Guild Wars 2

When the Ascended gear was introduced, some folks shouted in elation, “Yeah! Item progression.” Then a lot of us reacted instinctive with dismay. A big concern is that casual players who don’t play enough will lag behind in WvW and (high level) PvE, two areas that most considered equally accessible to both casual and hardcore players.

But who is to say that each tier must be earned sequentially? From what I read, the new ring and back will be acquired from the new Fractal of the Mist dungeon; maybe the whole set will follow. Even if ANet introduce a new dungeon + new gear tier on a regular basis, there is nothing to prevent them from making each new dungeon+gear update self containing. If they design it a certain way, a group of players could tackle the 10th tier dungeon+gear (maybe with stats fully twice that of exotics) with all exotic gear instead of 9th tier gear and still be able to work their way toward a full 10th tier set.

That way, anyone who takes a break from playing will not be perpetually lagging behind, they’ll just do the most recently added content to make themselves competitive again. Before they actually acquire the most recent gear (to say nothing of levels), they are at a disadvantage. But you can’t have everything in a compromise.

I am sorry if I’ve duplicated anyone’s suggestion. Maybe ANet intended this all along in which case my apology goes to ANet. It’s the only compromise that occurred to me, and I want to offer at least one suggestion on the current issue before the window of relevance expires.

Cheers.

I read another post that said in another week, the uproar will die down and few will complain about Ascended gear. It was never about Ascended gear, but I think the prediction is accurate.

The gear, and the developer blog explaining its motivation and some details, is what many players on both sides see as a road sign for the game’s future. Will GW2 be item/level progression based or not? Most who care to debate it in the forums already know this, but I wanted say it clearly one more time.

If there is one thing I am confident about, it’s the self restraint of GW2 players not to troll the game even if they play less. By then, valid reasons to post on the subject will have disappeared anyway. Now is the time to be heard, whether it’s ultimately useful or not; not everyone will get his way. Now is the most important time because games, like all things in life, have momentum. I’ve seen concerned posters asking about whether there will be other gear/level progression increases in the future. I didn’t see an official answer but I believe in the age old truism that back peddling is publicity suicide. A fork like this won’t repeat again in the road.

Will this cause a mass exodus from the game? Of course not. The core GW2 player base, at the moment at least, is nothing if not casual. It’s not like anyone needs to unsubscribe. Any departures will be gradual and personal, and GW veterans don’t have any inhibitions about picking up the game again even if they leave for a time.

That makes the current debate even more invigorating. GW1 lacked an official game forum. Without a convenient channel to express their views, many just adopted a laissez-faire attitude. It had its benefits but also missed something that is the soul of any game, any activity, with a multitude of participants. At this moment at least, we are standing up for what we believe in. We don’t have to agree. We don’t all have to get satisfaction. It doesn’t diminish in the least the spirit of the effort.

How do I feel about item/level progression? I don’t know. I’ve never had the time to get into an item/level progression based game. I spent my time thoroughly enjoying the different class stories of my last MMO, despite like 6 tiers of end game gear less than a year after release. Maybe GW2 can learn something from that.

I don’t entire understand your OP.

1. Is the title of your post a rhetorical question?
2. I gather you hated D3 so you trolled months on their forums AFTER you stopped playing.
3. It also sounds like you really like GW2 so you can’t understand why people would complain on the forums.

The only conclusion I can draw is you feel you are perfectly entitled to troll if you hate something, but no one has the right to complain about anything you love. The result is your trolling about other people the post instead of GW2. I guess the answer to your question, if it wasn’t rhetorical, is “yes.” This forum is more like D3 forum (based on what you shared) thanks in no small part to this thread.

greyblue.4962:

Possibly they could have Ascended gear cause “Agony” outside of the FoTM dungeon? So wearing it anywhere else causes you to just fall over dead in 30 seconds? That would do the trick.

Now this idea is interesting. It restricts new gear to a specific new activity. The gear then becomes a part of that activity instead of serving any general function. The creepers may complain that the gear is then not worthwhile. The non-creepers may complain they still need to farm the gear to do the new… dungeon in the current case. Still, it’s the best compromise I’ve read so far.

Maybe it’s not really a crisis. Anyway. I see two camps that really don’t like what the other is doing to the game:

Creepers: We need gradually better gear (maybe higher levels too, I don’t know) to motivate us to keep playing the game. The gear should be good enough to make it worthwhile, and the effort to acquire the gear should be demanding enough to keep us engaged for X amount of time (I am guessing until the next level of gear comes out). Right now we see no reason to keep playing.

Non-creepers: We don’t have the time or inclination or (some other RL resource) to regularly grind for gear. (It’s not hyperbole because whatever can keep the creepers engaged for adequate length of time is inevitably longer than non-creepers’ fun threshold.) Creepers will render the game increasingly unplayable for us by making our gear increasingly less competitive in WvW and by eventually introducing gear-elitism to high end PvE content. (“LFG X dungeon; Col**ni or above required!” True story; personal experience.) We are so put off by this prospect that we also don’t see any reason to keep playing.

Hopefully I’ve summarized the two sides with at least bare adequacy. In the worse case, either the former group is perpetually bored or the later group is perpetually discouraged out of essential content. I am at a loss on how to reconcile the two groups.

What do you think? How might a compromise be reached?

AVHero.7382:

First of all, anyone who is saying “a majority of people feel X, not Y” is basing this on highly anecdotal evidence of the maybe 20 people they’ve talked to about this in game or in person. Stop. We don’t need your false facts flying freely.

Anyone claiming to know the thought process behind ANet’s decision besides what they posted in the blog post stop. You don’t know. You can’t seriously pretend to know what ANet was thinking outside of what they said.

All we can look at is what has been stated by ANet, and that is this: some people rushed through the content they provided quicker than anticipated, and in order to compensate, they are releasing a new dungeon that requires a new higher tier of gear to progress in beyond a certain point.

…

Now that is well-said!

I am because I have poor reflexes, so I stay away from almost all rpg and shooter pvp, even some rts depending on the pacing. WvW in GW2 is actually enjoyable for me, at the present, because the zergling effect causes many battles that would last only seconds in spvp to last minutes. I have more than enough time to determine the flow of battle, find where I may do the most good, and go do it. And because there are so many players without name tags, it’s hard for anyone to single me out. I hate dancing all over the place in an one on one fight. But I consider it just punishment if I find myself on the wrong side of the battlelines and getting ganged up on.

I dislike all heroes of his type. I am the kind of guy who likes chilled out attitude most of the time (secretly working hard to improve one’s self is fine, but chilled out attitude must be maintained) and becoming serious/carrying the weight only when it really matters, which should be rare for a hero. Instead, he’s serious all the time and when s**t hits the fan, he can’t carry any weight. But that only leads me to dislike him. I hate him because he talks too much to my character, and the conversation from both really irritates me. That’s another thing. A hero really shouldn’t talk that much on subjects that really matter to him. Do or do not.

Nah. It’s against my nature to play for gear. It’s a spiral that slows drives me insane just by picturing it in my head: Farm → Gear → Farm more → Better gear

I actually shelled out $150 not even particularly caring how much I would play GW2, but rather as my way of supporting GW1. (It’s against my nature to pay ahead for merchandise.) The GW1 model was, for me, wonderous, and I always regretted not supporting it with CE purchases. GW2 was my “thank you” to ANet for GW1.

Regardless of how much I play GW2 in the future, even if I stop playing at this very minute, which actually has already happened since about a week ago, I am satisfied. In fact, I prefer if GW2 diverged more from my preference. GW1 was beautiful because I could get in and out sometimes with months between periods of activity. If GW2 ask for a consistent commitment, it’s better if I just stop playing. And that’s easier if our paths diverge.

It looks like there is a rapidly developing (or maybe already developed) schism between players who favored GW1’s overall feel and those that didn’t or never knew nor cared about it.

I for one don’t fear “power creep,” and I suspect many of the GW1 casual style fans don’t. I just don’t care. A big different between me and fans of more traditional MMORPG is you guys take your gears and your levels and your whatever progress way too seriously. But that is your freedom, and you are just as entitled to feel fulfilled in GW2 as I might be.

And, to be perfectly frank, those who chase after gradual increases in… whatever, are much more likely to buy gems regularly. GW1 relied too much on player good will to buy store items they didn’t really need and in some cases, if not to support ANet, probably didn’t even want. Players who are compelled to hoard or upgrade or transmute are much more reliable.

So, no fear, but no reason to embrace your “power creep” either. It’s just not me.

Some of the later posts also bring up an important point. The mainstream notion of “role-playing” has not broken out of its limited definition in the last 40 years. Whatever personality or other variances are added, the vast majority of RPG both digital and not are based on killing things. It can be for a multitude of reasons and through very creative ways, but the core remains the same. That’s what many, probably most players want out of MMORPG like GW2, and I’ve come to accept that.

Besides, I am not sure some of the most fascinating roles in literature can even be made into games. Take Dune, how are you going to role-play legally a Bene Gesserit Breeding Mistress or a Tleilaxu Master in a game? It makes role playing a Ixian Fabricator or Caladan Fisherman appear simple and a basic soldier or even Sardaukar childish.

I am confident ANet will release a new class when they have designed one to their satisfaction. I am in no hurry since I still have 5-6 classes that I’ve barely touched. I feel they know what they are doing, so I want them to let their creativity flow freely.

I don’t think it’s prudent for ANet to answer this question outright on the public forums. Maybe they’ll give you a PM reply, although I think the answer would be quite obvious.

I haven’t seen many posts like the ones you are criticising. Either I haven’t visited the forums enough or they get taken down fast. In any case, I think most gamers who care to read the forums with regularity can differentiate between valid dissatisfactions, that they also care about, and general malcontent. I don’t think developers’ reputation can be “wrongfully” hurt by this.

The point of forums is to give opinions and provide reasons. You don’t have to agree with the reasons. Opinions that are arbitrary like “I hate GW2 just because” or opinions that cite false information are reported and removed. Otherwise, even unpopular opinions are perfectly valid. It’s a way for both existing and prospective gamers to see the game from different perspectives.

I’ll use this opportunity to speak my annoyance with the two kids whose conversation include “All I know is that you’re my best friend.” and that shrieking laughter. Please, make it stop!

To balance out my negative comment, I wish there is a way for me to hear again, at my leisure that roleplay on Destiny’s Edge by the group of kids. Funniest scene in the whole game IMO.

I share your feelings, but I think there is no way for ANet to add that level of role-play to existing content without completely overhauling existing content, effectively making another game. BioWare and Bethesda have shown that to generate your own emotionally unique character, it matters a heck a lot more how you interact with other characters than how you kill them, or how you dress (though this too is a big part). To make that happen, the entire storyline of GW2 has to be buffed with branching npc dialogues and quest choices that take into account at very least your previous actions and likely also your race, profession, and gender. Basically what Jeff said. To evolve GW2’s single player to that level will require a huge commitment of resources, and I don’t think it’s practical or safe for ANet to attempt it right now.

Instead, I move that ANet decrease player footprint in the story, very much what GW1 did. [Ashes’ “silent protagonist;” I didn’t see his post when writing mine.] Make the story as good as possible but put the player character into an observer role, with only very major plot choices. That way, ANet doesn’t have to add enough variation for the story to cater to different player personalities. At the same time, I don’t have to see my own generic character enough to notice how much I hate him (I cannot stand good-to-do heroe types). Playing the single player campaign will be like reading a good book.

The player can define then herself in multiplayer, which is itself very challenging. I’ll use one common example: crafting. I know of guild mates who have focused on craft in other MMO, but honestly, is there a MMO where you can truly be an unique master crafter, crafting items that no one else can craft? More importantly, can you do it in a way that doesn’t involve hoarding material anyone to farm and then repeatedly doing the same crafting task (such as press a button or wait however many hours for one item to finish) over and over and over? Is there artistry or ingenuity or personality? I know of no game that can do this. Is there a MMO where you can be a professional thief, stealing other players items in a way that is both meaning and doesn’t break the game for most players? Can you be a diplomat or a merchant in a way that matters on a game-wide and long-term way? I’ve heard good thing about EVE on this front, but I haven’t played so I can’t say for sure. I do hear it’s not casual-player friendly. To make a game diverse enough to include many different activities and deep enough that each is a viable playing choice is even harder than to make the game emotionally invested.

You describe almost perfectly what I consider the ideal game. Perhaps it is best that there is no “ideal” game yet. What will I look forward to in the future if one happen to appear?

There is a competitive issue with gears in PvE now? Now there is a community problem that needs to be nipped at the bud. I’ve played almost daily up until about a week ago and never ran into groups that voiced concern about gear except for a few times for Arah EM.

WvW is another matter, ironically because there is no entrance control—not elitist enough, if you will. Anything that unbalances it will add intense pressure for EVERYONE not only to have the best but to demand everyone else to have the best since you won’t want people with mediocre gear to tie up space that could go to people with top gear, and drag down your whole team.

I actually don’t mind elitist gear for controlled environments, such as Guild PvP, if the gear is extremely elitist, like even guilds with many people who played for a living cannot guarantee equipping every member (the “exteme” part is to make future streaming of Guild PvP more interesting to watch; less interesting if everyone just have the top gear; sPvP already has that balance by restricting gear for everyone). One of the qualities that make for good crafting in a MMO is the ability for master crafters to shine in a way that other players cannot hope to match. They deserve to matter, as long as it doesn’t ruin the game for everyone.

Or are the new Ascended Gears gonna be reward items? Forget my last paragraph then. I just don’t care in that case. I play PvE for challenges. Farming to equip myself grates on my nerves.

I am fine with the new gear. I’ve never felt compelled to collect the perfect gear for PvE purposes. Although I have full exotics (ok, minus the back), I wear rares for everything other than Lupi and WvW; they are satisfactory. If the new gears give other players something to work toward, that’s great. If they somehow upset WvW, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Hopefully we won’t have to cross that bridge.

Helpful thread. Kudos. Wouldn’t it be better to put it in the Player Helping Player forum though?

Sounds good. A lot of work for ANet to add fun, useful, and balanced modifiers though.

I say get rid of the memories. I don’t think it’s likely ANet will repeat this quest in the future at the risk of player backlash about reusing old content. Chances are good that the candy corn and other ingridients will make a comeback though. The recipes are now out there, and they’ll be just as valid next year as this year, even if new recipes/ingridients will be added.

I support the general spirit of this thread about encouraging groups. The only thing I am against is grinding. It’s a personal thing; grinding immediately kills any game for me.

Sure. It’s a great way to chat and still have our characters do something. I hope they also add fish cooking recipes to make use of the seafood we catch. We should also be able to occasionally fish up random fun items from the water.

I love those guys.

I salute your effort!

For now, I just want an option to turn off the commander icon on my map as I have no reason to know whether someone is a comannder in PvE.

If commanders become too prevalent in WvW, a temporary solution may be a simple voting system. Each battlefield has a limited # of commander slots per side. Whenever a commander enters the map and actually wants to command, she can negotiate with an existing commander directly to take over a slot, if all slots are filled. Whether a slot is open already or open through agreement, all faction players on the map vote whether to accept that commander, and a simple majority decides. The same goes for kicking a commander. If, say a fifth to a third of players want to kick a commander, his status comes up for a vote and if the majority agrees, his status is rescinded until he leaves WvW. It’ll be like voting someone out of a party.

The long term solution is a more organized command structure based on player reputation and stat tracking. It requires much more detail than I can provide right now.

Leadership is a position of responsibility; its prestige is a byproduct. Anyone going for it for the prestige first has no business commanding anyway. As for any kind of monetary requirement… I think those that spend a lot to build siege weapons for their side should maybe get a title as Master Engineer and perhaps receive a discount on siege blue-prints. I don’t see what wealth has to do with commanding a fighting force. The idea is kinda scary, actually.

Other possible security mesures aside, an optional bank pin is a good idea, preferably alpha-numeric instead of just numeric.

I don’t play enough to know the extent of the bot problem. If it’s a big problem, your reward system may help, OP. However, I would also add a penalty system if enough people successfully repeal the bans you report for lack of evidence. I think fair penalty is necessary to ensure people don’t let the reward overwrite their judgment. Of course, this will involves ANet’s detailing, in writing, exactly what someone needs to justify reporting another.

Such caution is good even without a reward system as I’ve already seen some threads about people claiming they’ve been unjustly banned for botting.

I agree with you. ANet is probably collecting data on skill use right now so they can introduce balanced and interesting skills in the future. We just need to give them more time to work on it.

At level 80, I can reassign trait points for <4 silvers, and it can be done at anytime. I think the current system is ok. I originally favored the freely customizing skills of GW1, but due to the non-instanced nature of GW2, there is merit to some deterrent on how frequently you can change your build.

Of course, I am for playing the game your way, so if they made PvE skill trainers give free trait resets, I have no reason to object. However, if they give dual spec but increased the cost of trait reset for all players, I strongly object to that.

Someone already mentioned that GW1 had a Hard Mode for all PvE content. Different difficulty levels for dungeons, of content in general (thinking of ME3 here), is pretty standard for instanced gaming nowadays. I think there is little danger that ANet will uniformly make dungeons easier for everyone. The trend in MMO is harder versions added over time.

As long as ANet introduces, or I guess retains, a harder version, there is no reason for them not to have an easier version, especially for the story mode. If there is a demand for it, why not satisfy it as long as others have their own options?

On a tangential note, I don’t think the problem is so much with the dungeon’s difficulty as much as the pacing. For a level 30 going from regular PvE to AC, the increase in difficulty—coming from both the need to work with a group and the substantially more challenging foes—is huge. The evidence for the pacing problem is strong; despite being billed as L35, I have been in few AC EM groups that don’t at least complain a bit at <L70 and none that will even contemplate a <L40 member. A big part of the difficulty complaint, as I myself complained at level 30, comes from this pacing cliff. It’s a very reasonable criticism.

I’ve played a Charr almost exclusively, so I haven’t experienced strongly your floaty feeling during movement. I do, however, share a similar feeling during combat. It lacks a certain… “Umph!” Muted or flighty or lacking grit is the best I can describe it.

The problem may be the active nature of GW2’s combat. It leads to the illusion of an action game, but GW2 is certainly no Assassin’s Creed 3 as far as physics and graphics. On the other hand, it doesn’t compare unfavorably to TSW or SWTOR, the only other MMORPG I’ve played recently. In fact, Overcharged Shot on my Charr Engineer feels more forceful than most.

I don’t know what can be done to improve your experience, except maybe to lower expectation for combat from real-time action to the more traditional test of skill use. Or maybe play a Charr Engineer. They feel a bit more sluggish, especially when running on all fours, so it may improve the grounded feeling, and their rifle allows them to solve most of the jumping puzzle issues that may arise from animation or running or physics. I don’t know how suitable they are for spvp, but worth checking out in pve.

DavidGX.1723:

Honestly if you want to donate, I’d say do it directly. I don’t see any reason to get GuildWars 2/ArenaNet involved.

Of course. I would never suggest such a thing if I didn’t already donate substantially more than $10 directly to the American Red Cross. I also think it’s unconvincing for someone to say, “I want to help, but I’ll only help if you (NCSoft/ANet) do something first.” I suggesetd, as I believe others have suggested it, because many gamers will not think to help on their own, but may do so through an in-game event. Others may decide it’s worthwhile to help just a bit more through an in-game event. Either way, I see nothing wrong with such a charity event or the suggestion for it. Practical implementation, as my last post indicates, is another matter, of course.

I realized after my initial post that due to the ability to exchange in-game currency for gems, any charity sale item bought with gems will not work the same way as a charity sale based on purely monetary transactions. NCSoft may end up shouldering a considerably higher financial burden than Blizzard will with its charity sale. If NCSoft make the sale cash-only, it will appear that it’s obviously shifting the burden from itself to its players. I was too rash to suggest this type of event for GW2. However, I still fully stand by the idea that some action is worthwhile.

luchifer.6401:

I shouldnt say this, and first I want to say that I understand that hurricane Sandy was devastating, but there are earthquakes everyday (one yesterday in Mexico and Guatemala) among other natural disasters. I just dont get why the world should support one state of the “most powerful country in the world” when we have entire countries devastated by war, poverty and hunger.

I strongly disagree with this view. It gives me the impression that since we are unable to help everyone in need, the best course of action is to not help anyone. It further offends me as an American that there is insinuation America is particularly undeserving of aid due to its power and prosperity.

It seems that some feel it’s a matter of course that the US should be the highest contributor, by far, of both money and lives to international causes in the last seven decades and, for the same reason, should receive the least in return. As a nation, perhaps it is fair that we carry that burden more than others. However, as an American, I cannot imagine a cause more worthy than helping my countryman at a time of need. And I challenge anyone who dares to say that the majority of his fellow citizens feel the opposite.

myng.3516:

I said it before in another thread, use Red Cross.

I wholeheartedly agree with this; I already donated to the American Red Cross. If there be any charity event in GW2, it will be a bit of additional participation for me.

I just read about a charity mini-pet sell from Blizzard, in WoW presumably, for American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief. If an idea is good, there is no shame in copying it. Would something like that work in GW2?

At least have more than just the standing straight pose.

The current cutscenes depend exclusively on voice acting to convey emotions. It’s a terrible strain on the voice actors and not all of them are up to the challenge. Because my eyes tell me the speakers are just standing around, the voice actors actually need to work harder to establish a different mood. I don’t seek subtle facial expressions rendered with the game engine, just something a bit more appropriate than everyone standing around nonchatantly.

The single player experience plays like a Walt Disney cartoon from the olden days. This could be a design choice, and some players may like it. I hate it. My character, regardless of race or profession, behaves as an iconic, all too-willing hero. Others are either like me, some victim forever in need of a helping hand, or some second-rate “Muhaha! I got you now!”-Dead villain. The story is not only not mine, it’s actually prevented from taking off by trying to be mine.

It is a pity because GW2’s lore has such promising possibilities. Every race has an internal enemy representative of a great antagonist in literature or real life. There is political conspiracy, deposed dictators turned insurgents, a cult, mad scientists, and a not so subtle reference to the dark side of the Force. To be fair, these factions do introduce some interesting minor characters whose tenure are too often cut tragically short, frequently by my hand. They leave behind Trahearn’s ilk whose problems I need not repeat here.

That’s the problem with trying to make the story personal to each player without actually making it personal to each player. In appealing to a diverse mass in first person, you inevitably must make the player character as neutral as possible. That’s fine. However, if you can’t have the nuanced character development of SWTOR, you can at least have a taciturn protagonist like GW1: someone who stays in the background and let others carry the story. Instead, my one-dimensional character intrudes on everything and taints the whole single player campaign with his bland personality. Even Trahearn is hurt by this. His could have been an epic journey of self-actualization. But instead of interacting with other colorful characters and becoming more complex; he interacts with mine and becomes more monotonous. I miss my GW1 hero who listened a lot more than he talked and let others interact on his behalf.

It’s too late to change the existing core content of GW2. I don’t think it’s necessary. GW2 is an evolution. I hope major future story content will avoid the trap of a compromise between player character personalization and voyeuristic story development. It’s very easy to end up with the benefits of neither and the drawbacks of both.

I am gonna hold on to it for a little while to see if it will be upgradable (or have some other use) at some point. Otherwise, I will do what Toshi did and trade it for 22c.

I have Mad King Custome and minipets to commemorate this holiday; I don’t see any reason to waste an additional slot to keep something that’s practically useless. 12-slot bags are so cheap and easy to make that I can instantly supply any alt with four or more starting at level 1.

As for the dungeon… Quite unchallenging compared to almost every other dungeon in the game. 30 min after the event started, numerous players on my server already claimed they had soloed it.

I love those guys! They are by far my favorite npc in GW2, due in no small part to the superb voice-acting. “Wohoho… Nice teeth!”

The new activities that came with Halloween added some much appreciated new flavors to my gaming experience. The farming of candy corns, the hunt for pumpkins and haunted doors, and the scavenger hunt were all relaxing and fun, if not terribly thrilling or involved. They accentuated for me what GW2 currently does best: beautiful environments enjoyed casually. I have even higher hopes for Costume Brawl, and I hope the balancing of skills for BLTC customes and free transformations will continue.

I am definitely a fan of the diverse and entertaining direction that the Halloween Event seems to indicate. I am not advocating turning away from MMORPG staple of dungeon running and gear farming and the like, but I like what the Mad King has to show and look forward to seeing more.

I think it’s a little late for the game to revert to GW1 system. However, the utility skill concept has a lot of room for expansion and improvement. There are 30 instead 300 now most likely because ANet hasn’t had time to conceive and balance new skills yet. With time, even customizable weapon skills are not out of the question.

I see no problems with the skill mechanic of GW2 in the long run since the foundation is strong. PvE feels… bad, to me, but that’s an entirely different issue having to do with poor AI and enemy difficulty relying way too much on damage+health+fast respawn speed instead of skill use competence. It’s a different discussion. Then again, GW1’s PvE skill AI didn’t reach its zenith until GW Beyond (or maybe Slaver’s Exile) on HM. So it’s an ongoing effort.

I’ve seen this a couple of times before, and this week it happened again. After the first couple of days of the latest round, the other two servers competing against us in WvW just… faded. Whether they became unwilling or unable to fight, or simply stopped caring, I don’t know. The whole map is basically my server. The result is now my server has lost interest in the match so the queue has gone from many hours to almost non-existent.

Regardless of what real world 3-sided war may look like, this is not good for a game. I want to see additional mechanisms that either terminate a WvW match through victory so another round can start, or assist the losing sides with increasing boons so there is incentive to fight even when things look desperate. WvW is an important part of GW2, and two days of frenetic activity followed by indifference until the next cycle is not a good sign.

She did that by kiting the enemies so they can’t capture the zone. The AI’s performance was so pathetic that I could hardly believe my eyes.

The problem is commanders right now have no qualifications other than 100 gold, which is very doable for hardcore players with skills for farming but no command or tactic ability whatsoever. If a large guild worked together to send someone off to sabotage another server, 100 gold is a joke.

The problem is not that people are exploiting. The problem is with the current commander system.

That’s what I am confused about, not the mechanic of it, but the way the system is set up. LFG messages by its nature is largely similar, with or without a macro. And it’s the only way to form PUGs for dungeons right now. That is apparently inappropriate. Yet someone else can go on and on about something, which after listening a while I am sure he knows little about and based on responses only a couple of ppl on the map is even interested, that person’s speech in map chat is free to go on, indefinitely perhaps.

Why is it that I get supressed for excessive messaging after only 3-4 lfg messages, regrettably a very necessary activity in the game right now, but someone else go on this long, pointless and rather ill informed speech about politics for many minutes, averaging sometimes one message every 5-10 seconds?

Every single video or success story or tip I’ve seen online dealing with beating Simin has been a variation of dealing as much dps as possible to Simin and hoping that during one fortunate period of time, the spark kiting team “luck out” and trap the sparks fast enough so Simin’s healing is less than the damage done to him. That feels awkward to me.

If the point of this boss is to encourage players to form high dps teams, why not just give Simin high health regeneration? Why add the frustrating complexity of the spark traps?

If the spark traps are intended to be an integral part of the fight, and the “expected” protocol, doable by most players AND consistently, is one where the team wears down Simin’s health, trap the sparks fast enough so that Simin is only able to regen a part of his health, then repeat, I would like to know what evidence—internal testing or otherwise—made whoever designed this fight feel that its current state is appropriate for general release?

Some people have beaten it, and there are probably teams that can beat it easily on a consistent basis. Do you think the majority of players, or even a sizable minority, find it fun or rewarding to master kiting the sparks in the face of their erratic (at least excessively subtle) pathfinding and aggroing behavior?

Inci.7560:

I believe you’re talking about the first two years or so of GW1 where there were no heroes…

I was not talking about the first two years of GW1, nor do I think I should be. It makes no sense for GW2 to retrace the early days of its predecessor, when a lot was still being worked out. I was talking about GW1 post-EotN, when as many mechanics as possible have become polished.

This is a dungeon discussion thread, so I am not talking about non-dungeon PvE. I didn’t fully understand the rest of your 2nd paragraph. Yes, there are always people looking for a group for dungeons. I just want something to make it easier on them. No, joining a guild or playing with a friend has nothing to do with the GW1 tool I am asking. I personally find joining a guild just so you can find people to play in dungeons to be poor taste unless your primary activity in GW2 is playing dungeons, and friends have their own desires and schedules. Your ability to play in a casual dungeon group should not be restricted by your guild or friends nor should the inability to play together in dungeons be a determining factor in picking guilds and friends.

I feel like the final part of your reply shares similarities with the “community” argument I frequently hear when it comes to any kind of LFG tool, even one like GW1 had. Please ignore if I was mistaken in this association. I just have 3 questions:

1. Exactly what type of “community” you think not having such a tool will foster?

2. Very closely related, just how do you think forcing everyone to lfg in world chat contribute to such a “community”?

3. Why do you think that everyone or even most people even want to be in the kind of “community” you are envisioning?

You are always free to form or join a community on your own in-game. You can completely ignore any LFG tool and just form your own group.

Forgive the increasingly accusatory tone of this post. I think nothing good about people who bring up “community” to counter a simple, voluntary lfg tool. Some people feel it’s not enough that they act or think a certain way but everyone else must also do the same. That notion offends me.

EDIT: If ANet polled players, preferably with pop-up window in game the next time a player logs in the game, and the majority favored no lfg tool of any kind, I would have no problem respecting the desire of the majority. Barring such a popular vote, any gameplay design, if applicable, should favor greater freedom and flexibility.

It’s a bit ironic that GW1 is simultaneously more solo-friendly and has a better grouping tool. It’s much more player friendly to have a list of groups looking for more people and players looking for group than to force players to ask on map chat or even try their luck in Lion’s Arch. The current mechanism of placing a little icon on top of the player character’s head does effectively nothing as there is next to no chance that anyone, GW1 veteran or not, will group with some random stranger for some unspecified purpose. Not asking for much, just a simple list like the one GW1 uses with space for a short description—accessible as a window from anywhere, separated into tabs by dungeon—so I don’t have to regularly type in /map chat or scan it, a chat that is frequently cluttered by a few people’s private conversation or gold selling ads.

GW1 had a great system. People could see at a glance what opportunities are available, but no one is ever forced to group with another as both joining and accepting into a group are completely voluntary. GW2, like GW1, has no loot issue. Most importantly, it lets players play the way they want. Isn’t that the spirit of Guild Wars? What is the current system, or lack thereof, attempting to accomplish?

I think it goes without saying that it harms the game as a whole for a limited number of players to make gold through speculative trading on the currency exchange. In the last couple of days I have seen several very steep spikes in Gem price fluctuation.

I propose a simple mechanism that prohibits large amounts of gems to be exchanged at one price, especially if it’s by one user. So a group of users cannot pool their resources and buy a couple hundred thousand Gems (or however many is needed to significantly raise Gem price) at, say 35 silvers/100 Gems, boost the price to 50 silvers (which leads to sell price of about 40 silvers), then sell all of it at 40 silvers, leading to a crash. Then repeat the cycle.

I lack the resources to test whether preventive mechanisms are already in place, but at the very least, I think it’s reasonable for very large quantity transactions to be divided into smaller segments with each segment trading at progressive prices based on market direction.