Guild Wars 2

Basic rule #1: Anet v2 will not do anything Anet v1 did.

Go to “generic mmo xxx” and get them to implement the feature you want: Anet v2. will jump through hoops to implement same feature.

To keep it simple: Next to no waypoints + unidentified loot = No sale in my case.
No amount of long winded apologist “explaining” will change that.

Future?

New gemstore item: Explorers package, available for a limited time. You can buy this 1 more time!

Complete pack for new and moderately experienced players. Contains:

• Links to the top 3 timer sites.
• Developer written guides on using LFG
• Thorough explanation of taxiing. (Bonus video content: I met my wife driving a taxi!)
  + A random chance of unlocking the title “Always LFG but I never walk alone”

At least it would be in line with a lot of (not so useful) forum feedback

Randulf.7614:

If you have bought HoT, you have full access to the content therein. LS3 is not part of HoT. The confusion comes from needing HoT to play LS3 (you can even bank it for free it as a f2p by logging in every 2-3 months) due to the mastery progression system.

Aww – That’s it I guess? Yet, so many voices told us we were wrong when we said that HoT was a half baked, content lacking piece of DLC sold as an “expansion”. People kept defending the lack of content with statements advocating HoT like a “season pass” to the (meager) HoT package + the promise of L3 story content.

So HoT is basically: Gliding, 4 different 4-layered maps, 1 elite spec pr. profession and a few core buffs? Compared to most other games: Overpriced DLC?

runeblade.7514:

I disagree because I paid 100g to get through VG so I can unlock raid masteries. OP, you should just buy raid spots instead.

Ahh wait… So thats what “challenging group” content is all about: The “PVE have’s” harvest “PVE have not’s” to unlock somewhatsit… Of course the 1% LOVE the PR lovechild: “Challenging group content” = steady dweeb income.

Embrace it Anet: 800 gem autokill on VG = win!
1600 gems entire wing = doublewin!

I am sure the regular bunch of defenders will advocate just how well thought out this new gemstore item would be: Not p2w – Stupid detractors just need to convert gold-gems and embrace the wonder.

@runeblade: I guess your just taking the kitten on the raidselling business – GG

@OP: Your question/experience is fair since it is yours.

If you are looking for actual experiences you should have posted something like a questionaire;

1. Your GW2 experience:
0-5 months
6 months – 1 year
1-2 years
more than 2 years

Are you a guild member?
No.
Yes a guild with 1-10 members (active the last 2 months)
Yes a guild with 11-100 members (active the last 2 months)
Yes a guild with >100 members (active the last 2 months)
Yes 2-5 guilds with a few active members

3. Your question
option 1
option 2
option 3
etc.

Now gather responses. Disregard the ones that does not match your own specific profile. Add/combine your own experience = there’s your best answer!

Asking a wide open question about ingame community here = Seasoned players that love the game will tell you: Best community ever!!!
Jaded idiots (like me) will say: Worst community whatever… (or we won’t but we will engage in some sort of war with seasoned players that like the game.)

In short: Look for the experience of your peers – Not the trench war veterans on here

vesica tempestas.1563:

everywhere? 90+% of the map is flat, in fact Anet is only offering more complex environments in GW2 for those that are fed up with flat for a couple % of the real estate in the game. Choice is good, no choice is ultimately dull.

If a person cannot comprehend that a great mmorpg’s is about the virtual world as a whole and not just feature x that was introduced x years ago that you look at in isolation then he will never be happy.

Sure choice is great. One of the problems I had with HoT is actually lack of choice: Want this ability: Get MP and EXP in this specific (10% of the game ) area.

Dislike the “experience”? Player advice = Get good and/or play content you dislike until you learn to “like” it… Sorry that kind of kitten does not fly in 2017!

As for your “comprehension/happiness” remark: GW2 as a “virtual world” is, by design, extremely fragmented and limited compared to some other MMO’s. It is simply far, very far from being an example of leading virtual world design.

Finding happiness in a computergame? Joyful, entertained and satisfied works with games people enjoy. Happiness is a completely different ballgame though the mentioned feelings (may – Actually does not have to) play a part.

flog.3485:

There is something I personally do not understand about your view. How is grinding content in HoT maps anymore different than grinding content in core maps to lvl up a character ?

I did not consider it “grind” in core. I felt I had freedom in the sense that if one area started to feel boring or even annoying, I could always adventure on in a different region/area. Sure there was a level requirement to continue my personal story but I had a multitude of options to gain those levels.
I only did dragon events on occasion when I bumped into them. The need for timer-sites and “educating” myself with youtube videos to play a game never appealed to me.
In core I could have fun without feeling forced to do that. I wasn’t “effective” but that was never my motivation anyway.

HoT changed all of that for me. I found it hard just to wander about and explore the views without seeing red lines that prompted me to dodge instead of enjoying the view.
I needed specific masteries to get to certain places and those masteries were locked to a few (to me, annoying) maps. To spend my mastery points I had to spend even more time in those same limited, annoying maps. Combine that with timed events and the need to taxi to the right zerg – THAT felt like grinding.

It’s fine that some people like that. But it’s not what motivates me in a recreational game. If it was, I would have been playing one of the many games that have been doing it since launch!

Djinn.9245:

What most people who defend HoT maps think is that if you’re not there to do the Meta, you’re doing it wrong. Of course they think that everything besides the Meta is solo-able also, so you won’t get much sympathy if you’re trying to find people to do non-Meta stuff.
…

Pretty much sums up my HoT experience.
With HoT I felt the games direction changed from a utopic “Play your way” to a much more regular “Play this way or get out of the way.”

Grinding “content” that annoys me for hours to have fun is simply to yesterdecade for me.
A lot of people seem to like the change which is fine – They could though, have found the exact same style/focus in so many other games!

Danicus.4952:

Is the stable player base increasing or decreasing?

Is that a trick question? Only Anet can answer that. The rest of us can just post guesses.
Sure. Sales show a (very) slight decline.
It could be caused by players leaving (if sales drop translate 1:1 to player attrition between expansions most mmo publishers would be envious already).
It’s also possible that loyal players spend slightly less cash for gems or convert more gold for gems while waiting for more interesting cashshop items.

Bottom line: With $50 mil. sales pr. year they could pay dividends, rent, hosting, bandwidth, marketing, insurance and benefits and easily keep 400 employees very happy.
With expansion sales in 2-3 quarters I would say they are in a good place as long as they hold on to those loyal fans (that I am no longer a part of)

vesica tempestas.1563:

lol ok, well compensation aside, maybe its a generation thing, older games didn’t have maps, so you learned to learn.

Please just stop :.( Learning NEQ Capacity to think NEQ memorizing NEQ Learning!
Same pool – Different swimmers!

Sure, causation is one well proven way of learning things. Its sadly not a great motivator/way of learning things that your life does not depend on.

Bottom line: Dashingsteel posted a valid concern about unnecessarily complicated map layout and that the “map/minimap” does not, in a meaningful way support player exploration.
No matter how you try to derail that valid concern/complaint the issue sticks!

(And before I get the “generation” lecture: I’m a 50+ mathematician/programmer and I not only accept: I love that new generations do not put up with some of the … we accepted way back when)

Aww please get off the “not rocket science” horse already. YOU replied to a person who had not bought HoT at full price, looking for a better deal with your 5p explanation.
YOUR valuation in that context is flawed – Trying to divert the flaw to another context is just whataboutism!

vesica tempestas.1563:

no my 5p was simply the price divided by average shelf life (2 years)

Figured as much. In that context a 0.99p bag of chips you dislike and probably won’t eat has an amazingly low price pr. hour (even with a reduced 1 year shelf life)
Makes no sense wasting .99p, let alone £25 on something that you won’t enjoy – No matter how you fraction the wasted money!

vesica tempestas.1563:

Silverlance.2190:

Ayrilana.1396:

Normally 50% off.

Thanks. I wonder if I can get it in Game for less. although they might be sold by now. No way can I justify full retail for small add-on with a base game I already have.

you cant justify 5p a day for 24 hour access giving new zones, new skills, new mechanics like mastery & gliding, new class etc etc?

I guess if you are subject to a monopoly ie: This is the only game you can play… Your 5p a day argument makes sense.
Reality is that Anet is in a competitive environment: If I have to chose between MMO1 at $50, Steam game 1 @20$, steam game 2 @15$ and MMO2 expansion at $60 chances are that I conclude: MMO2 is not competitive time/pricewise!

THIS is what happens outside monopolies – Heck, finding (just looking for) 3-5 indie games on steam beats the “fun” I had with HoT.

TLDR; Your 5p calculus fails when people find more worthwhile entertainment elsewhere.

vesica tempestas.1563:

Xyrus.6037:

I played GW2 for a while and enjoyed it immensely. I liked it so much that I abandoned one of my cardinal rules of gaming: NEVER PRE-ORDER.

That was a mistake.

After that came the 5 stages of grief. Or what would have been the 5 stages of grief if the decisions and direction in regards to the game didn’t keep me at stage 2.

It’s their game, so they can do what they want with it. And I’m sure there are people who like the way things have gone. But I just found myself logging in less and less, asking “why are they doing that?” a lot more, and finally just stopped playing altogether.

Lesson re-learned. No matter how great you think a game or a game company is, they can still totally wreck a game for you. Maybe just you, but that doesn’t really matter.

I still check the forums and such from time to time to see how things are going. I still see that they’re on the same path. If it keeps raking in the money I see scant reason for them to stop, but I certainly haven’t come across any incentive to get me playing again.

self awareness is a powerful thing, have you wondered why you didn’t return to the content you used to play prior to HOT if you didn’t like the HOT content?

OFC I can’t speak for Xyrus but he raised a lot of points I agree with (well the 5 points of grief I reserve for more lifechanging experiences than a computergame).
As for returning to 4 year old/8 alts played content: I could just start a new f2p account to relive that! It’s old, played through – Wth would I pay to replay that?
HoT added gliding in old maps: Great but not exactly a reason to relive old content.
Most other content requires contentgrind I simply dislike. I was looking for new similar (not same) content.
HoT marked a new direction. A direction I dislike but basically: It’s Anet’s game – It’s their decision.
My time/money: Better spent on something that caters to my ideas of great entertainment!

MarkoNS.3261:

Tbh there should only be ONE guild and then have the alliance system from gw1 ported all our problem solved.

While I doubt it would solve ALL our problems it made a lot of sense.
I was in a PvP guild in a (mostly) PvE alliance: Tight knit community and it worked really well.
Seems like Anet v.2 is dead set on reinventing (and in the process downgrading) every well working feature from the original that Anet v.1 created.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Cristalyan.5728:

Still, the price is that a lot of players are angry now.

More like a lot of players are indifferent. If a lot of players would be angry then we would see merged 10 pages/day megathreads about this and not a couple of half dead threads filled with the same people copypasting the same things over and over.

Possible, but: Some/many people just shrugged, reiterated: The fabulous nov. 15.th update told us to stay away – This feature/direction reminds us we should have listened in the first place.

Next Q financial statement will tell us just how successful this path have been.
(I do predict a lot of “explanations” )

Vayne.8563:

Healix.5819:

… about Silverwastes…

Well of course there are less players doing it than there were before HoT. That’s a given with almost all older content. It’s over a year old, people move on.
…

Crap – HoT is 11 months+
Guess I missed the boat if I am not through with that (insert whatever) in 3 weeks

Sorry – Just a bit of banter

(Time to move on…)

Illconceived Was Na nailed it!

@Anet: Reduce the stupid bloat and accept this was another “emperors new clothes” idea.

Vayne.8563:

Yes, the post you replied to was factually wrong, but there’s certainly a large precedent for charging this much within the genre.

True to a point but there is not a precedent for “You’ll get your moneys worth in a year or two…”
I have no experience with SWToR but another current MMO (ESO) has a model that works a lot like Anets B2P model, with the added option of a subscription (that basically translates to a monthly 800 gem purchase + a few other bonuses)
Currently they have 5 (aptly named) DLC-Packs, with “Orsinium” alone putting HoT to shame purely based on content/story.
The price of all 5 content packs is currently less than the HoT DLC pack. (At least in my outback of this planet)

While there may have been a precedent, that is not an excuse to expect a premium price for a product that is just ok. (Talking about HoT from release and 1 year out – The convoluted “value” of what may or may not show up in LS simply won’t work with the next GW2 DLC. – I prefer the “pay ~$10 now and get all THIS” in ESO)

darkwombat.3695:

I have not played Guild Wars 2 since the first week that Heart of Thorns was released. This is the first time that I can remember, than an expansion turned me off so badly, that it made me lose all interest in the game itself.

Oh dear OP: The usual 10-15 “Defenders” will go to extremes to slag off your posted opinion.
Suffice to say, you’re not alone. I played/tried to enjoy HoT for a couple of weeks.
Now? I log in once or twice a month. The 2 guilds I were in, had 0-2 members online the last week and HoT maps should just be renamed: Desolation 1-4.

Some people still believe this was the best move ever – I haven’t got a clue. Maybe it was – I hated it, haven’t spent cash @gw2 since HoT and will probably skip the next expansion/whatever if they try to sell another overpriced DLC.

Anyway: Try to disregard the all the personal opinions here. (Yeah – mine included) Anet should have enough data to decide how to move forward. (Who knows – HoT may have been a crazy success :-S)

So much for “challenging group content” boosting the game – Casuals leaving was expected.
Too bad most “hardcore groupers” seem to spend ingame-gold instead of RL-cash.
Catering to the least profitable group 101?

In the same boat. Seems that GW2 feels very attached to my PC. (GF from hell?)

Well it’s not that bad: regedit.exe→ nuke everything “Guild Wa”
Delete GW2 folder/shortcuts whatever…

Done → Onwards to new pastures

Vayne.8563:

slashlizardy.9167:

For now, I’m fine with just waiting for the game to get good again. I’ll keep checking in on any progress and when it is once again fun and not just a HoT mess, I’ll be back.

If the game gets good again, it’ll end up being worse for some people, including me. You may not believe it but a lot of people are happy with where the game is, with the exception of the content drought perhaps. But otherwise, there are tons of people doing events and getting around the new zones.

The game isn’t going to go backwards, nor should it. In a lot of ways it’s better than it used to be. I wouldn’t want to go backwards.

This is a very valid point. I loved Guild Wars, I liked GW2, HoT was where I left.
Sure I would love GW2 turning in to the game I loved, but I know it won’t happen and while I hate that, it’s a problem for me and not for Anet, GW2 and all the peeps that like the new direction of GW2.

I do NOT wish for bad things to happen to GW2. I hope they find, stay with and support their specific niche.
I hope the current lovers get their fill. I am already in another game and not about to waste neither hope nor money on this franchise.

Good luck moving forward- I am sure the future holds an endless supply of nice glider skins ;-)

IndigoSundown.5419:

Sartharina.3542:

Halandir.3609:

Anet may have been promoting their “Megaserver” tech but they never explained the need for “Taxi’s” to overcome the shortcomings of this wonder.

Map Taxis are a player-found solution to the player-caused problem of Map Taxis. The Megaserver generally does a decent job with evenly populating the maps. But then people take the tools that are supposed to allow guilds and friends to play with each other easily, and then abandon the maps by megaserver made to over-stuff a few.

This. Taxiing, the supposed solution to mega-server problems, is actually a contributing cause, if not the primary cause, of those problems. This means the mega-server problem will never be fixed, because to do so would require removing the tools players use to play with friends. The kitten-storm which would ensue should ANet do so should not even be imagined.

I see. So Anet designed megaserver-tech and then introduced a tool for players that has the ability to break the megaserver design.
That’s still a flawed design – Just on a higher level :-)

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

slashlizardy.9167:

Yea i tried it and the maps are still dead

The HoT maps have more meta events requiring a larger player count to participate. So, it’d make sense then that the player base needs to be more proactive about getting on populated maps… Players now use squads and taxis a lot more in HoT maps than in core Tyria maps to help make sure the meta events succeed.
~EW

As true as this may be, the simple fact is that not all people spend hours “researching” how to play a game.
Anet may have been promoting their “Megaserver” tech but they never explained the need for “Taxi’s” to overcome the shortcomings of this wonder.

Yes; regular forumgoers/seasoned players gets that this kludge is a necessity to “enjoy” the content in HoT.
Some newer players and some of us casuals simply finds that other games are just more fun per minute than something with serious designflaws/overall poor implementation that requires kludges as taxi’s.

Some people conclude: This game is deserted, I’ll play nnn-game or give yyy-game a try instead.
I am quite sure only a few of these people take the time to “complain” about the empty maps here: Most are already having fun somewhere else.

Its 2016: If I need to be “proactive”, “research” or “work” to enjoy a game there’s a pretty high probability I will just move on to the next product.

No HoT did not ruin GW2.
It DID ruin the hope that some of us had for GW2 but that’s different.

I am sure that Anet keeps looking at their “numbers”: So many logins before HoT, so many bought HoT, so many logins now, so many “raiders”…

It may be crazy successful: No idea!
On a personal level: I am SO done with Anet purchases and their “new direction”, be that Gems for $/€, DLC or DLC shipped as “expansion”.

Exploration and storydriven content, not locked behind time/money/grind gates.

Thats it, really! I would probably return (at least occasionally) though my “new” game seems to already have all that without me begging.

Vayne.8563:

Some of the raids are tied to story. They were intended to provide a bridge between the end of HoT and the beginning of season 3.

That’s good to know. Since I lack both the will, ability and the interest to meet raid-requirements I no longer have to keep an eye on this forum/game.

Yes it has been hard to let go of this game: I loved Guild wars, I liked GW2, HoT was not my cup of tea, but I hoped they would eventually turn the ship in the direction I prefer.

At this point I guess they probably have to stick to the new plan instead of risking to lose all the people who actually enjoy the new direction.

Zok.4956:

Maybe because the heart of the thrones could be the heart of Daenerys Targaryen, which is a totally different story.

Aww come on… You saw the commercial:
Now on HBO… Game of Thorns: Sticky business.

;-)

Endless Soul.5178:

What custom title would you choose for your characters?

To honor the new direction of this game I would choose:

Guardian of Grind

Until that happens I will (every once in a blue moon) log in to play a bit on my “roman revenant”: Grindicus Maximus

Vayne.8563:

No one ever claimed it’s not perfect.

That’s factually wrong – A lot of people claimed it’s pretty far from perfect
(Sorry couldn’t resist)

Kyzonu.7504:

as far as i know, A.net didn’t lie about the expansion… every single feature/content that i saw they announce made it into the game.

in the AngryJoe interview, they said loud and clear that “this is a feature focused expansion instead of a content focused one”, so everyone who bought HOT knew exactly what they were getting.

if you put it on your mind that there would be a thousand hours worth of content, a 50-hours story or 20 different maps, even though they never even hinted at anything like that, then you have nothing to complain about…

I don’t “hate” HoT – It’s a feeling I reserve for things much more important than a game expansion.
I am however, both underwhelmed and disappointed with HoT and the attached pricetag. I used to have a lot of faith in previous versions of “Arena Net”. The current version seems to mostly offer content that I feel indifferent towards.

As for lies and/or “creative” marketing: We have all seen it before. Even months after the launch of “Age of Conan” some people kept rigorously defending the game/company and often claimed that Funcom never lied, the game was fine etc. etc. In the end none of that mattered: People felt lied to, the game was not what they felt was promised and the result is painfully clear today!

While I only feel indifference/dissatisfaction about HoT, I really hope that Anet does not go the way of Funcom.
And THAT is the only reason I complain about Anet abandoning what used to be core customers in the hope of attracting new.

Seriously? 600g to get carried through part of a raid?
I guess that puts a few things about raids into perspective :-(

IndigoSundown.5419:

There’s a vast difference between fact, speculation and falsehood. With regard to this topic.

FACTS

• The generally accepted …

Wait… What? Fact now == “generally accepted”?

IndigoSundown.5419:

• HoT was marketed as including raids. That means that the raid demographic was targeted by HoT marketing.

And your extrapolation of the fact is factual how?

Argh never mind, skipping the rest, except for:

IndigoSundown.5419:

FALSEHOOD

• Since casuals do not speak with one voice, you cannot be said to be speaking for casual players en masse.

Hmmm OK, you are saying he CAN speak for casual players en masse?

Sorry IndigoSundown, while I wouldn’t recommend a job as spindoctor your post was an, above average, smile catalyst.

HoT was my last pre-order from Anet.
I may eventually buy the next expansion depending on what it brings and if I am playing again, but pre-ordering more raids and DLC: Won’t happen.

Good or bad, by now Anet should know and will (eventually) act accordingly.
Even without actual metrics this shouldn’t be to hard to figure out: In a situation where you have limited resources and your latest offering is considered underwhelming by a lot of people, is it a good idea to throw a substantial amount of resources at activities that only have a niche following?

Currently I am neither playing nor spending anything on GW2 – I hate that Anet seem hellbent on turning their, once different, MMO into a copy of the other 95% MMO’s.

Another raid wing? I don’t give a feline newbie about those, just like most other players.

4 could be a figure I guess.
The biggest problem is not, not having HoT. The biggest problem is the loneliness you will experience because people got fed up with 3 year old promises not delivered upon.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Zeonis.1962:

So many scrubs in these threads lol, if the game is too hard quit don’t complain in the forums. This game is easy just dodge when the monster attacks you and use berserker gear….. All the people kittening not only in this topic but in others i have two questions for you. How many Achievement points do you have? and how many hours have you played? Because if you have done a fifty fractal before the xpac then you should be fine for this content.

I’m not gonna lie, I would love, LOVE seeing these people play dark souls or bloodbourne. I have a feeling it’d be hilariously entertaining.

Probably won’t happen though. I mean, it would be as stupid as if people who joined GW2 some 3 years ago was demanding difficult gated content and gearprogression requiring “hard work” in this game.

Oh – wait…

Coulter.2315:

I clearly said if you want CERTAIN things then you (if you’re time poor) need to adjust..

No you didn’t – You clearly said…

Coulter.2315:

You can do anything everyone else does just in 1hr chunks;

We might be able to “find” fun – With the current direction some of us just chose to log directly into fun elsewhere. As, in a game where we don’t need a strategy to find it.
Someone mentioned “investment”… I loved/felt very attached to Guild Wars (Anet v.1). That’s the reason I bought GW2 in the first place.

GW2 (Anet v.2) never really felt as good as the original and there were definitely warning signs posted: Putting the “Wicked witch of Nexonia” in charge of monetization, The surprise-pop “ascended stats” and the seemingly total disregard of WvW.

HoT is not all bad and some people seem to really enjoy it. Thats perfectly fine and I have no regrets buying it, but personally, with the current: “Locked behind whatever stats/features” and the “grind till you drop” direction of this game I simply went off to try other games.
That’s how far my “investment” in this game reached, with the mentioned warning signs + strike3 above.

And yes, I found one that (so far) suits me perfectly, even have guilds of GW-rejects

No: You can’t have my stuff. Who knows, the direction of this or my new game may change and I may feel nostalgic.

Coulter.2315:

Glad you completely agree with me (I’m not taking your guesses which contradict the only people who have genuine control over the game as anything serious – glad you don’t either).

Legendary Armour is not an extra tier of gear above Ascended.

Glad we had this talk.

At least people aren’t condescending here – Oh well…

Keep pushing your agenda, the rest of us will keep pushing ours no matter how much you disagree. We have all had a few chances to evaluate how straight and consistently the captain of this ship is plotting the course: Things may change yet again!

Our agendas are essentially irrelevant: Metrics decide the next move/change of course.
Until then I keep playing casually GW2-style: Log in, cash daily, log out, check forums, play something else…
I guess in 2-3 months my love for this game may be worn out to the point where I skip directly to: “something else” :-)

Thats not bad/wrong. If Anet makes more money from this change in course: Good for them, I had enough fun for my money but they won’t see any more of mine.
€10-15 a month goes a long way for casual entertainment on Steam…

Harper.4173:

It’s not me who’s saying so – it’s the developers through the way they made the content. They’re literally saying: get better at the game in order to get these rewards.

I think they made a topic on the forums where they said “we’ve started a bucket collection for your tears” or something like that. I think their statement is pretty clear.

:-) That sounds incredibly unprofessional and juvenile. Link please?

Harper.4173:

Halandir.3609:

Wolfey.3407:

I’m still waiting on people who claim anet advertised this game as a casual friendly game to post their official sources.

Where’s the you tube videos of the game advertisement?
Where’s the official web images?
Where’s the official box art showing it?

Only thing i’m seeing is a friend of a friend of a friend who knew an anet employee said it was. Or some guy who worked at anet a long time ago said it was on an off hand conversation.

OK. Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBeXr9iC4qU&feature=youtu.be&t=618

You’re welcome…

That’s from 2013 – the core game was already launched so it’s not part of the advertisement for core GW2 before release.
It’s also before HoT was even announced – so exactly how does this make a difference?

Also I don’t believe a developer interview should be considered “advertisement”.

It may not be (paid) advertizing but it IS the Game Director, who sits on relevant metrics, directly acknowledging a certain group of players when he says:
“… that’s something really aimed at our core base which is a group of players that really only has X amount of time each day they can play the game. And I think for us (for guildwars) we really want those people to be able to feel like, in an hour they can log in and they can really accomplish something…”

After a statement like that I would LOVE to see a PR-person saying: “Yeah this group of casuals appeared out of nowhere – Certainly not the group of players we targeted with our marketing…”

Wolfey.3407:

I’m still waiting on people who claim anet advertised this game as a casual friendly game to post their official sources.

Where’s the you tube videos of the game advertisement?
Where’s the official web images?
Where’s the official box art showing it?

Only thing i’m seeing is a friend of a friend of a friend who knew an anet employee said it was. Or some guy who worked at anet a long time ago said it was on an off hand conversation.

OK. Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBeXr9iC4qU&feature=youtu.be&t=618

You’re welcome…

There is absolutely NO doubt that this game was advertised as casual oriented. Play your way, no grind, no gear treadmill.

What are all those diehard hardcores doing here in the first place?
Oh thats right: Vocal hardcores NEED wins – Winning, in this case, being every game catering to their specific needs.

Well it’s ok, you lot can have this game too. No sarcasm: I’ve had some good times here and probably will again once the ship starts zagging back where it zigged off.

One does not simply compare Anet material to Anet v.2 material.

Have to agree with title. Smaller groups/soloers/not grind inclined are not a priority here and we probably should have understood the message all the way back when “ascended” were announced.

Content gating, disregard for small guilds and intense focus on larger groups is close to flexing the middle finger at my casual, most solo, sometimes small group playstyle.

Overall that is not a problem. Actually THIS time I got the message! If this is the most profitable approach, this is of course what Anet v.2 should do.
GW2 was (for me) a great investment – HoT… Not so much. Overall I have gotten all the enjoyment I could have hoped for.

I will probably log in for a few minutes most days to collect laurels, chat up remaining friends etc. Who knows? Things might change and I may return to actually play some time in the future.

A new expansion… I would expect it will be aimed at everything I am not, so…

1vs1 Dueling… Seriously I simply do not care!

If its in: Fine, If not: Just as fine!

I would however hate it if Anet spending valuable dev-time on kittencontent to please PvE heroes instead of actually getting some levelfield PvP in the game, such as 8 person GvG in a NON-PvE gearlike setting.

And yes: WvW is bloody PvE ‘content’!

So… M-a-d-a-m-e…N-e-x-o-n turns into a poor cat dipped in some Exxon product…

The censorforce is strong in this one!

Wait… What? They are on a mission to have around half the buyers of their product ‘like’ them on Facebook?

I blame Makitten exon and her tainted love for RNG-unlock + the blatant manifesto disregard if the mission fails.

And nope: Did not ‘like’ just as I ‘did not find/see’