Guild Wars 2

can’t you use a backpack skin?

Yamsandjams.3267:

Speedy kits can’t be made baseline. Perma-swiftness by default? No, that’s too strong.

Guardians have that, not to mention Necros, Thieves, Ranger, and Ele’s get +25% at the cost of a signet, Warriors and engies can get it through a trait.

Honestly, does anyone but mesmers not run with at least 25% runspeed perma?

how many new players are rolling 75g that they can blow on gems?

staff is best in an AOE environment where you needs some range (can’t just “stack2win”). Farming, open world events with large trash spawns etc… In these situations you rarely need any kind of support, so max DPS

You are going to want at LEAST a fire sigil for additional AOE and faster tagging.

Sorry, I stopped reading after the 20th screw-up of “your” and “you’re” and all of the “their/there”s.

If you want to make a properly argued point, either get additional grammar lessons or improve your translation software.

I guess maybe if X costs around 800-1000g, possibly.

Obtena.7952:

Is Poutine even known outside of Quebec + neighbouring regions?

Dude, my husband and I are moving to England later this year… I want to buy a deep fryer exclusively so we can make our own.

You get two or more Canadians together with a deep fryer and someone is going to be making poutine in that thing soon enough.

how exactly can you “lose” when you take $20 in cash, buy gems, and convert to gold?

climb baby climb. I’m just waiting for the day when I can drop $20 and get the rest of the gold I need for my precursor.

Lostwingman.5034:

I still wish we had rifle as part of the assassin flavor.

Given how rarely they are used (only two classes have them) I would expect both rifle and hammer to get spread around a bit in the first round of weapon proliferation.

Want to know what else is a complete immersion breaker?

sPvP
The Gem Store
Mail that is delivered instantly wherever you are
for that matter, mail that is delivered by a dove containing a complete set of plate armor, that is delivered to you underwater
Armor taking up the same amount of inventory space as a pebble
Charr Backpacks
Quaggan Backpacks
Boxing gloves
Halloween by another name
Yule by another name
Minipets of main characters

Want me to go on?

SAB is a silly, fun thing that people enjoy as a side game. It’s not, and I doubt it ever was, intended to be “narrative” any more than the gem store armor is.

no they didn’t. Zerk is still the top dps gear by a pretty wide margin.

I think of those, longbow is most likely as it currently only has two users.

Duke Nukem.6783:

the very first response to my post was another thread 100s of posts long wehre people argued for both sides on the same thing….im pretty sure thats proof that the problem exists or their would be no prior discussion on it….ok?

people will argue for hundreds of posts about whether or not the Earth is round, it doesn’t mean that one side isn’t flat out wrong (pun intended).

Isaac.6041:

We want to dump empyreal, dragonite, and bloodstone on the Trading Post please. They clog up a lot of inventories and don’t have much uses.

Wallet, dear gods yes… TP… not so much.

how would you gear that at the exotic level?

are you running full zerk to get quicker tagging?

the second one won’t have the stat changing though.

this is a big question for me as well as I’ve been trying for Bifrost for a while now…

ya know.. I bet I could put caltrops under you and it would kill you quicker if you didn’t move.

the change to ferocity is part of a larger change to ’zerk (and anything else with Crit Damage). I would wait until we know more about what is to come before making any major changes.

As a game designer myself I would love to ask the dear Mr. Smith how vital it is to get a formal economics education (as opposed to learning economics as part of the game design process)? I’m considering getting a masters degree to augment my design knowledge and would love to know from someone “on the other side” how useful that education is on a day to day basis.

it’s part of their basic instancing tech and not something that can be easily changed.

Lorgus.6148:

Imperatora.7654:

do you have a forum/guild page?

http://tarnishedcult.enjin.com/
Come try us out!

application sent

unless you define anyone and everyone who can afford a precursor as “high-wealth” you are wrong.

As I said above, flippers, by themselves, create nothing and consume nothing (in terms of items, there is a gold sink but we aren’t talking about that). Flipping an item does not in any way affect supply, there are still the exact same number of items in the system as there was before.

A flipper increasing the price of items bring the market closer to equilibrium. If the market will bare their new price, they win… if they overshoot the incoming supply will undercut them and their items will not move at the new price.

the only group that can drive that consumption up to the higher price are those buying items to use them, not to flip them. If flippers can’t find enough consumers (not other flippers) at the higher price it will eventually fall as supply will outstrip demand (at the high price).

Flipping without consumers is the very definition of a bubble economy, it can hold true in the short term (and with the trading velocity of GW2, that’s really short), but it can’t last. Sooner or later, someone has to use it, and if the users won’t buy it the supply will simply build and build until the price lowers to the point that they will.

do you have a forum/guild page?

Bunda.2691:

Again, I have no problems with this, but it does help reveal how the existence of a 1%, to borrow the term from real life, does have an impact on high-end scarce goods.

Except without the 99% who consume said items, the price would fall and fall and fall some more as supply outstrips demand. Flippers don’t consume anything (pretty much by definition), so they don’t sink items. If items are still being added to the system the price will fall until such a point where consumers start using them.

The price of precursors are set by the people using them, not the people flipping them. If a flipper puts the price above that which consumers will pay, the demand will drop and supply will fill the gap.

Matthew Oswald.3082:

The cinematics that you see in the personal story where 2 characters talk to each other on a stage-like environment have been…retired.

aww, I liked those. They had a very specific art style to them that no one else has ever done before.

1) Engineer. Specifically the reliance on grenade kit with grenadeer to have competitive damage in PVE. While I know some players LOVE the gtaoe nature of ’nades, it is one of the worst features in my opinion. The amount of 1-spam is absurd.

2) Rangers. several weapons, including MH sword just feel really clunky and hard to use. Pet AI tends to get instagibbed by AOE far to often.

3) Mesmer. Perma-swiftness or 25% signet.

I love how the OP argues that it will sell extremely well then goes on to say how they will be extremely rare

dAcIaW.5107:

Imperatora.7654:

Yeah, and nVidia should refund my graphics card because 3 weeks later they brought out a better version!

/sarcasm

um way to compare apples to hand grenades? I bet you also compare downloading music off of the internet to stealing your neighbors car?

no, but I do compare that comeback to a strawman

Yeah, and nVidia should refund my graphics card because 3 weeks later they brought out a better version!

/sarcasm

yet they do raise an interesting question… what IS the QD champ farm teaching new players about the way “GW2 is meant to be played”?

Do you feel that the QD train is the best experience for a new player to have?

Mimizu, I’m glad that your server is far less toxic than others, however based on discussions on other forums and reddit, your server is by FAR the anomaly. Many others speak of extreme hostility towards anyone going “out of order” and “stealing our bosses”. You will also note that I’m suggesting that a similar train be created elsewhere for those, like yourself, who enjoy the gameplay that the champ trains provide. It is valid gameplay, however it is not the type of gameplay that should be introduced to new players right after they finish the prologue zone. If the train was moved to a lvl 50+ zone it would not impact a high level player in the slightest but would make a great improvement on the NPE.

Just Trogdor, that thread also doesn’t contain any arguments as to why… just “move the train pls”. I wanted to actually provide some concrete reasons why it should be moved.

the primary reason is to gate content.

As a game designer, one of our major concerns is not to overwhelm players by letting them do EVERYTHING right off the start while having no idea how. Levels let us give players an idea of what is within their scope.

Levels also allow us to scale the complexity of the game. Intro zones need to be simple for new players (and less so for experienced players trying out classes they have never used before). However, the game would be extremely dull if the mechanics never evolved beyond that. As the player gains knowledge of mechanics, those mechanics can be combined in new ways to create more and more difficult encounters.

Without level as a gate however, it is far more difficult to design one area to be more complex and difficult than others. We can’t be sure if that player in our “end-game” zone has <1h of /played under their belt, or 100h.

TL;DR: The QD Champ train is teaching new players bad habbits, discouraging new players from getting deeper into the game, and driving them away due to toxic behavior in a starting zone. Moving the train to an upper level zone (like Orr) would help new player retention (and thus income).

Before I start with the complected stuff, I think it is best to get some of the base knowledge down so people know where my argument is coming from.

1) Most players in the game are human (source: ANet’s own infographics). By this, I am assuming that a nearly equal % of new players are also rolling humans as their first character as there is no reason I’m aware of to assume that race popularity has radically changed.

2) Most new players are going to start with their racial starting zone rather than go to LA and pick up one of the others.

3) The QD Champ train is as populated and… well vulgar on other servers as it is on Tarnished Coast (my home).

Ok, now to business:

QD is the starting zone for a LOT of new players. Humans have always been the most popular choice and that shows no sign of changing any time soon. However, QD is also home to the most popular champ train in the game, which is a problem (not that there are trains, but where it is located).

Champ trains are farming, they are a grind, I doubt many would come in here and tell me that they are the pinnicle of the gameplay that GW2 has to offer. Yet, here in QD, it is how many new players are being “taught” to play. Numerous times I’ve seen players zone into Kessex Hills and say “Where is the train at?” then “What do I do without a train?”

The QD train is teaching new players that the train is how they level up and get better gear. No hearts, no other events, just champ to champ to champ. This is leaving players in their 20s unable to complete their lvl 10 story missions due to bad gear and a total lack of understanding of key mechanics (such as dodge). As you can guess, many are finding this frustrating and leave.

In addition to teaching bad habits, the champ farm community is hostile at best and flat out toxic at worst. Swearing, slurs, and stuff that would make for so many “kittens” on the forums are slung about frequently, usually at new players who make the mistake of killing a champ “out of order”. This should not be a new player’s first encounter with GW2 players, this should not be ANYONE’S encounter with GW2 players. A new player who sees racists, sexist and homophobic slurs swung about with gusto in their very first zone could well be turned off the whole game long before they finally break away from the pack and try out a different zone (which will likely kill them in their lvl 10 gear).

Good reads about exactly what is happening:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1w745u/new_player_need_guidance/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1w4a5n/queensdale_is_a_breeding_pit_for_crappy_gw2/ (yes, there are a huge number of comments)

I suggest that the QD champ train be demolished and reconstructed in a far higher level zone (50+). Those who enjoy this gameplay, or who rely on it for risk-free income will still have access to it at higher levels, however it will not impact the new player experience.

New players coming into the game will be able to learn, like the older players here did, that hearts and other events are the best way to get XP and gear. They will be able to learn proper mechanics such as dodging.

By keeping such toxic activities away from new players, there is the added bonus that they will be more “hooked” on the game by the time they are encountered in the late game. This will lead to better conversion rates and more income for ANet. Few players will buy many gems in their first 20 lvls, yet this is when the QD champ train is beginning to drive them to other MMOs.

1) they did have a warning: the last time they were reissued

2) Then you would want a warning for the warning because after ANet tells people that they will be going on sale “soon” the price will drop and we will be right back where we are now. Then of course you would need a warning for the warning for the warning….

Jocksy.3415:

MarzAttakz.9608:

Cogbyrn.7283:

Chris.3290:

If you want more communication, start by trying to teach the community how to communicate professionally and understand that sometimes plans change. Maybe then you’ll see more red posts here.

If you want more money, start by trying to teach your developers how to communicate professionally and understand that sometimes customer’s loyalties change. Maybe then you’ll see more happy posts here.

Why should Devs have to deal with customers?
A community manager is bound to do a better job at it…
Anything linked with dealing with customer needs a customer-oriented mindset – which is not the main ability demanded of a developper (and shouldn’t be).

I saw devs posts diminishing at times of changes – which, for me, means they concentrate on their real job – developping – and not on something that is a “loss of developping time” – customer service.

As a game developer, thank you.

what about repping other guilds like TTS?

what I think most races should be more concerned with is the population grown rate.

In 20 years, Sylvari went from 12, to a major race on par with the others…. if they were to keep that curve going for another 20 they would have a higher population than all the other races combined.

Halmo.8619:

Behellagh.1468:

No, the TP is probably the largest gold sink in the game and the ability to keep the money supply under control is paramount. That’s why you can’t opt out.

It is also the biggest source of income for some people who know how to game the tp.

and that is still a sink. The TP doesn’t generate wealth, it transfers it (minus a cut) from one player to another. Macroeconomically it is absolutely the best sink in the game, nothing else even comes close.

“Soon” tm

/15 charrs

World completion is needed for one and only one thing: legendary weapons… and those are meant to show at least a somewhat global understanding of the game, including WvW.

Honestly, I’m more than a little shocked they all but removed the badge of honour requirement by way of achievement chests.

TL;DR: no.

judging from the last set of financial reports from NCSoft, GW2 is making almost as much money per quarter as WoW.

I don’t think you have much to worry about.

Tman.6349:

Necro is a beast

Necro’s use marks… must have been a guardian

currently it is the only mobile minion that is not aqua friendly. Can we get it updated to match the others? It is extremely frustrating to cross a stream, swim three strokes, and put my best minion on cooldown because he got a little damp

1) lack of perma swiftness / 25% runspeed boost

2) see 1.

Adrianna.3092:

“looking for members for _ dungeon instant trait reset only NO EXCEPTIONS!”

would you want to see that?

I would love to see that… anyone who is a big enough kitten to put that in their description is someone I don’t want to play with, saves me the trouble.

you do know you can turn down your graphics settings to reduce the number of effects? Sorry if I’m being a bit blunt on this, but…

it’s already extremely easy to interrupt things like heals, adding in a big “STUN ME NOW TO WIN!” would horridly unbalance things.