Guild Wars 2

Alright. Thank you. Any idea when it started though? It wasn’t this way a few short months ago.

Ok – maybe this is more than just ascended gear.

I think it has more to do with the fundamental problem with MMO’s in general: Addiction based game design. And without enough unique and quality content, it feels that much more hollow

Until a game comes along to shake up the formula enough, I guess this is what we’re looking at. Long hallways of trash mobs and pointless upgrades.

Txema.7859:

This bug is really game breaking, i have all utilities and F’s with mouse + CTRL, SHIFT or ALT and whenever i use an utility or F with ctrl, shift or alt, it activates that AND the one without those keys:

example:

U 1: mouse 4
U 2: mouse 4 + ctrl
U 3: mouse 4 + shift
Elite: mouse 4 + alt

Activating U2, U3 or Elite activates at the same time U1!!!!!

Yes – same trouble as mine. Care to elaborate? When did this start? Did you get a new PC and OS too? I didn’t have this problem on windows 7 or my old PC, so with that little base, I am pointing the finger at new PC/windows 8…

I can clarify: for most people in MMO’s, even casual, progress means higher levels, which in terms means more and better loot, which is then usually used to progress through more difficult content. In GW2 the abilities are unlocked easily, but everything else is (was) loot and cosmetics. I mean, MMO’s are infamous for gripping people due to “progression ,” which separates MMO’s from other games and RPG’s, hence people play out of compulsion long after the fun is gone. (And if they are honest, every MMO player knows exactly what I am talking about here****)

GW2 billed itself as ‘play how you want,’ ‘horizontal progress not vertical, similar to GW1,’ doing away with the compulsion because it was more equalized, leaving more variables and fun-factors to be had with builds, weapon usage and individual player skill, even though it doesn’t encourage playing skilled/dedicated roles like other MMO’s (ie, tank, cleric, etc). Now they infused their ascended equipment with what I see as nothing but compulsion. Bill it how you will, but it seems to boil down to that.

The main problem with this is – yes, they are increasing the loot progression – but for what? What new content? Just for the heck of it? Is the Lich King stopping by after Mad King Thorn crawls back into his hole?

The other motivations mentioned seem like a decent idea (encouraging more diverse activities and exploration), but at the end of the day, it all seems like limiting factors, and right back to doing what any MMO does best – encouraging compulsion, which all of us have to greater or lesser degrees to even swallow these crazy games like we tend do to.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Xae Isareth.1364:

aliksyian.7642:

HeavyMetal.7814:

Right – because this is what the internet is lacking – sarcastic responses and useless posts to inquiring, intelligent discourse.

I don’t know what you expect from this thread. All the arguments have been had. Threads were locked. Some people quit.

My stance is that ascended items reward power for free time, and I don’t like that. I’d rather success come from skill and talent rather than numbers acquired by grinding/busywork. But other people disagree. Some people disagree so hard they think that MMOs are fundamentally about turning free time into bigger numbers, and nothing else.

The biggest thing people want out of MMOs is tangible progress (not my opinion, proven by surveys), that’s what differs a MMO from just a game with a multiplayer function. Power is a very tangible form of progress, but talent and skill isn’t.

You missed the point. The post you quoted was contrasting power gained through talent and skill with power gained through throwing time at the game. Progress would be made under either scenario, hence your point is not applicable.

Also, if you’re claiming objective support for a position, it’s polite to provide links. If you don’t, people will assume you’re pulling facts from the place where most people pull facts on internet forums.

Care to clarify who, what, when, where and why?

Hi everyone:

I put together a new PC with windows 8 64-bit OS, and GW2 runs great, but my one problem now is that my key binds won’t work correctly.

I never have to take my left hand away from position because most of my needed keys are around WASD, and all my skills besides 1-5 are key-bound to my mouse.

My setup and problem are something like this:

Weapon swap = mouse button 4. Shift+MB4 = utility skill 1

Middle mouse button = utility skill 3. Shift+middle mouse button = heal

Etc.

Now, for instance, whenever I use shift+middle mouse button, it fires off both my heal and my utility skill 3 at the same time. Yes, I have already checked and made sure there are no over laps – it just seems the game or the computer won’t separate the use of “shift+” like it used to. Or rather, it registers both the clicking of the middle mouse button as well as the use of “shift+middle mouse button” at the same time, and not as something separate.

Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, have you found any solution? I tried fixing it with no luck, and I’d rather not buy an 8 button mouse if I don’t have to.

Also, I’ve tried searching for this topic, but didn’t have any luck, so any feedback you can offer is appreciated.

Thanks!

-HeavyMetal

I wanted to say thank you for your thoughtful responses. Again, I was late to this discussion, and didn’t want to necro an old thread.

TooBz’s smart-alec Aceeptance was a good answer.

Seems I am looking to a non-alcoholic kittentail to get me intoxicated. This frustration is on me, for expecting too much from Guild Wars 2.

Xae Isareth.1364:

aliksyian.7642:

HeavyMetal.7814:

Right – because this is what the internet is lacking – sarcastic responses and useless posts to inquiring, intelligent discourse.

I don’t know what you expect from this thread. All the arguments have been had. Threads were locked. Some people quit.

My stance is that ascended items reward power for free time, and I don’t like that. I’d rather success come from skill and talent rather than numbers acquired by grinding/busywork. But other people disagree. Some people disagree so hard they think that MMOs are fundamentally about turning free time into bigger numbers, and nothing else.

The biggest thing people want out of MMOs is tangible progress (not my opinion, proven by surveys), that’s what differs a MMO from just a game with a multiplayer function. Power is a very tangible form of progress, but talent and skill isn’t.

I couldn’t agree more. And yes – when we and they say “progress,” we mean gear. End game in MMO’s is always gear progression. Nothing. Else. Which goes back to my point – please do give me something tangible: boss fights and challenging content – something that pushes my skills, something exciting for me to aquire gear from, not farming and a crafting screen.

This would be fine if this was the system they implemented – and I know ascended gear is something they supposedly were planning to implement from the start – but it seems like they are just hurting their own game design and frustrating their customers in the process.

aliksyian.7642:

HeavyMetal.7814:

Right – because this is what the internet is lacking – sarcastic responses and useless posts to inquiring, intelligent discourse.

I don’t know what you expect from this thread. All the arguments have been had. Threads were locked. Some people quit.

My stance is that ascended items reward power for free time, and I don’t like that. I’d rather success come from skill and talent rather than numbers acquired by grinding/busywork. But other people disagree. Some people disagree so hard they think that MMOs are fundamentally about turning free time into bigger numbers, and nothing else.

Ok – thank you – That is much better. Between you and Xae, I feel like I am getting a better picture. I mean, like I said, I have been on hiatus, and while I fished through the dev notes and discussion on a lot of this, I feel like very little pro vs. con was laid out. As with most forums, it all seems to devolve into name-calling, whining and flaming fairly quickly. Been reading a few other threads, and I think I have a good idea of what to do:

Grinding (and sometimes playing for fun) for ascended accessories for 4 toons and multiple full exotic sets for all of them has been more than enough to keep me engaged. I’ll probably just never craft one, or if I incidentally wind up with the heaps and heaps of new crafting mats as I sure I eventually will, maybe then I’ll grind out a few hundred levels in crafting… Maybe try for drops, but I’m sure they drop as frequently as precursors do.

The problem is, one or two items isn’t a big deal, but we all know progression and “end-game” in MMO’s equates to gear – so now that we have all the accessories, fine. Now a weapon, but the difference will be very noticable for weapon sets and full armor sets… maybe that would be a good time to take a more permanent break. Guess time will tell.

I dunno – it’s just, the biggest thing that bugs me is with making the next tier such a grind/long-play time to acquire, again, it kills the diversity of having so many good options for builds and equipment sets….

Right – because this is what the internet is lacking – sarcastic responses and useless posts to inquiring, intelligent discourse.

Yes – I know it has been had – and I still have yet to see any satisfactory answers. I’m hoping someone will make it sound like a justifiable move and good idea on ANet’s behalf, for the good of their customers and community…

With that block of text being said, I would like to hear other people’s opinions, both pro and con for this situation. I mean, I want to believe there is something good about all this, but, after reading much discussion, I have yet to see it, and even then, most of it is biased (just like my opinions), but all in all, I feel I was fair in my assessment. Thank you for your time!

Hello GW2 community. Just got back from a hiatus, and I was excited to see they introduced ascended weapons, however, my excitement died quicker than an Azuran escort at a Charr bachelor party once I read up on the process to obtain one. It seems they are removing the sand-box element of what it takes to stay competitive in this game, they are pigeon-holing people into being a slave to a very specific grind (closely linked to market/gem-store at that), and they aren’t giving as many options as most people know they could. This isn’t to complain – this is a discussion, and I would like to hear balanced and mature feed back. I know that is asking a lot of the internet where all the frisky children and inbred cousins like to swarm like any sort of pest or roach, but please let me know what you think. Some of this is opinion and speculation, and some of it you will know to be true. Enjoy!

So not only has guild wars 2 gone against their “not wanting to undo your efforts and hard work of equipping your characters” thing in introducing ascended weapons, but they introduce it in the most boring fashion: you don’t receive the gear from hard-raids and boss fights or something more engaging like that – they come directly from the most boring activities in any MMO game: farming mats and crafting. (And this bodes ill for ascended armor).

Not only is this a time and money sink – the idea of wasting my valuable play-time to level up these professions, but it is also beyond ridiculous because I have four level 80’s who all use multiple weapon and armor sets and builds for multiple situations. (My favorite and primary activity is WvW, fairly hardcore, small skirmishes and havoc, zergs, 1 v 1, you name it, and staying competitive is important). Not only will this remove the wonderful options I have now of having multiple builds, accessories, weapons and armor with different runes, but I also like the aesthetics of multiple armor sets and builds (and what serious MMO-player doesn’t like the shinies?), and now, if I work hard to get time-gated weapons and armor, I will really only have one option: the best set, looks and design be darned! Now what am I gonna do with all these awesome skins I’ve acquired?

This is the biggest problem to me – adding a ludicrous grind for one item that is time-gated favors min/maxing and pushing people into limited play-styles. Instead of working to garner a lot of gear and build knowledge, it would favor minimal expertise and experimentation. Ie., I worked hard for this ascended GS, so why would I use a non-ascended sword and warhorn?

Farming fractals to stay competitive was boring enough as is (seriously, how many times can you run the same few fractals before your heart weeps a little), but now, to try and even stay competitive on multiple toons with multiple weapon sets, I will need more time and money then I will ever have in this game – and instead I will only be focusing on my warrior.

And this is where your standard MMO gear treadmill mechanic sounds wonderful – I’d rather raid multiple bosses a week, be engaged in a game and interesting mechanics with the chance to win something good, rather than waste time farming mats and money and crafting, which is fairly lousy in GW2 anyway, since it isn’t as lucrative as it has been in other MMO’s. I know some people will step in here and talk about market manipulation, speculation, crafting the right items, etc, but again, I am playing a game here – not looking for a second job.

I mean, if the ascended weapons are going to be craft-able, at least let them be put on the market place. I’d personally rather farm gold (equally boring, but more linear, and just as redundant and hard-earned if you think about it) to buy gear, rather than farm mats, to purchase recipes, level up crafting more and etc.

In terms of sandbox, ascended weapons favor people who had the patience or desire to put up with the drollery of crafting. For those of us who are bored to tears with working a 2nd job while we try to play our games (especially if you have been gaming a long time), it totally pushes us into investing time that could be better spent elsewhere. I know some people like crafting (don’t know how or why), and that’s cool. But a lot of people don.t I did it a bit on all my toons for a few easy levels, but gold was often in short supply.

I get it – all in all – ANet is trying to please the hardcore crowd, as well as the casual gamers, but isn’t that what legendary and other grinds are for? I mean, of course, I don’t want them to hand out gear for free, but there should definitely be more options – and pushing people towards limited play-styles through one doorway to acquire gear is just bad design.

-HeavyMetal