Guild Wars 2

Thank you for taking the time to make this extremely helpful thread. I’m still new to the Elementalist, so I look forward to trying out this D/D class and see how it helps me.

Personally, I prefer the feel and play of the S/D, so it would be awesome if you covered that as well, if not at least a general overview?

Anyway, one question: with your build, do you stay as D/D or do you fluctuate between other weapons? Is it as effective? Is there any incentive to switch to a Staff or a Scepter?

gurugeorge.9857:

Speaking for myself, it relieves me of the psychological compulsion to treat quests like shopping lists that I’ve got to tick off. It also makes me more interested in the backstory of the quests themselves (rather than just clicking through text, then arriving at the quest area and wondering what I’m supposed to be doing).

For me, that’s HUGE.

Basically the virtual world feels much more dynamic and alive than in any MMO I’ve ever played. As I wander around, I have much more of a sense that the NPCs are living their own lives, rather than just being static decoration.

Thank you for this reply. I honestly got goosebumps reading your post—I felt that passion!

I wholeheartedly agree. It is a very HUGE accomplishment when the quests/events.

The reason I got inspired was because I actually know how you feel, having played WoW myself. Their quests do feel like grocery lists (I prefer this term over shopping lists). Eventually, you become so concerned with getting each item in the “basket”, so to speak, that you forget to enjoy other things or perhaps even the quest themselves.

I don’t experience this when I quest on GW2 because there’s no progress to remain viable: the sense that if I miss one day of daily or JP/VP grinding, I might not meet the maximum quota and I will therefore be behind.

I’ve now reached level 17, and I do not at all feel this overwhelming pressure to get to 80 lest I miss all the good stuff. The good stuff is right there in my face, waiting to be oogled at.

Untouch.2541:

I’ve been seeing people saying that GW2 is more “WoW-ified” than GW1.
I still don’t see that though, I’ve played both games.

The ways that GW1 was different was the combat system (GW2 is also different), the skill system (GW2 is also different), the world system (GW2 is also different) and the quest/mission system (GW2 is also different) also PvP.

Anyone mind explaining what you mean?

Also, I’ve been saying this since before beta, it’s an evolution not a revolution. Almost every mechanic it takes, it makes better.
The DE system is much better than RIFT’s.
The combat system is much better than DCUO’s.

I like the way you worded it. Not that I agree with you (again, I still need to try it for myself), but that I think you worded the whole innovation vs. creative rendition idea that others have been discussing in a concise and understandable way.

Valkaern.4763:

Innovation or not isn’t as important as change is to me, and there’s no question they changed the MMO experience. I spent years slumming it in the massive tide of WoW clones, disgusted that companies apparently could not get funding unless they agreed to mimic WoW in every way possible – even if the end results were invariably cheap knock offs.

GW2 has done a great job of getting us back on track in my opinion. In 1999 during my early MMO days it was staggering to even try and imagine what these games could evolve in to over the next decade, the creative possibilities were endless. If you’d told me then that soon enough I’d have to endure a nearly 10 year drought of every professional quality game miming one specific successful model (continually resulting in sub-par clones), and any further exploration of this genres limits would be put on hold, I simply wouldn’t have believed you.

To have a game that simply plays differently, or at least feels like a different experience to me than that inescapable clone spewing touchstone of what MMOs had become is more than enough for me. By creatively altering some long standing ‘rules’ for MMOs, they gave me a fresh experience.

That’s a huge change – if not innovation.

With regard to the bold sentence, I would say that perhaps this is GW2’s main appeal: the fact that it is different than the stuff we’re used to (if not this, then the subscription fee).

However, I do want to say that being different or unique isn’t necessarily a good thing. If someone made a peanut butter enchilada ice cream sandwich, he would definitely be making something new and fresh, but I would rather try the stake and potatoes thank you very much.

My point is that yes, Guild Wars 2 does feel fresh (though familiar in some aspects). But is this freshness a gimmick? Or is it based upon something more deep and substantial?

Let me provide an analogy of food, with WoW being an orange:
Is GW2 an apple? (a completely different thing/genre—this is not the answer, I think)
Is GW2 a mandarin orange? (still an orange, but slightly more sour and sweet)
Is GW2 orange juice? (still an orange, perse, but in an alternative form)
Is GW2 simply an actual orange? (Same basic stuff, maybe has some gimmicks)

Let this be a spectrum in which GW2 can fall in between, rather than a this or that.

Maldavos.4871:

Mars Hill.1542:

Nevertheless, from what I have experienced so far, I haven’t really seen much that stands out, or that is ground-breaking, or innovative. The only MMO I’ve ever played before GW2 is, you guessed it, World of Warcraft (and not for that long either—3 years). The only reason I mention this is to simply point out that as far as experience goes, the MMO genre is still new to me.

Sorry to answer a question with a question, and I appriciate the tone (you usually don’t find anything but hyperbole and screaming on game forums).

What would YOU consider innovative? Personally, I’ve played lots of MMOs, and there are tweaks and adjustments in each, but GW2 and EVE are the only two that strike me as particularly innovative.

Dynamic events socialize quests. If you break the mechanics down, that is the only change, certainly. Well, that and the fact that they are either triggered or random, and that they scale (somewhat) to participation. What else could be done with a questing system, or a leveling system, that would be more innovative? Certainly there must be something, but I’m not clear on what that is.

No that’s fine, and it’s a very good question.

I want to point out that I am not asking for Guild Wars 2 to be innovative in the true sense of the word (as in something brand-spanking new), especially not when it comes to quests. Just in case you haven’t been following the various conversations, I have been updating my second post in order to incorporate several ideas of other posters that have modified my views in some way. One of them stated, very well I might add, that true innovation is not something that happens often. However, creative rendition is something that ought to be expected from a game.

You’re quite right, I think! Your question really strikes the heart of the issue. It’s fair to ask how questing could actually be presented in an innovative way. What else could be done? I want to say…nothing—nothing absolutely unequivocally new could be done. In fact, there’s not much wrong with the old tradition anyway . So let us stray away from that question and ask something better. Allow me to instead ask, “How has Guild Wars 2 creatively rendered the old formula?”

I think it’s fair to say that many were expecting Guild Wars 2 to provide a refreshing, creative, and fun take on the grinding and questing that we have been conditioned to. The question is, have they accomplished that? Is there a difference between, however slight, GW2’s questing system? and if so, is it an improvement? If not an improvement, is it at least an equally good alternative? Sorry to answer your question, with yet another question!

Eochaidh.4106:

Most innovations are in combat and player interaction (everyone necessarily resses and heals, changes on trinity, combos, lack of zero-sum rewarding system for group play, etc). And I won’t kid, those make a huge difference. I can’t understand how
you didn’t see it.

Most of the rest is a blend of popular MMORPG ideas (dynamic events and personal story to name two) with a portion of Guild Wars’ philosophy, of the latter, mainly the idea of no gear treadmill at max level other than for looks/prestige, the B2P model, the idea of easily being able to make a character and jump into PvP (although GW’s PvP required a little work to unlock certain skills/weapon upgrades). Of course a lot of GW
was left behind as well (mainly the “MORPG” model, complex skill system and hench system, among others).

Needless to say, GW’s imported ideas still feel fresh and brand new for people who never had contact with it.

I just want to quickly respond to the part I bolded in your quote. My list was not meant to be exhaustive: So it’s not that I didn’t see the things you mentioned; I simply didn’t bother to post every single thing I thought was innovative and every single thing I thought was not. I only posted a few as a starting point for discussion.

Gradius.1462:

I was reading over your post and to me it seems like (I certainly don’t mean to offend) you are broadening your definition of “questing” to make your argument sound. When I look at a traditional quest in any other MMO I think of the following:

1) Obtain Quest
2) Kill 10 things / Bring 10 things back to Quest Giver
3) Get Reward
4) Never Interact w/ Quest Giver again

When in Guild Wars 2, it’s really presented in a different way. You called them “Heart Quests” when they are really more like earning Renown with the NPC him/herself. Think of it this way:

1) You Approach the area of the NPC, you don’t have to interact with him/her.
2) Kill 10 things / Bring 10 things back to Quest Giver
3) Here is the Difference You can purchase things from this person that you can’t get elsewhere, forever
4) Interact w/ NPC whenever you want/need what he/she sells.

Again, I don’t mean to offend, but you are really selling the renown system short by leaving out details like this. They are what make the difference. They are what make ANet’s system innovative.

By no means am I offended Gradius. I think you raised some interesting and good points about Heart Quests being like a renown system.

And for future reference, it is not offensive to point out the logical flaws in someone’s argument; you are only doing your duty as a responsible human being. It is the way in which you point out that flaw that can be considered offensive. In this case, you were respectful, so don’t worry about whether you offended me or not.

@ Edge. I concede. You’ve adequately shut down my argument.

I don’t want to say that I’m the kind of person that likes to be guided/spoonfed/forced to engage with the story as opposed to engaging it on my own terms, but I do admit that it is convenient, for me, for it to be had that way. The Guild Wars Story Line is actually a good example of this.

One of my favorite games is Mass Effect, and I actually enjoyed going over my codex and looking at all the Lore that the game provided. I’m not gonna lie, it becomes tedious after a while, and I was many times tempted to just skip all the info and get right back to playing. So it’s a mix: Sometimes I want to engage the story, sometimes I just want to mindlessly farm and progress.

I like your last paragraph: the Dynamic Events and Heart quests do have context, it’s just a matter of choosing whether or not to engage with it by interacting with the NPC.

I also agree that this way to quest is more realistic.

For some reason, I’m not able to use the edit/quote/report functions, but oh well.

@Hyral. I think you raise a good point. True innovation is not something that is seen often or even easily achieved. I would even say that It’s arguable that to expect innovation from every game sequel or any game for that matter is unreasonable. So you’re right when you say that creative rendition might be a better way to judge than innovation.

One small note to make: I do think this game, or the makers of this game rather, purported (correct me If I’m wrong on that, this is what I’ve simply been hearing) to be different. If not so, at the very least it was expected by the community to be different, so it is a worthwhile endeavor, I think, to see if it did make any innovations or lived up to its name. To be sure, we ought not to downgrade a game simply because it was not innovative, but at the very least we should, again, see if it brought anything new and worthwhile to the genre (unique/new isn’t necessarily a good thing).

Calavera.1086:

Mars Hill.1542:

Calavera.1086:

The death of the holy trinity.

Honestly, I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a bad thing.

And besides, the holy trinity isn’t exactly gone from Guild Wars 2. There is healing, damage mitigation, crowd control, damage-dealing, aggro, etc. These functions are merely given to each profession.

So, in a sense, each individual player is a holy trinity unto themselves. So there is no death here, only a change in form.

However, I know what you mean: you’re saying that Guild Wars 2 did away with the need to have a dedicated role.

I wouldn’t call it innovation, but it is arguably a step in the right direction. However, as I’ve stated before, I personally do not see the holy trinity as a bad thing.

To me the holy trinity was the worst thing in MMOs. All a tanker had to do was keep the aggro on him, all the DPS had to do is keep pressing 1-2 buttons, all a healer had to do is click on health bars. That’s not fun.

You have healing spells and damage mitigation in GW2 but in no way you can be a dedicated healer or tanker, if you try you will compromise the whole group as you’ll not be efficient. Now everyone must take care of themselves and the guy next to him. If you’re low on health you can’t count on the healer, you MUST evade and heal yourself. If you’re pulling too much aggro you must get away, if a fellow player falls you must run to bring him back on his feet.

That’s fun and that’s the best part of GW2 imo.

Thank you Calavera for your thoughtful opinion. I only want to say that, what I really enjoyed about the Holy Trinity system in WoW was that system of interdependency that encouraged teamwork and communication. I love that.

On the other hand, it did suck when people didn’t know what there role was or how to execute their role and the large responsibility associated with some of the roles.

For me, too much independence turns the game less into an MMORPG and more of an RPG. In a sense, I want to have to communicate and depend on others because that encourages teamwork, friendship, and good times. Not to say that that cannot happen in Guild Wars 2, only that in my experience so far, it works well, if not better, with the Holy Trinity system.

Raf.1078:

You can still group and join a DE. But…now everyone/anyone can participate in group events regardless of their gear, level or guild. That is a huge improvement over other MMO’s. Some would say not…but opinions are like kittens (gotta love that filter, lol)…everyone has one.

Level scaling is pretty cool too. A lot of games penalize upper levels trying to help lower levels. I also like that we don’t have to compete for loot and harvest nodes.

I agree Raf. Not having to compete for loot or nodes is refreshing and eliminates a lot of grief and exploit. I also agree with you concerning the fact that it is a huge improvement that anyone participate in group events. However, I’m referring to the idea of it. The implementation of it, on the other hand, I will leave open for debate. I actually have to get to class now.

Taihaku.8412:

Mars Hill.1542:

Khaldar.7486:

Dynamic (regular) Events were done in Rift on Day 1 – well before GW2.

Actually, when I think about it, even WoW had dynamic events. I remember right before Cataclysm, elementals would invade the city and everyone would work together to defeat them (although it was really the level 80s doing the work, since the elementals were to difficult for anyone below to actually contribute anything).

I also remember people being especially annoyed by the fact that the Auction House, Vendors, etc., would be unavailable until all the elementals were destroyed, but that’s besides the point.

Elemental invasions and rifts are NOT dynamic events. Dynamic events are something that actually chain. They start in one area and chain to a completely different one while sometimes telling a story about an item or area. If people actually paid attention and followed an event chain then they would know that that is what Dynamic events are not just activities that pop up every once in a while.

This shows what I’m talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTF9T4oQ480&feature=plcp

Very very excellent point Taihaku. I should’ve realized this, having read a book on hermeneutics that talked about Dynamic Context (which I will not go into).

Thank you for that clarification. Seen in that light, that WoW even that I previously mentioned ought not to be considered a Dynamic Event.

Calavera.1086:

The death of the holy trinity.

Honestly, I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a bad thing.

And besides, the holy trinity isn’t exactly gone from Guild Wars 2. There is healing, damage mitigation, crowd control, damage-dealing, aggro, etc. These functions are merely given to each profession.

So, in a sense, each individual player is a holy trinity unto themselves. So there is no death here, only a change in form.

However, I know what you mean: you’re saying that Guild Wars 2 did away with the need to have a dedicated role.

I wouldn’t call it innovation, but it is arguably a step in the right direction. However, as I’ve stated before, I personally do not see the holy trinity as a bad thing.

Khaldar.7486:

Dynamic (regular) Events were done in Rift on Day 1 – well before GW2.

Actually, when I think about it, even WoW had dynamic events. I remember right before Cataclysm, elementals would invade the city and everyone would work together to defeat them (although it was really the level 80s doing the work, since the elementals were to difficult for anyone below to actually contribute anything).

I also remember people being especially annoyed by the fact that the Auction House, Vendors, etc., would be unavailable until all the elementals were destroyed, but that’s besides the point.

wollie.9751:

In my opinion level scaling, groupless grouping and global TP accessible from anywhere are GW2’s crowning innovations.

Theres more but these make the biggest difference to me.

I can’t say much about level scaling, since I have no idea what it’s like to level from, say, 1-40 in comparison to 41-80.

But I think the groupless grouping, as contradictory as it sounds, is innovative as far as I’m concerned; thank you for bringing that up. In WoW, I don’t think I have ever informally/unofficially grouped up with random players on the scale that Guild Wars 2 does it.

In Guild Wars 2, not only do large-scale events just happen, they happen on a large scale!

Yet, I would like to play devil’s advocate and say: does this undermine community? After all, you could do any of these events without really having to explain mechanics or communicate at all really because the sheer numbers of people will ensure that any event gets completed, whether people understand what’s going on or not.

Addendum
Actually, I want to qualify my post by saying that not being innovative isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the old formulas are good to keep, so if you wish to argue this, by all means. At that point, the discussion would not longer be “How does GW2 innovate”, but “How does GW2” improve upon the old formula.

I will, in this post, make any necessary edits so as not to modify the original one.

Edit 1: What is a Dynamic Event?
Thank you again, Taihaku, for the helpful post.

Elemental invasions and rifts are NOT dynamic events. Dynamic events are something that actually chain. They start in one area and chain to a completely different one while sometimes telling a story about an item or area. If people actually paid attention and followed an event chain then they would know that that is what Dynamic events are not just activities that pop up every once in a while.

This shows what I’m talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTF9T4oQ480&feature=plcp

Edit 2: Is it fair to judge a game based on innovation, given that we understand “innovation” in it’s true sense?
Thank you Hyral, for that important point you made. True innovation means bringing something absolutely new, never-before done, utterly unique, etc. Should we expect this from every game? No, that’s not very fair at all. We can, at the very least, expect what Hyral calls “creative rendition”. In other words, it’s fair to criticize Guild Wars 2 if they do not in some way improve or offer a different yet creative alternative to the old formula. Feel free to answer the respond in light of this information.

Hyral.4168:

There’s something to be said for mise en scene. The composition of their features distinguishes Guild Wars 2 from the collective generic formula.

I still don’t think you can find true innovation in video games, save for once a generation at most. This generation has struck me as particularly stagnant, too easily distracted by gizmos we’ve actually had for decades. But playing with the formula still counts as a creative rendition, which might be more important than innovation.

On a fundamental level, Guild Wars 2 is nothing I haven’t seen before. WoW was especially unoriginal, but not unenjoyable. At price point, I guess I’m more interested in a worthwhile enjoyment rather than a bare step into what might be innovation.

Edit 3: The value of Heart Quests
Two posters here have persuaded me and shown me the value of Heart quests. They have provided an excellent counter-argument to my second observation about Dynamic Events. I will not, for the sake of space, quote them here. But their posts definitely deserved to be mentioned; it behooves everyone to read their thoughtful post.
They are Edge and Gradius. You’ll find them in the mid-upper first page.

Edit 4: Does Guild Wars 2 a Revolution or an Evolution? (or neither?)

Untouch and Amirin brought up what I think is helpful terminology. This is related to Edit 2, so I encourage you to look a both and reply in light of this illuminating information. Feel free to agree or disagree.

Untouch.2541:

I’ve been seeing people saying that GW2 is more “WoW-ified” than GW1.
I still don’t see that though, I’ve played both games.

The ways that GW1 was different was the combat system (GW2 is also different), the skill system (GW2 is also different), the world system (GW2 is also different) and the quest/mission system (GW2 is also different) also PvP.

Anyone mind explaining what you mean?

Also, I’ve been saying this since before beta, it’s an evolution not a revolution. Almost every mechanic it takes, it makes better.
The DE system is much better than RIFT’s.
The combat system is much better than DCUO’s.

Please note that I am not trying to be controversial or start a flame war. This is a sincere yet probing question that I want to ask the community, not just for its sake but also for my own. I haven’t been playing that long (My main character—my only character—is still level 14), so I haven’t really explored everything that Guild Wars 2 has to offer!

Nevertheless, from what I have experienced so far, I haven’t really seen much that stands out, or that is ground-breaking, or innovative. The only MMO I’ve ever played before GW2 is, you guessed it, World of Warcraft (and not for that long either—3 years). The only reason I mention this is to simply point out that as far as experience goes, the MMO genre is still new to me.

I guess, to put it in another way: If I’m still new to the MMO genre, having only played WoW, and Guild Wars 2, for me, does not even seem innovative—what does that say about what Guild Wars 2 has to offer?

Again, not trying to be controversial, but I do want to open a discussion and invite/challenge the community to explore this issue that has been on my mind.

So far I haven’t even said what I haven’t found innovative, so let me clarify:

1. Heart Quests
To be honest, the essence—the bones, the framework, etc.—of a dynamic quest, is the same thing as a traditional quest, only it’s presented differently. Both Hearts and quests are similar in that they have the expected “Kill X amount of Y” or “Collect X amount of Y” or “Escort Z”. None of this is new.

What is new, is how it is presented. I no longer have to go to a person, hear the context, and then accept the quest. In fact, I don’t even have to speak to a person. I just “happen” along by, but it is still presented to me on my screen.

In some ways, this is worse, because not only is it the same as a quest, but context, meaning, and story, have been undermined if not completely stripped away. That is not an improvement, it’s a downgrade.

2. Dynamic Events
I would also argue that Dynamic Events are the same as quests, only they happen randomly. Again, same stuff, same bone structure/essence. A single Dynamic event can vary and grow in terms of its quest or objective based on whether it was completed or not, and this is good. Yet the variation does not overcome the repetitiveness of the Dynamic Event. At first it’s cool, because you are experiencing it for the first time, but after a while you realize that it’s just the same Dynamic Events over and over again with a little variation.

3. Trading Post
I actually like the Trading Post and it’s new as far as I’m concerned. The ability to request X amount of whatever you want for your determined asking price is very convenient.

Moreover, the Gem store is a wonderful idea. While I wouldn’t actually spend money for gems, I think the option to trade gold for gems is absolutely incredible, especially when those gems get me vanity items. I mention this because in WoW, if you want a promotional pet or mount, you HAVE to buy it with money. In Guild Wars 2, you can simply trade your hard-earned gold for gems and get it without ever having to metaphorically swipe your credit card.

Conclusion
For the sake of space and my purposes, I’m only going to mention these few items. Feel free to add upon or critique my points. And I have to say repeat and stress the fact that I haven’t yet experienced everything. For crying out loud, I haven’t even tried WvW or sPVP. So understand that this isn’t a criticism/review perse: If it was, I would be very irresponsible for not having tried the whole pie!

Rather, this is simply an initial observation, that’s it. In posting this observation, I only wish to see if other players can confirm them, or, with hope, deny them and confidently say that Guild Wars 2 brings much to the table. Thank you for reading, and please, keep it polite and respectful, being charitable to the opinions of others.

fony.5102:

Players only run into the diminishing return wall if they farm the same thing constantly. So why is ArenaNet suddenly the bad guy? They simply want you to move across the world, go into other areas and do the events there, the only issue is there is no incentive for a level 80 character to leave high end zones and do events around the world.

TL;DR: the problem is players need to have an incentive to move across the world, gear and weapons need to be equal so people only work for skins, not stats.

Regarding the bold section of the post: It says "there is no incentive for a level 80 character to leave high end zones and do events around the world.

The TL;DR also suggests that players need an incentive.

My question is, who is responsible for that lack of incentive? Do players merely need to motivate themselves to go to other places, or does ArenaNet need to provide that incentive by, for example, creating more level 80 zones for players to explore around. Or perhaps provide adequate rewards and compensation for traveling to lower level zones?

I ask because the post was, for me, ambiguous as to who was responsible for the lack of incentive. Is there a design flaw here or a mentality flaw?

If not marriage, perhaps at the very least a mass effect-style story-mode love interest.

I wouldn’t mind seducing countess Anise, if-a you know what I mean?

robinsiebler.3801:

If you are unconscious iRL, you can’t drag yourself now, can you? It makes more sense the way the OP worded it.

Actually, now that I think about it, I misinterpreted the OP. I thought he was referring to the downed state (I still need to get used to the Guild Wars 2 lingo).

In any case, you should’ve been able to understand that I was referring to the downed state since I mentioned a fifth action, implying that there were already four actions, implying that I was referring to the downed state. I forgive you.

Anyway, I still stand by my statement (as far as the downed state goes). As far as the fallen state occurs, I agree with the OP. Seems useful, but at the same time situational (and therefore probably unnecessary) since it, in my experience, is almost never smart to revived a fallen comrade in-battle (dungeons come to mind especially) since it takes 2-3 times as long to revive them if they were simply downed and because there are usually waypoints that are close by that eliminate the purpose of going through all that trouble.

Again, let me emphasize the personal nature of that experience. I’ve only been up to level 30 and beat 1 dungeon. If I was fallen, everyone told me to just use the waypoint. If I was downed, people made the effort to pick me up.

Hmm, it sounds alright, but I think a better thing to do would be to give the fallen player the option to drag himself. Either that or have a 5th action slot that enables the player to move backwards for 10 yards (or whatever) and heal at the same time with a cooldown of 30 seconds (something of that nature).

Either way, it’s more efficient than a player taking the time to move a player who still needs to be revived.

I strongly agree. I was wondering why this feature wasn’t implemented in the first place. It was annoying that I had to go right up to the portal to see where it lead to.

Lord Jaguar.9504:

Yep. Add dueling. Don’t worry about naysayers who cry about vague potential balance issues in the far future.

There are only two arguments against this feature which so many people want. One is easily resolved and the other is, in my opinion, not very rational.

1) people will get spammed with dueling requests
>add an option for the recipient player to turn off dueling so they cannot be spammed.
>profit

2) If dueling is added people might begin crying about class balance from a 1v1 perspective, which could influence the overall balance of the game. They don’t like this prospect.

>It’s not your job to balance the game, it’s Anets. Believe it or not, they don’t listen to everyone’s feedback and execute changes based purely on the playerbase’s opinion. They listen sometimes.. when we aren’t crazy.. but always with a grain of salt.

>Class balancing from this perspective is not an inherently wrong or evil thought. In fact, balancing perspectives from WvW, sPvP and 1v1 could add a more complete view of game balance in general.

>Ultimately, it doesn’t actually change the balance of the game, it only opens an avenue for players to comment on and developers to review. Only when developers take action is anything changed. You either trust Anet or you don’t at this point – they can ruin the game in plenty of other ways, dueling won’t be the magic bullet. Knowing this, there is no “good” reason to prohibit the feature.

Agreed. If anything, they should add dueling because it’s simply fun. But I like the point you made about 1v1 class balancing; I’m gonna take it a step further and say that balancing around 1v1 is the only proper way to balance.

In fact, enabling 1v1 duels could help expose skills, abilities, etc., that are overpowered or perhaps underpowered which would otherwise be obscured in the chaos of mass PvP.

I just noticed that when I check my hero, I can see the progress of my honor, charisma, and ferocity. Sometimes when I interact with characters, I even have the opportunity to respond in a charismatic, honorable, or ferocious way.

My question is, does my honor, charisma, or ferocity have an effect on gameplay or story? Is it just there to tell you the gauge what kind of character you are through the choices you’ve made?

Velius.3791:

99% of posters here don’t understand exploit to have that meaning. They believe exploit = cheat.

I understand that, but my overall point was not so much to engage in semantics, but to keep the OP on track. He’s so absorbed, misguidedly I might add, on proving that he’s not exploiting the game that he’s missing the entire point: that ArenaNet has not deemed this method as proper.

If he/she wants to suggest methods or perhaps argue why this is a wrong choice or perhaps dive into some other issue, like how ArenaNets actions are undermining their no-grind-philosophy (I do not, by mentioning this view, say that I hold it. I am merely giving examples); this post might actually become fruitful. But until he realizes that he is exploiting, I don’t think he’ll ever actually begin to discuss anything worthwhile.

Mars Hill.1542:

There seems to be some confusion as to he meaning of exploit. When you are exploiting something, all that is meant is that you are making the best use of what is available to you. Farming Mobs, Dynamic Events, using the Trading Post are all exploits.

So the issue is not whether you are exploiting or not; because clearly you are. No, the real question is whether this exploitation, in particular, is fair game, and ultimately, ArenaNet has decided that this is not a proper way to go about gaining mats, whether you like it or not.

read this post OP; you ARE exploiting the game.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I’m really not sure how this could be considered even close to exploiting????

If this is exploiting then so is almost every DE in the game… The giant spawned grubs, the grubs did high damage, you killed them or you died. eventually the giant died as well, the event took 20-30 minutes. Replace Giant and Grub with Base and “creature” and you’ve effectively just called the entire DE system an exploit lol.

I guess people are upset that they didn’t know where to farm and now the spot is gone.

The more Anet nerfs and tries to kill farming the harder players will look for farming spots. If you are going to require 500+ items for something and you keep nerfing the drop rate down to 1-2 an hour then people will just look for another place to farm.

If they do manage to nerf ALL the farming spots then people will just leave because the effort isn’t worth it anymore.

Of course by the logic of the people here it seems that they should prevent all mobs from dropping loot because apparently getting loot is an exploit.

There seems to be some confusion as to he meaning of exploit. When you are exploiting something, all that is meant is that you are making the best use of what is available to you. Farming Mobs, Dynamic Events, using the Trading Post are all exploits.

So the issue is not whether you are exploiting or not; because clearly you are. No, the real question is whether this exploitation, in particular, is fair game, and ultimately, ArenaNet has decided that this is not a proper way to go about gaining mats, whether you like it or not.

@Smackjack

I tried it but it didn’t work. Disabling my firewall and running the program as an administrator don’t seem to work either. I’ve tried downloading the client from the website as well instead of using the disc, but it’s the same problem.

cloudycolors.8916:

Yeah, it’s quite frustrating. I hope they give me a heads up to what to do. :/

Yeah, I’m hoping so too. I was thinking about using a transfer cable to transfer the files or a flash drive to move the game from one computer to another. I have it downloaded on my laptop, and I was wondering if I could simply bypass the whole installation process if I simply moved the already-installed game to my desktop. I’m not sure if that would work though.

cloudycolors.8916:

Hello. Yesterday I recently purchased Guild Wars 2 from a Wal-Mart store. I took it out of the box, put in disc one and ran it as administrator, the launcher popped up for a few seconds, then closed with no sign of activity whatsoever, and I do think I meet the system requirements.

I’ve had this same exact experience. I haven’t done any tinkering, however, since I’m not really good with computers and wouldn’t know what to do or what could possibly fix my issue.

Same thing has happened to me. When I insert the disc, I’m prompted to run the guildwars2.exe installer (or something like that). I run it, and then it downloads about 14,000 kilobytes. After that, the screen disappears and then quickly reappears—except it’s at 0/0 kilobytes. That screen stays up for about 2 seconds and then disappears again. Nothing happens, nothing ever reappears and I don’t even get the opportunity to click the “install game” button.

I honestly have no idea what I could possibly do to fix it. I have it installed on my laptop, which is very inferior to the desktop that I’m trying to download it on. I’m thinking of downloading the game onto a flash drive and moving it onto the desktop, but I’m not even sure if that would work.