Guild Wars 2

Grind Wars 2 definitely needed some more grind.

I’m sure there’s a ton of people out there who are excited for this “feature”, but it’s definitely under-whelming for a Week 3 announcement to say the least.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

So what exactly is the point of revamping the only part of the game people almost unanimously loved and completely ignoring the areas of the game people think need the most work? It just seems like a terrible business strategy to me.

Unfortunately, their business strategy revolves around immense gold sinks and the convenience of the Gem Store.

Why would they deliver on permanent content and key features for prominent game-modes such as sPvP and WvW when they can make a killing off of a quaggan hat?

Man, that mini-pet change is so exciting and relevant.

I cried myself to sleep when they announced the meteor nado nerf.

Never forget.

style.6173:

I think a better solution should be this. It shouldn’t impact queue times that much.

1. A team can have no more than 2 of one profession
2. A team cannot have more than 1 double.

In other words, a team of: ranger, ranger, engi, warrior, guardian is fine
a team of ranger, ranger, ranger, warrior guardian is not fine (violates #1)
a team of ranger, ranger, warrior, warrior, guardian is not fine (violates #2)

This would be amazing.

Zoso.8279:

Flytrap.8075:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

We will starting a CDI soon on…….Guilds.

It will be broken down into time boxed discussion sections such as Guild vs. Guild, Guild Activities, Managing Guilds, Guild Content etc.

This is definitely an intriguing choice for a CDI topic.

I’m actually kind of excited

Wow not trying to offend you but if you have Flytrap excited you know your going in the right direction. (Not trying to attack you brother just saying you’ve been very vocal about your opinion towards the game)

Finally having a CDI on what should be one of the main focuses of Guild Wars 2?

I have no complaints.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

We will starting a CDI soon on…….Guilds.

It will be broken down into time boxed discussion sections such as Guild vs. Guild, Guild Activities, Managing Guilds, Guild Content etc.

This is definitely an intriguing choice for a CDI topic.

I’m actually kind of excited

GuzziHero.2467:

Wow. I mean… wow.

Do you just put your hands on your keyboard, close your eyes, and post whatever you type next?

How is the enormous list of updates, changes and developments which has been posted several times in this thread even remotely like stagnation?

Tell us what YOU want to see. Let’s see what ideas you have.

I could say the same to you.

It’s clear that your primary game-modes aren’t sPvP and WvW. I’ll just leave it at that.

KOPPER.1458:

Honest Question as I am a little confused. Are New Races / New Classes considered a feature or content?

That’s content.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We’ve seen this in other games – dead areas, zones and dungeons no one gives a kitten about. It’s called stagnation.

And stagnation is exactly what we have right now.

Elsdragon.5109:

Right back at you. They could probably release a new dungeon, several new Fractals, another new area and you’d complain why there weren’t 2 dungeons, more Fractals, and why the one area they released wasn’t sculpted from an image from your mind.

No, I’d probably complain about how sPvP and WvW have taken a backseat to the Living Story and Gem Store updates yet again.

But honestly, that’s nothing new at this point.

Lheimroo.2947:

Honestly, I have a hard time understanding Anet’s policy – it’s unique in this industry.

Go spend ten minutes and look at the developer trackers for wow, swtor, tsw, eve, eso, wildstar, etc, etc – Anet’s communications are both fewer and far different in kind, and I don’t know what is behind the fundamental difference.

It’s pretty clear that the last gamermag interview was a bit of a straw to the camel’s back for the player base – and rightfully so; there’re serious issues that have existed for months and years that we as players have no idea if Anet even cares about or intends to address. To ask heartfelt questions about content that have simmered for months and receive politician-style dodging..

Meanwhile, the evidence of their actions – the commander tag fiasco, and others – demonstrates a tendency to misread player feedback.

I’ve already harped on how one problem is related to the other.

Do I want to know what’s coming next? I’d settle for knowing if Anet even thought the trait changes feedback merited serious change in the system. They wouldn’t have to spoil anything to tell me that, and yet they leave me peeved over the thing for months with no outlet.

You raise some good points.

I’d love to see some communication aside from Chris Whiteside mass quoting random posts and Colin Johanson telling us that ANet is in fact working on stuff but that said stuff cannot be discussed.

A little transparency goes a long way.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Account bound wxp
Skin wardrobe
Trait hunting
Mini pets no long auto deposit
Certain world bosses revamped to be more than stand and spam fests
Added Molten and Aether to fractals
Account bound commander tags
Account bound legendaries
Account bound ascended (not perfect, but we did ask)
Replayable LS story
Increasingly better tutorial features for new players
Account bound dye
TP preview option

I could keep going if you’d like, but you’ll ignore it just like you’ve ignored it thus far.

It’s funny that the majority of your list includes features that only just became available in April of this year and that essentially all of them aside from account-bound legendaries and ascended items were met with mixed results.

I’d love to hear what criticisms you have in regards to this game because so far, it looks like ANet could release just about anything and it would get your dopamine pathway going.

Boneheart.3561:

No I don’t. Surprise me.

Spoilers for Feature Patch February 2015:

• Introduced Green and Pink as Commander tag color choices.

• Cleared up numerous tooltips.

Linnael.1069:

I’ve certainly never seen the entire front two pages be flooded with posts insinuating that ANet does nothing at all with their time. I’ve never seen a wholesale crash of player confidence. I’ve never seen anything warrant a flood of dev responses, a return of the CDI, and a bunch of game designer posts regarding high level company policy.

After two years of blog posts, dev updates, and what-have-you from ANet, it’s pretty clear at this point that their main tool is the classic carrot on the stick. Sure, O’Brien can say that they don’t want to string players along, but that’s exactly what they’re doing by refusing to release development details on new content and committing to a timetable.

Imagine that tomorrow, they change their policy and announce everything they have in the pipeline and what you can expect for the next year to come. What if it’s not good enough? What if it’s just more of the same Living Story and Gem Store updates? I know I’d be gone for good.

By keeping radio silence, they let each player individually build up their own hype and expectations. I wonder what they’re working on… I mean, as far as we know, it could literally be anything.

And that’s the point.

BobbyT.7192:

Doesn’t mean they are delivering no content at all.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that; obviously they have made changes to the game.

The problem lies in the fact that the changes they have implemented haven’t done very much to add depth and variety to gameplay, and as a direct result, the game in general has grown stagnant.

Sure, they added the Skyhammer map. If you actively played solo queue in sPvP, you’d realize that it’s one of the most abused and thus hated maps out there.

Sure, they have balance updates… but only every five months or so. Just think on that for a minute; a new build emerges, the sPvP community realizes how broken it is, and then you have to live with it for the next five months. It’s just boring, repetitive, and simply annoying.

Sure, they added EotM (which is gorgeous by the way). However, their good intent fell a little flat with the WvW community and now it’s nothing more than a glorified PvE karma train map. They suggested that the new map would lead to further changes with the overall game-mode, but those changes have yet to come to fruition (or even be revealed, for that matter).

Sure, we have WvW tournaments every four to five months. The problem with this though is that the meta is essentially the exact same as it was upon release and that meaningful changes to the overall WvW experience are few and far between.

The whole point is that this game has grown stale for myself and the group of people that I actively played with due to the lack of content releases that would breathe new life into the game. I get that a lot of people are floored by the biweekly PvE Living Story and Gem Store updates, but that’s simply not going to do it for me.

Boneheart.3561:

I’m glad you brought this up. There seems to be a bug on the forum, I’m seeing my +1s going to comments I’ve never even read before and have to un-submit them.

I’ve noticed that as well. I’m not sure if it’s a visual bug or if it’s actually registering as an upvote.

Erukk.1408:

It only shows that your statement appeal to a certain group of people, and it in no way shows that your statement appeals to everyone.

That’s the point.

Just as there are those that are 100% happy with the direction that ANet has gone with their development of GW2, there are others who feel like they’re not delivering on meaningful content.

Iason Evan.3806:

Flytrap: It’s ok to be letdown because of this stuff. It’s not OK to be disrespectful though. In fact, if you are respectful in your comments and criticism you are more likely to be listened to rather than heard and ignored because how you are saying what you want to say is hurtful and disrespectful.

Tell that to the people who keep upvoting me.

Darmikau.9413:

I think there’s a disconnect between what content we get, and what content players feel they should be getting. If you’re asking the question “has there been content?” then the answer is, of course, yes.

If you’re asking “does the scope of the content we’ve received match what we received in GW1?” then the answer is very far from yes.

I don’t think anyone is really arguing that we haven’t been given content, but given that Anet is four times the size they were when they made GW1 and working on a larger budget game, they’ve introduced an incredibly tiny fraction of what we received in GW1 in the same time frame. That means skills, weapons, explorable areas, classes, dungeons, hard mode, etc. Living Story has, so far, failed to introduce this entirely, or on a scale that matches GW1. The game is also still missing features which should have been present at launch, like Guild Halls and GvG.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that Anet has released content. It just doesn’t nearly match the scope of GW1.

This.

pdavis.8031:

As far as the tournament being a joke, or a distraction? Again that is personal opinion, and, as you yourself said, an extreamly biased one at that.

It’s the common opinion amongst serious WvW players; if you actively played in WvW every week or at least visited the WvW sub-forum from time to time, at least that much would become clear to you.

You only perceive my thoughts as biased because you don’t agree with them.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Yes because any proof to a person as biased as you are is “reaching”.

As a software engineer (literally) I can tell you you are the most wrong and vitriolic type of client I’ve ever seen. I’ve dealt with my share of kittens too.

WvW tourneys? They don’t like them? Lol? That’s why so many people participated in them? Gave feedback? And anet changed hkw they did tourneys for wvw. Right? Yep. How about edge of the mists? They had full guilds test and give recommendations before final release. Yeah. They do nothing. IM reaching.

Please go back to school this high school nonsense is really bogging me down.

I can tell you don’t WvW very often. There’s a reason that a lot of guilds are simply disappearing from the scene and it’s not some grand mystery… anyone who has played WvW seriously knows that the game-mode has become stagnant after taking the backseat to PvE, the Living Story, and Gem Store updates.

Sure, you can call me biased, but that’s only because my line of reasoning and what I want out of this game doesn’t match up with yours. It’s just as easy for me to label you as biased since it looks like from your point of view, ANet cannot do anything wrong.

To put it simply, the WvW tourney is just a big joke to distract the people who actually WvW seriously and it’s become clear after two years that it’s not going to change for the better any time soon. An easy way to fix this would be to implement new abilities for each class so that the meta is forced to change, but they’ve teased new skills since 2013 and we’re still waiting so there’s no point in holding your breath.

My group of people that I play with regularly only cares about balance updates, changes to sPvP, and competitive WvW. However, since content that revolves around said game-modes is few and far between it’s easy to see why we’re not head-over-heels in love with ANet right now.

ipan.4356:

Down the road means what, 5 years from now? 10 years from now?

I won’t be playing then.

The whole point is that we’ve already given Anet 2 years to release anything resembling expansion level content, and they haven’t.

We’re already “down the road” right now – so where’s the new content?

Quoted for truth.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

ipan.4356:

2 years is a long time for an MMO not to release anything.

I think you are mistaken. We have released content and features in the last two years on a fairly regular basis. Just because the content and/or features were things that you personally did not particularly care for doesn’t mean we didn’t release anything.

Please don’t trivialize the efforts of our design and development staff down to “nothing” because you didn’t like it. It’s fine to comment that you didn’t care for what was released, but don’t pretend like we’ve done nothing here for the past two years.

Looks at WvW

Looks at sPvP

Looks at precursor crafting

Looks at official GvG game-mode

Looks at guild capes and guild halls

Looks at new zones and dungeons

Looks at new weapon, utility, and elite skills

Looks at slow and almost non-existent balance updates

Ok Mark.

ipan.4356:

Diablo 3 also broke records in box sales – and people hated it. The RMAH shut down after a protracted battle.

It’s no surprise at all that GW2 did so well at launch – the issue here is the roadmap, and the fact that we are 2 years in with no major content release.

Just low hanging fruit.

To give them credit, Diablo 3 actually did a decent job of reviving their population and welcoming in new players with, dare I say, an expansion. gasp!

Elsdragon.5109:

Flytrap.8075:

Vayne.8563:

I’m sorry did Anet advertise expansion level content 2 years ago? I was playing 2 years ago…like the day the game launched in headstart and I don’t remember seeing expansion level content advertised at launch.

You must have a bad memory then.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/18/guild-wars-2-to-get-consistent-free-updates-expansion/

I don’t quite see how that translate into a promise for “expansion level content”.

Colin Johanson – September 2012

“No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for. On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.”

“We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!”

Vayne.8563:

You have zero evidence of this. Almost none.

There are less the a dozen strong voices complaining on the forums over and over. There are people who sort of agree and for each person who complains this way there’s another person who disagrees…and almost always more people complain than don’t complain.

Each time you post, it gets harder and harder to take what you say seriously, because you’re making statements you absolutely can’t back up.

Check out the WvW community and then you’ll have your evidence.

wwwes.1398:

They didn’t, they promised a living world. In fact, I think they have said all along they don’t really want to add more races or classes, so if that comes along, it’s just a nicety.

I enjoy playing the game, which is why I’m posting here and why I’m interacting with the developers to provide input now that they are trying to reopen that dialogue. If you don’t enjoy playing the game anymore, maybe sit this one out and chime in on the next one so that we can actually develop a communication system rather than just a bunch of threads cluttering the boards with ranting on a soapbox. It makes the whole thing unreadable.

They’ve constantly teased that they still plan on releasing “expansion-level content” verbatim.

You’re just fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

Vayne.8563:

I’m sorry did Anet advertise expansion level content 2 years ago? I was playing 2 years ago…like the day the game launched in headstart and I don’t remember seeing expansion level content advertised at launch.

You must have a bad memory then.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/18/guild-wars-2-to-get-consistent-free-updates-expansion/

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

OP’s TLDR – “You’re doing it wrong” “You don’t know what you’re doing” “I know better how to run your game”

Gotcha.

Yes, there are things wrong with the game. That’s a given. We all have things we’d like to see fixed/added/revamped. Pick your poison.

Telling the devs they are incompetent in so many words…. well, keep enforcing their decisions to not talk to us about anything worthwhile. Some people are doing a really good job of it today.

They’ve had two years of feedback and still haven’t delivered on key features that the community has asked for. I mean, speaking for the WvW community, we only just got account-bound WvW Exp in April and we’re finally getting account-bound Commander Tags (with the caveat of a price increase).

At some point, their inability to listen to the community and implement features and content that the community has repeatedly asked for can only be described as gross incompetence. I’ve seen threads where Mark drops in and says “the best thing you can do for us at this time is tell us what you want and keep communicating with the devs”, but in all honesty, what’s the point when you have a backlog of comments that is two years long and you simply don’t listen?

I understand that some people are 100% pleased with the direction that this game has gone and is currently going towards, but you need to understand that there’s also a group of people out there who feel severely disenfranchised and, to put it simply, mislead.

ipan.4356:

The solution is to create more content.

New maps.
New dungeons.
New class.
New weapons.
New skills.
New playable race.

Maybe some new DE’s.

This.

To put it simply, we just want some shiny new toys to play with.

Boneheart.3561:

Flytrap.8075:

Boneheart.3561:

EverythingXen.1835:

… you cant break promises you never make.

This is true, I support this statement.

Carrots on a stick
Yes, ANet loves empty words
This is all we get

Is that haiku on purpose?

Maybe

BrotherBelial.3094:

leman.7682:

Grebcol.5984:

“Martin Kerstein and Kate Welch " Woooott they are gone?

As of today’s news.

Where did you see this?

Reddit/Twitter.

That Guy.5704:

if you find a good friendly guild, Shen and flytrap’s comments are irrelevant.

Everyone I know loves Bearbows.

In all seriousness, what they’re saying is for the most part true; if you really want to play a certain class, then there are ways to make it work. However, it’s simply a fact that some classes excel at certain roles whereas others are left in the dust, but this doesn’t really come into play until high-end PvE and sPvP/WvW content.

You can’t really go wrong with any profession for your first character, but a lot of people would recommend staying away from Ranger since they’re just in a weird place right now. Thankfully, they’re getting some pretty cool looking balance changes in the near future.

I’d personally recommend Warrior/Guardian/Thief/Elementalist for your first character depending on what playstyle you lean towards.

Shen Slayer.3058:

Just make a Warrior and you’ll be the best at every game mode ever.

Fixed that for you.

Boneheart.3561:

EverythingXen.1835:

… you cant break promises you never make.

This is true, I support this statement.

Carrots on a stick
Yes, ANet loves empty words
This is all we get

Lévis.5489:

It makes me sad, comparing the first two years of Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars 1 had:

-3 main games released,
-New pvp modes,
-Dozens of new armor and weapon skins available in game,
-Hundred of new skills,
-Three campaigns with their own stories, and their own missions,
-Underworld, Fissure of Woe, Tombs of the Primeval Kings, Sorrow Furnace, The Deep, Urgoz’s, Domain of Anguish as elite dungeons / zones, always available.,
-New guild halls,
-More patches and the devs actually talking with their playerbase

For Guild Wars 2 we got:

-Main game released, two living stories
-No new pvp modes after two years
-One universal healing skill, one healing skill for each professions, 6 new traits, no new weapon types
-Some backpieces available in game, one new armor set available in game, some new armor skins hidden behind RNG
-Most weapons and armors skins are in the cash shop
-Wurms and new Tequila
-No guild halls
-A lot less patches, devs hiding in fear from their loyal customers.
-More and more devs leaving the ship / getting pushed out of the ship

I think i know what happened between 2007 and now. Anet was replaced with shape shifting, mind reading lizard people.

It’s actually kind of depressing to go back and watch their GW2 Manifesto video and then compare that to the game that we currently have.

Jandopo.2107:

Giving us an update on their development wouldn’t hurt anyone.

ANet obviously believes otherwise.

Elsdragon.5109:

I don’t know about you but whenever I play the game there really isn’t a shortage of people playing and enjoying the game. So no, uproar in the forums is not an obvious indication of the reaction of the player base.

Hence the Mega Server.

ANet can neither confirm nor deny at this time whether or not they are currently working on guild capes.

Veltoss.9135:

Then where are the features? I mean, besides new commander tag colors.

Hey now, it took the WvW five months of hard work to implement those color tags.

Let’s not sell them short.

ipan.4356:

We want more content.

That’s the bottom line.

I’ll understand if you can’t deliver – but you should tell us now.

Stop giving us the runaround.

Either you can deliver more content (new maps, new dungeons, new class, new weapons, new playable race, new skills) or you cannot deliver more content.

We want an expansion, not necessarily more LS (not to say that LS should be abandoned – just that it does not substitute for the content we want).

So, that’s where we stand – either tell us more content is coming, or tell us it isn’t coming.

It’s a very simple question to answer.

This is the real reason why they won’t divulge what’s currently in development; they want you to think that whatever it is that you actually want is already in the pipeline when in reality their main focuses are low-hanging fruit that they can sell as “Features” and the ever-so-lovely Gem Store updates.

I have a hunch that if the community knew what they were actually working on, there would be a mass exodus.

ipan.4356:

We’ll see – in the end, the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

All I’m pointing out is what I’ve seen from experience.

MMO’s that ignore what their customers want usually tank – and Anet appears, to may of us, to be taking this same path.

This is all an attempt to avert that from happening.

I think the issues that are currently plaguing GW2 are a direct result of ANet’s business model.

I mean… why would you want to deliver permanent content when you can just lazily poop out new skins and mini-pets every week that people keep buying?

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Tada, and we see yet again just why the devs won’t (can’t) talk to us.

Good job guys! Keep it up!

Someone has to counterbalance the white knights.

Honestly, I think ANet needs to create some semblance of transparency if they want to improve relations with the community.

It’s simply not fair that you constantly string everyone along and refuse to give any details whatsoever as to what you’re actually working on. I understand that people don’t react well to missed deadlines, but I think the real issue is that you refuse to actually commit to things you’ve teased in the past and you’re afraid of accountability in general.

The game has just become so stagnant because nothing that adds actual depth to gameplay has been implemented.

narwhalsbend.7059:

They call it a “Feature Pack” because “Old Fixes That Were Requested But We Never Bothered to Do” sounds bad.

Yeah, it’s all about semantics.

I like how “Big Changes to the Commander System” really means “After Over a Year of Suggestions, We’ve Finally Made Commander Tags Account Bound and Added Three Lovely Colors”.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Most of the items you listed off that aren’t in this update are because they are content. This is not a content update, this is a feature pack. Content updates usually, but not exclusively, take the forum of living world updates or festivals.

So when will the expansion-level content that ANet has advertised in the past come to fruition?

It’s been almost two years and we’re still waiting.

The correct answer is Devona’s Rest.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

For the love of all that is holy, if you’re actually serious about improving communication and creating at least a small glimmer of transparency with your development, then the CDI’s need to be scrapped for an alternative approach.

The majority of CDI’s in the past can only be described as a cluster kitten and I don’t know why you’d want to return to them when it’s clear that they aren’t achieving their intended goal.

I mean, if you’re not willing to divulge any information as to what you’re currently working on, then how can the community provide any feedback that will actually be useful in the long run? The whole idea of CDI’s given your current Public Relations schema is just a huge Catch-22.

This post is beautiful.

phys.7689:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Serophous.9085:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Darmikau.9413:

I don’t want to want to derail the thread, but yes absolutely we have discussed player feedback about these areas of the game.

This right here is the start players have been asking for. I’m not going to say something like this is a perfect answer, because it still leaves the who, the when, and the how completely ambiguous, but it’s at least a confirmation that ‘yes, we’ve seen it’.

As a roleplayer you have no idea what an absolute sigh of relief it is to hear it’s been discussed. For that area, and many others, it would be a much greater relief if someone came in an talked explicitly about the discussions, but as a start, just being acknowledged is so much a step beyond the silence.

Hi,

We read many forums all the time, we just need to do a better job of communicating that and working to discuss topics.

In retrospect the CDI break has probably been to long as well (That’s my fault).

Chris

First new CDI topic, how to improve communication between devs and community :p

That is a good topic.

Chris

honestly, though that might be valuable, i would rather have CDIs that more closely represent things you are currently thinking about/developing. It would save time to have more player feedback earlier in your process.

This. The CDI’s are already bad enough as is… at least having a focus on something that is on the horizon would help streamline the process.

I mean, every single time someone mentions CDI’s, I have PTSD-like flashbacks to the Ranger Profession Balance CDI which can only be described as a cluster kitten.

Evan Lesh.3295:

In the case of malicious attacks causing disconnects, we should ideally be able to forgive dishonor. We currently do not support this, but it is something we’ll look into adding for the future.

So never?

saventis.1485:

Konoha.4613:

Do you intend to address the fact that skyhammer needs to go from solo que? Most of us are rather sick of this map. And there if plenty of evidence out there that its not just 1 or 2 people. This is hurting pvp.

so u want less content for pvp?

You obviously don’t sPvP.