Guild Wars 2

Contrary to those who posted in other related threads, motion sickness is not something you can “just get used tom,” and there are FAR more folks who have issues with motion sickness in game than you might think.

Some background: I played GW1 since it was launched, was the head of a guild that led its alliance, and completed virtually every activity which GW1 had to offer – many times over. I began playing GW2 in beta, am the leader of a decent sized guild, and although I focus mostly on PvE, I have participated in every type of content which GW2 has to offer with every profession. I purchased each expansion as soon as they were available, and have spent ungodly sums of money buying items in the gem store. My choice of playing GW was very much influenced by the fact that it was one of the only games I actually wanted to play which I could tolerate with my susceptibility to motion sickness. While GW2 had a bit more movement in it, and some small parts have caused some motion sickness (like running up the spinning spiral staircase in Dragon Stand), I’ve been able to play all of the content just fine – until now.

Having invested VERY heavily in the game, and being a single game player (fully dedicated to GW1, and now GW2) I was eager to give mounts a try. However, to put it bluntly, I can’t be on a mount for more than 10 seconds without feeling motion sickness coming on. I tried everything I could think of to minimize the motion sickness, including different camera positions, zooming as far out as possible and adjusting in-game, monitor and ambient light settings, but none of it had any meaningful impact on the motion sickness. While I found that I was able to complete some of the beta content without a mount, mounts have clearly been designed to be an integral part of PoF. I find this very problematic, because if something isn’t done to tweak the way mounts are displayed, I am going to be unable to play any parts of the game which require mounts.

I suspect that much of the motion sickness issues are fixable without deleting mounts from the content. After all, the gliding could have very easily posed problems with motion sickness, and yet Anet found a way to make it function without significant motion sickness issues. If there were settings to be adjustable in the way LolinaOtone.4196 mentioned above, it would very likely go a long way to resolving the problem.

And, contrary to the single activity at a theme park hypothetical, this is more like an entirely new “land” at a theme park which folks bought a lifetime pass to in advance, only to find out after the fact that they can’t even enter because it is exclusively for persons to use who are immune from motion sickness. No es bueno.

Fellowship of Wizards [FOW] is a North American guild that was formed from a core of skilled players who have played GW since the original release of GW1. After accomplishing almost every achievement in GW1, and growing an impressive alliance of active guilds in GW1, the alliance merged into a single guild just prior to the release of GW2, and has remained together ever since.

Our guild members have a nice mix of interest and ability in PvE, PvP and WvW, although the majority of our activities are in PvE.

We have members with L50 Fractal completion, completion of every dungeon path, every jumping puzzle, and countless other achievements. Whatever your interests, chances are that you’ll find like-minded folks in our guild to venture with.

[FoW] has male and female members of all ages, with the clear majority being 20+ (and many members in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and beyond). If you enjoy being with a fun group of gamers in a long-lasting guild, then give us a try and come join the fun! Our guild is always looking forward to doing new things. Our members are open to helping where needed and grouping up to tackle the variety of content and activities available.

• Website: http://FellowshipofWizards.com
• Server: Sanctum of Rall (you don’t need to be on SoR to venture with us in PvE, but will need to be in SoR if you’d like to join us for our WvW activities)
• Time Zones: Eastern Time – Central Time – Pacific Time (North America)
• Guild Type: PvE, WvW, PvP and Role Playing
• Culture: Social & Casual (family friendly)
• Guild Upgrades: You name it, chances are that we’ve got it.
• Guild Missions: All Guild Missions/Puzzles/Rushes available (we run these every Sunday)
• Voice Comm: Ventrilo
• Play Time Requirements: Play when you want.

If you’d like to join us, please head over to our website and introduce yourself!

One thing I have found about the Bell Choir is that some find it as easy as breathing, while others see it as difficult as having to explain Schrödinger’s equation to a 5th grader. Those who find it easy are never going to be able to comprehend why anyone would find it difficult, while those who find it insanely difficult will be frustrated to the point of throwing their PC out a window (irony!) and cursing Anet for forcing people to complete this mini-game to complete the Adept Toymaker achievement.

I have played Guild Wars since the launch of GW1 over a decade ago, was the leader of a GW1 guild and sizable alliance, and have been guild leader and active GW2 player since day one. I now have L80 chars of all professions, have completed every dungeon path numerous times, explored every inch of every map (including every JP), and am able to complete L50 fractal runs without breaking a sweat. I mention this not to declare prowess of any kind, but merely to point out that the comments below are from someone who has spent a considerable amount of time playing this game and therefore does not meet the definition of noob.

That said, I personally find the Bell Choir to be FAR from fun, as I am atrociously hideously bad at it. Like so bad that others who watch me attempt it are baffled that someone is even able to suck so badly without intentionally trying to fail. Why I suck so hideously at it is unknown, whether it be because of a complete lack of musical ability, or whether there is some other underlying cognitive limitation when it comes to glowing orbs on musical discs.

Having spoken with many others about this, I know that my difficulty with this mini-game is far from unique. Anet clearly knows that some will have difficulty with this mini-game, hence the announcement at the entrance which touts its predilection for the “musically inclined,” and yet, they chose to make this a REQUIRED activity for the Adept Toymaker achievement rather than giving people credit for the first completion of the repeatable achievements (I still have not seen any reasonable explanation as to why the first completion of the repeatable achievements doesn’t count towards the title – but until we get someone from Anet to actually respond, I guess it will be one of life’s many mysteries).

Ultimately, after many many attempts, all ending in failure (even attempts where I placed numbered Post-It notes on the screen to visualize the number of each of the 8 orb channels), the only way I was able to complete the achievement was to get my wife to tackle it for me. Even though she isn’t a gamer, something in her DNA apparently gave her the ability to better coordinate with the falling orbs, and eventually complete the achievement for me.

With the achievement behind me, I am left to wonder why Anet hasn’t bothered to do a few VERY simple things which could have made this so much more workable for those like me who are Bell Choir challenged. Why not have a lower level of the game with numbers on the wheel so that people can better visualize which orb is on which slat? Why not give more leeway for people to press the button so that the orb doesn’t need to be just past the white line for the key press to count (a tiny leeway for lag would be nice)? Why not allow people to choose between low, mid and upper range songs as they see fit so they can actually get to know the game easier and maybe make them want to get better and then move to something more challenging? Tutorials with lower difficulty are a huge part of multiple other parts of this game, so why not have a lower difficulty/lower reward level for those who have far less than Mozart level key proficiency? Mini-games with multiple levels were used back in GW1 (e.g. Rings of Fortune vs. 9 Rings), so why not here?

One can only hope that Anet will actually listen to comments like those posted on this thread, so that a greater number of people can actually enjoy the special events like Wintersday.

Agreed that this is VERY VERY annoying. ALL OF THE TITLES SHOULD COUNT TOWARDS THE META!!!

First, some background. I have been playing GW extensively since the initial release of GW1, and served as the leader of a decent size GW1 alliance. In GW2, I serve as the leader of a medium size guild composed of core players who transitioned from GW1 since day one of the release of GW2. As someone who has been focused on GW for approximately 10 years now, I had thought that I would be one of Anet’s target audiences - but I am begging to think that is no longer the case.

My guild is on SoR, and for the most part, the vast majority of random folks we have run with have been friendly, mature and cooperative. I used to often join up with others, made a few friends, and sometimes would join them for other in-game activities. However, since the Megaserver, our ability to even venture in the same general area as others has been negatively impacted by the excess number of complete @$$$#0|* players who seem utterly compelled to demonstrate their lack of maturity and intelligence. This has not only prompted the vast majority of those in my guild to turn off Map chat, but most of the time Say chat as well. It was always my belief that the different servers had very different personalities, and I have experienced some of that in LFG dungeon and fractal runs with persons from other servers. But in the open world since Megaserver, it seems to be much MUCH worse.

By way of example, earlier today I ran around doing misc quests solo, and ran into a person who went on a cursing tirade for my having the gall to do the same quest as them - even though (a) it was a super easy and fast quest, (b) my completing the quest had virtually no impact on their ability to complete the quest, and of course (c) no one person has a monopoly on an activity when they are present in the open PvE world (I’ve never seen anyone stand in line to do hearts before, nor do I have any understanding why someone would have the belief that this was standard protocol). Ultimately I had to block the person to prevent them from continuing to hurl expletives in my direction, even though their ire was entirely self inflicted.

After chalking up the prior experience as merely an unlikely run in with the lowest 1% GW2 has to offer, I swapped zones and began completing a completely different map. Along my path was a skritt burglar running around, with a couple folks appearing to try to grab him. I crippled the burglar to make him easier for these others to catch, and landed a few hits on him for some personal loot but intentionally didn’t spike him down, as I knew that others would want to get some hits in on him. Once the skritt burglar was down, I picked up my drops and headed off. But, before I did, one of the others who had participated in this activity began verbally attacking me, for my horrible sin of hitting the same enemy that they did (even though my actions actually aided them in catching up to him, so they could get more loot). This prompted me to have to, once again (less than 30 mins after the first incident) block an idiot who was bombarding me with insults for no good reason.

I am not someone with a thin skin, but I do find the seeming change in tone since Megaserver to be quite annoying. While I can understand and admire the desire to give folks more persons to play with, Megaserver’s impact has actually been perceived by myself, and many others in my guild, as a very imperfect solution to something which really wasn’t that much of a problem to start with. In my view, Anet seems to be getting better and better at giving us things we don’t ask for, and then expecting us to be grateful that they did (to paraphrase another popular thread, giving us yams, thinking it is somehow better than the potato we were expecting and wanted, and never taking into account that many people might hate yams).

Of course, this doesn’t even touch on the other Megaserver issues we’ve encountered repeatedly (guild members and even party members often getting sent to different instances, and sometimes being completely unable to join together in a single instance). Really seems that the pros and cons of this system should have been explored a bit more thoroughly before it was put in place.

Guild Name: Fellowship of Wizards [FoW]
Server: Sanctum of Rall
Timezone: US/Canada (GMT -5 to GMT -8)
Type: PvX (mostly PvE with a little WvW)
Website: http://www.fellowshipofwizards.com
Age: 20+
VOIP: Ventrilo

The Fellowship of Wizards [FoW] is a North American guild with members in the United States and Canada. We have members on both coasts and everywhere in between.

FoW was formed before the release of GW2 out of a GW1 alliance that had housed multiple independent guilds that merged into a single guild in GW2 to form a cohesive family. We have members of all ages, but tend to focus most on the 20+ crowd (with most members being far over 20, and many spanning in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and beyond). We have a great group of helpful and skilled players who are more than happy to lend a hand to anyone needing assistance who are at all stages of the game. Although our core focus is PvE, we do some WvW on occasion (with many members looking to do more and more WvW). Our guild is set up to provide a kind, supportive and family friendly atmosphere for persons of all ages, regardless of your skill level or character progression.

In addition to our in-game presence, we have an extensive ad-free guild forum for people to interact, coordinate activities, and share stories and images. We also have a Ventrilo server for VoIP communications. (There is no charge to anyone for the use of the guild forum or VoIP server – so no one will EVER ask you for a donation.)

So, if you are looking for a PvE-oriented guild to call home and want to game without the drama or play time requirements of some more hardcore guilds, head over to our forum, sign up for an account and request an invite.