Guild Wars 2

Geotherma.2395:

No 3rd party apps are allowed in game, theres no discussion. Nothing that interferes with or changes the game. Overlays do not change the game, they do not interact with code or the exe file. It is a clear distinction to anyone, not just computer and programmer savvy people. You can argue the point all you like, in the end if you want to use the program that is on you. We will keep an eye out for your banned forum post, and your question will be answered.

Except if I think it doesn’t give me an advantage, they’re quite clear that if it gives the player an advantage it isn’t allowed – that’s fine but the problem I have is that VOIP software is seemingly an exception, although they can’t approve of it’s use because it gives an advantage over someone who doesn’t use it . Quoting the official thread, “Does this program allow someone to play faster, better, longer, or more accurately than someone who doesn’t use it?”, it allows them to play faster, better, and more accurately as they can be updated on everything that is going on. Not a surprise considering majority of companies just make it up as they go along and not define anything – reminds me of real life, no one officially teaches you the law but if you break them, then good luck.

Along the lines of me saying “Some people abuse it, so no one can do it”, I’ll have to say similar with “Just because I talk about, doesn’t mean I’m going to do it”.

Draygo.9473:

Examples of third party applications that do not give gameplay advantage:
Vent overlay
TS3 overlay
Vent
TeamSpeak
Mumble
Mumble overlay
Browser overlay
Steam overlay
Overlays from recording software used in streaming, such as to put an image over the game that is broadcasted on the stream.
Recording software that records gameplay for streaming or storage.
FPS counter overlay
System time overlay

etc

These sorts of things have their uses and don’t give gameplay advantages. (well you can make an argument that voip software makes it easier to communicate – but the counter argument to that is that people sitting in the same room have that same communication advantage and that voip software eliminates that advantage). Voip software also does not modify the game.

That’s true you could make those arguments but the counter argument doesn’t really counter it but more shows the grey area of “We’ll allow/disallow whatever we want but we aren’t telling you what because we don’t vet third party programs – use your own initiative but you might get banned which is unfortunate”, if they didn’t want any third party software they would emphatically state that. Someone who enjoys soloing is going to be at a disadvantage over those who literally only play in groups and/or use voip software. Aren’t big guilds at an advantage over others? Aren’t veteran players at an advantage? Aren’t those with better hardware at an advantage? Better yet, those people who abuse exploits and bugs, aren’t they just playing the game because ANet put said things in the game? No, they’ll get a warning and/or a ban

ANet need to state that no third party software is allowed, period – oh and implement the simple benign things that people are wanting to use third party software for, maybe then this type of thread would never exist.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You can take the chance that no one else ever uses the application for an advantage in any part of the game, but if others do, and a decision is made to ban all users of said application, you might find yourself taking an unexpected vacation from the game. It is, of course, your choice. Good luck. =)

That is unfortunately very true. It annoys me greatly being punished because other people take advantage.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Let’s look at a scenario: Say there are detection systems that ascertain you are using a specific third-party program that is known to give players an advantage. Do you think that we would go through your entire gameplay history to see “This person does not play PvP, so the program is not giving him/her any advantage, so therefore his using it is acceptable?” I am sure when you read that, you’ll realize that to do so would be incredibly time-consuming and an unrealistic expectation on the part of any player.

That was not meant to be a specific monitoring of everything I’ve ever done, that was a “I get banned (while the same bots farm for the 5th week in a row) and there’s proof I never participated in PVP or that I gained an advantage”, which is seemingly what they fret over, along with botting.

Gaile Gray.6028:

I don’t think you should decide “Well, in my use this is ok” so much as assess “This program could be used for advantage, and I therefore will give it a wide berth.”

Unfortunately I don’t agree with the “Some people abuse it, so no one can do it” attitude – ironic when I live in the UK. All third-party programs are going to give an advantage in some way over someone who doesn’t also use it. If it was such a problem there wouldn’t be a grey area about it of ‘maybe this is ok to use, but then again maybe not’.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Let me answer this as a player:

Consider PvP: Being able to zoom out farther than your opponent seems a definite advantage. If a PvP player can see the entire map, he/she certainly knows more, and can react differently, than those playing the game as intended (who cannot view the entire map through normal processes).

The advantage-giving provision of the program is a concern to me, as a player, as it seems clearly prohibited by the policy. " Our general policy is that anything that gives advantage is forbidden; anything that imbalances the game in favor of one player over another is strictly disallowed."

As I said I don’t PVP – with the exception of checking what the monthly rewards were and the xmas snow event – so I’m more than likely going to make the call that it’s a “benign” program like they officially state to do, I would not be breaking the tos with how I play the game and records would show that. Quickly off the top of my head this is the sort of scenario I could refer it to: If there are overpowered skills for a certain class after a patch, should the servers be shut down because a certain class might – emphasis on might – take advantage of it?

On the lines of what the person after you said, why an option to increase the max camera zoom-out to “big boss” distance in the world is beyond me, especially in a game that promotes you play it how you want to play it. Anyway, thank you to all those who responded to the thread.

First off I feel I have to say that I know there’s an official thread about third party programs, but I feel that it not only leaves a grey area but also doesn’t specify what is considered a ‘bad’ program because you could argue that changing the ingame font is an unfair advantage because the person would like the font he chose and be in a happier more relaxed mood when playing compared to someone who hated the font – although then that means anyone who likes the default font will be at an advantage, and those who hate it will be at a disadvantage.

Now I have that out of the way, will Zoomunlocker get me banned? And I mean straight banned, or will I get a warning first? Honestly I would be very unimpressed if I did with the amount of personal time I’ve spent reporting bots when one admin per server could sort it all out instead of relying on your customers to do it. I don’t PVP, I only PVE, and the pathetic zoom out options are almost worse than Lineage 2 – but the main aspect of it is being able to be in first person and ANet apparently are against first person because they want you to see your character all the time so you connect with it more or something, but isn’t going into the eyes of your character making more of a connection? Pathetic excuse just like the pathetic zoom options that only zoom out further when the game says so.

It would be great to see an official reply, although if I do see a reply with the same recycled response I’ll be letting you know what I think.

Thanks,
Lister.

Same here, a friend went and got one and told me about it but when I went and talked to him and clicked the ’I’d like one’ or whatever it is, nothing appeared above the mini map that I received anything and nothing was in my inventory – I had plenty of inventory space.

LightningLockey.5938:

I have never seen a game fail twice (in a row) at the holiday events. They are suppose to be fun, easy, enjoyable, relaxing and cause spontaneous fun. Here they are just dungeon grinds, junky rewards, next to impossible (if not impossible) jumping puzzles. I have never felt so miserable during holiday events until I came here.

If I wanted content this bad, I would have signed up for World of Warcraft.

I wish I could be positive…. just disgusted.

You sound just like a friend of mine, he goes into the jumping puzzle, fails once and says it’s crap (euphemism) and that it’s impossible and/or shouldn’t be in the game. He has little to no patience and unfortunately if you are similar, I have no sympathy because the jumping puzzle is easy compared to Halloween, I done it on my second attempt and done it for a friend on the third attempt.

Black Frog.9274:

OP is kitteno-ling, fa la la la la, la la la la

edit: srsly? forums filter out t-r-o-l-l in a game that has them as NPCs?

Noticed that myself, why it replaced ‘T’ with kitten I dunno, gonna test it here – are staying apart of the events but this one was so easy.

First off I’m not complaining, I love that the jumping puzzles are staying apart of the events but kittenhis one was so easy I done it on my second attempt and only failed the first because I didn’t know where to go.

Anyone else feel this was definitely toned down? Especially compared to the Halloween one which was just amazing I thought and felt good finishing it, this one I had a very ‘meh’ feeling at the end.

Edit: Kitten!?!?! Why ANet why!

I’ve done the encounter a lot – not saying you haven’t – and I never got put down by 1 bomb before until the last time there. This was also on fractal level 4, I’ve done him on 9 no problem at all, I also distinctly remember standing and finishing my aoe while a bomb was placed on the ground not caring if it blew up, I wasn’t the only one who thought it either in the group. I wouldn’t be posting if it wasn’t significant but like I said it might just have been that run.

I’ve just done the fractal with the dredgesuit boss and pouring lava on him etc. Is this damage been buffed to hell for anyone else or was it just bugged damage this time?

I use magic find set and I have just under 15k hp, no problems in any of the fractals or dungeons – I stay up more than others – in case anyone talks about my low hp. The bombs he puts on the ground now kills me (deals 15k), and that’s just with one bomb not to mention his aoe. It also doesn’t help that my survival skills which are essential for an elementalist do not block anything.

LFG tools or ‘Dungeon Finders’ are terrible, terrible, terrible, I can’t say terrible enough. WoW is a perfect example of why it’s just God awful, no one cares about anything but loot, no one – rarely – talks and just wants to get it over with. When I put a group together from scratch in GW2 I feel like I put it together. The main reason I came to GW2 from WoW was because in WoW the game has been essentially playing itself for years, it finds the group for you, it rolls the loot for you (LFRraid) etc. A strict LFG channel which only posts the dungeon name and how many you need is better than some pathetic automated system.

In short GW2 makes me feel like I’m doing it, the game isn’t doing it for me since if it does it makes me think “It’s bad enough I’m sitting here playing a MMO but it’s playing it for me”.

They need an xp system of sorts for groups of levels like 1-5/1-10 to get to 10-15/10-20. Any level you take gets you xp towards to next group of levels. To be honest it’s a difficult system they’ve implemented, it’s good at the start but the longer it goes the worse it will get to get groups.

It doesn’t help either the rapid increase in typical people that ruin online games, kids, arrogant adults, ‘various swears describing cliche people’ e.g. today me and a friend spent about an hour looking for a group, we got a group finally and someone said “re party” as in ‘ kitten party’ for no reason and left which of course triggered the sheep reaction of following the leader so the group disbanded. The game reminds me more and more of World of Warcraft’s player mentality as each day goes by.

Rampage.7145:

Indeed, they don’t test the game on NASA supercomputers, so they are aware of the performance issues, it is a complex problem, so don’t expect a full fix anytime soon. Just deal with it for a couple of years untill hardware catch up with this game, is the same with many MMOs, remember how did WoW ran on P4 processors? Some ppl say this game suck cuz WoW runs prefectly smooth and that is not a fair comparison, WoW is an ancient game, so it is to be expected after 9 years we have hardware good enough to make it smooth.
P.S read the Kirito’s thread, u will find valuable info about the performance problems and why GW2 do not push ur hardware to the limits like other games do.

I played WoW for about 7 years and played since about 2 months after release, I had no performance problems at all if I’m being honest and obviously it is a silly comparison comparing it to WoW. You’re outlook is to wait a couple of years? If that would be the case I won’t be playing much longer, buying an expensive processor to get average – if that – performance on a game will not be happening. Like I said it’s got much worse since the content patch which is why I’m so annoyed as it was borderline before..

kirito.4138:

The developers has acknowledged the game’s performance issues and wants to make it better, but it takes time. You can read what they commented so far in Q11 here It goes in detail as to why the performance is like this.

No offense but to me you didn’t read my post fully since I said I knew the issues were known about.

I do realise fps issues are known about and I give a lot of leeway to ArenaNet since the game hasn’t been about that long, but I am really having trouble playing without getting sore eyes and/or a bit of a headache because of said frame rate. I’d like to add I have tried all the settings mentioned in the forum.

When GW2 first started my fps was say 25-30 in towns and went to 60 in the world. Since the recent content addition I have noticed an incredible decrease in my performance. Running through Lion’s Arch I get 11-12 fps – of course if I stand in certain places I get 20 – in the world I get 25-30, if I’m really lucky I get 35-40. In the Ascalon fractal I get 6-10 fps the whole way.

Monitoring my CPU and GPU usage is really angering me at how poor the optimisation is and how it’s got worse (or how ArenaNet tried to make the game run on the most amount of PCs possible) and how bad it seems to have got recently with the patch. My GPU never going over 40% usage, most of the time it’s at 20%. My CPU at 40% most of the time and 60% every now and then.

I’d like to know what priority these performance issues are at. I’d like to think they are very close to, if not at the top of the list. None of my 4 friends that bought GW2 are still playing, in fact they quit after 3-4 weeks because of frame rate and performance alone. They want to play but can’t put up with the fps. If these were fixed it would pull more people back to the game, oh and also one quit because the camera zoom was ‘pathetic’ as he put it. I sincerely hope the option to have more zoom out will be a permanent option and not just enabled automatically for certain fights.

I find myself only using Air stance to tag mobs in events because the damage output is so low. I’m sure I’m far from the only one.

Psaakyrn.5794:

I don’t see your point. You already can sort of officially buy gold by buying gems, then trading for gold.

The point is that paying £8.99 for gems is more expensive irl money wise than buying Chinese gold and trading for gems. There’s auction house prices going down with botters, gold to gem rates hitting the floor from gold buyers. That is my point.

What I did was go for vitality, I stacked toughness etc. and saw little difference since light armor can’t get any better really – that was my thought anyway. For the many spells and abilities we have I don’t mind, I don’t die any more or less than anyone else.

I bought one and that was it, Halloween was the first and only venture into opening chests and bags. I notice how they have the stack of 10 you can buy. Never again am I opening chests other than one to say that I at least tried it.

I’m not sure if this is even a suggestion or more of an observation/thought.

Those people who buy gold off websites for silly low amounts then go to use said gold to trade for gems, in return driving the rate incredibly low for those who play legit and don’t have crazy gold amounts. I found myself wondering what the rate could be if the dreaded gold buying wasn’t there.

Almost makes me think it’s planned, every MMO has gold sellers no matter what, ANet are obviously going to know that, and know the rates will fly down which would entice people to pay irl money for gems. I don’t care in most games about gold buying, it doesn’t really affect me other than Auction House prices, but this really affects the ability to use the in-game store using in-game currency.

I’m giving ArenaNet a lot of leeway since not only is the game been out just two and a bit months, but all these events etc. were more than likely already basically complete and ready to go before the game was even released. I see it also as a test of what they can and cannot do in the future for big events. The Lost Shores event was very laggy, but it brought in the Mists mini dungeons which are fantastic – in my opinion.

You can’t just chuck it in because a part highly disagreed with you, if I did that I would’ve stopped playing WoW in early 2005 after it’s release – I played it for 7 years – or the other various MMOs I’ve played. Yes the event ‘failed’ in the sense of the lag but I’m not going to start kittening about them when the game has still not been around for all that long.

If they do it in say, 9 months time, then you would have much more of a right to complain, but not now. Why not give them feedback instead.

Marrgon.6852:

There is a timer in the top right corner.

You are not supposed to kill Mossman or the Drake.

The trips are annoying on purpose.

Enjoy the satisfaction when you get your head around it :P

You are like the ones responding to complaints about the Mad Tower. Tower QQ is not warranted apart from large characters getting in the way. The Swamp fractal is a warrant for complaints and completing it does not change my opinion about it, it’s time wasting, based on luck and total dependence on others not messing up.

I do not wish to do it ever again since it’s so temperamental

That’s even worse that you did read it and posted what you did.

Didn’t even read my post. Classic forums.

Now the fractals I have done I like, I enjoy the ideas, but the Swamp one is based so much on luck and dependence on other people not messing up it’s ridiculous.

To me it’s a good idea in theory but just terrible in practice. Full dependence on other people not messing up is why I stopped raiding in ‘WoW’ and switched to GWars after many, many years.

I don’t want to hear the usual babble of “It’s easy” or “get a guild group” or similar. Even with communication it’s a luck based situation that can take a long time. Getting sudden trip wire spawns that haven’t loaded, the Boss guy that appears every now and then, not to mention traps in water.

Anyone else have similar feelings about it?

I just wanted to add my support to the recently added ability to zoom out further.

I heard some say it might just be temporary but I think it really adds to WvW and looking around the environment, the latter more so.

Done it on my elementalist with the passive arcane stance speed. I did it for a friend – who has little patience for these type of things – on his account (warrior) without the speed and it made little difference at all. Speed has nothing to do with it, just know what to do.

Well this was an easy decision, number 2.

Eon.5428:

Basically people got tricked with this event expecting reasonable drop rates so they will make some money but how many people who got kittened on the boxes or just heard about how bad the drop rates are are going to buy gems again. If the skins had just been released on Bl people could have just got what they wanted and would still be willing to spend money on future events.

At least some people understand and aren’t just following the leader/fanboying.

Today I forgot I paid £50 for the game because it feels more like a f2p game than actual f2p games themselves. There’s no need to have this feeling a lot are getting from this method of ArenaNet trying to get money. I played LOTR Online a lot and never had the feeling of “Give us your money so we can make profit” – and that is f2p for those who don’t know. Generating points to spend via doing achievement style goals made me want – yes I said want – to buy Turbine points, I purchased inventory slots, the new class, cosmetic items, and after all that I felt good about the game and still do. This ‘lottery’ stuff in GW2 is literally the mirror opposite.

No Walking.6349:

Nope, if I have the chainsaw skeleton, it shows everyone that I had the other 3 at some point. No real point in having all 4, when the last one is better to show off.

There is a point to those who like to collect items which is very popular in MMO’s and I think ArenaNet know that very well which is why it’s added a very dirty feeling to the game for me.

So from what I have gathered you have to buy the Miniature Spooky Trio (the Mini Ghost, Spider and Skeleton) from the Black Lion Trading Company and collect 250 candy corn to be able to make the rare “Chainsaw the Skeleton” pet. I would love to collect pets in this game but I find it very off putting and feel rather annoyed that I would have to buy and spend 1000 gems to be able to have the three Trio pets and the rare pet.

Those Trio of pets should not be consumed in making the rare pet. It has been mentioned in unoffical forums and probably here too that it seems like a ‘money grab’ even though yes you don’t have to buy gems for real life money, but 1000 in game gems is a lot of gold.

I really think this should be looked at sooner rather than later, anyone else feel the same way?

Glad someone else brought this up and judging by the sad justification people are giving for doing it just like on my post, I hope ArenaNet are sensible and mature people and fix this when possible. I’m convinced these posts backing up this ridiculous ‘farming’ stuff are by young kids, at least I hope they are.

Angelous.1042

This

If people want to take the time farming a lvl 83 mob in hopes of a rare drop then let them.
Its not often and they wont be there every fight to do it.

Keep screaming and crying nerf and this game wont be playable.

Sure, but the oh soo terrible loot the chest gives that they continue through the event to loot like the hypocrites they are says otherwise. No sensible developer/designer is going to agree that leeching from an event to just loot a chest at the end is ok.

Booler.6598

For arguments sake you could farm anywhere on any map , it makes ZERO difference if you farm the elementals it does not affect in any way the numbers who are going to kill jawmag himself as they could just be farming somewhere else.

Just like I said to the other guy, the people still continue to the chest that everyone else has put the effort in for.

This is going to be fixed eventually unless they’re going to do a Blizzard and just leave silly stuff in their game.

Sarisa.4731

The bigger problem on Henge is that we get a lot of people who do nothing but afk-range the dragon from that perch, and don’t assist in taking down the pillars. Then come back and whine because not enough people are working on the pillars, and the kill is taking too long. One night there were over 30 people in the perch, 10-15 in the freezing ice attacking the dragon, and 5 trying to manage all the pillars.

Exactly what was going on the past few times I done it, especially later on at night

Buttercup.5871

Because you see, those “farmers” you so loathe are the very ones that make the event possible. Without them, there would not be enough DPS to kill the Claw of Jormag, or enough DPS to kill the mobs that will eventually kill you. Without those mob drops, their incentive to be there would be close to zero. Without those drops on the trade post, everything would be much more expensive. Yes, for you as well.

I’ll just have to say no, just no to that. That is exactly the silly justification for doing it that I was talking about. Not everyone does it, it’s split between people who actually want to enjoy the game and those who want to – in my opinion – exploit and do whatever they can possible to get gold and gear, just like those who farmed the grubs. I don’t want it to be cheap as hell, I want to be able to acquire these items legitimately and go to the trading post and not have it sell for much less than it should.

To the other things you said I didn’t quote, I have all the exotic gear from dungeons bar one. I don’t feel the need to do this crap over and over and over just for the sake of it. I earn gold fine at a steady rate, I have 35g at the minute and that’s after spending a lot on gems. This whole “acquisition of gold has been nerfed so much we have to do this” stuff is just, sigh, I’m sorry but it’s just pathetic justification like I said before.

I’m fine for doing the mobs for two or three rounds but doing it over and over is something I could imagine myself wanting to do when I was 15 odd thinking I was ‘cool’ for doing it.

The more it’s done the more it will get nerfed so I just have to play the waiting game.

I don’t know if this is classed as a bug but it should be.

I know I am far from the only one fed up with this and has led me to have the worst experience on Guild Wars 2 since launch and I play every day.

I went to do Claw of Jormag – the dragon group event in Frostgorge Sound – and more than half the people there were wanting to sit and farm the mobs that come while you are attacking the corrupted shield to stun the dragon because they drop ‘rares’ that are arguably better than the chest drops for completing the event.

Those there are saying things like “If there were other things to do endgame we wouldn’t need to do this” pathetic justification in my opinion for childish antics. This is grieving as far as I’m concerned and obstructing other players from enjoying the game.

I have names of those advocating it which more than likely matter not but these can be seen in logs if needed – Jormag’s death at 22:00 server time.

This needs brought to light if it hasn’t already, it has really tainted by feelings about the game at the moment, added to by the amount of bots in game.