Guild Wars 2

I honestly wonder what good “news” would do. I can’t play through “news” nor does “news” add any enjoyment to any game I play… sarcasm aside though:

I, like the majority of my friends, have gone back to playing WoW, I was the last of the hold outs really. And I look forward to seeing those hilariously over the top new character models being released (I like the silly there, it fits).
That doesn’t mean I or we’ve “Quit” GW2, it just means we aren’t playing GW2 right now as honestly, there’s nothing really to do that interests us; and “News” of content isn’t playable, so any word of mouth addition isn’t going to sudden get us logging in daily again.

For that matter, I’ll also be playing the new Crusader Kings 2 expansion when it comes out, and Civ Beyond Earth looks like it may get some time. GTA V for PC is heading this way as well (I don’t buy consoles, so finally get to try that one).
Point is, “News” isn’t playable content and I have thus far been extremely disappointed with the content releases in GW2. I had high hopes that within a year post release we would see an expansion/stand alone costing around $50 akin to what GW had done.

Anyway, I’m sure GW and GW2 will be just fine. Its business model seems to be more flexable and giving to the standard ebb and flow of the MMO genre and I’ll be eager to try out any expansion once it’s released… if it’s released – while checking in on things now and then to see what, if anything, of interest to myself has been added.

Edit: A few things – touch screen typing ftl

The armor “issue” in GW2 is one of the bigger problems I have with this game. I consider earning said armor sets and/or mix matching pieces to be part of the character building process; as well as something to strive for in the “end game”.

Anyway, the following is me admitting to Monday Morning Quarterbacking; so take it for what you will -

For me, one of the most interesting selling points of GW2 was the comments towards End Game being the entire game. To me, that meant not having to wait 24 months of grinding out raids to “finish” a character. It meant, within a short period of time, my character would be complete (with lore fitting armor and weapons plus the skills the character would use) and therefore open to explore the world AS the character I envisioned. – Much like taking a Canthan Character out of Cantha and into Elona or Ascalon in GW1. They were mostly complete minus a few skills I might pick up in other places, but they were now “complete”. The long slog of grind to complete the character is what drove me away from other MMOs.

It is of my opinion Anet should have focused on the comments in Beta towards lack of diversity in armor and set out to release a new set each month for one of the races. The next month, a new set for a different race and so on. The whole one design fits all kills immersion for me and looks cheap (again, IMO) — and seeing a norn wear human armor still just kills me inside.
The second thing Anet should have done (Again, just my opinion) is stay away from putting content in the gem shop. Content should be IN the game, not in the Gem Shop. Armor is content and is part of the character building process. Outifts? Outfits I can see in the Gem Shop, but not armor designs.
Lastly, they should have stuck with the expansion model where new content (including, yes more armor and weapons) came in huge chunks rather than baby sized sippy cups. I think the best description I can come up with at this point towards the content releases is:

“They been showing us the vending machines for two years now and the chips are getting stale. Show me the banquet table. I’m hungry.”

IMO; Recount and or the many variants of dps/healing meters are really only “needed” in a raid type situation – which GW2 lacks.
These types of addons also fit better with a more relaxed style of game (Like WoW – where tab targeting works so rotations can be properly worked through). A game where any mob at any time can randomly change target cause a player looked at it funny would skew the metered results…

In other words, without a “tank” soaking up the damage, the dps/healing classes that get the usage from addons like Recount still spend time dodging and avoiding damage (or at least they should be) rather than focusing on pushing that meter rating upwards.

I wouldn’t mind however an addon that allowed the unit frames and bars be changed (GUI) nor would I mind seeing something like Carbonite tossed in…. at least, that’s how I see it.

Edit: Opposing thought towards myself – Recount might work out as the current meta within most dungeons and zerg play is to stack up. This results in “WoW” like stationary gameplay where one could (in theory) work on pushing meters upwards… perhaps..?

I completely support this and have asked for it on occasion.

The ability to turn off others backpacks, minis, weapon effects and particles would be amazing. Or at the very least, a slider or option that turns it all into very very subtle effects rather than this eye bleeding “Where’s the mob?” mess we have now.

Additionally, people asking to be able to turn off the commander tags has been around since launch – it’s still ignored and now ten times worse…

Personally, I don’t have performance issues; but my eyes are garbage and seeing through the muck makes it much less enjoyable.

Unless I’m mistaken, Zalif is suggesting a alternate form of the CDI – a “player driven” one via a poll.
The poll would then be linked or added to the launcher so all players could then add their “vote” (after being discussed with Anet – edit)

This would remove the issue I first listed as a “loaded” or “pre-conceived” illusion of valued input from the players (again, not accusing Anet of this; only I have seen it done many times even recently by several other corporate businesses).

I assume it would make GW2 a bit more like Eve in that it’s more heavily player driven; which explains the extreme levels of loyalty the game has.

Correct me if I am still misreading the suggestion though.

Now player created polls that show in game (launcher) with results made public would be a massive win IMO.

Something like that would indeed be “groundbreaking”.

I understood the purpose of the suggestion: Accountability, or at least understanding a reason for the things they (Anet) is doing.

I’ve just seen this type of thing before, and it’s always loaded in favor of what’s already being planned to give an illusion of player input.

Another very recent example is EQN. Last year they opened up the forums and told the public they would be getting information on what players wanted.
In this example: Players wanted to make sure the game didn’t fall into another “Zerg” and they wanted combat with depth, death penalties with a harsh and unforgiving slap (so players learned to play and be careful).
Instead a poll popped up about whether or not Dwarf Females should have beards…

Yeah…

The devs there already had their plans and were simply using the forums and the illusion of input to keep some hype up.

So I understand what you want from the suggestion; and I 100% agree with it. I just don’t see it working towards the player base favor and instead see it being used as just another tool to push what the devs already want to do.

The problem with this (not that it’s a poor idea, it’s a good one) is that companies usually toss up a Loaded Poll.

I recently had some tech issues with another game company, and after two weeks of them telling me it was on my end; and having my ISP get involved and proving them wrong, they finally corrected the issue through deleting my account, recreating a new one and unlocking ALL my purchases on the new one.

A Poll came in via email and the questions were rigged to how well the customer service reps did. No where did it accept blame for crappy coding on their flawed DRM application (which was finally admitted as the problem).

The end result of my answering the poll has no effect on fixing or even addressing the real issue. The customer service hands were tied, they couldn’t do anything cause it’s not a service issue; it was a coding issue. A Corporate choice to use that DRM which harms the customer.
In no way did the poll accept that the DRM was an issue.

A Poll here would likely be the same. They could easily pick out several quips within the NPE and let us rate them, but in all; the NPE is staying… so it would have limited to no result.

Now as for future polls; unless the results are made public, there’s still no accountability. Anet could pick and choose from hidden results on things that already fit their pre-set destination ignoring the rest; or even simply add things that already fit their goals and list those as what people want to see – thus giving an illusion of input towards what the players really want to see.

The above is just my opinion and past experiences with gaming companies. Anet may or may not follow that type of behavior. My overall impression with the NPE is a negative one; but not for what was done or added, it is more on what hasn’t.

Option to turn off other players Back Pieces and Weapon/Armor particle effects. I would love to see the mob I’m smacking in the face now and then.

Still waiting for a Legendary Item that doesn’t look silly here. I’m hoping someday we get an artist in game that doesn’t think Oversized Anime-ish weapons are “Legendary”.

Give me a Longword with a subtle glow (not flames or overly bright particles) or Rapier with a slight blur effect and I would be all over it.

Prestige is lost the second one has to enter the TP or play the RNG for the items. It’s no longer awe-inspiring; it’s simply another item that can be bought.
Last time I saw a game with true Prestige items was EQ. Items that took months to get, required groups, teams and real effort to take down huge foes in dangerous areas to get parts for long quest chains.
Prestige is also lost when items don’t fit the general theme of the game. Bows that shoot Unicorns?? Stuff like that just break immersion and are silly, not Prestigious.
As GW2 seems to try and fit within a Victorian/Steam-Punk lite theme, many of the items just don’t fit and come across as desperate “What can we make next?” items rather than something nice.

My opinion of course, but Prestige items is something GW2 severely lacks and desperately needs. And I personally wish there was an option to turn off ALL other players back items and weapon effects… I would just love to see what I’m hitting now and then rather than the particle light show that covers the great art on some of the mobs.

<— proud owner of Krytan and Lion’s Arch weapon skins.

Scrambles.2604:

hey guys. I’m gunna bump this thread when i receive my first duel request in Wildstar. I’ve been surrounded by dozens of people at any given point in the PvE world, but no duel requests yet

So, i will let you guys know when i get my first duel solicitation. And of course i will let you know when i get my first dose of harassment, duel spam, map chat abuse, what have you.

Hopefully, my own experience can dispel some of the myths surrounding the negative and “inevitable” consequences of a game with open world dueling.

Perhaps using the word “Myth” was a poor choice; as using that logic alone applies both ways.

In several games I’ve played, the fool following me around bouncing like an idiot spamming Duel Requests “Dispels the Myth” that it doesn’t happen, or wont happen.
Does it mean it will happen to me again? Maybe, maybe not. All I’m asking for is a preemptive ability to stop it before it happens to me (again) vs having to entertain such morons for months till a Auto-Decline is added.
In other words, any one persons experience in any online game will be vastly different than another’s; especially the moment another person is involved.

Perhaps phrasing the comment to more like “I’ll post my personal experience” as other’s have also done..?

Several things bothered me about the new trait setup. First, as someone else mentioned, level 30 traits in level 80 zones… Management needs to make an example out of the person who thought that up… and in a bad way.

Second: When I finally hit 80 some of the traits I needed were locked away in WvW. I loathe with a deep passion PvP/WvW (game play mechanic thing) so having to go in there to get them unlocked would have been dismal. – Note: I could have simply bought them, but instead retired the character as “Done” and chalked it up to an “Oh well, was fun for a week.”

At least the character makes a nice Mule for holding junk now.

There’s a few problems (from my point of view) with the game’s horizontal progression and the content.

In a Horizontal Progression based game, there has to be enough diversity in armor/weapon skins to chase and there needs to be more added constantly IN the game (adding that progression). GW2 adds these things into the Gem Shop, thus removing that progression from the players and instead replaces it with Gold Chasing.

Further, a steady pace of new content needs to be released in large chunks with some of the above mentioned armor/weapon skins to give the players some content to gnaw on.

Will they burn through it quickly? Depends on the quality and size of the content. Many GW players may enjoy taking alts through the new content and aquiring those new skins for those alts – thus increasing the value of the new content.

Again, GW releases piece meal content “bites” with few to no sets of armor/weapons. A piece here and there maybe, but no sets that might take a bit to earn. And that which is released, isn’t earned; rather it’s farmed/grinded for by repeating the “bite” sized content in an effort to make it last a bit longer…

What the game needs for rewards is a system that adds items (armor and weapons) to the game that is earnable through the content; minus any grind and or farming. Complete a task, earn a piece (not complete the same task ten times then get a piece). The task should be long in duration – like the personal story (Or using GW1 as an example – The Elite Cantha armor or several of the sets gainable in Nightfall at certain points after unlocking new areas).

As always, just my opinion on it.

Yasha.5963:

WasAGuest.4973:

Dueling is fine; as long as there’s an Auto Decline added at the same time.

Why?

For me it’s an annoyance equal to Gold Seller Spam. If I’m in the middle of something and I suddenly get a pop up asking me to duel – it’s bothersome and annoying… like having to stop what I’m doing and Report Gold Sellers.
Just like we would all love certain websites and gold sellers auto blocked, an automated system to decline duels would need to be in place.

While I have nothing against such a system, I have never been in an mmo where people spammed duel invites at me to the point that it got annoying…the issue is clearly being overblown.

If you get annoyed by someone in game for any reason you have the tools to deal with them already with the ignore feature.

You haven’t, but I have. many times.

The opposite argument towards clicking a few times to “ignore” or “decline” can be made equally and fairly towards clicking a few times to remove oneself into a PvP area to duel. – Which is why I say such a system needs to be in place at the same time any sort of dueling system goes live.

Remember, just because you personally haven’t been bothered by others doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t; so don’t discredit them so easily and quickly. It does your own arguments discredit as you would likely have more support from those that dislike dueling in the first place (myself for example have no issues with dueling, but without auto decline, I’m strongly against it).

Further, no one is mentioning how Anet profits from such a system. How many Gems will a duel cost? With no Gems attached, such a system will likely never be considered anyway. Perhaps requesting a Gem Shop duel flag so duelers can buy in for their feature and anyone not interested is “Auto Declined”..?
Now Anet gets cash, Duelers get their feature and those not interested are un-effected. —- something to consider.

Dueling is fine; as long as there’s an Auto Decline added at the same time.

Why?

For me it’s an annoyance equal to Gold Seller Spam. If I’m in the middle of something and I suddenly get a pop up asking me to duel – it’s bothersome and annoying… like having to stop what I’m doing and Report Gold Sellers.
Just like we would all love certain websites and gold sellers auto blocked, an automated system to decline duels would need to be in place.

Need a Plunger Hat as an achievement for messing with the Mystic Toilet too.

At this point, and with my current luck in the dungeons with the groups I’ve had – current Dungeons made to scale down for solo players… that I would be happy with for a good while.

After that, new zones that are at least as big as the current largest maps in game; complete with new DEs, Hearts (maybe), Vistas and POIs. New karma merchants in the zones with zone specific armor and weapons.

And those already mentioned in the poll.

Anything short of that is just “eh” and lackluster.

This has been a requested feature since beta – don’t see it happening.

Or…

Change your UI packs now at BLTC. Only 1500 Gems.

With that, we might see it happen.

With the majority of my friends list and guild empty, I’d be happy just to meet someone nice to do some content with… the fact someone “knows” someone worth a marriage just blows my mind.
I mean, almost everyone I see in game is either shouting at someone for not doing enough dps, is a “bad” for not seeing and thus not moving out of a red circle, or selling gold… so, yeah. O.O

Was happening me all day as well. Finally gave up and loaded up another online for a bit. No connection problems in that one… which actually surprised me as I was quick to blame and rage at my single option ISP monopoly provider…

mrauls.6519:

Loot shouldn’t be why you play, it should be what rewards you while you play

I agree; however, when the player base is not rewarded at a level it feels is fair and balanced for it’s time and effort, then the loot itself becomes the game (as the player base must now seek out ways of gaining loot/wealth in order to stay at least on par with the rate of inflation).

Kaiyanwan.8521:

WasAGuest.4973:

I’m guessing here of course, but I don’t see Anet ever using a PTS for the simply reason they focus too much on the “Economy” of the game. A PTS would show changes that may/may not effect that economy and those in the PTS would be able to exploit the market against those that do not.

While the situation can be applied in any other game with a PTS, most do not generally protect their economy as zealously as Anet does this one.

Again, that’s just a guess of mine.

The economy is so terribly broken in GW2, I do not understand why they would even try to protect it. GW2’s economy is like a computer animation to demonstrate hyper inflation.
The reason we have no PTS is that with people knowing what will come as release soon, the hype for the new content would die the second the PTS were up.
The updates have so little content, that people would actually burn down the forums before we get the stuff, unlike now, when people do it when they get it on live.

Sounds counterproductive for ANet to me.

I don’t disagree with you at all. As I said i was guessing as it’s the only thing I can think of that makes any sense… though your idea there fits equally well.

I just wish some of the loot I did get wasn’t 99% trash items, meaning that I might actually put it to use.
Majority of stuff I get sits there till I stop a moment and flood the TP/Merchant sell and then move on. Almost nothing has any value* at all.

*Value: A unique skin that I like, something worth a reasonable profit to combat my constantly falling behind on the rate of inflation, stat/level match for my character WITH fitting the design of my character (getting a human designed piece of armor for an asuran not only makes my character look silly, but ruins the “Awe!” factor of an item that might actually match the stat setup I’m looking for – not that that has ever happened yet though).

*Value 2: At level 80, blues and greens have no purpose nor value to them, yet that’s about all I find. Which makes killing anything that doesn’t have a loot bag a waste of time and effort.

I’m guessing here of course, but I don’t see Anet ever using a PTS for the simply reason they focus too much on the “Economy” of the game. A PTS would show changes that may/may not effect that economy and those in the PTS would be able to exploit the market against those that do not.

While the situation can be applied in any other game with a PTS, most do not generally protect their economy as zealously as Anet does this one.

Again, that’s just a guess of mine.

This seems to be one of the most requested issues to have Anet address; though on the surface it also seems like a multi-tiered problem and not one Anet is willing to address in a way that players want. Further, it’s been an issue since beta (especially on the “Unique” designs area).

For Anet to truly innovate here, they will have to surrender to giving content to only the Gem Shop. The half baked LS (commercial for the Gem Shop) will need to go on hold so that new skins, minis and other items of interest can be added into the loot tables.

They will need to finally address the improper tiering of the loot tables; such as a level 80 getting blues and greens, or yellows and oranges for a level 78. For that matter, by level 60 blues shouldn’t be dropping at all. Greens and the occasional yellow with the oranges being still fairly rare.
The “Junk” items are really an issue as junk is always in these types of games. Something needs to fill the bags and in fact, I wish more of these stackable “Junk” items would drop as they would easily cover any costs of WP usage and then some.

As for unique skins – I’ll pick on the Norn here as I always wanted to like the Norn but simply couldn’t because seeing them in Human Armor bugged me too much – so I simply don’t bother.
The Norn NPCs look like Norn. Very few of the NPC wear the human attire. There are in fact at least four Norn “Armor” sets in game that are not available to players that a male and female NPC are wearing (one in each of the great lodges – Bear, Wolf, , etc).

This means that art is already IN the game and just needs to be added to the Loot tables. Assign those drops to be usable by Norn only and add them throughout all the Shiverpeaks areas throughout all levels and suddenly the Norn have a ton of new usable content to chase.

Sylvari also have several NPCs wearing Bark-like armor that players don’t have access too. So I’m sure the Charr and Asuran so as well.

Sadly, the current track record suggests any new content like this will not be added in the game but rather to the Gem Shop – thus removing content from the game and adding yet another “buy in” item.

Anet seems to still be struggling in the understanding of a player desired reward system. These bosses were pretty impressive but the lack of rewards will cause people to leave it alone quickly.
Which, IMO is pretty sad, ’cause with solid rewards, could have been a good time.

Oh well.

Disastro.4086:

I have a feeling the gear progression may be aesthetic upgrades going from:

no shiny->kinda shiny->omg it glows->aurora borealis

Perhaps part of LS2 or new dungeon(s)/paths etc.. hopefully not crafting related I’d rather carve my eyes out than have to deal with crafting it’s entirely not fun nor remotely enjoyable(imho).

I fear Anet has forgotten, or never learned the art of subtlety in much of their designs.

IMO, a softly glowing sword (or any item) with small runes that emits a soft glow is far more attractive than the “mess” we have now. Just my opinion obviously, but I would love to see something with a lot less “OMG Look at me!” effects and something very subtle and soft.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

So they need a whole team to create a grind that is worth called legendary.

“OK, so we have new ressources, skill points, new super rare drops from low level zones, silk, more silk, a whole mountain of silk, what else could we put in there, to make the grind legendary?”

“How about time gating?”

“Time gating is good, next?”

“Farming old content?”

“Nice one, good good, keep it coming!”

“How about you need more items, than you can ever carry arround in your bags?

“Wow, now we are getting to something!”

“Make it challenging!”

“Grea-… Wait, who put this clown in my team, get out of here!”

“And lastly, how do we attach it all to Gems?”

:P

Mostly level alts at this stage and trying to fully equip a few of them in max stats.

Been trying to get into Dungeons (I’ve had minimal luck); but mostly hitting my head against the Zerker Gear Check/Wall.

Iason Evan.3806:

I am not as concerned with the delivery of said content as much as the type of content. I want permanent regions added. Not just a zone or two, but quite a few new, permanent maps. I want armor and weapons I can earn. I am not talking about farming gold in the most efficient manner then converting said gold to gems and buying an armor set off the gem shop. I am talking about an armor set that represents what it is I did to earn it. That is one of the things that has been taken out of the game that makes an RPG what it is. Does that mean I won’t buy armor sets off the gem shop? No! I still do buy stuff off the gem shop with great frequency, but options have never hurt anything.

^this.

Only I will not buy item skins from the Gem Shop till they function like my HoM skins. Something about having to Buy the Skin and then Buy to keep using them via the charges leaves a bad taste in my mouth… probably just me though.

Anyway, yes. Add armor sets IN the game so that I can earn them through the content (this doesn’t mean grind and/or repeat dungeon paths for months on end either). GW1 did this very well. Complete a story line stage and then we had access to certain armor sets.

Edit: Auto Correct fail…

I agree with a lot of that.

For the new zones to have a purpose though, Anet will have to surrender Gem Store tie ins. Meaning, new armor sets and weapons skins will have to be exclusive to those new areas so that people that want them can earn them in those new areas.
Anet track record thus far is: Add a playable Commercial (the LS) and toss in some time limited gear into the Gem Store. —- IMO, this reeks of cheap f2p games and doesn’t fit well with Anet reputation.

I would also like to see dungeons be scaled per person: Allowing a single player to go in and “solo” it. Why? I’ve had each of my characters get kicked from a group and or people leave the group if I’m not in full exo gear… I’m trying to get that gear with the dungeon tokens… so of course I don’t have it yet. Endlessly frustrating and annoying. If I could go in solo and get the “goods” then I can go back with my gear join the rest.

In Beta players complained about a lack of racial armor diversity. All races starting in human armor and for the most part stay in human armor. Yet the nameless NPCs doing nothing but drinking or standing around with a finger in their nose look more “Epic” and more like their race than most of the players do… ugh

Finally, I think they should ditch the LS and go with the full blown expansion a B2P title should be focusing on.
An Expansion would add staying content worth taking each alt through and keep me playing vs the LS which I’m able to rush one character through and then stuck grinding out the temp stuff it comes with… not fun, nor entertaining.

Anyway, just my two cents (opinion) on it.

IMO; one of the core problems with the loot system is the tiering (coloring) of drops.

Early levels are set well with blues, and a green sets us above the AI a bit.
Mid levels, the AI is more tuned to be against greens with yellows setting us above the curve.
Late game, or max levels and the AI is more tuned to yellows, with oranges (exotics) setting us above.

At least, that’s how it feels to me.

With that in mind, in mid levels, blues should stop dropping and only greens and yellows show up. Mostly greens so that yellow maintains it’s “Sweet I got an upgrade” feel.
However, at the cap, we should no longer be seeing Greens or Blues. Yellows should be the norm with oranges and the really rare ascended piece making the whole day worth while.

Removing some of the “junk” from the loot tables will go a long way in making items have more value other than “just more of the same crap” all the time.

Once steps like the above have been done (if Anet wanted to adapt such a thing anyway) then they could focus on finally adding in some badly needed diversity in art design to the drops – which has been a complaint since Beta that I’m shocked still hasn’t been addressed outside Gem Shop silliness. Stuff needs to be IN game as drops to add value to the content. – IMO of course.

I think the best description I have heard for the LS was this:

“It’s a playable commercial” meant to encourage sales from the Gem Shop.

I agree with that.
The LS and it’s “content” (drops, items, shineys etc) was either behind horrid grind and massive time sink/investment or a tortuous RNG system meant to discourage playing the game and rather open the wallet and simply buy in to enjoy the current theme of the LS – at least, IMO as that’s what I experienced with the LS.

Seeing this “Festival” return makes me wonder; will we see earn-able content that is FUN to get? Or will it be a massive grind and/or based off crappy RNG? Will we be able to partake in said festivities and walk away with some of the no doubt Limited Time offerings without having to hit the Gem Store? —- If not, then this is again fitting to the description of the players “Playing a commercial” – again, IMO.
This is opposite of how GW1 was pre-cash shop too. Grabbing a few friends and running through some fun, light hearted content and walking away with that seasons goodies was a blast. I never felt I had to “Work to enjoy” the festival, and nor did I feel I had to “Buy in” to have a good time.

I’m guessing though, that’s it will be more of the same old same old here. Festival is ON! YAY! New skins in Gem Shop this week only! Everyone is happy… not.

In the spirit of fairness; here’s how you monetize a festival. You hold the festival and make ALL items easily obtainable IN game. Not through grind, not through RNG, but through IN game activities. Then, next year when the festival is up again, you put up last years items IN the Gem Shop for those that either missed out on last years items or simply didn’t, at the time, want them.
With that, you have a happy player base that is enjoying the content without feeling they are being nickle and dimed WHILE providing a service to those that missed out on last years events. You also now show you have your eyes set on long term stability vs short term gains. — as always though, IMO.

Personally, I would love an entire map (or two) of nothing but underwater cities and ruins… minus Risen and Largos of course :P

I would love to see them add or work on the fluidity of underwater combat though. Movement needs a drift to it and less instantly stopping and turning. This might also fix some of the huge underwater bosses that seem to be facing one way, twitch awkwardly and suddenly facing a perfect 180 without having moved at all. It’s odd IMO.

I don’t RP, but one of my favorite past times in other games (LoTRO being one of the better examples IMO) was setting up my “Cottage”.

Having the Taxidermist set up some of the rare animal drops and placing them in my small (on purpose) log cabin next to the fire place had a certain fun factor I can’t explain.

It also had that little something extra to do rather than just grind and farm all day long. In fact, as silly as it sounds now, I picked a plot of land just off a river bank. I walked outside the front door and was able to fish – with which I eventually caught several large enough (and interesting) catches which I also mounted in my home.

In the end, it’s Content – although Content-Lite. It required no “balancing” or nerfing for OP meta fotm builds and so on. Turbine (in this case) even worked housing into the trade crafts and players could and would make furniture and decor for the housing.

Anet clearly saw something of value in “Housing” or customizable spaces when they added HoM to GW1. I would like to see them add or at least work on a “Home” in our personal instance that we could focus some of our attention towards. But… maybe that’s just me.

I spent $10 on a character slot.

As a general rule I never buy single use items or “per character” things; only Account Based Perm Unlocks and/or expansions.

I would have bought one of the armor sets I found pretty cool looking to level a new character in – till I learned it was a one use item that would then require a constant flow of Charges to use my purchased Armor. Lost sale there…

Next purchase from me will be a full fledged expansion. Further, I’ve decided to also not use the exchange at all till I see a better distribution of content added IN the game vs added to the Gem Store. I feel we should be seeing new armor sets and weapons added IN the game at a ratio of 5:1 (5 IN game to 1 in Gem Store) by now – as one example. The game, IMO, is starved for content and grinding kittens is getting old.

IMO – the Living Story can’t do justice to what I personally want to see… The other Dragons and the areas they are in.

I was always hoping we would get expansion packs with a “Dragon Chapter” in each, and then after those, maybe some completely new areas we’ve never seen before.

To me, that was an easy four or five expansions at $60 a pop.

But, lets say they use the LS to add the other Dragons. How will that work out for players joining later? Or alts that want to finish off those dragons as well? Will they add those in quick made Dungeons/Instances rather than lasting stories that show more of the devastation they’ve brought?

I just don’t see the LS bringing justice to what I know Anet can do. It’s far too limited IMO.

IMO
It sorely needs new perm content. This needs to be more of the world, not simply more of the same zones altered in minor ways.
If the devs are worried about population spread, there’s ways to keep players coming back to older areas. This is called: Rewards!
Devs could also take a look at WvW and grab some ideas to apply them in PvE worlds.

Take some of the outposts for example. Add walls that players could stand on and fire down on a mob zerg (Centaurs perhaps) as they try to take an outpost.
If Centaurs take the outposts more than players defend it, then the next week those areas are in Centaur control.
Success rewards players unique skins and items fitting that area.
Similar situation fitting for all other racial areas where conflict shows up.

A mob zerg can be far more interesting than a PvP zerg in WvW with the addition of over powered mob abilities players don’t have access too – as well as defending a wall and seeing Giants stepping over the wall where we are standing.

This in addition to new zones to hit up will give players more things to do besides following the Train trying to scrounge up enough coin all day. Players rallying to defend or attack outposts makes more since to me at least.

Tabula Rasa had something like the above and it was probably one of the most fun times I had in the game. Trying to defend some of the quest hubs from a constant flow of mobs that came in at all angles was intense. Even later when the mobs became so large they easily towered above the higher walls – this could really fit in GW2 with it’s constantly in strife theme.

I must be doing something wrong. I’m having a hard time getting this stuff to drop. Any advice?

PS. I entered the thread in hopes of being able to maybe buy some of this stuff. heh

This is another long standing problem that’s been around since launch – I say that because it’s something people had brought up many times. So it makes another one of those things I’m surprised Anet hasn’t “fixed”/addressed while I was away from the game for almost a year.

The old(er) request was for a option toggle to show the tags or not on each client side. Similar to most other map options.

I’ll throw my support behind it again – add toggle to hide commander tags. I find it annoying looking for something and the commander tag is hiding the icon for the item(s) I’m seeking.

8 Characters total
4 80’s (had 5)
Only 1 has 100%, the rest have up to where they need the WvW areas; at which point I call it done as I didn’t enjoy WvW the first time as it was and have no desire to suffer through it again. :P

So much goodness in here.

Things I would like to see added:

Food Inventory Block – Place food items in the block and the character auto “eats” it to renew the effects. This would increase the value of food as players would be more opt to seek them out vs forgetting about them.

Option to hide/turn off other players Wings/Back items. – Just a small QoL issue that fits with the next

Option to hide all particle effects other than our own. – During the common zergs, it’s nearly impossible to see our targets with the “Flash and Flair” or over the top particles and crazy looking backpieces.

As a person back from a long break, I was surprised to see so little having been added since I left.
In fact, the word “shocked” may be a better fit.

I played in all the betas, and content wise; well, complaints that were in beta are still present now… I suppose that’s one thing that shocked me.

I consider Armor (drops) to be a minor form of content. We all know the type, we kill a certain type of mob and it drops something theme’d for that area it’s in. – In beta complaints for area diversity/race diversity drops were requested constantly… and that’s still lacking.

I also skipped the LS for the most part. I think I caught the first bit of it, didn’t like that I had to log into my main to do it as I was working on an alt at the time. And as that was at the time the “new content” and I knew it was temp, I didn’t want to miss it. I quit because of it – no rage quit, just a “Meh, this is silly.”

Now that I’m back for awhile, I see only a few areas have even been changed, and maybe I’ve seen a few new DEs (or maybe I just don’t recall them from before).

Southshore, or whatever the name of that isle is, takes the worst gameplay elements of Orr and the Risen and magnifies it (IMO). I hated Orr with the constant Zombies on speed and constantly annoying CCs. Orr wasn’t difficult, it was annoying (and in fact, this was a constant complaint at launch too – I thought by now they would have addressed it). The Karka are Risen in new skins… so the entire area is another place I avoid simply because “sighing” my way through a game isn’t exactly what I call enjoying it.

Seeing LA was kinda neat. The wreckage in Kessek (sp?) was also pretty cool. The new hub north of LA in the Vigil HQ was a nice touch, as is seeing various remnants of the LS strewn about still. But, it’s not there to be played now so it’s kind of just there…*

To be fair though, I did not follow GW2 after I left. I un-followed them on all social media and it was only through a friend that I learned of the Feature Patch. So I thought I would run another character through and see how the game had changed.
I had hoped to see new zones, new Hearts and new DEs along with new armor and weapon drops to spice things up. So going in this time I had perhaps higher than fair expectations. My bad.

As always, this is simply my opinion.

*I would have liked to see the LS be a story line added post Zhaitan Defeat. That way, at my leisure I could work through the story lines with each character. That to me, would be a solid amount of new content that I could do again and again.

I disagree with Immersion being fine or good actually. This is obviously an area that will be different per player though, so it’s best to see for ones’ self.

From basic armor designs at the start, all races wear “human” armor instantly breaking immersion of character even from around the racial Common NPCs (the no named no bodies standing there doing nothing look more epic than the players out of the gate – smh).
Later, players are seen wearing wings and other oddities that further cripple the visual immersion that would otherwise be possible – and without the option on the players side to disable or hide those… well, it’s difficult to even ignore it.

There’s a dozen other visual immersion breakers all over the place as well – but again, immersion is often a per person issue and these things that bum me out may or may not also bother anyone else.

Off that issue, the game play is entertaining enough to warrant a play through or two on the PvE front.
I’ll reserve comment on WvW or PvP as I loathe PvP activities in games like this so I avoid them like the plague… running in circles humming Benny Hill tunes does not a fun game make (IMO).

I fall into the same. I pick my characters based mostly on an aesthetic plus immersion level.
My first character was a Norn. I went with ranger and within ten minutes deleted him due to the terrible looking “Human” armor on him (I wanted to play a Norn; not a large mutated human).
Back to the drawing board, I did some time looking for a good fit. After digging through nothing but “pretty boys”, I finally had to settle for a female human thief. I tied her backstory to my Assassin from GW1.

Post that, I’ve been unable to create anything but females as the males look so… ugh. I’ve also had issues getting immersed into the game when playing anything but human as the armor breaks that “feel” and I feel the character is misplaced badly. – Obviously a personal thing, but still.

I started a new character upon a return to see the new Features. At first I didn’t mind it much as the mobs had been toned down considerably. However, now well into the 60s I’m finding it drab to keep going.
Where the levels had come quickly early on, now they ping in slowly making those gaps for traits too slow.

Further, it seems to me (just an opinion) that the planning on where to get some of those Traits wasn’t thought out very well – adding in, the “gentle push” to get me into WvW (which I will not do as I do not enjoy it at all) is annoying. I already have enough issues getting money to buy my armor I want, and now I have to buy those traits as well. – In other words, what could have been a plus (unlockable traits in PvE, level tuned towards the proper tiers) turned into yet another “sigh” issue where I am finding myself rolling my eyes wondering wth.

Am I finding it harder? No.
Am I finding it annoying? A little bit.
Am I enjoying it as much as I had in the past? No.

Perhaps re-tooling the traits to areas where the tiers are level appropriate will help in making it more enjoyable again..? (For me anyway)

Nadha.6097:

Can the diversification please start at clothing?

we have three sets per “race” and armourclass and thats it.
ALL other stuff (from dropped loot to crafted armours) is “humanlike” in my eyes.

I really find it very hard to properly dress a sylvari, most of them just look like your next human until you zoom in and see the face.

Why are cultutal clothes so rare and unaccessible?

This is the reason I deleted my Norn and Sylvari in beta and at release. It bugs me beyond words… :/

The initial purchase is all. I don’t buy character or single use items; and they’ve added very few account wide unlocks that I’ve needed/wanted. So I’ve spent nothing after the purchase.
Almost purchased a new character slot once, but opt’d to delete my 80 Norn Engineer instead.

For me to get “attached” to a character, they (the characters) must first fit into the game world.
Sadly, and this has been my major quip with GW2 since beta, the armor design in the game makes them stand out like sore thumbs. My characters simply do not fit in with the NPCs around them (especially non-humans) and as such, I have no attachment to the characters.
This sadly also bleeds into not caring about the Living Story or majority of content we have. There’s a bad issue of detachment I suffer… but I don’t play the game very often anymore – only checking in now and then to see what they’ve added.

I do enjoy my quick play times, but there’s no “Attachment” to the game at all because of the (IMO) poorly designed armor choices.

Serina.8652:

I wish they would make an mmo that would appeal to everyone, at least a little bit…. Sigh… every new mmo for the last couple of years have been pretty much identical, just different skins. Theme park mmo, unless they manage to completely nail the loot addiction aspect, have a very short shelf life.
I wish they once again would start adding a bit more sandbox to mmo.

Now Im not naive, I know the mmorpg of old will not make a return, with their vast freedom for the players, but just a little touch of it at least? Freedom and sandbox mode can really extend the life of an mmo even if they just add a little bit of it, anything is better then these completely locked and sealed linear worlds.

GW2 (IMO) could be a good sandbox MMO if Anet would move away from the grind mechanic, learn a basic reward/risk/time ratio that players feel is good (not the people in the boardroom – the players).
Solid rewards will keep players returning to old content to soak up the riches and drops; crap rewards keep players looking for new areas in which to find solid rewards.
– How many times did us old GW players run Tombs, or kill the same named over and over to get that single drop we wanted? – Add that unique skinned theme in WITH the tokens in dungeons and it would be a start.

Of course, that’s not 100% the case always, but it would help IMO.

Till then, I, like many others have more or less stopped playing very much. Nothing to do or nothing to strive for as I’m not interested in gearing up via RNG – now, if those items were for looks and not an upgrade, I would feel differently… but, eh.

Waiting to try Elder Scrolls Online and EQ Next. Figure, if I have to grind, I’ll do it in a game with grind set in from the start rather than slam head first into it at the end wondering what I just ran into.

No, this isn’t a rant; I really did enjoy GW2, just not to pleased with what they have added and less pleased with what they haven’t.