Guild Wars 2

and not playing any game much.

In Dec and Jan both my sons and daughter-in-law stopped playing and went on to other games. I followed suit in mid January after logging 997 hours. I have played at a few other MMO but quickly tired of them. Feeling that they all were so similar with various pluses and minuses it didn’t matter any more what I played due to general burnout(started mmo’s back in 1999 with EQ).

What I have accomplished since then:
My chronic pain levels have dropped so much I am no longer on narcotic pain killers (broke back & 4 ribs falling out of tree 23 years ago).
I am off of 3 other meds and my cholesterol has dropped 50 points.
I have lost 18 pounds.
I am now able to stand on my feet for over an hour without needing to sit down.
I completed the reproduction of an 18th century hutch in cherry and walnut that I stated before GW2 release when I originally felt better.
I read 6 books.
I tore out all the old landscaping and prepared it to plant rose beds next spring.
I tore out the narrow front step, hand mixed concrete and pored a 10’ long step across the whole front porch.
I planted 4 trees.
I cleaned up my wood lathe and began woodturning again (quit turning about 8 years ago). Its amazing how much you can forget technique wise.
In two months I will be 67.

Why all the personal crap above?
As I checked into the forums every few weeks since the beginning of the year it seems to me that they continue to become more toxic over time. They also seem to be more toxic than other game forums “I” still occasionally visit. As I get my life back, it occurs to me that many of us tend to get wrapped up in a game losing our balance in life. Just something to think about.

1. flying, flying, flying, flying did I say flying?

2. solo-able dungeons
3. ability to farm in peace (no argo..combat)
4. no levels

not playing much either, but it is spring and being spring I just finished planting the garden. If I was younger and didn’t hurt so much from gardening I might be thinking of other indoor sports

random thoughts

toon1 lvl 80 map completion 83%
toon2 lvl 80 map completion 97%
toon3 lvl 80 map completion 51%
toon4 lvl 80 map completion 43%
toon5 lvl 80 map completion 36%
toon6 lvl 80 map completion 24%
toon7 lvl 21 map completion 17% have all the needed skill points for build
toon8 lvl 9 map completion 4% doubt these last two toons will ever be leveled. If they are it will be by staying in starter areas running dynamic events and dailies unless they need more skill points.

@killcannon The first impressions a player gets in the first forty hours of gameplay shouldn’t be “Where is everybody?” Concur! My daughter-in-law gave up after just 3 days of playing for this very reason.

Another reason: A lot of people are taking a break, some are off playing other games one of which is in open beta(which has some nice features but also major flaws).

My son and I were discussing activating our WOW accounts. We both miss flying and the sense of power from soloing dungeons. We wont but sometimes things really draw you to a game and its that draw that keeps you playing it for years. For some, GW2 provides that draw, for others it doesn’t and the areas outside the beginning and ending become relatively devoid of other players. This seems to be true for most MMOs. In some games the leveling was so slow that you could not skip areas as easily as in GW2 thereby giving a sense of more players.

FourthVariety.5463

Currently, the RNG is completely random
————————————

How do we know this is true?

While its been many years since I had to develop random number generators the ones I needed to developed frequently were biased to produce results in order to achieve certain goals such as evaluate a design scenario.

It was also my experience that a “completely” RNG implementation was not possible. There was always a bell curve to some extent, some were just much flatter then others. However; designs ideas have surely advanced in the last 30 years.

I would be more inclined to believe that there are numerous RNGs employed in the game and each RNG is designed to yield specific bounded results which we as players may or may not like.

In summary when someone tells me that is it randomly generated, they have told me very little other than the result was not predetermined.

use laurels to buy guild influence and speed up the guild bank upgrade

The devil made me do it

As your employer I really appreciate how well you use your time for which you expect to get paid. Don’t bother to come to work Monday!

I wonder if the developers will introduce a Panda race

No.

I expect the game to play well and I expect bugs to be fixed. All as part of the price of the original game.

It has been my experience that if you are in a really good guild simply explaining to the guild leader(s) or posting on their forum (if they have one) the reason for your inactivity is enough. If they find your inactivity unacceptable then it is probably time to evaluate if that guild is worthy of your membership.

@whiran, very good, you read through my long winded list of examples and pulled out the hidden essence of my reply since I knew there would be disagreement on them.

When is an exploit an exploit and I not talking about bots.

For example(s):

A skill point or veteran is to strong for me to solo. I happen to discover that if I position myself behind this ledge or whatever I can attack him but he can not attack me. It that an exploit or using tactics. Maybe it isn’t so obvious as a gap in the rocks instead its using 3 well placed trees. If this is exploitation then I’m guilty

If there is a Mesmer on top of the water falls in lions arch that is teleporting other players so they can get to the jumping puzzle chest without do the jumping puzzle is that an exploit? Who’s exploiting, the Mesmer or the player taking advantage of the Mesmer skill? Does the Mesmer asking for tips impact if it is an exploit or not? Hum, at what level does the Mesmer get this skill?

If I figure out I can level a toon faster by only doing dailies and only running the starting area is that an exploit? ie 30 minutes at say level 60 verses two or more hours in the level 55-65 area. Guilty again

If a player got to level 80 only by crafting because a lot of other players feed him all the mats is that an exploit? Now that he achieved master status and can craft items that sell for lots of gold and then splits the profits with the mat farmers is that an exploit?

If a player buys gems, sells the gems for gold and buys all his armor/buffs to better compete in WvW or pvp is that an exploit?

If I share my gold with another family member is that an exploit? They did not earn it or have to buy gems to get that extra character slot they bought with the gold I gave them. Guilty again

Since I don’t care about having the best armor or weapons, skins, mini pets or buying exp/karma buffs etc. am I exploiting the game by not buy gems?

Where is this cave of rats?

What’s so bad about letting a daily role over? So what if it take 3 or 4 days to do the daily as long as the person only gets credit for completing one daily during that time frame. Life is complicated enough without being bound to an arbitrary server clock. Why deny other players an opportunity to participate as much as possible when it causes no harm.

As far as laurels go, our small guild is far more interested in using them for guild influence then armor. Others might prefer to play the gear/crafting bag lottery.

I disagree! I want the option to create my own titles. Like “Grumpy oldman do not ask to party”, “Do you think I really give a blank” , “I cant type so don’t expect a reply”, “No I’m not going to join your guild”, “If u thInk game Xyz is better go play it” etc. etc.

neither, but the Mesmer’s teleport is useful for other purposes. Both end up with to many minions/clones. Yes I tried non minion builds.
However its my thing in these games to try and max level every class/profession/race/alignment etc. with two GW2 exceptions, I have no desire to level the engineer or char (oh no! blasphemy).

On reflection I could have stated it better. A previous thread about a grumpy old man kind of got me wondering.

The real question should have been are there players over 60 (age wise) playing GW2 and where. Just curious, no alternative motive other than would like to met some

I was going to reply to a response on another thread to a grumpy old man. Instead I thought it might be fun to see it the are any other grumpy old men/women.

Watching the chat channel on my server (darkhaven) I have not seen indication of much older players, knowing full well we older players are becoming more rare each year (or more likely each day).

For non USA people SSI is the gov’t sponsored “retirement” program. But that is a whole different argument.

It doesn’t matter that much, they all are cosmetic with very little racial differences. The only thing that changes race wise is “My Story”, sort of. Just makes balancing the game easier and provides an outlet for those who need to customize characters

buy game – Level all toons to 80
buy expansion – level all toons to 85 plus new professions
buy expansion – level most toons to 90 plus some of new professions
buy expansion – level one toon to 100 skip new professions

been there done that – never again

during one of the developers interviews he mentioned moving towards esports. What is it and how will it impact the game?

Being old and slow (can’t dodge or kite worth a hoot) I found that armor and builds makes considerable difference.
In WOW I was never able to level the rogue. In GW2 it took a couple of attempts but I got my Thief to level 80 relatively quickly. For me it did require more frequent armor upgrades. I also found that as I leveled each profession, the next profession got easier. I also found that by starting with the right profession to learn the game made a big difference. For me I went in the following sequence : Guardian, Ranger, Warrior, Elem, Thief, Nerco, Mesmer. Granted the order is somewhat interest oriented and I’m not suggesting a guardian is easier than a range or warrior. Note that the engineer is missing from the list. I have tried 4 times to level 20 and just can not get into that profession.

Not for a while. Been trying trials, come back offers and betas of other games which is an indication of boredom.

Tried all the professions and races (in some cases numerous times and combinations). Leveled several to 80. None of my toons really excite me.

For me, better than GW1 and well worth the money.

It was a good time waster during the long winter months instead of watching hokey reality shows and waiting for glue to dry on woodworking projects. Watching glue dry is actually more entertaining then the reality shows.

Am I looking forward to something else that I can really get into…YES!

To each his/her own.

1. When the ranger stows a pet it stays stowed until manually un-stowed

2. Elite skill slot able to take any skill once enabled

3. Personal story completely solo-able

4. Gender specific attributes before new professions or races.

5. Char that always run upright, not like wogens

TO: Vayne.8563 “I’m 51. When I was growing up, a computer game was a book. Well, not quite that bad, but you get the idea.”

Your still a young whipper snapper . Come back when your old enough to shave. (ie. had to load the computer with switches and paper tape if your lucky). The game sure was not designed for my demographics or you wouldn’t have to dodge and kiting is something you do on windy days.

just patched game about 30 minutes ago. Went and did maw event. Got 3 yellows, 1 gem, 2 greens and 3 blues. Seemed like the chest opened twice. I’ve never had more then 1 yellow drop. Just wondering. And yes I got the chests after the server reset last night from SB.

I started a thread you guys had to close. I owe you an apology for just stirring the pot.
I have been doing that too much lately.

In general I just kind of flow with the game change, and don’t actually get upset over them especially if there is class unbalance for a while. In those cases I just play another toon if it bothers me. As with any game there are pluses and minuses and there are some features I just do not like. In those cases I try to avoid them.

I realize you guys work hard trying to please us all as much as possible and overall I think you guys do a great job. The fact that you do not please ME 100% of the time is immaterial.

I will take exception to one thing that seems to come from the news releases. That is, they leave me with a sense that the game still needs lots of polishing. I have played a great many games over the last 30+ years and I am not saying there are not issues, BUT, from a release standpoint I would have to put it among the top 10 least flawed games I have played especially when taking the size of the game into account. But what the heck does an old retired software engineer know.

Therefore I will quietly refrain from stirring the pot anymore and creating more headaches for you guys…………..However, I still wish my Sylvair could transform into a dandelion or stink bug.

Forum traffic goes up. My posts first 6 months 1-2 total. My posts this weeks 210

I rarely use any of my elite skills they could delete them for all I care. Therefore; I would like the option to replace the elite with other existing skills. Especially if I was doing a particular style of build. For example a Ranger trap build with the capability to slot all 4 basic traps instead of just 3. The same is true for all professions.

Now if I could have my way I would double slot a few of the more basic one.

Racially I would like all the elite Norm shape change moved to F5-F8. The Asura to function key change into different type robots and the Sylvari into a pansy, daisy, dandelion and maybe something different like a dung beetle or stink bug

Men and women are not created 100 % equal except in games.

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

I would like to see a female (norm warrior of example) with different build characteristics then the current gender neutral approach.

Just stirring the pot while waiting for a dragon event.

Maybe those are the wrong numbers to look at.

Consider the 5 day average for gold to gems over time

In November I paid $10 for a character slot.

Around January 1st, 2013 1.55 gold bought 100 gems on my server. I bought 800 gems for another character slot. Currently at 2.35 gold for 100 gems. There have been peaks and valleys but overall the trend has been steadily increasing implying gems are becoming more scarce for some reason. A number of theories can be made to suggest the reason, pick one you like. Come September 2013 it will probably be real clear and no longer debatable.

well I either poorly stated my whine or you all missed the point.

The point is not outfitting a toon with all exotics. I know I can buy or craft about any armor/weapon I want. It is not about getting something as fast or easy as possible, or making more gold on the AH.

The point is, it would be nice to get drops that are the right level and stats on occasion that your toon could use while just out exploring, questing or helping others. A cool reward every now and then just for playing the game in an ordinary way and being able to say WOW! look what I got and actually get excited about it. I know, some people have experienced this.

To even go further:

Wouldn’t it be nice while leveling a toon to actually get drops on occasion that were above your current level. A weapon or piece of armor to stick in your inventory and grow into. Image not being able to buy or craft any weapon or armor, only buffs, boons and stat modifiers. Image playing a toon where the strategy of your build changes dependent on what drops your toon finds, when it is able to grow into them and how much ability it has to modify. In other words the toon must be self sufficient.

So much for heresy

Since drops are random I would expect to see a drop that conforms to my build on occasion. However, I and beginning to wonder if there is some additional logic in the game that prevents this.

For the past 6 weeks I have stuck to one level 80 character. I have not received a single drop that matched a popular “cookie cutter build”. Almost every yellow I have received contained magic find as a stat or was a weapon or piece of armor the toon could not use. I bought 10 boxes of armor from the Laurel vendor and not one usable piece in the sense of being ideal for a very common build.

Magic find builds: Tried one at 56% and ran with my son for a week. My magic find build actually got less drops and fewer good drops then my son who ran a typical power build of the same class and level.

Since game release I have not received a single orange drop.

I did receive one yellow drop that matched another toon build that I really don’t care to play.

I either have just bad luck or the loot tables are biased in some sense.

I personally would rather have better drops I can use but not sell then drops that are only good for selling on the AH for a few silver

End of todays whining

I am not a farmer and only do 1 major/minor dragon event per day.

I would like to see these events moved to a fixed timer. Waiting around for the event just because some online event timer says it is within the next x number of minutes is far from fun. It also tends to make everyone in the area waiting for an event that may or may not happen very grumpy.

2. Since I don’t farm, a single chest per day does not bother me, However, the reward from that single chest should be significant even if has to be account bound to manage the economy

Both my sons and I are on another full server and our experiences are somewhat the same. However; we just don’t like the area from a graphics standpoint. Overall it is ugly and depressing (in our opinion) so we don’t go to there.
Kind of like the Burning Crusades expansion, some loved it, some tolerated selected areas and others ran thru it skipping as much as possible.
I will play all areas once to experience all the content, after that I skip those I don’t like which is real easy in this game from a leveling standpoint.

areas to explore. Been there done that many times. Bored with all my toons. No real favorite just some professions I dislike. Maxed all professions, tried different builds until just settling in on each profession with no real reason to keep modifying the build.

Problem is I just like experimenting with different races and professions. Sometimes I find a toon I just love to play and it becomes my favorite for almost everything or a particular role with other family members. I fully realize this is a “roleless” game; but maybe that is why there is a feeling of not belonging and so many players are out just for themselves.

No expansions planned so no new toons to experiment with. Other family members have already left the game or barely playing. Therefore our long distance family play together time is becoming more rare. Really miss that with nothing on the GW2 horizon to bring them back.

Everyone have a great day and remember to go out of your way a little to revive that downed player.