Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!

I spend hours upon hours in Divinity’s Reach. It can be a very active place with dozens of playing chatting, roleplaying, showing off their new armor, and even playing music. I love to sit around listening to them play. It’s amazing the friendliness some community members show!

From time to time there are organized groups of of players, or guilds dedicated to music. Other times it’s just someone who picked up an instrument from the gemstore and wants to show off their skills, or lack thereof. Others use macros and play their favourite tunes for themselves, or for their friends or for whoever is passing by. I’d like to believe that all of them, macros or no macros, do it because of their love for the music and because they like to entertain others.

Tonight, I was listening to two random guys playing some zelda tunes, when a group of players from a music guild approached. “Cool! more music! This is going to be fun!” I thought.

I was very wrong.

The purpose of their arrival was not to play along or talk or comment on the song, but to insult and disturb. Comments like “cheats” and “go play your macros to where no one can listen to you” were thrown around. That, and worse that I will not bring to the forums, went on for a few minutes.

Yes, they were using macros or scripts or whatever it was. But It sounded nice. It was fun for them, and for those who were listening to it.

In the end, no one won. there was no more music, each went their own way, and those who decided to put their elitism above common sense no longer have my respect, no matter their skill with an instrument.

I felt the need to share this episode because I thought guilds who focus on music were supposed to bring players together..

The event I witnessed, is it considered normal for the music guilds out there? Why so much hate and disrespect towards someone who clearly just enjoyed sharing music with others? The city is big enough for everyone to play…

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hey there,

Here are a few tidbits from the team:

• A lot of newer players had trouble with the interface. That doesn’t apply to you, you’re veterans who have been around the conversion block a time or two. But newer players will benefit from the updated system.

…newer players will benefit from the updated system.

I’m sorry if I’m coming across as rude but no matter the way or the times I look at it, that statement looks like a blatant and shameful lie.

No new player nowhere in the world has the amount of gold needed for the least expensive conversion. It takes weeks for a brand new player to gather the gold needed for the 400 gem conversion, at which point they are no longer new players and had plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the game systems. And that including sliders, currency conversion and how the trading post works in general. It also means they had time to interact with other players who are usually very helpful.

However, we’re not here to discuss what a new player is or is not. But do not disguise what looks like a clear monetization decision by insulting the intelligence of your newer players.

The post doesn’t include a suggestion because the 30 pages of posts before it should be enough for any developer who actually has a trust relationship with their fans. Which doesn’t seem to be the case here.

I’m also looking forward to an explanation as to why I can’t find a single reference to the currency conversion system in the knowledge base. Am I not searching correctly?

I still cannot understand how an issue big enough to trigger a change does not have a single article on the knowledge base. Makes me wonder how big of an issue it really was.

As a person who rarely frequents the forums, and as someone who uses the gemstore rather frequently, I had to leave some feedback on this change.

I know my opinion is based on my own experience and my circle of friends who play GW2. However, in 1800 hours of playing, I have never come across a person who didn’t know how to use the old system. I know there’s a support ticket system, but I’ve seen so many questions asked on the map chat – most of which get a friendly answer within seconds – regarding pretty much every single possible topic about gameplay, gemstore, items, lore, missions, gems, and gold that I find it truly hard to believe this was a change based on player needs and requests.

If this was such a big problem, why can’t I find a single topic on it on the knowledge base? Isn’t that supposed to be the first stop for players needing support?

So, let me see if I understood the change:

1 – The graph showing the currency value fluctuation history has disappeared.

2 – The system went from a page where the player could adjust the currency to convert to and from, and a slider to fine tune the conversion down to the unit, to a system with several buttons and a crippled amount of conversion options.

So, Let me tackle number 1:

The currency fluctuations will still happen, and without a graph, veteran players will probably question the gem prices and claim Arenanet is tampering with them. That is already happening. New players, being new players who couldn’t understand the slider system, will probably fail to understand why do the gem value change, when and how. Won’t this lead to more support tickets along the lines of “Why did my 10 gold give me 57 gems today and 70 gems yesterday?”?

And onto number 2:

I can’t believe when you say that the goal was to make the Gem Store more like other shopping experiences, and if you think about it, there is more of that feel to it now. What other shopping experiences are we talking about? Other MMOs? Every other shopping experience online and/or real world based? I’m asking because for me, a good shopping experience means I’m allowed to buy items in the quantities I want or fit my needs better. Yes, there are packages available and things can be bought in bulk, but please enlighten me: When was the last time a store forced someone to buy a large quantity of an item when it can be sold by the unit?

(I’m sorry, you can’t buy a single carton of milk anymore, you have to buy a box of 50)
(Sorry, you can’t buy a single bottle of this, you have to take 50)

If the idea is to make it look like other MMO shopping experiences then I have to say it is a massive leap backwards for a game that was supposed to bring change to the genre.

All that said, I honestly believe that the previous system is a direct upgrade of the current one. Some fake patch notes:

• endless conversion choices (convert any amount of currency you want!)
• graph showing value fluctuations and conversion rates (see how the prices are changing in real time!)

The only way I can make my point stronger is by voting with my wallet. I will not use the gemstore for as long as the conversion remains crippled. I value my shopping experiences and right now, the GW2 gemstore isn’t a place I want to spend my money on. I’m glad there are other shops around that understand what a good shopping experience is.

This needs more attention! I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks the sound could be a lot better. In some cases there’s no hitting sound at all. Or that’s what it seems…

Hey Everyone!

This is a message to everyone interested in leveling up in a fun environment, maybe run some dungeons, some events, and have fun in a general way.

I’m in Seafarer’s Rest. I’ve created my tiny guild here with a couple friends when the game launched. We’re all in our mid, late 20s so we have day jobs, families and because of that we haven’t been very active. However, I would love to recruit some new members to bring some life to the group during week nights and weekends, when we can play together.

What can we offer?

Fun and a small teamspeak server and a guild bank which we hope to fill with useful stuff.

What rules do we have?

None whatsoever, other than “be nice” of course.

PM me if interested.

KCCO!

Hello mercenary person!

I’m Nahlaas, I got this little guild going with a couple friends who play casually almost every day. We don’t have any fancy rules or anything. We we do have however, is a great sense of camaraderie and humor. You can be in other guilds at the same time if you want to, you can play with your buddies or even bring your buddies along! We’re based on the EU server Blacktide if you want to join.

We like to travel together, completing maps, doing crazy chain of events (sometimes way above our level and that’s when we fail in spectacular ways). We’re also up to help out each other with the personal quest and dungeons. In less words…we like to play the game.

If you’re into talking instead of typing, we have a cozy TS3 server with room for 10.

Anyone interested, pm me! You can even add me on Steam if you want to!