Recently, Colin Johansen was kind of enough to comment on a thread about the upcoming patches, stating that the January update will be smaller and setting the stage for the larger update in February. These updates will have a focus on getting people back into the world of Tyria and making the already existing world a stronger world. There will be no new zones to explore, no new professions, etc. Basically, what I gathered from it was that we were going to have reason to go back into the world, the lower level zones, and enjoy the game they have built for us, while still feel rewarded for our time,
The “make or break” point already came and went for me with The Lost Shores; didn’t even bother checking out Wintersday, but if they succeed at making the existing game world worth going back to, I’ll come back for it.
Ive just come back to this thread and seen that theyve deleted one of my posts… That means theyve not only totally changed my original title of this thread (which indicentally was something like “New player is rather hacked off”) but also deleted a longer explanation of my main gripe.
R the forum mods on this game extremely sensitive to any constructive criticism?
Or maybe there are certain words which are not allowed?
Any subjects which are not allowed?
Or are they just trying to hide anything they construe as negativity towards the game?
I think instances or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that what we are given works.
So far i found event in hi zones extremely buggy and instances working better. If they need instances to make this game work, then so be it. I’d rather see a good instance then a crappy event. Especially the worst ones like the temples in Malchor and cursed shores. Those are real bad and poorly done.
I disagree, and consider the open world part of the game to be the best. It works better in this game than any other MMO I’ve played, in years. At least, it used to, before endgame turned it into an instance grind.
So, I also disagree that whether or not the game is instanced is irrelevant. It might seem that way to you, but it does make the game feel less like an MMO. That might not matter to everyone, but for some of us, that is extremely important.
The open world is the whole reason I play MMOs, really.
That should go without saying. It was supposed to be the defining difference between the two, but GW2 seems to be getting more and more like GW1.
This is what I mean, when I say that the direction they’re going in just doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t play MMOs to do instances, and they seem to be going that route more and more, leaving the open world deserted and pointless.
Back in the early days of MMOs, grouping was very social. There was all this downtime and lots of chatting and getting to know people. It’s not like that anymore. It’s just all this frantic running around, with total strangers who barely say anything, and I find it awkward and uncomfortable.
Since the pace of MMOs isn’t likely to slow down any time soon, I found that dynamic open grouping worked so much better with the modern pace.
I hate when they get to certain parts of the content, especially endgame, and try to go back to that oldstyle grouping. The way it works these days, just doesn’t work for me.
i think many people have some type of disorder where they are having a hard time distinguishing between what is important in the real world and things people just do for fun.
i dont watch a movie seeking some type of advancement in life, all i expect it to do is entertain me. that is what i paid for and that is what i expect. i want an escape from reality for a short time where i can just sit back and relax while enjoying something.
thats what entertainment is for.
a video game is entertainment. its only here to keep you amused when you have time to spare. it is not supposed to be work or consume your life. its supposed to be something fun to do when you are bored.
i do not understand how people can keep comparing that to real life.
real life matters, video games do not. when your life ends you no longer exist, when a game ends you can just go buy another one.
trying to compare life to video games is like trying to compare trees to cars.
Your mistake is in thinking everyone is looking for the same type of fun. People play video games for different reasons. I want to say people just find different things to be fun, but really, I think it goes a lot deeper than that.
Brian “Well, it gives me uber power and to further show how much I am good gamer since I can grind for more hours than most people. And with this, I will grind for another item for the same exact reason”
Jason “So let me get this straight, you spent a few days grinding for an item that feeds your e-pen and makes you stronger so you can repeat the cycle again”
Brian “Yeah..I guess I did.”
Fixed it for you.
Hey, why not take it even further:
Brian: “Hey, I’m playing this cool new video game, and-”
Jason: “Who the hell cares about what happens in a video game? Why don’t you do something real, or at least go outside once in a while.”
Remember the pre-release trailers and such? The cities were such an awesome draw to this game. It’ll be so sad if they end up being looked on as nothing more than a huge waste of resources. making them look awesome should have been just the first step.. how about giving players reasons to spend some time in them?
This game is in dire need of some endgame progression, IMO, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be vertical progression. They could give people all sorts of sandbox goals to work for, or whatever else. They started off trying to think outside the box, now’s the worst possible time to try crawling back into it.
Yes, Ascended gear is something to aim for, and this is exactly why some people are working for it. If you’re into the gear grind thing, it’s like being tossed a bone, and at least that’s something. The problem is, its now the only thing to aim for.
If you’re not motivated by gear grinds, its just even more depressing, though. At least there’s finally something to aim for.. too bad it’s just mini gear grind. Not exactly the most innovative way they could have gone.
The Halloween event was cool and all, but didn’t really do anything for the longevity of the game. but no problem, there’s a ‘real’ update just around the corner, they said. Well, that update turned out to be utter crap compared to Halloween, adding nothing of any substance to the game other than a new instance. Yeah, the island itself is worthless. I don’t even understand why they added it, except as an excuse to make that clusterkitten event.
I want to say I might be back, because there are some parts of the game I really loved, but they just don’t seem to be taking it in direction that appeals to me. I don’t do instances. At all. I consider them the bane of all that appeals to me about MMOs.
So it looks like after the extreme letdown that was The Lost Shores, I’m done.
They should have focused more on the wide open world MMO part of the game. Sticking so many different facets of the game into instances keeps players apart, crippling the game at its very foundation.
Personal story, dungeons, and even WvW feels like an instance. It seems fine for people enjoying that content, but its killed the game’s chances of being all that huge, because instead of feeling like a massive thriving world, it’s just another game (competing with single-player and coop games, not just MMOs)
For the same reason the game feels dead to a lot of people (a downward spiral leading more and more to quit) it also makes it hard to even tell how populated it is. So many more people are isolated in their little instances than anywhere they might see other players.
No one yet has explained WHY it matters whether GW1 is or is not an MMORPG?
Good question.
I think it matters to people who like MMOs for their MMO-specific gameplay. If something is technically an MMO, but doesn’t play like an MMO for any reason, people who were looking for an MMO, might be disappointed. And express how its not really an MMO, because that’s how they feel. Even if it isn’t technically true.
Not coincidentally, I guess, GW2 is becoming more and more like the first GW, MMO or not. People are all running instances, or doing instanced PvP, the huge open world that set GW2 apart from its predecessor, left empty. People who prefer instanced gameplay might be fine with that, but people who enjoyed GW2 for its open content, not so much.
Seems to me like personal private/group instances have been killing MMOs for as long as devs have been using them. They kill the part of the game that is unique to MMOs, in favor of instanced gameplay that’s entirely possible in small scale lobby-based coop and PvP games, too.
Much like the first GW, the lobby is the big MMO city in the middle of all that instancing. Now there’s just all that dead weight that is the rest of the gameworld, too.
I applaud the steps they’ve taken to remove elements that are too similar to the WoW formula. Problem is, I kind of expected them to add new elements of their own, to make up the difference.
Instead, it’s kind of like they took the carrot off the stick, and now, we’re just left with a stick. It’s not really an improvement.
I keep thinking they’re going to patch it into something worthwhile (maybe they’re working on it?) but for now, yeah, seems utterly pointless. I’d rather farm Queensdale than waste time in that depressing lifeless zone.
I wish these games would have a really drastic LOD setting, to deal with crowding. Even if the game looks ten years old, during these events, that would be fine. At least it would be playable. and for people who don’t like it, or don’t need it, just make it optional.
I’d be interested to know how much you were expecting for a free, monthly update.
I was expecting a zone that was on par with other zones in the game. Otherwise, what’s the point? A cute novelty for the weekend, to be deserted and forgotten afterwards? It would have been better to spend another few months making it a worthwhile expansion, than to give us something pointless for “free.”
The events were extremely monotonous, with the 3rd one being extra boring and tedious, due to lasting so long. Same mobs over and over and over, some having insane amounts of health and the ability to one shot everyone, making it feel more like a death-rush zergathon, rather than anything I’d call difficult or exciting. Plus, none of them dropping loot or anything, which just added insult to injury. I actually bailed out before the end, because I just couldn’t stand it anymore.
Now we’re left with this new zone.. and it’s kinda pathetic. Are you guys sure you’re done with it? It seems like its got less content than any other zone in the game, so why even bother adding it, yet?
I’m surprised at how many people seem to have not totally hated it. Must have been a totally different experience for people who weren’t lagged all to hell? For me, all three events, plus the lame little new map..
3. Frustrated and on the verge of quitting the game for good.
Loved it so much, I just couldn’t bear it any longer, and bailed out in the middle. Screw this, let me know when its over, so I can see if the new zone gets any better, afterwards.
Maybe its just because I went into it expecting them to be extra difficult, but I didn’t have that hard a time. They are definitely tough, but if I was careful, soloing them wasn’t a problem at all. Often had to make full use of traits and cooldowns, and even dodge now and then, but as long as soloing them is possible, I can’t complain.
edit: vets were another story. needed a little help for those, but think that’s as it should be. champs.. well, got one shotted by one of them and gave up, so no comment on the bosses, yet.
I would assume it is because there is one giant thread named ‘Event Feedback’ already and it is likely easier to simply close new threads before they get along enough to require them to be merged into the big thread.
I have to say that they should not have made a big deal about this event nor should they have made it the free trial period. That was a terrible event. You could elaborate on it quite a bit with the terrible items, worthless store items, poor communications, aweful execution and weak content. It’s vitual buffet of horrible.
What happened? GW1 had great items and excellent events. Practically the high water mark for any mmo. GW2 seems to not have heard of this “GW1” people keep talking about.
I like the game, but I’m saddened to see how little experience was carried over form the first GW.
No, even the Halloween event was much better. It had a few glaring issues, but overall, I was really impressed with it.
Other than that, I totally agree with the above post. This event is just terrible. I keep hoping for it to pick up, maybe tomorrow? but I don’t know. If this is pretty much it? that’s just sad
I think the confusion is mostly just because the event hasn’t really started, and they’ve been vague about the timing. They’ve basically just given us an intro to it, but there’s nothing to do, yet.
Design this stuff to last a few days, build it up gradually. Don’t tell everyone to log in all at once, all in the same place. How could they possibly think that would go well?
It’s not your PC. This is back-end server lag. Regardless of your FPS, regardless of your rig – you can’t do anything on your end to improve the experience.
That said, Anvil Rock finished the turn-ins and is now burning down Egg Layers.. though we’re not really sure what’s damaging them, exactly.
I think some it might be client side. On my end, the culling was so bad, I couldn’t see any players, or the mobs. Just random spell effects all over the place, at about 3 fps. Went on like that, for about five minutes, still couldn’t see anything, and then I crashed.
Some people have gotta be doing better than that, right?
This is reason #2 that one-time events are a bad idea. It should really be #1. Design this stuff to last a few days, build it up gradually. Don’t tell everyone to log in at once. How could you possibly think that would go well?
But most of the game is already like that. Why do you want dungeons that way too? It would be an extreme amount of work, for what benefit? Any challenge the dungeon had would be lost.
Because dungeons are a different type of content, often the most important endgame content, and all that. Just seems a shame to relegate it all to instancing.
Wouldn’t necessarily have to be more work, or less challenge. That would depend on how they went about it.
Those issues could be sorted in other ways. Like in the MK Labyrinth, they had multiple copies, so the area was public, but they could still control population, to keep zerging to a minimum, and keep performance reqs reasonable, etc.
I’m not talking about making it seamless. I just mean making it more public, instead of everyone being tucked away into their own private little co-op versions.
What happened to dungeons being public zones, just like the wilderness and cities? Reading about the update, I can’t help but feel sorta disinterested, knowing it’s just an instance. There’s something about that which makes it feel marginal or irrelevant to me, compared to all that goes on in the open gameworld, full of random players bumping into each other and all that.
It has more to do with how they design the event, than when they schedule it. Maybe one-shot anything is just a bad idea. Their concern over it being spoiled via youtube, etc.. just means they might want to rethink their priorities.
I was sorely disappointed by the lack of variation from area to area, too. Couldn’t they at least reskin them? They don’t need to do all new models and animations, but come on.. it’s the same exact mobs over and over..
I’d say this goes for the terrain too. Same foliage, same grass, same trees.. I really thought they’d mix it up a bit more.
This is getting a bit silly really. You have threads all over the forum complaining that “Anet lied” and that the world isn’t dynamic as advertised. “Where are the world changing events” and “the dragon events shouldn’t be on timers because it feels static and scripted” and so on.
Then any time they implement the advertised dynamic events that change the world people started complaining that they mustn’t do them and that they should loop them so that people can’t miss them…
These events are one of the big selling points of the game. A lot of people bought GW2 because of these one time events. They can’t start looping the things.
Comes back to a discussion of systems vs content. Dynamic content is an oxymoron, without systems in place to make it dynamic.. unless you keep doing events like this, which isn’t that practical, for all the reasons people have been complaining about.
I don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep it up. They need a better system in place, so that they won’t have to.
I’m not here to white knight for this game, but as someone that played the original Guild Wars, you gotta have a different mindset than what you’re used to with other MMOs. In fact just throw it out the window.
The most important thing one needs to remember about GW games is this: No commitments. That usually explains what you may perceive as a population decline is simply players just not logging on to do something else, play the new Halo, whatever.
With no commitments and fairly easy to attain goals (not counting legendaries of course) a person can finish their checklist pretty quickly and likely won’t have much else to do.
The problem is, GW2 is most definitely an MMO. Unlike the first GW, these population issue will kill the game, because of that very important difference.
B2P or not, they need people to stay interested in the game, and the more empty it gets, the less people are going to care enough to come back. Ever. It is a downward spiral that will sink the game just as much as it would in a subscription based MMO.
“Event chain” still needs better definition. The Halloween event could have been considered a chain. All of it was repeatable and accessible, aside from the cinematic. That might just be considered one single link in the chain of events, the rest of which, players were able to experience whenever they get around to it. As long as they don’t miss the entire weekend.
Pacific Players Panic, What Will Happen? I’ll Quit if I Cannot Be a Part of the One Time Event!
Event comes, its a brief cinematic. Feel like you missed anything? Probably not.
Queue November One Time Event:
OH NO ILL MISS THE ONE TIME EVENT!!
Its probably another brief cinematic, signalling to players that they can now enter the new instance. You wont miss anything, im sure the cinematic can be viewed on utube again only minutes after it happens live.
Exactly. I just don’t understand why the devs are so worried about spoiling a cinematic.
I love that GW2 is so light on cutscenes, but then we see stuff like this. Like in so much of the games industry these days, where devs can’t seem to appreciate that watching a cinematic is not gameplay. Whether it plays for me at my own leisure, or I can just watch it on YouTube, it doesn’t matter enough to be something that can be spoiled for me.
It’s posts like that Vzur that make me wonder why I bother trying to play this game still. The community’s a kitten joke.
Not sure if you understood the tone of how I meant it. I wasn’t saying it was a good thing, or that its how I feel. It’s just the impression I get from other players.
Or maybe more accurately, the impression I get from not seeing other players :/
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll make sure to be there, first thing on the 17th. I refuse to “plan accordingly” for a video game, sorry. By the same token though, I’m not exactly going to get worked up about that, either. I just hope the one time event leads to the real content, for players to enjoy in their own time.
