Guild Wars 2

Thanks … very much.

I can’t access my guild’s stash anymore. I’m the leader. Anybody have any ideas about this?

What’s a ninny? I’m sure you would know.

I wish I could say all this is very interesting, but I can’t help but wonder what folks have to do that demands they be in such a hurry to finish something that they’re micro-managing stats in a game like this.

I did stat management similar to this while playing Battlefield 2 in league competition, not in regular server play. In league competition, especially in CAL (where money was involved) making sure you were getting bang for the buck was more than reasonable.

Saving two minutes or even five minutes in clearing a “dungeon” in GW2? What do you have on your agenda, dinner with the Prime Minister? I think it’s a shame stat monkeys create the impression “there’s only one way to go, and the others suck” in a game like this. After all, as ArenaNet likes to say, we’re here to have fun, not measure our *****s.

Oh well. Maybe you can take this level of mathematical precision somewhere and get paid doing something significant with it. It’s charming here, in a way, but it’s hardly necessary. After all, this isn’t The Belmont Stakes, and you aren’t Secretariat.

PvP? Yeah. It’s all gear, right? If you want to PvP, try an FPS. Things are “even” there.

nevermind…just hunt

The crafting is a bit ridiculous really. It doesn’t matter how much effort you put in, you’re miles away from anything. Game prowess on the field I understand. Crafting, that should come to you. I can’t really believe how convoluted the new back thing is. And, you can’t hide a huge flower on your back. Who’s coming up with this stuff? What are you putting in his/her (or both) oatmeal?

Never seen such a thing with crafting. Sorry. (And, I hope to never see it again.)

Ever hear of “too much of a good thing”? I hate to say it but, this jumping puzzle stuff is a bit overboard at this point. I know you’ve got some well-intending people working hard to come up with these things, but even with the best of ideas, things can take on a life of their own, and I think that’s what’s happened here.

Having them optional allows players to do them when they feel like delving into their Mario skills a bit more than normal play demands. However, with the last festival and now the new content, they have become a requirement. This is a requirement I refuse to meet. At this point, it’s as though I’m now on a leash being led.

I’ve seen you say time and again the goal for GW 2 is to have fun. This is not fun. Some people may say it is, but in the end it’s a grind. Without the enthusiasm to continually repeat trial and error, the puppy refuses to play. This puppy refuses to attempt your new content for this reason.

I’m sorry to see this happen. I was having glorious fun until now. Now, it’s a wall I refuse to jump for you. Thanks all the same to the jumping puzzle crew. You’ve gone a bit overboard with it, however. I’m sorry to see it. I hope you’re not like some developers who rigidly refuse to back down on what seemed at the time to be a brilliant idea. I can see the amount of work that went into this, so rectifying it would probably be as easy as a trip to Mars.

If such is the case, I hate to say after all this time, this is where we part ways.

I wired a cabbage to a 12-volt battery which
proceeded to rain ideas of the same quality,

What? Is the person inventing the worse Knock-Knock jokes being taken for witty? Please. Learn the meaning of this phrase. “Leave well enough alone.” Daily Dodger – not very artful. This should be as fun as playing Quarters in a bar…oh…you think THAT’S fun… How’s your game of Tic Tac Toe?

“res-rushing” That’s so funny. Invent a problem to solve it. There are so many other little problems in the game – “we’re so busy with the [changes] we’ll get to those…” The mere fact this game repopulates cleared dungeons on you means there’s no rushing back, regardless.

If it took a group to get to the “scene of the wipe” how can one person make it all the way back in a repopulated dungeon to rez the rest? Preposterous. For the life of me I’m still trying to imagine this “problem” as a problem…res-rushing…who in their right mind would….Oh yes…it’s the 21st Century. “If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway then tell everybody how smart you are.”

Set aside for a moment that wiping, sometimes several times, in particularly challenging instances is TRADITION… Ignore the fact that instances lock so ridiculous amounts of time it takes to handle truly challenging instances can be parcelled out in smaller chunks of time to accomodate things like REAL LIFE… (Don’t restate the obvious that instances cleared to a point stay cleared so the ridiculous amounts of time don’t have to be continually repeated making it IMPOSSIBLE to schedule blocks of time and everyone still managing to make it to work, school or their daughter’s wedding…) But, RES-RUSHING????

I’m sure whomever coined the term feels very clever. Now, like the intelligent people we’re supposed to be, let’s just wipe it off the whiteboard and turn our attention to things that do exist like – dynamic events that are stuck all over a zone (including landsharks?) Bosses that reset for no particular reason…how long a list do you need? Advanced gathering tools that produce trash regardless… Res Rushing.

It was my most fervent HOPE that this team of devs isn’t so petty, unimaginative and (apparently) unsupervised as to ignore real problems and invent ones to solve…oh yes…See: Legendary Weapons – the “no grind, ain’t we havin’ fun now?” innovation.

“Get better.” That’s funny. By “better” that means have the gods of randomness smile down upon you more? If you’re in a zone where only certain drops can occur, and you’re functional enough to farm the zone…I’d say “better” has nothing to do with it.

“Buy it.” If you’re patient enough and amass your gold as a good player should you can just buy what you need. Uh huh. That’s “accomplishment,” right? Progress through the game to the bitter end and come up with nothing as a reward so just grind and buy like us smart people do…nice. I like the double standard there. It’s so – modern.

Truth is, as in all games I’ve played, these “legendary” ulti-weapons are time sinks – nothing more. Keep the chicken pecking the button and the kernel of corn will drop…eventually. Isaiah is no different than the rest of the sideshow barkers. He’s insulated enough to have no repercussions for misrepresentations about what’s in the tent. You exit out the back…not the front where he’s…barking.

Rewards commensurate with the level/Crafting that’s significant in the course of play – not having to become a farming, merchant-hound to see results/The ulti-weapon being the natural outcome for the time and effort spent in NORMAL gameplay – NOT judicious grinding in “the right zone”; all DESIRES of veteran gamers, ALL NEVER to be seen as…the real “reason to keep playing” is to DEVS – the time sink.

It’s a shame. It’s too bad. I would say “despite their best intentions,” but then I’d have to believe the barker when he proclaims his intentions, Arenanet has proven to be no “better” than the rest.

The “differences” then just become visual and mechanical. I’m really going to have a good laugh when they introduce their eventual Dungeon Finder. Join the ranks of LOTRO and WoW, (and lord knows how many others) Arenanet. You “talk” a good game.

Once again I have to say how gratifying it is to get to the verrrry top of a jump puzzle only to have the double-tap somersault roll into midair and accompanying fall to my death. Gee. Without a feature like this in the game, one could continue to be deluded enough to think LOGIC should prevail where INTELLIGENCE is applied.

Thanks, guys. I know you want to make life EASY for us. Yeah. Stick that easy to get to DOUBLE-TAP, robbing us of certain subtle moves for fear we’ll fall flat on our faces in a clumsy OH YEAH, I MEANT to be over HERE! fashion. HOWEVER, PLEASE….

Let me turn it off.

WHY? Wow. ‘Cause I have it mapped to another key, one I can’t accidentally HIT when I’m totally trying to do something ELSE. AND (believe it or not) it’s a key much more convenient and easy to find than even your alternative V key (which we CAN turn off).

Why do I get the suspicion someone high high up will say, “We can’t allow you to turn it off in your options, or the entire core of the game will have to be reprogrammed at a cost of $100 billion (US), so you’ll just have to live…er…DIE with it. Sorry.”

Thanks, but no thanks. Let me turn off the DODGE function that uses the directional keys. PLEASE. Either that, or magically put 1 gold a week into my account to cover the repair costs – whichever is easiest for YOU.

Sincerely and with the most kindness I can manage to muster at this point.

I wish to thank, and congratulate the GW 2 design team for their wonderful Winter Wonderland. It is beautiful, highly imaginative, and some features are very inventive in their originality in design and presentation.

You’ve done a stellar job with this. Well done, indeed.

Happy Holidays!

Clear an area? Uh huh. You don’t even have time to walk around and swagger a bit in some places. You’ll be standing in one spot fighting the last guy and poof, one you just offed spawns on top of you. A bit short on the effort/reward scale of life. I clear a cave, I own the cave – at least for five minutes? C’mon. Past a certain point it all becomes busy work. YaaaAAAWWWWwwnnn.

Hear! Hear! In-game VOIP. Lesser games have it. We’re deprived!

Thanks for responding. I mention this because it’s inconsequential to people who don’t want to do the storyline what happens in the storyline or as a result. They aren’t interested, so let them remain so.

I do the epics in all games as I figure if it wasn’t significant, devs wouldn’t bother. Rather, a lot of time and effort go into those, and more often than not, they’re seen as the make, or break of a game. Unfailingly, as though it’s some strange disease, the rewards are inconsequential, which makes doing epics inconsequential busy work, which in turn allows the ones who couldn’t be bothered with them to come out on top. I’ve never liked this, and I never will.

Anyone who doesn’t care about this aspect of gaming should go all in and not cry about the quality of the rewards. It’s something they have no interest in…so let them remain uninterested – front to back. If you’re right, then the devs are kowtowing to the wrong people…which is another of the unfailing rules of game design – Listen to the wrong people about the wrong things.

I have to ask, and this is a rhetorical question, why in the world are the storyline quest rewards always a level or two UNDER the level of the quest itself. I mean, really. How would an item of the same level constitute an undue advancement? I just did the level 47 quest, and got a level 45 staff. Whoopteedoo.

Another way to ask is this: What is the logic behind all the rewards being vendor trash? Is this some kind of game developer’s idea of a joke? That’s the only excuse that could remotely justify it…even then it’s not a very good joke.

You can add this to the list of Forlorn Hopes of Gamers Hall of Fame…why aren’t the epic quest rewards on-level, and therefore of some use? If this is such a difficult thing to manage, why not just make the reward standard vendor trash so as not to make either US (the players) or YOU (the geniuses who think this is a good idea) look like complete fools.

Thanks for your kind (of) attention.