Guild Wars 2

I see… how’s FOTM? Any new maps in there?

Also, are there one-time events like the ancient Karkas in the lost shore where thousands players participate in the same map at once? That was epic and would love to experience the feel again.

I’ve not logged-into GW2 since December 2012.
The last thing I explored is the Fractals and gotten my rings.

How’s the game now?
In-terms of events, monthly stories, one-time stuffs & everything else.
How about guild halls, housings and stuffs? Are they implemented yet?
(I’ve been waiting for housing system for ages.)

I’m thinking of going back in since a group of friends of mine wants to play this game.

My honest opinions:

If this or that can’t, what else is there in gw2?
I’ve waited months to see the “elements” that’s gonna make gw2 into a real mmo “rpg*”. It seems that gw2 removed lots of rpg elements, yet never fill back the hole with other elements with equal substance. GW2 is moving on to a more adventure/action genre MMO, than a mmorpg. The “adventure + action” elements in the game has overshrouded the “rpg” in the game.

All I can say,
GW2 = MMO + RPG-skin (fake progression) with action adventure mechanic.

It would definitely help combat.

GW2 combat are severely boring because it emphasizes in chasing and kiting monsters half of the time. Players have to chase 1 monster after 1 monster. This caused players to be sleepy during combat gameplay.

A game that’s worth to repetitive kill mobs are mmorpg like Dragon Nest and Tera.
The combat gameplay are way fun than GW2.

Why?
You are able to AOE monsters and kill several at once.
The spawnrate are high. There’s a certain addictive and epic feel to it.

This is why repetitions are no longer a grind, but an addictive gameplay.
Players have more fun with AOE’ing gameplay.

If you’re not able to grasp what I meant by “addictive and epic feel”,
Take a look at this video combat gameplay.
http://youtu.be/JRP54rbxQG0?t=28s

There’re lots of emotions and adrenaline rush in this combat gameplay.
Something addictive until you don’t mind playing repetitive for long hours.
Please take this in consideration to your future major updates.

Players know that the biggest joke of the game is that :
1) They demotivates you to grind.
2) The end-game carrots and rewards requires you to grind.

They kept nerfing ways for you to earn golds.
It’s no longer possible for you to earn 1 gold per hour now.

I have to be honest.
GW2 end-game mechanic are far worst than traditional mmorpgs.
In traditional mmorpg, when you grind, you feel it’s worth it.
In GW2, there’s no point of grinding except extra gold.

TC post was exactly what I expected in the PVE content of GW2 end-game.

Yet, they pushed the “war” to WvWvW with no relation to the PVE world.

GW2 end-game would’ve been strong if they did it that way.

—

Do people know one of the main reasons why GW2 has low player concurrency?

There’s no competitive PVE content between players.

GW2 made it in a way there’s no way to compete for anything. Everyone is equal.

Have anyone seen any multi-player (board/cards/video games) with no winners & losers?

In every MMORPG, no matter how different, there’s ways to lets players feel special.

This is why every MMORPG kept the elitism system.

Without it, GW2 isn’t a game as a “MMORPG”.

GW2 merely a console single player game with multi-player add-in + separate PVP irrelevent world.

There’s no “world” inside that progresses among the players.

From the latest blog post, their so called “living world” they kept emphasizing only directs towards players towards PVE/AI/NPCs. They misinterpret players past feedback by having a “world” for GW2.

It’s a dead world as a MMORPG.

—

I’m not talking about MMO. I’m talking about MMORPG.
MMO is the whole genre. MMORPG is a sub-category genre.

It’s a great game as a single-player online game for a group (PVE players) and a multi-player PVP game for another group (PVP-action players). GW2 being just a general MMO is great too. However, it’s still very far of being a MMORPG.

The devs must do more research towards what makes MMORPG addictive/fun to attract the majority of the real mmorpg players. If GW2 wants to become a real MMORPG, I expect to see more improvements for GW2.

I don’t see the innovation of GW2 becoming a revolutionised mmorpg. I see GW2 is merely RPG genre cut to 1/3 and added 2/3 of adventure + action genres elements. This pushes the mmorpg genre backwards.

I agree with TC about the points he made.
Those are the truths.

I don’t agree that combat is the weakest part of this game.
This game weakest point, is the longetivity/addictive element.

What I meant by longetivity, is not the lifespan of the game.
I meant by how long can players last before they’re burnt out.

I’m sure the developers knows very well about this weak part of this game. This is why they’re putting in lots of effort in improving that part of the content these few months.

On the second posts after TC.. something about making combat like e-sport?

With that mentality… this is why I mentioned in few threads that GW2 is becoming more of like an adventure-action/arcade game instead of a mmorpg. GW2 is heading towards a genre unlike mmorpg. I don’t see it being innovative but just removing RPG-genre elements and replaced it with adventure-genre elements.

We’ve seen since 1990s console games.
RPG: Vertical
Adventure: Horizontal
Action: Horizontal

This was why there’s lots of backlashes from real RPG gamers after weeks of gameplay. There’re some missing elements that makes up a mmorpg. These missing elements are the cause that made the “pulling element” weaker than all other mmorpgs.

Let’s take this as an example.
There’s a mmorpg called “Ragnarok Online 2”. RO2 has much weaker combat gameplay, graphics, lesser content and inferior to GW2 in alot of aspects. Yet, I’m playing RO2 alot more than GW2. I’m having alot more fun in RO2. I feel like logging in everyday more than GW2. I feel so anticipated to play it.

Why is that? That is for the GW2 developers to solve. There’s something very vital that traditional mmorpgs has, but GW2 has discarded because the devs misperceived it as “bad”. Think about it, solve it and GW2 online concurrency will be improved tenfolds.

I feel that negativity is still needed in forum.
Without negativity, there won’t be much improvements.
This was based on personal experiences with mmorpg forums.

It’s better to have players who voices out their negativity instead of making them muted. Those can be valuable feedbacks towards the game. If there’s no players who voices out negativity, that’s a sign that the game is dying. It’s because those players no longer care about the game anymore. [Have negative posts > no posts at all]. But yes, if players want to voice out their negative opinions, it’s better to keep it constructive.

Players shouldn’t worry too much about negative opinions. Players who doesn’t agree to another shouldn’t feel affected because it’s only matter of different voices.

@Archmortal, your posts are too long for a casual discussion.

I don’t have to ask those experts to know what an addiction is. Addictive games give withdrawals. Withdrawals are something that give interests. Strong interests that make us want to play the game no matter what during our free time. You look forward to play after you came back from work. Something that have a seat in our minds even when we’re doing something else. The eagerness and anticipation to play once we get home.

It’s only harmful if the player has a weak mind. That’s only the minority. I’m sure many adults are able to prioritise their life.

I’m talking “addiction” in a “gaming term” here. As long as it’s addictive, it’s fun. People play video games to pass by their leisure time right? If it pulls us, then there’s nothing harmful about it. If it doesn’t pulls us, then we get sleepy while playing it. Like now. I can’t even stand few minutes of gameplay when I logged in GW2. I always ended up listening youtube videos instead of being in the game.

You’ve lost me here. This does not connect to any of the previous thoughts in your post at all. You didn’t address that I still did a ton of grinding in HotW to get the armor set ASAP even though I had fun doing it. Why is repetition magically not grinding just because a person isn’t bored doing it? Content doesn’t evolve into grinding the more it’s done. It either is or isn’t grinding based on what the player needs to do (most MMOs) or how the player approaches their goals (GW2). If players are repeating a task to get a certain thing after a certain number of successive repetitions it is still grinding regardless of how enjoyable or boring the activity is. That’s why the common defense of grinding in GW2 is “try doing something else.”

It looks like different people has different definition of “grind”. If you have fun repeating HoTW, it’s not a grind anymore. You have interests repeating it because there’s a carrot for you to get the full set. You’re anticipating the full set of armor. (It’s not a carrot for me because beauty is in the eye of the beholder for cosmetic armors.) If HoTW gives armor set look that you dislike, would you still be able to repeat the content?

The reason why I don’t call “repeating content + fun = not a grind” is because in games where players repeat rounds and contents while having fun, you don’t see them saying it’s a grind. Remember our tetris and pacman? Also any console games with New Game+. People repeat them, yet they never complaint it’s a grind. It’s only a grind if players feel bored out of repeating content. If it doesn’t bore the players, it’s not a grind. The players are basically just having fun playing it.

Desamos.1836:

So people constantly need to get new gear to satisfy their needs? Why can’t someone just buy one Ferrari, and take good care of it : /

It’s because it’s human nature.
It’s just like how tech-hobby people upgrade their iphones after every new series.

Archmortal.1027:

Addiction shouldn’t even be mentioned here. There is no “bad thing + arguably good thing + good thing” to equate addiction to. It is a physical urge to do whatever you are doing whether you want to or not. Addictions are never good no matter how they are rationalized. For the record, yes people can be addicted to video games and yes it is still a bad thing no matter how much you enjoy it (drug addicts start out enjoying it too). That’s why World of Warcraft’s loading screens always remind players to get the hell out of the house once in a while. I’ve been addicted to World of Warcraft. When I quit there were withdrawals. Nothing as serious as heavy drug addiction, but it happened. When I stepped away I realized “oh, I wasn’t having that much fun constantly grinding anyway,” somewhat similar to a lot of drug addicts who after quitting and recovering go “oh, that was some really terrible stuff I kept doing.” Addiction is bad. End of story.

Addiction is neccessary for people to have fun. If addiction is “bad”, there’s no such things as hobbies. People who have hobbies are addicted towards something they love and dedicated. It brings about strong interests.

Games in the 90s like pacman and tetris are fun in those era. It’s because they’re addictive and worth repeating for. Those are the games that made an impression and last for a long time. Without being pulled in, people grow boredom towards the game.

You shouldn’t link drugs to games and hobbies. Drugs and smokings are bad because they are unhealthy and destroy human lives. Games and hobbies addictions are something that give you leisures and entertainment.

This applies to TV shows. Good tv dramas and animes are those that make viewers feel anticipated after every episodes. Viewers feel eager to know the plot of the next episodes. If tv shows doesn’t make viewers anticipated, they would fall asleep while watching. A non-anticipating (no-carrot) drama would make viewers feel like they don’t feel like watching the next episode, skipping the whole series together. This is something which needs to be considered during production.

This is why “grinding” only forms in mmorpg if players are bored repeating contents. The pulling element is neccessary for people not to see it as “grinding”. If players have fun repeating and stay anticipated in the rewards, it’s no longer a grind.

Players and developers need to know the rpg meaning of “grind”.

Grinding = Repetitive content + Boredom

Addiction = Repetitive content + Anticipation + Fun

GW2 has never been a good mmorpg in this department.
I’m sure players can see that GW2 end-game is more of a grind than addiction because you don’t anticipate it. This is why it’s never fun. In previous made mmorpgs, you can see that you repeat content for a reason. There’s a strong lure which made you feel ancipated to repeat contents to achieve it. This is what made mmorpgs fun.

If you don’t find it fun to repeat contents in traditional rpgs, you’re not RPG-favored players. RPGs has always been about repeating contents and back-tracking to make the food [rewards] taste more delicious. If not, it’s basically an ordinary adventure-genred game like Assassin Creed, Tomb Raider and Ninja Gaiden but with multi-player option.

Yeah, those are games but all with different genres.
RPG and adventure games are different for many reasons.

In adventure games like assassin creed and ninja gaiden, you still role-play as the character. There is still a back story behind the game. However, it can never be called a RPG genred game. It’s just like GW2. You still role-play and there’s a story… but it can never be called a mmorpg genre.

In RPG, you submerge yourself into the character. You’re dedicated towards your character. Time dedication gives the best rewards. There’s always a strong carrot after another carrot. It has a reflection of reality. You always have a new goal after another goal. There’s a “world” and “human emotions” that functions like reality in RPG. That is the mechanic of RPG since it was born in Japan. This is why western RPGs can never beat J-RPGs. Westerners doesn’t appreciate rpgs and the devs made rpg-genres into some kind of adventure-genred games that has little to none rpg elements.

I love raids too.

How about raids that function like the Lost Shore last day event?
That was simply epic and something to desire for. (100-500 players together)

If it has something like that to play about daily, it can help in the low online player concurrency problem. Be sure to lead players to it too. (Time of spawn, world announcement etc).

Nekroseth.5186:

Forums are currently 80% of negative impression players, or players that find immerse ammounts of things they could or would improve, and make suggestions.

But in game, you barely find anyone, who has negative impressions or opinions of the game.
Why is that?

I tell you, because the problems player feed to forums are so bad, it forced them out of game, and are waiting, and more likely hoping they get fixed, or implemented (as it as actually even promised).
The only reson they post at all is the hope this can get better.

I can not understand those, that say something like " no dont do it its bad and it is good as it is, thy arena net"
You bought the game, enjoy it, but dont destroy it for others, by stopping the imrpovement and suggestion that could or would improve the gameplay for others.
ADDING can rearely destroy games. But refusing to add, now that DOES.

That’s worrying. If there’s no one talking about the game online, it’s basically meaning that the map is empty or social element is not there. In mmorpgs I’ve been to, no matter how much the negative talkers comment in-game, they still log in and playing it.

I believe another factor is because there’s no world chat in GW2. It seems to be the only mmorpg that doesn’t have a world chat option. The world would be more livelier if there’s a world chat. This contributes to social interaction in-game and lessen it to look like a single player console game. The game needs to look more like a mmorpg.

Yes, I will most likely buy it.

I suggest for them to bring out the expansion before those big hits like “Blade & Soul” and “ArcheAge” comes out in English. If those games grab players attention, players may get distracted away from GW2 and loses the momentum to buy the expansion.

I get what you mean.

Without trinity, avatars have no personalised roles.

This is like human nature in reality.

[Examples]
In a room with a doctor and 4 other people. The doctor feels special because he has something the other 4 doesn’t have. That’s medical skills.

In a room with a architect and 4 other people. The architect feels special because he has something the other 4 doesn’t have. That’s construction skills.

If all 5 of them can be anyone, they don’t need each other anymore.
There’s no reason for them to treat each other with value.

A mmorpg where no players feel like a hero.
People appreciate something they lack.
If they have everything, they won’t appreciate anything.

No system is perfect.

This is how the game is designed and I doubt they would bring it back.

Improving social interaction isn’t just about having a tougher elite boss or stage so people are encourage to group up. It’s about activities that lead players to make friends and rivals with each other. Real social progression lead players into developing memories and progressive friendships instead of meeting acquintances after acquintances.

I will touch on the war system in guild wars 2 and explain how it’s one of the important factor for social progression and interactions in mmorpgs that has war system.

Need improvements in the player war system
To be frank imo, WvWvW has no meaning and lack appeals for mmorpg’ers. There’s no reason why should Crystal Desert faced off with Jade Quarry. WvW is just there for the sake of having WvW. There’s no story, cause, emotions and purpose in the war. If we overtake a keep or being overtaken, we don’t feel anything. There’s neither glory nor prestige in the current WvWvW. Imo, GW2 has one of the most emotionless war system in mmo rpg history that has a war system.

I’ll give an example of an ex-mmorpg I played. In that mmorpg, there’s republicans and royalists in the whole RPG story concept. Guilds chose a side. There’s a purpose in the war. Every weekend, guilds fight for colonies in the PVE map. The guild that take an area of the map are listed under the PVE map [M] for the rest of the week. There’s prestige and glory. Among the chapters of wars, there’s real-time dramas, coup-de-tat, alliance forms or shatters and all the stories. There’re real emotions in the war.

I believe that emotions are quite an important element in rpg war system. In reality, wars have always been created out from emotions and human nature. There’s no such thing as an emotionless war. There’s always purposes and causes in the war. In the darkest times, that’s where players develop friendships and rivals. Humans with the same ‘cause’ became closer in dark times of any war. They don’t meet merely acquintances. They form real bonds and became closer through time. Guilds feel like families. Rival guilds feel like competitors. Players create their own stories among themselves – that’s what made mmorpgs with war system different from typical multi-player pvp games.

If guild wars 2 plans to implant GvG war system in the future, I hope the devs may take consideration of the points above. It does not only enhance the social progression and interaction aspect of the game. It can be a good appeal for end-players [mmo rpg’ers] to have more reason to go online more often. :)

Rezzet.3614:

i was in Angry joe’s guilds and have yet to see him Once in this game seems he giving ratings without even playing.

Yeah. It proves one thing. Reviewers judge from hype instead of merit.

I’ll say GW2 was a great experience from Lv1 to Lv80.
No doubt, it should win an award.

It has a great feel if I play it like how I play my ps3 games. The game was just a turn around after few weeks or months. After I cleared my mind from all the hype, I begun to see things I didn’t see earlier. The burn-out rate is much rapid than other themepark mmorpgs. The problem with the game is, it shouldn’t feel like a console game.

Something which mmorpgs should always avoid:
[Once you beat it, you shelved it away]-style.

That video about angryjoe praising gw2 all over was during pre-released.

I noticed those reviewers who praise gw2 the most during pre-released ended up disappeared / playing other games after few weeks or months of gameplay. >_<

This is expected from a game with no trinity system.
Everything seems to be about kiting without it.

Agreed.

Why?
It’s important to make mini-pets into “real collectables” instead of “trophies”.
I’ve not seen any collectable items where you can’t sell nor trade it away in reality.

In reality, all collectables can be auctioned, traded and sold out anytime.
People collect things because they value inflate through time.

That makes collectables prestigeous.
(E.g. Trading card games, anime figures, branded bags and watches.)

The reason why I stop collecting mini-pets anymore because they’re account bound. I can buy them with cash anytime I want but I’m a collector buying collectables, not buying account-bound trophies.

If I bought the cash shop mini-pet, I would be happy to know it costs hundred of gold in TP through time even if I have no intention to sell them in my lifetime. I will know that my mini-pet is a real collectable with value instead of just a side decoration trophy that I bought with money.

Trophy-like items that are account bound should be limited to cosmetic dungeon armors because those are real achievements. There’s no achievement in buying trophy items with real money. Mini-pets are meant to be collectables, so I hope they correct this system as early as possible if they want mini-pets to sell as collectables.

1 out of 20,000? Seriously?
It must had been lucky for it to drop in 500+ boxes. O_o
I guess it’s really luck.

It’s one of the reason why I’m not into festive minis now.

I learnt my lesson after seeing the special chain saw skeleton twice smaller than the other mini skeleton. I don’t know what’s the developer’s intention for making them smaller and unappreciatable.

I wish they had executed the minis’ system better.

Schatzy.8036:

I bought this game last month for $60, regular edition, and now Deluxe Edition is $45?

I think this is kind of a middle finger to all of us who bought the game for full price. Not only did we pay $60 for no perks, but now there are people buying this game for $45 and getting a handful of perks for less than us buying a no-perk, more expensive copy. Come on now, Arenanet.

Yes, I know it’s a temporary sale, but that doesn’t justify it.

What do you guys think?

It still justify the price.
Would you buy the game for $60 and play 5 months earlier?
Or would you buy the game for $15 less and play 5 months later?
Think in this perspective.

Everyone has different taste.
Imo, Guild Wars 2 is the 3rd best among the f2p/b2p mmorpgs I played.

1st – Granado Espada (The least grind, best pvp/gvg and endless carrots.)
2nd – Dragon Nest (Epic combat system.)
3rd – Guild Wars 2 (Good graphics, limited carrots, unappreciated reward system.)
4th – Maple Story (The worst grind, addictive.)

Guild Wars 2 doesn’t feel like a full mmorpg. It lacks in the psychology and human behaviour department. It excels in ‘NPC-player’ interactions but doesn’t have that “world” that led players to make ‘players-players’ chapters and memories.

Guild Wars 2 seems to be moving on to a whole new genre in-between action games (mario, tomb raider) and console rpgs (DA, skyrim) into multi-player setting.

Many late-2000s developers these days think mmorpg is just a ps3/xbox console rpg with multi-player options. That’s where new mmorpgs became very flawed in filling human needs and behaviours that’s needs to run that “virtual world” interaction system.

I actually like the RNG factor for the endless tonics.

It made me appreciate the endless tonics better.

I feel like those endless tonics are treasures in my inventory.

Imagine if those can be easily acquired. It’ll be treated like junk items.

As long as it’s doable (unlike precursors) and fun, I don’t mind it being RNG.

They should do this for every special events.

In fact, the endless tonics are the only ones that I play for in this festival.

Borikitty.1302:

It’s still a forum post in reply to someone’s question. NOT part of the official write up. For those of us who did daily’s (each city each day) and doing a mini right from the point we could make them we could have had more warning to be selective about which ones to do. It’s utterly annoying to find out AFTER I chose them that I could not finish my collection.

The person who reply is one of the devs.
But yeah, they should post it on the official web for better communication with the players. Few of my guildmates didn’t know they could only craft 2 too.

I’ve to agree with this.
Minis shouldn’t be account bound because they are collectables.

Have people seen collectables in real life where it’s bound to you?
In reality, collectables can be traded, sold, bought and even sent for auction.

The reason why reality trading card games were popular is because it’s collectable. Those are collectable items where you can keep and hunt for whole set, sell or trade away.

Minis act like trophies these days. This is why I don’t go for minis as a collector. There is no point of collecting minis that acts like a trophy.

Trophies: Meant to be acquired through achievements (like dungeon armors), not bought. These are okay to be account bound.

Collectable items: Meant to increase value through time. When you hold a rare minis, you feel great because it’s worth something. You don’t plan to sell it, but you feel great because it’s worth 100g+ in the TP.

The designers must really do lots of research in the human nature and behaviours.
There must be realism in mmorpg to sell virtual products.

The reason why me and most collectors doesn’t go around collecting minis are for the same reason. There’s no prestige in collecting minis.

Minis aren’t even collectable items anymore the moment it became account bound. Have you seen collectable items in real life where it’s glued to you? In real life, you can trade and auction them away. They serve like trading card games where you can buy/sell/trade your favourite cards.

Minis are like “trophy items”, bad ones. Trophy items should only be those dungeon cosmetic armors. Those are okay. However for minis, there’s no point for it to be a trophy item. Trophy items are meant to be rewards for achievements, not bought.

Borikitty.1302:

.. still doesn’t answer the question. Where did Arenanet mention the max on cogs, etc.? Can you provide a link to the official release on that? I’m interested in getting the griffon plushie. I already have the toy soldier and the princess.

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wintersday/Tixx-Minipets/first

You’ll have enough to make any two you’d like if you play all five days.

You can only make 2 out of 5 with the limited cogs.
As for the remaining 3, you can buy from the cash shop.

You can only get 500 cogs at max (200 extra to compensate people with bug).
With the remaining 3 frames, you can craft endless tonic (unlimited uses).

Each mini ingredients: 250 cogs + 250 glue + 250 wads + a frame
100% success rate. You can only craft 2 minis with the limited cogs.

Each endless tonic ingredients: 50 glue + 50 wads + 1 pile of glittering dust + a frame
10~25% success rate. You can recycle the frame if failed. You can buy the glue and wads in TP. It’s RNG. Some may acquire in 1 try. Others may acquire in 50+ tries.

RNG what makes it fun as long as it’s doable.

For me, I’m not into collecting minis so I made all 5 frames into endless tonic since it’s more fun. I decided to acquire griffin plushie for fun so I bought the toy frame from the merchant. I got 5 endless tonic and a griffin plushie now.

RNG is not gambling.

RNG is like gachapon in Japan.

Gachapon: Those small ball capsules in machine where you put 300 yen of coins to get a random toy. You may not get what you want too. There’re also rare toys among the capsules. These gachapon are commonly played by elementary children and teens.

I can’t resist it’s cutenes~~ ^-^

I wish they have the real life version of it’s plushie.

They should make more plushie and cute items in Guild Wars 2.

The reaction by players shows that alot of players love cute stuffs in a game.

Griffin plushie > Quaggan & other toys

^_^

I agree. I found plushie griffin so cute~! ^-^
It’s soo much cuter than the baby quaggan.

Quaggan’s face kept reminding me of one of the sea creature I saw before.
I guess that’s why I wasn’t appeal towards baby quaggan that much. ^^"

Danikat.8537:

Here are the ideas I’ve seen so far, in no particular order:
1) Make the minis unbound. That way regardless of how they’re originally available everyone will have a chance to get them later on by buying them. It might be a small chance (because they’re rare or expensive or both) but that’s ok.

I only agree with this.
What is a collectable item when we can’t make it inflate price through time and sell it after months or years? Even in real life auctions, people can sell their rare collectables to other people. Collectables are meant to be tradable. They are not trophies or passports.

We can trade pokemons. We can trade limited anime collectable figurines.
We can even trade and resell rare trading card games in real life.
All these function as collectables and they are tradable.

This game doesn’t know anything about human nature and behaviours all the way from gameplay, player-player world culture and now cash items too.

I’m not a collector for mini-pets for this reason. It doesn’t function like a collectable at all. Another reason was I’m annoyed how mini-pets disappears every map change. It made me eventually forgot to click on the pets again and forgot about them.

Quaggan are cute. I don’t mind having it’s plushie. ^^

The game lacks cutesy monsters or races.

It may be my personal taste but the current skins in wintersday doesn’t seems to appeal to me. Most of the weapon skins are generic too (except slingshot and sceptor which doesn’t require me to spend cash). I prepared $50 for wintersday but there’s nothing that make me feel like spending towards. >_<

Please make those cash boxes to have some usefulness like exclusive rare armor or weapon skins with low % droprate. The halloween BLC was alot better imo. Many players don’t play the game for mini-pets that disappears everytime we move to another map.

Yeah, you’re not alone who feel like this.
There were many topics like this. Many have expressed the same view so it’s the truth.

Some people mistaken mmorpg to be just role-playing with massive people.
Mmorpg has a world within it.

MMO = Massive multi players (does not need to have a “world”).
RPG = A world set with characters that make stories.
MMORPG = A world where massive players make memories with each other through human nature and behaviours.

The difference,

Console pc/xbox/ps3 RPG = Players create memories with npc. The story fold between the character you’re role-playing and the npc world set for you.

MMORPG = Players create memories with other players and npc. You have your own story with the NPCs but the first priority is the story between you and other players in the same world. It’s an fantasy virtual world that reflects the real life. The game structure needs to accustom with human nature and behaviour psychology.

There are reasons that explains players fast burn outs.
This game feels like console pc/xbox/ps3 rpg just with multi-player option.

Yup, I noticed it too. I was expecting realistic chainsaw sound like this and I’m actually quite happy with it. ^^ I think it’s best to update an off option for it because I hear the same sound from my HDB apartment whenever a neighbour moves in above me (it gives me headache when hearing it all day long). ^^;

Does only the wielder or everyone around us can hear it?

(If possible, pls update a glow on the scythe too. ^^)

Are the skins in cash shop and LA mystic forge the only ones from wintersday?

I found them decent.. but in comparison with the halloween ones, the halloween ones were much appealing (from my personal favor). So I’m wondering if there are other skins that’s been or yet to be released from wintersday.

FaRectification.5678:

Naoko, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. TLDR, once again, read my above posts, GW2 does not necessarily have to be an action game. You have got the wrong idea.

From one of my above posts:

“This isn’t to say you can’t fix lvl caps, for instance if lvl caps were set too low, then you could always set them higher in a content patch or an expansion and that would fix the issue. But that isn’t vertical progression, it is just raising the lvl and stat cap to meet the original balance plan. If they wanted longer lvling times, they could always raise the caps at any time they wanted to. Same goes for larger health pools on mobs (so that they die slower) to give it an Everquest feel, but combined with action-oriented components as well.”

Think a little before you attack those who speak the truth Naoko, or you’ll regret it.

Your last sentence or threat was uncalled for.
If you read, that CJancients is the one who “attacked” me.
You just did it to me too. So far, I’ve not refuted nor say others were uttering rubbish. =/

Your own “truth” is not the universal truth, but just your perception and ideal.
Don’t force upon your personal truth onto others. You won’t like it too if I ask you to discard your opinions away and I push mine on you.

Back on topic, GW2 appears to be approaching to a totally new genre with a mix-match of elements in different games. There’s nothing wrong with it. However, it’s just like chemistry. Only the correct elements mixed can produces good results. Imo, GW2 has done very well in [players-npc] interactions but poorly in [players-players] interactions. In games where your levels corresponds to the PVE monsters, it’s effective in single-player games [players-npc] like Skyrim and DA. However, in a progressive and evolving setting like mmorpgs, it may bring about cons in many aspects. There’re reasons why players enjoy the most during the Lv1-80 phase but not Lv80+. Players feel like they ended the game.

The “human behaviours” without end-game vertical progression:
1st – Players reach max cap level and gears.
2nd – Players get the their favourite appearance.
3rd – Players feel satisfied since they get a sense of “game completion”.
4th – Players only log-in once per month for one-time events.
Result – Low concurrency : Empty maps 80~90% of the time.
This is the truth shown by evidences. Is this what players want?

CJAncients.6907:

Naoko.7096:

Players who hate vertical progression are just those players in the wrong group. They are players who favor action-games than rpgs during their console-gaming phases in life.

There are reasons why RPG-fans like me hate games like Tomb Raider, Ninja Gaiden and other action-games. If people realised, Tomb Raider isn’t a RPG-genred even when you role-played as Lara Croft. RPGs isn’t just about “role-playing a character” but the progressive nature that develop the characters. RPG = Dedication > Player skills.

I like to progress the character like in storybooks than having a non-progressive character that makes stages harder through progression. At the same time, I want realism of the world. The “best items” have real rewarding functions. The “philosopher stone” in Harry Potter and “ring” in Lord of The Rings novels are not just aesthetics.

So who made you the authority on what a RPG has to be? How is your “realism” any more real than +1 gear that doesn’t exist in the real world?

Stop spewing nonsense.

Sorry if you feel that way. I can’t help you on that.
It’s just your over-imagination that you think others hold authority over it.
The whole “structure” has already existed since the beginning.

It existed in wiki too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

Progressions, social interactions, role-playing, culture, system architecture and psychology are all part of what makes a mmorpg. Read the psychology aspect of mmorpgs that shares about few points of human nature. What is a mmorpg when there’s no realism in it? Mmorpg is not just a “game” where you play in arcades or console with multi-player options. It’s a virtual world. In novels, authors are recommended to learn about the realism of human nature and behaviours to move readers too. That is because there’s a “world” in books too. RPGs are the same.

The only difference with the world structure are:
[mmorpgs = players-players]
[rpgs = players-npc]

P.S. GW2 got the best rpg title, not the best mmorpg. GW2 deserves best rpg award because the [players-npc] interactions are one of the best in rpgs I played. The npc feel lively and they are very interactive/realistic.

This is why I said people who hate vertical progressions are playing the wrong genre. mmorpg is all about vertical progression. In books, movies and rpgs, character develops and progresses. It’s what keep readers, audiences and players anticipated.

Players who hate vertical progression are just those players in the wrong group. They are players who favor action-games than rpgs during their console-gaming phases in life.

There are reasons why RPG-fans like me hate games like Tomb Raider, Ninja Gaiden and other action-games. If people realised, Tomb Raider isn’t a RPG-genred even when you role-played as Lara Croft. RPGs isn’t just about “role-playing a character” but the progressive nature that develop the characters. RPG = Dedication > Player skills.

I like to progress the character like in storybooks than having a non-progressive character that makes stages harder through progression. At the same time, I want realism of the world. The “best items” have real rewarding functions. The “philosopher stone” in Harry Potter and “ring” in Lord of The Rings novels are not just aesthetics.

A good topic.

RPGs produces memories between player-npc.
MMORPGs produces memories between players-players.
—————-
I can say many reasons towards why Guild Wars 2 severely lacks the RP elements.
Seasoned mmorpg’ers should have already seen the reasons.

1) Weak Social Interaction
Guilds are a replica of twitter and fb chat room. There’s no guild participation nor guild wars for the development of dramas and stories. You can join multiple guilds. Majority hold no loyalty because guilds are meaningless. You can have thousands of acquintances but no friendship developments. A real guild structure makes sure you progresses with your guildmates like a family. Social interaction like this is vital in MMORPGs. Disregard this and it creates a big hole in the game.

2) Non-realistic Utopia Equality Structure
MMORPGs must follow and accustom to the human nature and behaviour. If you want to create a good MMORPG that go against the traditional ways, you must put yourself in the shoes of a “God”. “Communism/Socialism” structure are bound to fail because they punishes the dedicated ones. The creator must know what kind of world he wants to make? What kind of world that can feed the humans’ needs? Why exclusive stuffs attracts humans’ desire? Why people want to feel special in life? Why people want to occupy their life with something? Traditional MMORPGs follow and suit the human nature of the real world for good reasons. It’s because MMORPGs is like a 2nd-world to the real mmorpg’ers. An alternate world based on fantasy but follows the nature of the real world and accustom with human behaviours.

3) GW2 = Action Game > Role-Playing Game
Guild Wars 2 is basically a MMO but mixed in structures of action-games like Tomb Raider and Ninja Gaiden. Players assume “RPG” is merely role-playing as the characters given to you. If that’s the truth, then why Tomb Raider wasn’t labelled as RPG? Didn’t you role-played as Lara Croft? This shows where RPGs and action-games are different. RPG rewards time dedication players. RPG is progressive and give constant rewards. You grow the character in RPGs in term of power, story, personality and lifestyle. In movies and storybooks, characters develop. Action games gives you harder challenges and doesn’t grow the character. In action games, you just have a character and challenge through obstacles.

Action gamers find pleasure in achieving something that they failed many times. RP gamers find pleasure in achieving something that they breed and dedicate the character in the alternate world. There’s a big difference.
—————-
RP in mmorpg is role-playing as an avatar that doesn’t take in consideration of you. MMO in mmorpg is the world of massive player. Together, it’s an alternate fantasy world for your 2nd-life which you don’t want to involve anything from your 1st-life reality. This means that your character dedication has higher priority than your personal skills.

A MMORPG with good RP element will ensure that players creates bonds with group of people, create stories and adventures of their own between each and the rest of the players (npc are secondary), being able to feel like you can develop with people, have realism world where players can fold their own dramas and let individual players create their own storybooks. Afterall, light can only be created when there’s darkness. There are reasons why asian animes are much popular than children’s cartoon. Asian animes accustom with realistic human natures and behaviours.

If you spend money for gears, it means you have strong desires for vertical progression. You’re a dedicated player by heart. You wanted to achieve “the best”. You must realise that Lv1 to Lv80 is already a vertical progression.

1. When did you begin playing?
25th August 2012

2. How many hours total do you have?
500+ hours

3. What’s your most gold banked so far?
170g

4. Do you have a max level character (s)? (number if more than one)
2 max level characters

5. List 1-3 areas / zones / events / tp; where you spend most of your time for income.
Cursed Shore

6. Do you mainly use MF or not?
Yes, on farming gold on DE maps.

7. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a mob? If so, how many and total?
Yes. 3~10? Mostly from Fractals.

8. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a chest? If so, how many and total?
Yes. Less than 5 times.

9. What’s the most number of rare weapons you have looted in one day or 8hrs time?
5~8 in 6 hours time.

10. How many rare or exotic weapons do you “expect” to loot in one hour of time?
At least 1 or 2.

11. How many lodestones have you looted total so far?
None in PVE. Less than 10 in Fractals.

12. Do you craft? If so, do you have a 400 crafter? if so, how many?
3 maxed craft.

13. Do you sell your looted crafting mats?
Yes if my bank is full (250).

14. Do you feel your return, (in terms of items, completion, income, etc) for your time, has been worth it?
Overall, no. If I feel that my efforts are wasted whenever my time spend doesn’t reward me with something that progress my avatar above other average avatars.

15. In ONE word, what needs improved most; from your perspective?
Vertical Progression.

Do some players want a game that’s like this?

1st step: Player X achieve max level and finish the story.
2nd step: Player X achieve best stat gears and favourite looks.
3rd step: Player X put the game back into the shelf and only logs on festival events.
Result: Empty maps all over.

I think players forgotten that progression is one important element that creates mmorpg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

Primal.9513:

Naoko.7096:

MMORPG = An alternate world that’s accustom with the nature of humans.

It’s as simple as that. If players see mmorpg as merely another game with multi-player options, they’re so wrong. Mmorpg has always been a replica of how real world works. In the real world, which system has work the best? If elitism, democracy, meritocracy are the most successful system in our world, mmorpg should follow. Communism, egalitarianism and socialism in the real world are not in the top-tier because it doesn’t accustom well with the human nature and needs. If there’s a “better” system that accustom with human nature, the real world would’ve picked up that system earlier than new-gen mmorpgs.

To clarify, GW1 isn’t a mmorpg. It’s rated as corpg. A game that’s full of instances (teleported maps). It isn’t an open world. This is where it went different. GW2 is a mmorpg and can’t follow the exact same path as GW1. Corpg is very close towards console rpgs with multi-player options. Mmorpgs and console rpgs are being made differently for important reasons.

If players watch Sword Art Online anime, it projects how much human nature is developed and runs through a mmorpg. Only when there’s darkness, people can create their own light. Fun stuffs can only be created when it’s appreciated. It’s part of nature to appreciate what is lack the most. (That anime tops in Japan for good reasons).

I bought mmorpgs because I want to have an alternate life. I want to experience all kind of emotions. I want to experience how humans develop their bonds in the darkest times. The things that can’t be done in reality, I want it possible in the alternate world. I want to experience the nature of human in the alternate world. I play both console games and mmorpgs, but for 2 very different reasons.

If I read correctly: MMOs are a replica of the real world (aka, that can be done in reality) and you play them to experience what can’t be done in reality?

Yes. The “replica” is part of how humans behaviour and nature works in real world that’s reflected in mmorpgs. “Multi-player games” and “mmorpgs” are different in nature. In multi-player games, players just have fun playing with friends. In mmorpg, players make infinite stories and memories with friends. Mmorpgs need to corresponds with the nature and needs of the player behind the avatar because it’s set in a gigantic virtual “world”.

Let aside mmorpg, even in storybooks and movies, there’s a “world” inside and authors are recommended to touch deeply in human nature and behaviours to make an appealing story. Have we heard any good stories that is all happy and neutral, everyone are balanced, no antagonist from beginning to the end? Light can only shine in darkness. Humanly emotions and nature are part of parcel in mmorpg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mmorpg
(Read the psychology part of mmorpg where emotions are played deeply.)

“I play them to experience what can’t be done in reality” only meant I can’t shoot magic and slice monsters in reality, but I can do them in this alternate world. The difference is that I want to do it in a virtual world with realistic course of human nature that reflects the real world. A mmorpg must led humans-humans experience instead of humans-npc. If it’s the latter, people might as well play rpg console games.

MMORPG = An alternate world that’s accustom with the nature of humans.

It’s as simple as that. If players see mmorpg as merely another game with multi-player options, they’re so wrong. Mmorpg has always been a replica of how real world works. In the real world, which system has work the best? If elitism, democracy, meritocracy are the most successful system in our world, mmorpg should follow. Communism, egalitarianism and socialism in the real world are not in the top-tier because it doesn’t accustom well with the human nature and needs. If there’s a “better” system that accustom with human nature, the real world would’ve picked up that system earlier than new-gen mmorpgs.

To clarify, GW1 isn’t a mmorpg. It’s rated as corpg. A game that’s full of instances (teleported maps). It isn’t an open world. This is where it went different. GW2 is a mmorpg and can’t follow the exact same path as GW1. Corpg is very close towards console rpgs with multi-player options. Mmorpgs and console rpgs are being made differently for important reasons.

If players watch Sword Art Online anime, it projects how much human nature is developed and runs through a mmorpg. Only when there’s darkness, people can create their own light. Fun stuffs can only be created when it’s appreciated. It’s part of nature to appreciate what is lack the most. (That anime tops in Japan for good reasons).

I bought mmorpgs because I want to have an alternate life. I want to experience all kind of emotions. I want to experience how humans develop their bonds in the darkest times. The things that can’t be done in reality, I want it possible in the alternate world. I want to experience the nature of human in the alternate world. I play both console games and mmorpgs, but for 2 very different reasons.

I strongly disagree with solution 1 because it’ll make tier 3 skins loses it’s prestige. It’s suppose to be expensive so only few exclusive players can achieve it. It wouldn’t be fair to those who bought them at 120g. ~_~ The game needs to have some items that are extremely hard to get to differentiate between dedicated and casual players.

Solution 2 is pretty pointless because most people would just transmute their tier 3 with another exotic. What is 120g compared to 15g?

I suggest this solution. Turn cultural sets into skin items like halloween skins from BLC. You apply it to the armor you want. This way, players won’t mistake it as gears but rare skin items. Tier 3 culturals are only bought for it’s unique skin. That’s what players bought them for. No price changes too. (I get a weird aura from this topic that some players intent to influence the devs to drop the price. ~_~ )