Guild Wars 2

Orpheal.8263:

Stop it Knight, stop trying to want to make out of GW2 a GW1 Clone 2.0.
Won’t happen.

Never ever. Be just freaking happy, that we will receive soon with Specializations in HoT for all Classes a new Weapon, which will increase the Build Variety.

All Weapons to all Classes wouldnt be just not only absolutely immersion breaking (ya sure, Thieves with Magic Scepters, Engineers with Staffs, Rangers with Pistols/Rifles, Mesmers with Hammers, Necros with Hammers, Eles with Pistols/Rifles)

Just be patient, GW2 surely will see in the future more additional Specilizations per Class, to expand further the Weapon Options..but only as far as a weapon fits to the theme and style of the class so that it doesn’t become immersion breaking.

Gave me already in GW1 a shudders each time, whenever I saw rangers running around with hammers or any of the magical classes with totally unfitting weapon set combos and just worser skill builds being played together with them.

To each their own – I’d personally love to see all weapons enabled for each class, but dang, you seem really madz about this whole topic. Maybe time to take a step back and see if this is worth all the negative enegery you’re putting out.

Reanne.5462:

Buncha selfish people, “omg if I stop to rez, I ll fail the event” Ya, maybe… But if Everyone was standing where they are supposed to be, and not spread out, the group could speed rez anyone downed fast enough. Half the events fail because people still treat them at solo events, while standing next to other people, soloing the same event. Every man/woman for themselves. Seems the majority of players still don’t understand the concept of splashes and skills that become 100 times more powerful when used with others.

errr I don’t think you understand how this works.
First of all, if you’ve participated in the lanes and die during one of the champs (or even during a lane fight) you will still get full participation karma/xp as well as the chest at the end. You don’t get drops from any of the mobs either way. So unless you’re kitten y enough to literally die all the time and spend the entirety of the vinewrath time running back you do not miss out on ANYTHING by running back when dead.

Now, on the other hand, if you’re dead during a champion and sit there asking for a rez you endanger other people because
a) bosses are timed so you sometimes don’t have the luxury to waste x amount of seconds to rez someone
b) all the bosses have some sort of guaranteed(ish) death attack that, if you don’t avoid it, you die (and people who rez often can’t properly avoid it)
c) the boss will scale down if people are dead, and especially if they waypoint. The boss will NOT downscale for people that rez.
Hence full-rezing people during a champ (and sometimes during a lane) is generally a really terrible idea and usually the number one reason why the overall group fails. In short, it’s usually dead people sitting there and crying for a rez too lazy to run back that make everyone fail. Who’s selfish now. Downed people should generally, but not 100% of the time be rezed, dead dead people should only be rezed in very few situations.

And don’t even get me started on what a stupid idea it is to stack during a lot of the lane fighting.

… really? Let me explain this to you OP: what other people do in the game fall into exactly 2 categories: things the TOS allows them to do, and things the TOS doesn’t allow them to do.
If what they do is reportable, go ahead and report them.
If what they do is not reportable then who are you to tell them how to play?

ps: Lineage 2 had a “recommend” system where you could vote up x amount of people every day (or the same person x amount of times), and no one took it seriously because people would just upvote their friends or upvote themselves with alts. Systems like this are a waste of development time.

Devildoc.6721:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Selling items using the LFG Tool is a very bad idea. The tool was not intended for that purpose, and those who use it are not protected from scams, rip-offs, and general heartbreak.

Sure, if someone rips you off and CS can verify it, they’ll take action against the scammer. But they cannot return the item.

I know I sound all rah-rah when I say “Use the TP” but I’m a player too, and I pay the fees, and darn it, it’s a small price to pay — literally — to avoid the ripoffs that happen when someone decides to take a risk to avoid the fees.

Today is one example of the badness of using the LFG Tool: I got a very heartfelt PM this afternoon from someone who had The Flameseeker Prophecies — yes, a bloomin’ Flameseeker! — stolen from him by a scammer using the LFG Tool to identify potential victims. He knows now and will never forget: You should never, ever, ever use the LFG tool for trades.

Whether it’s the two-copper piece of junk or the legendary of your dreams, please sell it through the safe, secure, and intended methods offered within the game.

Here’s the one problem though Gaile, the listing fees.

Some people can’t afford to list an expensive item they get, it can cost 50 gold or more to list an item you might have gotten as a drop There should be a cap on listing fees and the rest would just be taken out of sale profits.

We already have this in place – it’s called “sell to highest buy offer”.
The reason the marketplace has such fees attached to it are to curb inflation (it’s a gold sink counter-acting the endless stream of gold that gets pumped into the system daily by killing mobs and selling trash back to the store), which benefits all players, especially the poorer ones.

Capitol City.4856:

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. DO YOU SEE. THE PROBLEM HERE. You say I’m a bad mesmer because I’m not switching out my skills, and you might be right, and yet I’m clearing every dungeon with ease? Level 40+ fractals with ease? It’s because I don’t have to switch over to the best build, I cover so much ground on the few utility skills I stick to, without consequence, that I can be a bad mesmer and still fly through “difficult content”. Thank you for illustrating my point.

The lack of build diversity comes from the fact that every class can cover every necessity with 3 utility skills, without sacrificing damage. Damage should be a build in and of itself, as soon as we give damage the ability to do everything else, every other build becomes pointless. Every class runs every role simultaneously, so only one build per class is optimal. We all run the same few utility skills, rarely switching, because shaving off a few seconds is hardly worth switching your skills for. And if it is worth it, then we switch to those skills for that single battle. And then we switch back. That’s not build diversity, that’s switching utility skills temporarily…

You’re not asking for built diversity, you’re asking for the exact opposite. Right now any build, even sub-par ones can play the game easily – why? Because the skill floor for dungeons is really really low. There is a reason it was designed this way and that reason is to make the game accessible to everyone – including new people and casuals. Advanced players can play the content in a very efficient way by switching their get ups depending on situations (which you dont want to do because it’s not “needed” – this is where the “get gud” part comes in). This is a good thing as it makes all dungeon content all inclusive, and part of, if not THE core design philosophy of this game’s pve combat system.

You keep saying over and over how you’re aware that in certain situation different traits and utility may be better than what you usually use, yet you don’t switch because you don’t have to. So essentially you’re asking for encounters that are so hard that people HAVE to switch. So essentially you’re asking for less build diversity and you want to take the ability for people to play as they want and still have a decent result.

Last but not least, it is absolutely false that there is only one viable build per class, so please stop claiming that.

Einlanzer.1627:

Liz.1497:

Einlanzer.1627:

encounters and builds can be conceived that work with within the framework of a distinctive role structure – support, healing, control, or even tanking. Meta could be allowed to develop around these roles rather than just around the current single pure, direct DPS role.

This exactly right there is your problem. I’m sorry to break it to you OP but if you think zerker meta pve doesn’t involve massive amounts of control skills you’ve been carried hard. The problem is not that everyone just deals damage, the problem is that you can do all the support the party needs in damage gear. Playing any but the easiest dungeons without blinds, reflects, stealth, blocks ect in full zerker would be quite difficult, it’s not though because people actually push their buttons.

Seriously OP, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgZYr-yIxs (and then the video of whatever class it is you play) and tell me “the zerk meta” is nothing but 5 people button mash-dpsing their way through dungeons.

Yeah, I get that. My point is that it isn’t a very good design. When you can achieve optimal DPS without sacrificing much of the utility needed to be successful, and when you build around support/control/utility and sacrifice huge amounts of DPS for it, it’s a design problem.

I’m sorry but that’s simply not true – there are certain meta builds that make you trait down defensive paths, and utility options are 90% of the time about support and survival rather than direct damage.

It’s actually really brilliant design because you can pick your play-style and weapon get up, and then use the gear to adjust your personal difficulty setting. This way literally everyone in the game can play together and have a halfway successful dungeon run.

Capitol City.4856:

I run a mesmer for instance, and every. single. dungeon. I run the condition healing mantra, the stability mantra, and feedback for my three utility slots. My elite is always time warp, which rarely varies for mass invis. That’s it. Out of all the skills my class has, I can run those three utility skills and my dungeon runs never fail. We never wipe, we run through it quickly, and I’ve only used 3 abilities aside from my weapons (wich by the way is always sword focus, because once again, I don’t need any other abilities). The post I quoted seems to believe that we’re choosing these builds, but there comes a point, as I said in my first post, where veteran players see the build that’ll work for dungeons, and from then on it’s over.

I’m very sorry to break it to you, but from one mesmer to another – you’re not a very good mesmer.
1) the stability mantra is useless 9.5/10 times, why would you run it permanently???
2) There are certain bosses where you really want to run null field, and one in particular where Arcane Thievery is quite useful. Likewise, there are some encounters where you really don’t need condition removal. Signet of midnight = aoe blind, great for groups of trash, in particularly if you don’t have a (or only have a bad) guardian/thief. I’ve even ran illusion of life before in groups where people kept dropping like flies. Veil/decoy/blink/mass invis are really quite nice for skipping mobs, a thiefless group will really appreciate it. Even portal really helps out in some dungeon situations.
3) You misinterpret the fact that you CAN get away with using unsuitable utility skills as ‘these are all I SHOULD run’. Dungeons have a really low skill cap, meaning that you can finish them successfully even if you don’t play your character to the fullest, in fact you can get away with messing up quite a bit. Heck I’ve played with full mantra build staff Mesmers that had a healing Sigil and Guardians that literally did nothing but spam staff 1-1-1-1-1-1 all for the entire duration of the run. The reason this is possible is because the game is (quite ingeniously I might add) designed so you can run pretty much whatever, which is exactly what their original design idea of “no trinity, never have to wait for a particularly set up character” exactly entailed.
4) You keep trying to not make this about zerker gear but the OP clearly talks about zerker gear in his first post. Your issue with the game (which is a non-issue btw, sorry bud, get gud) is not what this thread is about, so I suggest you make your own thread.

Einlanzer.1627:

encounters and builds can be conceived that work with within the framework of a distinctive role structure – support, healing, control, or even tanking. Meta could be allowed to develop around these roles rather than just around the current single pure, direct DPS role.

This exactly right there is your problem. I’m sorry to break it to you OP but if you think zerker meta pve doesn’t involve massive amounts of control skills you’ve been carried hard. The problem is not that everyone just deals damage, the “problem” is that you can do all the support the party needs in damage gear (which isnt a problem at all considering they want people to be able to play whichever gear set they want to play, which they CAN right now. If encounters require one player to tank and/or one player to heal… guess what… trinity – people wont be accepted to groups because “we still need a healer” – do you really think that’s a better solution?). Playing any but the easiest dungeons without blinds, reflects, stealth, blocks ect in full zerker would be quite difficult, it’s not though because people actually push their buttons.

Seriously OP, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgZYr-yIxs (and then the video of whatever class it is you play) and tell me “the zerk meta” is nothing but 5 people button mash-dpsing their way through dungeons.

eh, why is this thread even a thing? Playing a non zerk build is literally, in the most literal sense of the word, as rewarding as any other build – we all get the same rewards for finishing a dungeon after all, don’t we?

Now, if you take the time it takes to finish a dungeon into the “rewarding” consideration, that would mean that every other heal/defense/ectect build should be able to finish a dungeon as quick as a zerker, which means that soliders would put out the exact same amount of dmg as zerkers. The zerker meta is dead, long live the soldiers meta!

Now, if for some reason you mean “easy” with rewarding then whaa…? Clearly someone’s been carried hard! In order to survive being all squishy and stuff you have to dodge, blind, reflect and reflect the heck out of enemies. If you dont have at least one or two people in the party that are properly capable of using those skills on the boss your group likely won’t get far. If you’re not one of those people using those skills properly – you’re being carried and need to step up your game BIG time.
It makes no sense/no difference to wear gear that boosts support/control abilities in this game, that doesn’t mean that you can’t/shouldn’t support and control anymore though!

I mean come on people, here are facts
1) there are at least as many “everyone welcome” lfgs as there are “80 zerk 4k ap+ xp or gtfo link gear” groups.
2) every single player – and that includes the 80 mage who runs a weaponless tank build in lvl 40 armor, has the ability to start their own group

so really… why is this even a thing still…

I have to confess that I thought of this when I heard the announcement, however… have you posted this before somewhere else? Because if it’s genuinely only 7 days old… come on, you don’t really think they’d come up with a class concept (even a rough one… even if some of it is “inspired”), build up to it in the game for weeks and develop trailers all in 7 days?

Excuse me, what exactly is this thread supposed to discuss? Are we supposed to chime in your gloating that you/we were right? It’s a forum, people are going to have different opinions, get over it.

@OP:
I felt the whole thing seemed a bit lackluster as well, but I do think that a lack of (perceived at least) character progression has been an issue for a lot of players.

Having listened to their new ideas it all really depends on how they implement it: it could either be fun and rewarding and add hundreds of hours of gaming (that really depends on the actual amount of content this update will bring – who else was surprised that they didn’t even hint at a dungeon or five), or drytop 2.0 where you can roleplay Avatar and make friends with the naavi and finally digivolve your character into druidmon (a class which focuses on group healing in a game where max dps set ups for everyone is the meta) and gimmicktastically glide around like in aion.
In all reality it’ll probably be somewhere in between – some aspects will make the game genuinely more fun, others will make us shake our heads in disbelief. Why do I think that? Because of their track record of “improvements” over the last few years – some were really great (account wardrobe!!!!) others were very meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.
I do agree with you that it would’ve been really nice if they had used those brief moments of reflection on past updates not to pat themselves on the back, but to genuinely reflect on how decisions have panned out and what direction they want to progress the game in (patronizing gated NPE-type of stff vs open world do what you want original design philosophy).

Introducing… the Old Player Experience. All of our NPE kiddies have grown up but are as confused as ever, so we’ve decided to gate utility skills and different armor types (zerker being the last to be unlocked) behind AP. You clearly can’t trust anyone below 10k AP to deal with more than 5 possible utility skills and more than one offensive stat in your gear.

I keep getting d/c’d in Divinity’s Reach now. They better take care of this or it’ll be the worst double xp weekend ever!

About the NPE, I agree with everything that’s been said – she won’t know the difference and it’s going to be fine if not easier. A seasoned mmo veteran friend of mine started playing recently and he didn’t notice that something was supposed to be “wrong” at all.

That said, if this is her first mmo you have to find the delicate balance between lettering her learn things at her own pace and spending quality time with her ingame. If she’s into stories tell her about the different races and help her get excited about one, if she’s into fashion you can get her a make over kit so she can try the gem store exclusive styles, if she’s into watching a story unfold make sure you let her watch all the cutscenes and don’t nag about it.
Above all: make a lowbie character to play with her on similar terms and follow her pace – if she spends the first half hour running in circles and throwing herself off cliffs you do the same.

I’m sure this has all been said 20 times already in this thread, but juuuust in case someone from anet actually reads all this crap I wanted to chime in and let them know that this isn’t a “problem” that’s percieved by the majority of the player base.

now, about the thread:

1) there is no problem

2) regardless of how the game gets balanced, until they introduce a trinity (which they won’t, they have expressively stated that they want players to be able to be self-reliant), no matter if they make condition power, crit power, healing the mobs to death whatever whatever OP, there will always be ONE type of damage, ONE type of gear that is at least slightly better than the others. There will always be ONE playstyle people will refer to as the “meta”.

3) if OP thinks full zerk group needs no coordination and skill, and has no support in it, he needs to, pardon my french, l2p.

hm, I looked at this a few days ago, saw the inital hype on the first few pages and thought I’d give myself a bit, but tbh I still don’t like it.

No offense OP (though I realize that this is probably one of the most offensive things one can say to a designer) but your changes are kind of reminiscent to the win 7 -> win 8 changes. Why? You prioritize visuals and big flashy tiles over coherent and structured simplicity. Sure, the new ui elements look fancy and all if you look at them on a website, but you’d be bombareded with so much visual input that the actual functionality gets kind of lost somewhere. Plus, while the current system sometimes takes a minute to get you where you need to go, it’s all (with the exception of the new spvp interface apparently) very coherent as in select menu on the left --> see result on the right. So basically you learn how to navigate one menu you learn how to navigate them all. (Kind of how the startbar in win 7 was your alpha and your omega to everything, whereas now in win 8 you have to do a scavenger hunt to find what you’re looking for).
You bring up a few interesting points and present it all really beautifully, but at the end of the day I want a modest ui that supports the game and lets me find what I’m looking for mid-combat, rather than a visual attack (as appealing as it may be) on my eyeballs.

And sorry to say this, but I feel a lot of the hype around your re-design comes from the fact that a) you introduce a few features that people may like (lore compendium in the game), b) the fact that it’s viewed outside the game as a stand alone (as opposed to actually used IN the game), and c) that you present the whole thing very professionally and that tends to impress people.

I don’t dislike the website re-design as it’s more of a stand-alone feature and can afford to be flashy, but tbh I find the current white version to really be in line with the sketch-like art design of the promotional images. I’d much rather you would’ve actually tackled the forums – they are in DIRE need of a re-make.

Mesmer phantasm builds actually have the highest sustained dmg (compared to other mesmer builds, not in the game). PU falls into that category which is a very popular wvw build, and the meta for pve is based on sustained phantasm dmg as well.

Astral Projections.7320:

Liz.1497:

Why do people think that Asura culturally have no interest in looking feminine and “girly” when Taimi is clearly wearing a ribbon in her hair?

Does that mean a female Asura wants to wear dresses though? Or do Asura have their own (non human) standards and ways to show femininity. Possibly thru showing how big the ears are or how broad the forehead.

What’s the point in asking this question? I don’t know the answer and neither do you – the only people who would are the anet people responsible for lore and the SS15 Asura fashion forecast crew.

We can only go off what we know and what we want our characters to be. What do we know? Female Asurans wear ribbons in their hair, which is a classical sterotypical “feminine” accessory (which directly disproves the claim that Asura “are too cebreal and do not care for such frivolity as gender specific fashion items”). What do we want our characters to be? There are a 100 answers to this one, why should people that think their Asura female wants to wear a dress be put to a disadvantage?

Why do people think that Asura culturally have no interest in looking feminine and “girly” when Taimi is clearly wearing a ribbon in her hair?

check the lfg tool, people use it to “taxi” each other around.

took me about 22 vines to get my additional 2 coats – I thought I was unlucky..

xihorus.2804:

I realize everybody’s taste varies, but GW has a very distinct artistic style which is why you don’t see helmets similar to what you are describing. FF inspired helms should stay where they belong – in FF.

Also, there are no wizards in GW2 :P

actually GW’s armor designs are kind of all over the place: compare zodiac with aetherblade with the wintersday outfit with your run of the mill lowbie armor. There is nothing the OP is suggestion (which, btw, are Roman inspired helmets, not FF or Knight) that would go against the current design philosophy of this game.

Also, why is there a wizard hat exactly like the one the OP posted in the game then? And a witches outfit?

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Manifibel.8420:

Great episode and really cool cinematics, all 3 of them, counting the one before last boss fight.
Also first time I actually cared alot for a character. RIP Wynne. You got my first sad moment and a tear in GW2. I will find Faolain and torture her with that strange bush. even tho I dont play a Sylvari

I don’t get why Caithe simply didn’t kill Faolain instead. If she’s going to betray her anyway.

Yeah, or, you know… knock her unconscious so Wynne and Caithe can escape together or something.

Wait, so are you saying that if someone didn’t like any aspect of this seaon’s living story it makes them a hypocrite to like something else? Or, if they were overall dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of the content released during 2014 it makes them a hypocrite to like this one last release and be stoked about the promise of a LOT more new content in 2015?
.. wha?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Is anyone actually failing the lane part of the event?

The most trouble I have seen is with the second boss, where people don’t stand in the white triangles when they should.

I’ve only seen that happen once on the first day early on when people apparently didnt know that you had to split up.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Rising Dusk.2408:

I disagree with your last tip. Every bit of damage helps and it’s very easy to sustain yourself simply by dodging and playing smart. Standard PvE rules apply: if you can’t avoid damage because you’re not that great of a player, only then do you add bulk until you can be effective. Good players have no need for bulk in this encounter.

Normally true, but not here. The siege carriers staying alive is what matters. Until you’re in facing the champions, your personal DPS doesn’t really matter at all. You need the siege carriers to damage the walls.

I guess it still is true that normal “dodge stuff and you’re k” is in effect here for personal durability.

naw man, one or two pepole healing him is more than enough. The rest should dps the heck out of the mobs – take it from someone who’s beaten him and tagged up for him 10+ times. (still havent gotten a coat drop yet, fml)

tips:

- make sure all lanes are evenly manned, north is usually understaffed. If you see more than 20 people at your lane consider going north.

- second boss: mid-range him so you can stand in the white triangle when he moves to the back of the room. Don’t stand in there and get dazed and probably killed.

- third boss: kill the blossoms and stand on the flowers so you don’t get fried during the ground aoe (which is dodgeable if you really cant get on a flower for some reason)

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Liz.1497:

I like how everyone’s assuming that the Sylvari would be losing that sort of a fight. Open world pvp gogo! Come at us bros!

4 races against 1, and the total sylvari population was only 15% of the playerbase according to that infographic. So unless the Sylvari can pull a battle of thermopylae you are all gonna die!!

not sure how you intend to even hit us when we’re riding a dragon and having a good time!

I like how everyone’s assuming that the Sylvari would be losing that sort of a fight. Open world pvp gogo! Come at us bros!

I remember a little thread a week or so ago where someone was asking what was going to happen to the archived forums. Official answer: “We’re going to hide them and you won’t be able to access and read them anymore.”. A lot of people, including me, asked if there was a way we could still read them.

You listened.
So thanks for that, much appreciated! <3

Vix.6730:

Liz.1497:

woah, really? Everyone I know and talked to (and this seems to be the general consensus on the forums as well) seems to be incredibly excited and happy about the announcement. I mean clearly you’re entitled to your own opinion, but I’d be surprised if there are a lot of people out there that share it.

I was happy to hear about the PAX announcement too. At this point we can bet it’s an expansion is some form, but to see an advertisement in-game was immersion breaking and distressing. Stick the ad on the loading screen, character select screen, fine, that works. But in-game? What’s next, The Goodyear Pact Blimp? Trahearne offering us a 20% discount on the Deluxe Bundle? Where is the line drawn between production and marketing?

I get what you’re getting at, but the PAX thing wasn’t the advertisement in this case – the entire cutscene was. As someone else has mentioned before, it wasn’t part of the storyline, it was a trailer, a foreshadowing of what’s to come next – how is that immersive? Like that thing you got from the story was a happy pill and your character was tripping and seeing the future?
If you don’t prefer this – fair enough… different people have different opinions. But I for one (and a lot of other people it appears) really appreciated the whole thing. Plus, isnt it really fitting to inform the people who actually play the game of that upcoming content before anyone else?

woah, really? Everyone I know and talked to (and this seems to be the general consensus on the forums as well) seems to be incredibly excited and happy about the announcement. I mean clearly you’re entitled to your own opinion, but I’d be surprised if there are a lot of people out there that share it.

Eh, they took away a feature that was very very popular for no other reason that it was an unintended side effect of the original design. Preeeeeeeeeeeeeetty lame. I’m all for bug fixes, but why fix a bug that doesn’t harm anyone but makes a large amount of people happy? I’d rather they use that debugging resource somewhere else.

oh yeah, its not hard. Fought it 9 times and beat it 7. Only got one chest box though…. the struggle is real…

It’s definitely blurry – their art director has a pretty low standard when it comes to those things it seems.

Also, why do people justify this item’s bad rendition with other items being bad as well or even worse? Doesn’t that make it… you know… even worse?

this is honestly the most convincing hint at an expansion I’ve seen so far.

yep! Not really sure why they’re not already in there.

lordkrall.7241:

Liz.1497:

So you’re denying that 90% of the backpiece skins are largely (if not literally) unused? I mean clearly I must have gone and enforced my own taste on (nearly) everyone in the game. I am Abbadon reborn! Bow to me peasant!

Where do you even get all these numbers from? Or are you just making up a random high number to make it seem bad?

Unless you have actually seen all the potentially 3+ million accounts (and all their characters) in-game you can have a grand total of no idea how many of back pack skins are used or not, so stop shouting about it as facts.

Not here to argue for the sake of arguing really. If you’re unaware of the fact that “people” only use a very small % of the backpieces available maybe it’s time to get off the forums and into the game.

Galespark.7835:

Liz.1497:

Galespark.7835:

Liz.1497:

Flatley.1620:

“why not give a reason why there shouldn’t be more esthetically pleasing backpieces in the game?”

Because that’s the nub of it right there; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

If that were the case that would render the entire profession of an artist redundant. There is such a thing as “well designed” and the current backpieces simply aren’t.

How so? Artists create things in which certain beholders can find beauty. No redundancy there, since most beholders are not capable of creating (or often thinking of) these things themselves.

I can not say I like many of the backpiece skins, but there are some that I like (fractal capacitor, mawdrey, the quivers or books) on certain of my characters. That said, I could probably make use of a cape-like backpiece, if they can make one that does not suffer from horrid clipping issues.

Artists go to school for sometimes decades to learn about perspective, composition, colour theory, lighting, live drawing, ect ect. You’ll find that even modern day abstract artists are very well versed in traditional arts and can draw a very technical image (ie a portrait) very very well. The reason their pieces are considered art is not because some rich dude likes them, but because they represent a certain aspect of their times, criticize something, express an emotion, or try to push the boundaries of what is possible in the medium of their choice.

Going into a debate about what art and beauty are would be too far off topic.

The point here is that there are people who like the current backpieces, which is why some people don’t feel a need for drastically different ones (which does not necessarily mean they are opposed to it). Some people, including you it seems, then start saying that the existing ones are objectively ugly while clearly they are not as opinions are divided. Define art as you please, but this thread is about if they are aesthetically pleasing or not. Or in the terms of your post a bit higher, this is about hanging a Picasso in your room, and not about recognizing his influence on contemporary art.

I don’t mind that people do not like the skins, and hope some get released they can proudly show off. Just don’t enforce your own taste on other people and say it is the only right one.

So you’re denying that 90% of the backpiece skins are largely (if not literally) unused? I mean clearly I must have gone and enforced my own taste on (nearly) everyone in the game. I am Abbadon reborn! Bow to me peasant!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Liz.1497:

Khisanth.2948:

Several of the crafter backpacks are pretty reasonable. Mainly the lower tier tailor and armorsmith ones also the simple chef’s backpack.

There is always the ‘hide back item’ option. Why must there be one?

reasonable in what sense? Because literally no one uses them. I’ve only ever seen one person use a crafting backpack, and that wasn’t a tailoring one (and there’s always a chance that they didnt know how to turn them off).

Why are people defending the notion of pouring art resources into a large number of items literally no one uses, instead of a handful of items people would be excited to use? I’m all for variety and pleasing different tastes, but if you look at the backpieces people actually use it’s pretty evident that there is a strong consensus on what people like and are willing to use.

Aww…I’ve just been ‘literally’ deemed no one. =(

You’re a unicorn!

Khisanth.2948:

Several of the crafter backpacks are pretty reasonable. Mainly the lower tier tailor and armorsmith ones also the simple chef’s backpack.

There is always the ‘hide back item’ option. Why must there be one?

reasonable in what sense? Because literally no one uses them. I’ve only ever seen one person use a crafting backpack, and that wasn’t a tailoring one (and there’s always a chance that they didnt know how to turn them off).

Why are people defending the notion of pouring art resources into a large number of items literally no one uses, instead of a handful of items people would be excited to use? I’m all for variety and pleasing different tastes, but if you look at the backpieces people actually use it’s pretty evident that there is a strong consensus on what people like and are willing to use.

lordkrall.7241:

Liz.1497:

an artistic angle. Balance, silhouette, texture, how well it matches the other items ingame, how much it appeals to certain target groups. The same way comic sans isn’t a nice font and Helvetica is.

And who are you to decide that?

Some people find Picasso’s work to be great, while others consider it absolute rubbish. Why should one opinion be more correct than the other?

Clearly someone who knows a lot about art theory and hangs around waaayyy too many artists (some of them who work in the gaming industry, so not just talking about fine arts here).

You’re not seeing the difference between “personal taste” and “quality”. You can “like” or “dislike” Picasso in the sense that you’d put one of his paintings up in your living room, but if you know a thing or two about art you can’t deny the significance he poses for the development of modern art as well as his very obvious skill in colour composition, composition and his revolutionary attempt to draw 4 dimensional situations. Picasso produced quality art regardless of if you find it decorative or not (I personally don’t but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate him as an artist). A lot of the GW2 art (namely armors and backpieces, environments are fine and so are to a large extend weapons) aren’t, from a quality standpoint, well designed and rendered.

There is a ton of resource material on both fine arts as well as video game art out there, the intentions of the artists and the work that goes into simple design decisions. It’s interesting and fascinating, and quite literally a science in and of itself. There is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more to it then “well, some people will like it, some won’t”. I encourage you to look up those things if you won’t take my word for it.

Galespark.7835:

Liz.1497:

Flatley.1620:

“why not give a reason why there shouldn’t be more esthetically pleasing backpieces in the game?”

Because that’s the nub of it right there; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

If that were the case that would render the entire profession of an artist redundant. There is such a thing as “well designed” and the current backpieces simply aren’t.

How so? Artists create things in which certain beholders can find beauty. No redundancy there, since most beholders are not capable of creating (or often thinking of) these things themselves.

I can not say I like many of the backpiece skins, but there are some that I like (fractal capacitor, mawdrey, the quivers or books) on certain of my characters. That said, I could probably make use of a cape-like backpiece, if they can make one that does not suffer from horrid clipping issues.

Artists go to school for sometimes decades to learn about perspective, composition, colour theory, lighting, live drawing, ect ect. You’ll find that even modern day abstract artists are very well versed in traditional arts and can draw a very technical image (ie a portrait) very very well. The reason their pieces are considered art is not because some rich dude likes them, but because they represent a certain aspect of their times, criticize something, express an emotion, or try to push the boundaries of what is possible in the medium of their choice.

Flatley.1620:

Why do you say they are not well designed? I’m afraid I don’t understand from what angle you’re coming from.

an artistic angle. Balance, silhouette, texture, how well it matches the other items ingame, how much it appeals to certain target groups. The same way comic sans isn’t a nice font and Helvetica is.

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Liz.1497:

I really don’t get the point of people saying that this all is a matter of taste – who in their right mind would deny that easily 90% of the backpack skins are ugly as sin (the crafting ones for starters). Sure, not every backpack skin can be supereliteawesome, but why bother designing and rendering all those backpacks literally no one uses if you could’ve just made a handful of (hard to get, cash shop… idc…) really cool ones that people would be excited to use (capes come to mind). It really feels like the lead artist wanted to be careful not to make any of them “too cool” for some reason.
As with most armor skins the backpacks aren’t a choice of which is the best looking, but which one is the least bad looking.

I don’t care for capes and don’t think they’re super cool. I do like my Spinal backpieces (I made a lot during the escape from LA) and my Light of Dwayna. When I get round to the Grenth one I’m sure I’ll enjoy that as well. So yes it is a matter of personal taste and people can be in their right mind to disagree with you.

How are you disagreeing with me? I said 90% of all backpieces, namely the crafting ones, are ugly and no one uses them. Are you saying those are popular and everyone enjoys them and uses the heck out of them?

Flatley.1620:

“why not give a reason why there shouldn’t be more esthetically pleasing backpieces in the game?”

Because that’s the nub of it right there; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

If that were the case that would render the entire profession of an artist redundant. There is such a thing as “well designed” and the current backpieces simply aren’t.

I really don’t get the point of people saying that this all is a matter of taste – who in their right mind would deny that easily 90% of the backpack skins are ugly as sin (the crafting ones for starters). Sure, not every backpack skin can be supereliteawesome, but why bother designing and rendering all those backpacks literally no one uses if you could’ve just made a handful of (hard to get, cash shop… idc…) really cool ones that people would be excited to use (capes come to mind). It really feels like the lead artist wanted to be careful not to make any of them “too cool” for some reason.
As with most armor skins the backpacks aren’t a choice of which is the best looking, but which one is the least bad looking.

PS: instead of derailing the thread by telling the OP that what he posted is HIS opinion (yeah no kitten son), why not give a reason why there shouldn’t be more esthetically pleasing backpieces in the game?

Ah, so because they do something once a year where you can get the tickets as really frequent ingame drops you want them to continue this trend, implement it on a weekly basis and potentially ruin the game over it? Because cash shop based rng items are actually one of those things that usually ruin games – how many f2p mmos can you think of that’d be pretty alright if they didn’t have exactly what you’re asking for in them?

And puhllleaazzee, just because someone gets a precursor (out of potentially thousands of people participating) doesn’t make it more fair for an individual person. Completely moot point.

Terrible idea is still and forever terrible. I can’t believe a user would actually suggest that. I literally can’t think of anything I’d hate for them to implement more than rng based cash shop items.

I understand that leaving them visible the way they are now totally defeats the purpose of restructuring the forums in the first place, but how about you make them all subforums to an archives forum? That way they won’t clutter up the front page but are still accessible.

sorry, absolutely not – the last thing I want in this game are rng cash shop items, they’re the bane of modern day (f2p) mmos. There are a lot of good ways to solve any precursor issue there may be, but this isn’t one of them. Plus that wouldn’t be any more “fair” or less random than the mystic toilet.