I sent this to Anet last night, and while it could perhaps do with a bit of re-tuning to fit this thread precisely, a quick copy & paste job will have to suffice. Thanks for bearing with me.
“As the (lengthy) subject title states: this game has a number of things going for it, however, the astronaut-walking-underwater-speed for all characters is not one of them! Even with perma-speed boost signets and haste effects (that are way too short to be really meaningful without tinkering about with other game mechanics which just isn’t fun), makes this game a tedious bore and chore to suffer through as opposed to enjoy. That’s a shame because you at Anet have created a beautiful, lore-rich game with both humor, challenges, and decent characters.
Why won’t you make the 25% speed boost status the default speed for all races and professions from the get-go? Then further add a 30% speed boost as the speed/swiftness boost from other abilities? Why this perceived need to artificially slow down the players? The game world is huge as it is with plenty of things to grind and quest for over many weeks, months, years even. There is no monthly subscription, so that can’t be used to justify the deliberately monotonous pace of the game.
I’ve already spent (too much) money on this game, it’s expansion, and various cosmetic trinkets. (The pricing for many of these are absurd, though that is a different topic.) For example, I just bought “The Witcher III” for PC for half the asking price of “Heart of Thorns”, and that game has a lot of similarities to “Guild Wars 2” and plenty of content (that I don’t have to pay extra for) to keep me busy for at least as long as GW2, if not longer.
I would like to continue playing GW2 and support Anet in making it a compelling and importantly a fun experience. Moving about as though stuck in a mud pit (even worse when for some bizarre reason one is automatically slowed down while near hostile forces even if one has no desire to stick around and fight – what happened to “fight or flight”?) makes it so mind-numblingly, soul destroyingly tedious and un-fun to face the prospect of doing that for any character build – let alone multiple ones, and especially the ones that have no serious speed boosts for long periods of time (ex. the otherwise excellent Revenant) until well past level 80+ and in to the end-game content. How many players are honestly going to make it that far? Why must this game be a chore instead of a pleasure? That is, after all, the purpose of games – to be entertaining, not something to be suffered through and survived.
If this isn’t the “proper channel” to voice these sentiments, then please pass them along to the right person(s) and/or department(s). These issues surely can not have escaped the technically adept sensibilities of the development teams at Anet.
Thank you advance.
Best regards,
KFD"