Guild Wars 2

Ive been around a long time as far back as Muds, and played pretty much every MMO up to WoW when I slowed down. I dont like HoT because it isnt just not solo friendly, but it is not even dual player friendly. Its basically a zergfest of the worst kind.

Now here is what I know. Every mmo that catered to the hardcore crowd lost players in droves. This is what killed Everquest 2 and opened the door for WoW. In fact, Everquest started declining with the release of Planes of Power which was basically an elitist expansion that alienated everyone but major guilds. EQ2 was designed to be all group and guild content from the very start. The irony is that if you waited one year, it became more casual than WoW… that is how badly that game did.

The thing is, hardcore guys are very loud BUT they are the minority by a long stretch. WoW proved that solo players and small groups out number hardcore players by probably 10 to 1. Further, GW and GW2 are both extremely casual games up till now and that is one of the things their client base looks for. The second being no monthly fees.

HoT is far departure from the norm and although I have been able to complete a few maps and finish major quest lines… its simply not fun because everyone is just frantically running through events and insulting anyone who does not seem to know what to do. I had to block two people today and I still have no idea what they were talking about because they never bothered to explain anything and just told people around to go away. Someone should remind hardcore folks that this is just a game. Its not real. You dont get anything for winning. Not even bragging rights because no one cares.

Anyway, I would like to see things a little more solo and small group/guild friendly. And I hate how every map has its own currency… its not fun. Its just a grind.

Ive been trying for these two for two weeks, sometimes twice in the same day. Nothing… Never seen a vortex and dodging behind his butt, under the tail, has yielded nothing but deaths each time I try. Stuff like this is not fun…

Profit margins on games range between 15% and 35%. They are not 50%, not even for digital. Remember there is a lot more going on than just the devs. there is a marketing department, managers, execs, administration etc. MMO’s have a higher running cost than normal games which is why they are usually supplemented with monthly fees.

I would estimate GW2 margins to be about 20%.

What you guys are not considering is that not all of that $13m is HoT sales exclusively. It does not actually say that the money is from HoT alone. What likely happened is the expansion brought a lot of players back (like myself) and some probably spend money on gems and gold and such. 300k sounds plausible but this is not really that important. The problems with MMO’s is not immediate sales but retention. If the income drops back to the old levels then it basically means that HoT failed to garner growth.

No. Its a grind fest.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

As for HOT, there’s evidence that it increased sales tremendously.

In the quarterly earnings report, NCSoft reports that GW2 made about $13.5M more in the HoT debut quarter than in other recent quarters, and “other sales” (i.e., gem store) were reported as stable. At the minimum $50 price, that’s less than 300,000 sales. Fudge for both retail sales (where Anet gets wholesale money only) and for $75 and $100 packages. On the face of it, that’s about a 75% increase in sales. However, those are not great numbers for an XPac. That’s probably why NCSoft is reported to have called HoT sales disappointing.

A few points on this.

1 – HoT is not always $50. I got it for $28 (with S&H). Remember they do have retail versions and those were/are heavily discounted at retailers (they didnt sell very well I think) and later on Ebay and other places. I remember seeing it as low as $25 at Best Buy.

The problem with HoT is that it isnt very good. Just more of the same old same and is just a huge grind. I came back to GW2 for HoT after not playing for about 1.5 years… only to find that there is still nothing to do… I stopped when it became a grind before and now… just 1 week in, I am spending more time reading the forum than playing the game because I dont wanna go grind a HoT map or go kill another world boss for no reward.

2 – They got spanked that quarter because their entire net profit was down about 32% year over year. Supposedly it is due to new project spending… but in the business world this is almost always a lie so no one really knows. What we do know is that one of its major holders sold its entire stake which was about 15% of NCSoft because they wanted more information on executive salaries and company spending… and NCSoft didnt want to disclose the info which is not a good sign (recall they are not a US company… different rules over there).

Just wanted to update this. Right after I posted this some nice folks actually contacted me in game and I finally finished an Arah run. It was fun. Maybe the forums are better for lfg than the tool itself…

As for stacking… I understand the mechanic, I guess I just dont like it because it takes away from strategy. It feels like a mini-zerg battle rather than anything tactical. I go back a long way in MMOs, and I guess some of my fondest memories are of early EQ content where you really needed to play well to beat things. As you gained knowledge things became trivial. Of course it all changed when they went all out raid content with Planes of Power (which also spelled the beginning of the end for EQ1 as all casuals started leaving), but before that the game was insanely fun. Anyway I am just showing my age… I can deal with the stacking mechanic. I just wish people were a bit more patient… sadly, even without experience in places, I probably play better than 95% of them lol.

Im having a hard time finding fun things to do in the game now that I have 2 toons at level 80. The problem is two fold, #1 the community is absolutely horrible for PUGs, and #2 the LFG tool keeps locking me out preventing me from playing.

Ive been trying to get into Arah since I started using the LFG tool last week. I look for games that dont state any requirements except level. When I get in the group I generally tell the folks that its my 1st time there and so far my getting kicked rate is 100% without comments questions or consideration of actual experience (I am not new to the game). I suppose I could just stay quiet but that can be problematic. I remember my 1st time in Asc and several time getting absolutely lost as players rushed through the zones and ported to shortcuts. Everyone also knew exactly where to stand and what to do on every boss while I had no idea what was going on which one time did indeed end up wiping the group because apparently it uses a special attack if people are not standing absolutely still and stacked in one spot… Which bring me to the idea of group stacking… this is not strategy and has to be the lamest mechanic I have ever seen in any MMO since instant summons in EQ1. Please fix it so that we can enjoy the content properly and if that means toning down bosses so that they can be attacked properly then please do so. Right now they are trivial anyway due to the stacking mechanics.

Unfortunately between the LFG lockout and lack of groups going into Arah in my play time, it seems like the only way I will ever get in is if I pay one of those guys selling the dungeon for 5-6g… which is very steep given I only make about 5g a day and that assumes I get into other dungeons that day to make some gold to begin with. Otherwise I am going to have to grind and do some really boring stuff to make the money which is not why i play games… I go to work to do that.

The problem with the LFG tool is that after completing a quick 15 minute run in a dungeon, I disband and I cannot join anything for a while. I have no idea what the cool down on joining groups is and that is part of the frustration.

Please add some way for casuals to get access to end game without needing groups. Its simply not fun dealing immature people.

Unfortunately, Rangers are still very weak. My main was a ranger but he has not been touched since I realized he stunk more than a year ago except for occasional leather work… Been playing a guardian since then.

This guy really was not so bad. He did one shot me the 1st time I tried to get the skill point because I didn’t realize he was flying.

The trick is to use the fact that he is slow as molasses to take advantage of the horrible AI and the pathing around the area. Simply get him to chase, then drop down and into the lower ground area. He will chase you by going all the way around rather than flying down. Obviously, once he is down in the lower area, pop some kind of speed and run back up quickly to get the skill point before he catches up.

I do agree that these types of mobs dont add anything for PvE players. There is simply no fun in it. At the very least, tone him down so he does not do 18k damage in one instant. In my 1st try, I literally went from full health (about 15k) to zero in one eye blink. No time to react or anything. How is that supposed to be fun? How is using bad AI and pathing fun? It aint.

Aden Celeste.3650:

I really dont know how to explain how I feel at the moment.

Anet devs dont realize the emotional connection one make’s with their character. I love my ranger, that toon is basically my alter ego… but then this happens:

I joined a group for fractals 48 yesterday and the instance owner said “sho ranger, sho!” and kicked me out immediately. It didn’t matter that I was experienced in way higher fractals, or that I know how to play the class, is just that ranger’s are not “guardians”

Does all the people who say “rangers are fine” and “L2P” think that all the ranger issues are part of a mass hallucination from most ranger players? do they even main a ranger at all? I have been humiliated while playing my favorite class in this game. GW2 is, to me, by far the most disappointing game I have ever played, and at the same time one of the greatest games because of it’s expansive PVE world. I love the game, and yet why does it hurt my favorite class so much?

Anet, anet, anet anet, please…… put our shoes and see what it is to play a ranger.

100% agree with this.

I hope I am not out of place because I just came back to the game after leaving it in the second month of release (though I did play a little in between and read the forums often). My main of course, is a Ranger. I did log in a few times in the last 10 months but honestly I didnt put much time in the game. Here is my experience with the Ranger, which was my 1st class choice because they seemed interesting… boy was I wrong.

Big Problem #1 – He is NOT the best physical range class. Period. End of story. Warriors are much better due to all their other abilities. Remember that to be effective from range, its not just about bow damage, its all about the abilities to keep distance and stay alive. Which brings me to #2

Big Problem #2 – Back when I used to PVP, I noted that his survivability is probably the worst of any class in the game (I stopped playing him and rolled a guardian then got bored and quit) . Reason is that every class has abilities to close distance very fast and no one is afraid that we will kill them via burst so they all just pile right on in without fear because they either A) had a lot more burst or had crazy escapes… we were the butt end of every PvP joke back then because we were basically free kills for everyone.

Last is not a Ranger specific issue but rather all round issue. Ive been playing MMO’s from the release EQ and I can tell you right now that the two biggest mistakes companies make to ruin a game are to min/max based on a fringe minority of loud players. Basically Raiders and PvP’ers. Never listen to them because despite their loudness, THEY ARE THE MINORITY. The great majority of people are casual gamers who want to get away and relax (note this does not mean they want easy, not by a long shot, I hate easy which is why I hate Neverwinter).

You should always always always plan around normal people and help them have fun. I really dont mind if you want to nerf things in PvP for ranger or whoever because I can always play an alt, but the point here is that to solve widely known issues rather than fix min/max problems for elitists. After reading a lot of the forum today and yesterday, it seems to me that GW2 is starting to cater to the loud and obnoxious rather than the normal gamer. As it was, Ranger was simply not fun to play in PvP for any casual gamer due to class imbalances. I probably will still avoid the ranger even after the changes because it doesnt really solve the issue of getting steamrolled, in fact, people will now try to steamroll the ranger even faster whereas before people generally laughed and ignored us until they got annoyed. Thats all I have to say about that.

Otherwise, after trying 3 different MMO’s this last month, I want to say that GW2 is still the best of the bunch. Please keep up the good work.