or to end T’s corrupted life, possibly throwing the Pact into greater turmoil through hopelessness and lack of faith in the PC.

I can see no reason why the OP’s suggestions should not be put into practice and i’d relish the chance at having more ways of gaining equipment – this includes the expansion packs which inevitably will also have new gear (more powerful or not!)

Hydrophidian.4319:

edited for keeping the page a reasonable length!

I do see where you are coming from. And of course I agree that to make things more entertaining you have to add diversity and breadth etc.

But that’s common sense. We’re dealing with what we have on the table right now, and these amendments to content may or may not come out, but if/when they do, it will be in the future.

It is my personal opinion that the content they have as of right now is sufficient for the age of the game, the length of development time and the required items in-game.

Would I like to see increased AI? Of course! Would I like to have a host of other activities? Of course! I also have no doubt that these will be implemented at some point. Fishing is pretty much the top of the tree for me at the moment (nudge nudge wink wink Anet)

However, the caveat here is that I only play casually, with very limited time. So by the time I’m faced with anything I feel I really want, i’ll either have the mats and cash already for it, or new content will have been brought out that lends itself to increasing the fun when attempting to acquire the items.

I also have no doubt that currently their [Anet] proposed model did not take into account 1000+ hours played since release. If that was 90 days (give or take) you’re looking at 11 hours a day. Would they have liked to have more content and more diversity? Of course, as much as the players would like it too, but they probably saw fit not to worry about the side-content too much as they felt the main content was enough.

I just feel that they are trying to promote a ‘chill out and kick back’ attitude by using DR and RNG to dictate items etc. Is it frustrating for certain players? Of course it is. But that’s really down to the fact that these items are something they badly want rather than badly need. I like to think that these highly sought-after items would be something you gradually earn rather than soldier straight towards.

Again this is only my opinion. I’ve already stated that I understand various playstyles, but they may simply not fit with the game itself.

If Anet really wanted people to grind and keep grinding or pay through the nose for gems, they would have made Exotics insanely expensive.

Anyway – i’m off for a bit! Was a good discussion though and lots to consider on both sides.

Hydrophidian.4319:

Flynch.6034:

Some players have been quoted as saying that their /timeplayed is 1000+ hours.

I’m approaching that. Many items still look as though they’ll be unobtainable for me. That should be telling.

Simply put, there is no game out there that, after a few months, can be expected to keep players busy for that long without some degree of repetition.

This is a straw man. I’m not referring to repetition. Replayability of content is actually a big factor here because, yes, MMOs will never be able to keep up with the demand for new content.

What I’m saying is, for most players, the replayability isn’t there to support the requirements that have been introduced for many of these items (not just the Legendary tier). Not without resorting grind. ANet claims it wants to minimize or eliminate grind. Its game model, as it stands, seems to say something altogether different.

And, again, I’m fairly easy to please. But there isn’t a single aspect of gameplay that isn’t going to get stale for me long before any of these requirements are met. So, with my bar being relatively low, I assume most people are going to hit that grind threshold before I do. The difference is, they might keep right on going, whereas I’ll simply stop.

There needs to be greater variety and greater complexity to sustain a longer-term engagement. One example, right off the top of my head, is to make story missions replayable. That’s a mileage opportunity that ANet has completely failed to exploit.

You have somewhat confused me here though. You state that my opinion on the unavoidable repetition of content is a strawman, but you then to go on to say that there needs to be greater variety and greater complexity?

This is exactly my point. I was under the impression that a grind is to repeat an action – and to this end, the repetition in GW2 is what the major complaint is about with regards to the grind.

To sum up – the only way to avoid a grind is to either re-hash content or inject new content into the game. I think we are both agreed on that, surely?

But after a few months since launch, all content has been utterly used up by serious players, and many others have barely even begun to experience it themselves. This is not a thinly veiled attempt to say ‘slow down’ as I do appreciate that people play games for different periods of time, but I also think it’s fair enough that to get 1000+ hours out of a game within the first few months is pretty good.

Really it comes down to, how long has a player genuinely been grinding for a Legendary for, and do they feel that it is too long. Most will say it is too long because of the repetition of the activities. But this brings us back to the original point where there is only so much content a game has that can sustain a player for so long at an accelerated rate.

I don’t think i’ve ever heard a more lack-lustre ‘To Victory!’ in my entire life. It’s his voice that grates the most tbh.

Hydrophidian.4319:

It’s not about making obtainment easier.

It’s about making the path to obtainment more engaging, so that we don’t even notice how long the path is.

If obtaining X is intended to take a year, then there better be enough content to keep me entertained for that year. Otherwise, forget X, and I won’t be around for the next paid expansion.

Some players have been quoted as saying that their /timeplayed is 1000+ hours.

Simply put, there is no game out there that, after a few months, can be expected to keep players busy for that long without some degree of repetition. Player-made content is the only thing that can create this massive amount of content for a decent amount of time, and currently GW2 is not set up for this. Nor should it be.

For 500-1000 hours of entertainment, there really are no ground for the ‘lack of content’ argument. This is not an attack btw. I think the perception of time vs effort is skewed because of the compressed time people have been playing without reasonable time-outs.

Hope that makes sense!

What will keep players playing once they have acquired the item they are grinding for?

This is the base issue imo. For me, I have no problem slowly gathering mats and gold over time as i’m enjoying playing the game with my other half.

If doing other activities in the game are no longer fun for you, and you resort to a linear form of grind to acquire currency etc, then those other activities will still not be entertaining after you have the new shiny.

It seems to me that, honestly, the diagnosis is to take a step back and maybe stop convincing yourself that you need the Legendary. You’ll most likely not use it for long anyway.

I am genuinely intrigued as to the answers though. Do you feel that you will enjoy the game once you have the new item you are grinding for? Or do you grind for the item to keep yourself ‘connected’ to the game and qualify your purchase?

edit: clarity

Morrigan.2809:

Flynch.6034:

Surbrus.6942:

Flynch.6034:

Regarding the keys, if you need them badly, just create an alt and storyline them to L10 where you receive one as a reward. Much, much easier and faster this way.

This begs the question: how does story quest rewards work when multiple people are partaking in the same story quest (that they are all on)? A party of 5 players could probably clear the story quest up to 10 fairly easy. Would that be one key for each player (all using the same race and relevant background)?

The player whos storyline it is, is the only one who receives any reward.

Now, I haven’t tried to pair up with anyone who has the exact same level and exact same storyline to complete the exact same ‘stage’ so I have no idea how the rewards are handled in that situation, but it’s my guess that whoever starts the quest will be the one to receive the ‘phat lutes’ and then the partied friend will receive theirs when they trigger the stage again.

But i’d be interested to find out!

if you are both on the same story line the other player can choose to accept the story as his or to replay it at the end of the chapter
If he accepted, he gets his own reward since the completed chapter counts as his own story progression.
I have done this with my husband on all our characters.

Ah fantastic thanks for letting me know

Surbrus.6942:

Flynch.6034:

Regarding the keys, if you need them badly, just create an alt and storyline them to L10 where you receive one as a reward. Much, much easier and faster this way.

This begs the question: how does story quest rewards work when multiple people are partaking in the same story quest (that they are all on)? A party of 5 players could probably clear the story quest up to 10 fairly easy. Would that be one key for each player (all using the same race and relevant background)?

The player whos storyline it is, is the only one who receives any reward.

Now, I haven’t tried to pair up with anyone who has the exact same level and exact same storyline to complete the exact same ‘stage’ so I have no idea how the rewards are handled in that situation, but it’s my guess that whoever starts the quest will be the one to receive the ‘phat lutes’ and then the partied friend will receive theirs when they trigger the stage again.

But i’d be interested to find out!

If the issue is wide-spread and hit many people, then their task is going to be phenomenally grand.

They are working on it. Unless you’re being sent to the moon within the next week or so, i’m hopeful you guys can be patient and understanding.

Considering their servers did not crash, and your own ISPs are possibly (don’t take that as an attack) to blame, then I think it’s fair enough.

Dye drop rate seems to be the same as it was prior to the ‘buff’ but now that we have no/less bots, the dye prices will soar.

Thing is, the term MMO is a blanket statement that is pretty broad. I mean, it covers an absolute ton of other games, (MMOFPS, MMORPG etc etc)

And because it defines a genre, the broadness of the term is deliberately vague. There are no rules except for the fact that it has to be online and it has to have a lot of people playing it concurrently.

Past that, we’re free to make and enjoy an MMO however we like. GW2 is not a job and is not designed to soak up your entire life. If it does, then that’s cool as you have naturally given yourself a goal, but taking it casually will get you to the exact same place, just a bit later.

Just want to pitch in and add that I too have had zero keys drop over the course of my various alt careers. The T-stones though are considerably easier to get and i’ve had both the normal and the ‘rare’ (?) ones as a reward for completion.

Regarding the keys, if you need them badly, just create an alt and storyline them to L10 where you receive one as a reward. Much, much easier and faster this way.

MechanicalMind.9126:

Flynch.6034:

Look, they balls’d up. You don’t try to bait and switch, then send someone on for 8 hours to represent and answer questions to then bait and switch again. That’s idiotic.

Logged in just to reply to this.

Oh, please. Seriously. They HAD to send in someone to do an AMA. I would argue that it was specifically because of the backlash they did it and nothing else. It’s basically a fireman to a fire.

Just because one person says they are going to “fix it” doesn’t mean they wont try other ways of practicing it in the future. I mean kitten they even said they had meant to do it and that it was staying.

In any case, logic please?

Of course they had to send someone in to deal with it. I’m not saying that it wasn’t required or that it was some sort of altruism on Anet’s part.

My point was simple. If you have wrecked something and caused a great deal of damage to the community through lack of transparency, you don’t then set up an AMA with further deception at its heart.

They would have done less damage by doing nothing at all than they would have by further (personally I don’t believe they did) baiting and switching in the AMA.

GreyFeathers.8175:

Flynch that link is nuked by my security suite so not sure what the heck was posted but it isn’t something I’ll be looking into. Thanks for trying though. I’m pretty paranoid about links no matter what site I’m on and gaming sites are quite honestly pretty bad.

Seriously can we get a list of just the Q @ A without this wall of text and arguments ?

Ah ok my apologies. Chrome didn’t flag it on mine so I had no idea! I expect that a compilation PDF of sorts could be constructed though, perhaps by a helpful mod

Tachenon.5270:

Flynch.6034:

The man spent 8 hours answering questions. I honestly don’t know what he could have said to appease you.

Well, he could have said “Everything we say is a lie.”

I imagine the reaction here would be something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuYbDP2kDfg

Actually, that’s probably pretty accurate…

I have perhaps grown cynical in my old age, but I tend to take anything and everything a game developer says (even the ones I like) with a cargo freighter (or two) of salt, so there’s not much he could have said beyond something like “Yeah, we intentionally mislead the horizontal GW1 type guys with our manifesto video and stuff so they’d buy the game, and now that we have their money we’re switching gears in an attempt to grab some quick cash from the folks out there who prefer the grindy vertical stuff and when that’s played out we’ll switch gears again and go for yet another crowd. Maybe even… your crowd! So stick around. Lots and lots of fun stuff yet to come!” that would have impressed me. Heck, if he’d said that I’d be tempted to spend moar $$$ on the game!

I think if the devs felt that people would be more level-headed then a greater degree of transparency could have been afforded. The AMA provided plenty of pause for thought however and I do believe it helped to settle many disputes.

I’m also cynical at the best of times, but in this case, i’d rather just appreciate what the AMA gave us and maybe, perhaps just maybe, give the team some room to adjust and re-adjust.

Oh and btw, i’m not even sure I have a crowd

Conner.4702:

Flynch.6034:

Conner.4702:

hydeaut.1758:

Flynch.6034:

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.

This is the biggest problem I have with his answers. They say one thing yet do the opposite. Ascended gear was clearly a grind when implemented. You don’t need a lot of intelligence to see it is a grind. So how can he say they don’t want a grind in game when that is exactly what they put in.

Well to be fair, he did state that they balls’d it up and that they are looking at it again. People do make mistakes and this is their first foray into the true MMO market.

That’s the point this wasn’t a mistake this was intentional. They were told 1 cookie from the cookie jar. They tried to get more and someone slammed the lid on their fingers, hence the backlash you have seen the last 2 weeks.
Saying this is their first true MMO is apologetic behaviour at best.

I’m far from an apologist. I’m old enough to recognise my own cynicism and pop a lid on that too. Perhaps it’s time for people to take a step back and stop viewing them as some Evil corporation. That’s far too emo for my liking and i’d much rather have a discussion on the future, than on a 2-sided futile political argument.

And honestly, I don’t see how me saying that this is their first true MMO is somehow false. Do people really think that Anet are infallible because they have heritage?

Shados.1306:

What I get from this AMA, and from Chris’ posts on the forums is: “Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission”.

The way he’s like “Whoops, sorry! We should have seen this coming, we’ll fix it, promise!!” is just silly. You design a dungeon around community fracturing and two way gating (both with gear and with run count), and then…it fracture the community. Who would have thought! And then go “Oh sorry guys!”, like if it wasn’t expected.

It was -by design-. They push this in fully expecting to have to apologize for it. They just didn’t expect how the PR stunt to get the community to eat it wouldn’t work.

They may have simply been optimistic in their approach and hoped the forum wouldn’t be so vapid and cynical with their ‘no more chances’ posts.

Look, they balls’d up. You don’t try to bait and switch, then send someone on for 8 hours to represent and answer questions to then bait and switch again. That’s idiotic.

Personally I think, for their first MMO foray (no, i’m not counting GW1 in the same field/genre) they have done a good job. They are trying to push the envelope and they overshot somewhat. But if you genuinely believe they actively tried to sabotage their own community and game with prior knowledge of the absolute trainwreck_ that we have atm, then fair enough I guess.