Guild Wars 2

I quit the game a few years back…I didnt really like the living story stuff.

How is it now?

The one thing I want for GW2, and posted it in the Collaboration threads a while back with Whiteside… is a REAL living open-world dynamic event system similar to WvW.

Imagine this…

You log in. You open up your world map to see whats going on.
You see that the “NPCs” in Timberline fall are controlling most areas/events.
You zone into Timberline falls and complete 3 or 4 events, and notice that “we”(the players) control more of that zone now.
You notice that the “ongoing rewards” changed a bit….

Basically what i want is that the more of the open world that the players control/contribute to the more we are rewarded as a community whether it be increased XP gain, power, currency, increased drop rates for rare items, etc. This is(or was, not sure if it still is) similar to WvW. If your server was doing well in WvW, the PvE community would benefit in some small way.

I think this would send players into various zones that they might not normally visit in order to re-gain control of that zone to benefit everyone.

Hi,
Considering returning to GW2 after a 1-2 year break. How is WvW on SBI? I logged in yesterday to run around a bit on one or two WvW maps and found no one in 10-15 minutes of running around. Found a commander tag, but no one following him. Is WvW on SBI kind of weak now?

Tachenon.5270:

cesmode.4257:

Does anyone think Arenanet would have been better off sticking to their original dream/manifesto/vision/promise for the game that they had in early dev and in beta?

Hell, I’d give ’em $50 to restore the game to what it was before November 15, 2012. That would almost be an expansion by itself.

So say we all. I would as well. It was such an amazing 3 months of pure uncorrupted unmodified unF’d up Guild Wars 2 content. Just wandering the gorgeous world that they built, running dungeons for gear, dabbling in all of the different systems.

There wasn’t any feeling of obligation to obtain anything, there wasn’t any feeling of being left behind. There was just the core game. And it was great.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Mike O Brien.4613:

One thing I believe is that we have to focus on the core game first before taking on additional responsibilities.

xD

The core game. I don’t think he knows what he is talking about.

The core game:

Combat
Personal Story
Dungeons
WvW
The open world
sPvP

Those sorts of things…things that launched with the game. Not things added after the fact like fractals, Living Story, Guild missions, etc.

Lord Kuru.3685:

You can argue about whether Anet broke a legal contract until you’re blue in the face. But the fact is no one is going to sue Anet over this so that’s all moot.

The important point is that Anet has lost all its credibility with customers, which means sales of the next expansion is going to be even lower than sales of this one.

And you make a good point (which isn’t that hard to figure out). Yes, they probably lost some credibility here. But is this anything new with Arenanet?

Honestly think about it…and its not me being forever disgruntled. Think about all of the major missteps in GW2’s development history starting the the intro to ascended gear and how much of a backlash they received. It was 100x worse than this Legendary issue. Then with the promises to develop up certain items and not delivering properly, or post poning over and over and over. Then literally abandoning certain areas of the game (cough dungeons???)

The list can go on. My point is, honestly, I expect this behavior from Arenanet. They are talented developers (especially the art team!) but from a customer prespective on how they handle their business, it leaves something to be desired.

Now what I really wanted to ask after saying all of that is…Does anyone think Arenanet would have been better off sticking to their original dream/manifesto/vision/promise for the game that they had in early dev and in beta? I mean, the game isn’t dead or anything and isn’t heading in that direction. But whenever someone mentions GW2 it conjures negative opinions because of how Arenanet has handled post-launch development. They have strayed so far from where they started out and from what was hyped/advertised to us and from what we thought we were buying ~3 years ago. Look at all of the pitfalls of their decision making. The white knights say that this is normal for game dev. Maybe, but one could argue that they had a chance to break the mold here and actually deliver on what they hyped to us rather than making decisions from a business perspective. Listen to us, not yourselves sort of mentality.

Danikat.8537:

It’s unlikely to be changed because ascended was introduced specifically to appease people who complained that exotics are too easy to get and then they have nothing to work towards. If they made it easier it would defeat the point.

But the only things you need ascended for is high level Fractals where you need the agony resistance and possibly raids (although I’ve heard raids are balanced around having ascended trinkets and exotic armour and weapons).

That is also highly unlikely to change – GW2 was designed to be a ‘casual friendly’ game where you can take breaks or focus only on the content you’re interested in without having to worry about falling behind and being unable to do new things because you haven’t got the necessary equipment.

Well, honestly…GW2 has failed on this part. I haven’t really played in 1-2 years. Whenever I do come back and look around, I do not have access to previous living story content.

I.E. I missed out on the breadcrumb content of the past because I didn’t sign in at least once during it. I.E. I am behind in lore. I.E. I am behind in achievement points. I.E. I am behind in any materials and resources that were rewarded for the events/LS.

So yeah, I would take the notion that you can take a break and come back without feeling behind with a grain of salt. Obviously I am behind in several areas that are directly related to living story.

mrstealth.6701:

cesmode.4257:

Ragnarox.9601:

cosmicegg.8502:

I would rather they gave me what was advertised and paid for then then allow them to get away with cheating on a deal. I would accept a refund if it included all my gem purchases and then gladly say adios and consider time played as time wasted.

This. I would gladly accept refund of my 45€ for a HoT and because I will get banned after that will gladly accept 60€ for core game that I purchased 3 years ago. So thats 105€ to use on something else. Can I get that?

You want a refund for the core game too? Thats like ordering a steak at a restaurant, eating 90% of it, and then asking for a refund because it wasn’t cooked to order.

Nearly the same thing with HoT…we are how many months into the launch of HoT?

I agree that it’s extreme and unreasonable. But I also think it’s just as unreasonable for Anet to terminate the entire account in cases where only HoT was refunded (whether in full or partially).

Whether or not what you say is true, there might be a reason.

Example: If you purchased HoT…acquired HoT specific items(gear? cosmetics?)…it would be very very difficult for Arenanet to do a rollback on your account to remove all HoT specific items only and leave you with the core game(and core game items) only.

I don’t want to come off as a white knight here. Anyone who was around a few years ago knows me as a vocal opponent to Arenanets development direction and their constant redirects and misguiding statements. And any inclination that I have to reinstall the game is based solely on my desire to feel like part of a community in WvW and just get lost in the gorgeous game (and not its game systems).

Ragnarox.9601:

cosmicegg.8502:

I would rather they gave me what was advertised and paid for then then allow them to get away with cheating on a deal. I would accept a refund if it included all my gem purchases and then gladly say adios and consider time played as time wasted.

This. I would gladly accept refund of my 45€ for a HoT and because I will get banned after that will gladly accept 60€ for core game that I purchased 3 years ago. So thats 105€ to use on something else. Can I get that?

You want a refund for the core game too? Thats like ordering a steak at a restaurant, eating 90% of it, and then asking for a refund because it wasn’t cooked to order.

Nearly the same thing with HoT…we are how many months into the launch of HoT?

cosmicegg.8502:

Legitimate company’s that do business over the net have to be really carful about fraud. RICO could bite them in the kitten LLC or not.

RICO? LOL…someone has been watching too much sons of anarchy.

mrstealth.6701:

cesmode.4257:

If you have any doubts of my assumptions, let me direct you to the forums 2-3 years ago when they revealed “ascended weapons”. My gosh…anyone that was around during that time predicted doom for the game (including myself, albeit it its one of the reasons I stopped playing..in the end I decided to make my voice heard with the absence of my wallet after a few dev decisions that didn’t sit with me). Thread after thread for what seemed like 1-2 years, threads hundreds of pages long. Every day, its all you saw on the forums. An entire AMA was ad-hoc and “spur of the moment” created to address the insane rage that the community felt about this betrayel. Yet, nothing…nothing was done to address this. They had their own plan, their own decision making, their own views, their own statistics, and they went ahead full steam FULL KNOWING what wrath we would bring to their door step.

It’s kinda funny that you mention that. Just last year they finally did something that was essentially an answer to one of the biggest concerns back then. Mystic Forge recipes were added to, rather cheaply, change the stats of ascended gear (excluding jewelry). Had ascended gear initially came with that option, or if it were added during that round of forum rage, I think the outcry would have been far less severe.

Of course, we don’t know and likely never will, if the community response from back then had any impact on the change being implemented. There’s just as much of a chance it was a new idea thought up for convenience, as there is chance it was something picked up off the table from 3 years akitten

, not being around GW2 for a long time I didn’t know…during my tenure nothing was being done.

Still, what you describe is one small piece of it. If you remember, the bigger issue was that leading up to launch and the first 3 months after launch exotic gear was max tier. There was no mention of ascended gear, none. And at that point, the “manifesto” was still quite relevant and they mentioned no power creep, no vertical progression, etc etc etc (albeit nowadays its looked at as an old ancient text of former visions for GW2).

That is what people were PO’d about.

Then ~3 months into launch, without warning they launch ascended gear and claim that it had been planned all along.

My big question was (which was never truly answered): If Ascended gear was planned all along, and if you knew(according to AMA reddit with Chris Whiteside) that introducing Ascended gear would draw a lot of ire, why wasn’t this new tier of gear revealed prior to launch or simultaneously to launch via “…and coming soon, a new and final tier of gear…Ascended gear…” . They could have avoided a years worth of complaining, lost customers, lost cycles on debating the topic, etc. So I call bullocks on it being planned and it was a quasi knee-jerk reaction to a few elitists that swelled in GW2 ranks that clamored for some sort of vertical progression.

Broken Memory.1436:

cesmode.4257:

I have a question…

Since legendaries are no longer a priority for arenanet….

What is there to do in GW2 these days that keep you progressing your character? What drives you to continue to log in, farm events, etc etc. Is it masteries or something?

(serious legit question…havent played for more than 20 minutes in 1.5 yrs)

Cesmode how much AP do you have? Waht level Fractal are you on? What is your PVP rank and your WVW rank? also how many Legendaries do you already own? If all of those things are high then i can understand your complaint for not grinding or playing for more than 20 min at a time. But if u only have 4k AP no fractals and so forth then please dont say them cancelling new legendaries is holting your character progression. When in fact it is just yourself that is the issue.

Re-read. I currently do not play the game but when I left the game(about 2 years ago now), I was well over 1k hours. At that time, I think that would be considered high…probably more than you at that time

As the title says, are they one in the same?

Or is Living World more of creating new dynamic events scattered in the world, et..

Some of you are harping on the “ethical” stuff here and whether or not they realize what they are doing is wrong…and what you think you are entitled to and what you think Arenanet will do to make you happy here…

Let me just say a few words on this…

Realizing and caring/doing something about it are different things. They will most likely do nothing due to this little outcry of legendaries. They know that the masses don’t read the forums and dont really care.

If you have any doubts of my assumptions, let me direct you to the forums 2-3 years ago when they revealed “ascended weapons”. My gosh…anyone that was around during that time predicted doom for the game (including myself, albeit it its one of the reasons I stopped playing..in the end I decided to make my voice heard with the absence of my wallet after a few dev decisions that didn’t sit with me). Thread after thread for what seemed like 1-2 years, threads hundreds of pages long. Every day, its all you saw on the forums. An entire AMA was ad-hoc and “spur of the moment” created to address the insane rage that the community felt about this betrayel. Yet, nothing…nothing was done to address this. They had their own plan, their own decision making, their own views, their own statistics, and they went ahead full steam FULL KNOWING what wrath we would bring to their door step. I know this for a fact because during the AMA, Chris Whiteside answered one of my questions DIRECTLY when I asked him if Arenanet knew what our reaction would be like, why go ahead with this decision? They know what they are doing and what the consequences will be. They also know that you hold little sway over their decision making. This is their game, as much as you like to think its OURS, its theirs. They decide what goes into it, they decide what suggestions from us to consider.

So, while there are many of you that think the world is crumbling today because of this announcement, or that Arenanet(or any developer) has a modicum of compassion for your slight(imagined or otherwise), or if you think this is some sort of “false advertising”…think again. A bigger, louder, much more rage-filled argument than this was brought to Arenanets dinner table 2-3 years ago and they did nothing.

You all have three options:

1. Continue playing, begrudgingly or otherwise and support the game financially.

2. Continue playing, begrudgingly or otherwise and do not support the game financially.

3. Stop playing.

Because at the end of the day, despite their PR claims of “being a gamer like you”, they are company first with profits on their minds first and the masses <> you or me on the forums. They know this and they know that you won’t or will fail at any sort of laughable kitten attempt at some class action “lawsuit” that countless of you threaten. They make BUSINESS decisions to manage their company and resources the best they can to make shareholders happy(is Anet even traded? I dont even know… but the principal is the same).

I have a question…

Since legendaries are no longer a priority for arenanet….

What is there to do in GW2 these days that keep you progressing your character? What drives you to continue to log in, farm events, etc etc. Is it masteries or something?

(serious legit question…havent played for more than 20 minutes in 1.5 yrs)

Hyper Cutter.9376:

mtpelion.4562:

“Player input” is what got us expansions, which is why we no longer have lots of monthly free content.

Ever hear the expression “don’t buy the cow if you can get the milk for free”? We were getting the milk for free and many of our fellow players complained long and hard about how they would rather pay for it because that somehow makes it better. Now we get less milk AND have to pay for it.

Player input is the last thing we need more of…

People were tired of tiny bites of content that was, at best, mediocre, and wanted a massive chunk of real content. Something on the scope and scale of Factions or Nightfall (not technically expansions, but functionally they were for most people), with all the trimmings. Don’t blame the players for Anet being unwilling or unable to provide that.

Pretty much. ’Tis why I no longer play and havent for ~1-2 years now. When HoT was announced, I got curious. But I knew better than to give ANet more of my money. And it would seem that I was right in holding off.

-Legendary development stopped…
-Dungeons are still untouched
-Guild missions are a joke.
-The Living World is not so living and doesn’t react to your choices
-Multiple small bits of content that I missed via LS are still not available for me to play(because I didnt log in during the weeks these were running? How awesome…)…Great so pretty much there are large swaths of content I’ll never see.

Haha, wow. I understand needing to re-invest yourselves into certain areas…but it sounds like a lot of people bought HoT for new legendaries (at least one of the reasons).

And to think the last two days I had thoughts of GW2 and what it may be like if I re-installed, what I would do in game…

I dunno. Sounds like LS is coming back? Its the one thing that has kept me from coming back to the game.

Maybe I’ll continue to sit this one out.

While many of you will disagree, I think GW2 best days are behind them. In particular, the first three months. Those were amazing days in MMO gaming for me.

So if I am understanding this correctly…
Community has waited years for arenanet’s post-poned and pushed aside “fix” to the legendary “problem” and the long awaited solution is still either grind for mats your self or buy off TP? Not about the adventure, not about skill, not about exploration…just find the best spot to farm mats, which they have a great track record of nerfing to the ground.

Is that what I am reading here?

The community waited years for this?

<old veteran player from beta and 1 year in(havent played much in the last ~2 yrs>

Just checking out the game again this morning…reading a post like this is kind of sad. I know this sort of behavior is in a lot of games, but meh…its bad. I dont like it either.

Kind of makes me think twice about coming back, if I ever wanted to.

The other reason I wouldnt come back is because there are no well-established smaller guilds anymore that focus PVE and WvW(heavy WvW on reset nights). By small, I mean ~20-30 active players max.

I feel that everyone is part of the same old dozen or so large zergy guilds. Not into that.

Thats beside the point of this thread though…/endrant

My personal Pros and Cons about GW2:

Pros:
Great graphics/world
Exploration
A lot of little ‘side activities’ to do such as jumping puzzles and brawling
Great WvW
Great character customization (aesthetics)

Cons:
Poor dungeons
Poor Boss mechanics
Poor weapon variety (hence the topic)
Poor meaty content (hopefully the expansion takes care of this)

tldr:
IMO, GW2 excels at appetizers, garnish, and dessert. It suffers on the actual meal.

I got your message. How big is your guild?

Behellagh.1468:

cesmode.4257:

nexxe.7081:

If i remember correctly, they disbanded their dungeon team awhile back. That says it all.

This…hurts. I know GW2 isnt meant to be your traditional MMO but to leave the dungeons so untouched for 3 years is absolutely horrible. When I think about getting into GW2 again, which I currently am thinking about, I think about how stagnant the dungeons are. I like dungeons. I dont like them to be the only thing I do at endgame…I can only stomach so much forced group content. But dungeons need to be there and arenanet fails miserably at boss mechanics and frequency with adding new dungeons.

Anyone suppose that if this is true that the cause is the exclusionary and abusive behavior of dungeon speed riders. Remember the game especially PvE is suppose to be co-op friendly and not someplace where abusiveness and rudeness is the norm.

Just maybe if those zerk only, speed runners who kick others over the smallest things were nicer, we would have gotten more dungeons.

You might have misunderstood me.

My whole point was that in 3 years, they have done nothing to the dungeon/dungeon bosses. Most of them are meat sacks with one-shotting abilities. You also make a good point that the poor state in which dungeons are in is further compounded by zerker and speed runners

nexxe.7081:

If i remember correctly, they disbanded their dungeon team awhile back. That says it all.

This…hurts. I know GW2 isnt meant to be your traditional MMO but to leave the dungeons so untouched for 3 years is absolutely horrible. When I think about getting into GW2 again, which I currently am thinking about, I think about how stagnant the dungeons are. I like dungeons. I dont like them to be the only thing I do at endgame…I can only stomach so much forced group content. But dungeons need to be there and arenanet fails miserably at boss mechanics and frequency with adding new dungeons.

Hi,
I am thinking of returning to the game and was wondering if there are any casual/smaller(>20-30) guilds that focus on WvW on SBI.

I might be open to switching servers but SBI has been my home for quite some time so I would like to stay here.

Thanks,

My two cents…

Sure, I’ll recognize that GW2 has had a steady stream of Updates, more so than the average MMO. I won’t call it content because half of it has not stayed in the game. I’ll call them updates. I’ll also echo the other camp’s concern that we have gone 3 years without an expansion. Im willing to bet that HoT will bring to Gw2 more than most of the updates have combined, in the form of perma content/fixes/polish/features/QoL/etc.

With that said, on a personal note… I’ve been keeping a very (distant) eye on GW2. I don’t play it anymore, not since 1.5 years. I did not enjoy Living Story one bit, infact it was the downfall of the game for me. However, I am considering making a comeback to the game for HoT (a serious one at that).

Personally, I just think that Arenanet left a bad taste in my mouth when they went the breadcrumb LS update route, instead of revamping dungeons and addressing other concerns that the community was extremely vocal on since launch. Its more of the principle of the matter, for me.

But, I do see GW2s potential. Maybe…

TheRandomGuy.7246:

cesmode.4257:

Ascended Gear

Can someone tell me why ascended gear is a bad thing?

The first bad thing about ascended gear was that everyone in the game assumed exotic was the max tier. Even though ascended is not needed for most of the content, people still like to have BiS items. I play a game called warframe.. I can get away with the basic guns in that game, as can anyone. But no one does. They want the BiS gear that they can get. So the issue here is that everyone assumed exotic was the max tier and not 3 months later, that was changed. Without warning. Without notice.

The second bad thing was that Arenanet says it was always planned…If it was planned, you could have told the community before launch so we wouldnt get all upset and 2 years of crying would have been avoided. Simple solution. Its so simple that to lose sight of such a simple solution tells me that they are lying and it was a knee jerk reaction.

Test.8734:

Nanashi.6297:

Sadly trying to change the game won’t have any success. Save yourself the time and look for a better alternative.

Years ago, soon after release, a lot of grinders came to the forum and said, “we don’t have anything to grind for – because legendary weapons are not enough – and we will leave if ArenaNet doesn’t release something for us!”.

And then we got Fractals, which are almost the definition of grind, and ascended gear, which is massively grindy even by ArenaNet’s own definition of the word.

So yep, if you think offering feedback to ArenaNet won’t change the game, you are factually wrong. I wish ArenaNet wouldn’t listen, since then they wouldn’t have made many of the mistakes that plague GW2.

Arenanet said, in their AMA shortly after fractals were released if you remember, that Fractals and Ascended gear were planned all along, but never made it into release.

Ive always asked the question, which arenanet doesn’t have the stones to answer:

If Fractals and thus ascended gear were planned all along, how come we didnt know about it until the week that fractals and ascended gear came to us? If Exotic gear was never going to be the maximum tier of gear, why did you let GW2 gamers believe it was, grind out their exotic sets only to be out done, even in the slightest way, by ascended gear 3 months later? How come no player knew about this?

It was planned, and purposefully never communicated…or not planned and was a knee-jerk reaction to a very small minority of players clamoring for grind.

That was the first straw for me…and they never have addressed this. Ever. (Not to my knowledge, but I haven’t been following GW2 closely for the last 6 months or so).

Behavior and decision making like this, i.e. possibly flat out lying to us, put a bad taste in my mouth and is the reason why I dont and havent trusted Arenanet’s word ever since.

MaXi.3642:

sadly, you’ve just summed up why I left GW2 long time ago and played only new living world as I was interested in the story direction… I’ve returned on the expansion announce, but as the hype slowly fades out and new information aren’t coming fast enough, I’m again realizing all the problems which made me leave…

The last sentence…kind of why I haven’t installed GW2 again. I keep thinking about the first 3 months of release and how unbelievably amazing it was, how soaked into the world I was, how new and fresh the entire concept was.

At least to me, little by little Arenanet chipped away at that vision, their own vision, with fractals, ascended gear, and finally Living Story.

So while I get giddy about the 3 days that I took off from work for launch, being a little noob in the world, I then fast forward 1-2 years and think about what the game is now:

Champ trains
Everyone has a legendary
Crummy Living Story releases (my opinion)
Ascended Gear
All my friends stopped playing or moved off server

Theres no “wonder” left in the game.

I agree with the OP that these are fundamental issues at the core of the game that still are not addressed. They focused so much dev into living stories that they forgot about revamping the dungeons. Speed run, glitch, exploit your way through the difficult or annoying ones. The easy ones are very faceroll and quick. World bosses are HP meat sacks. There isnt a ton of viable build diversit.y Sure, go support…but really does the team need it outside of tequatl or WvW? No. You can have entire teams of DPS clear every dungeon with ease.

I for one am happy Arenanet is making an expansion, and hopefully they tone it down with the LS stuff in favor of supporting the expansion. However, for me, Im battling with the sad fact that the GW2 boat might have passed people like me, who played since closed betas and got so disgruntled during the LS focused years and ultimately left. Im grappling with whether or not to play the game ever again.

Steel Courage.1250:

WHAT?!?!? tell me this isnt true, i loved underwater combat i dont want it to go away!

This would suck. It was one of the things I thought Arenanet did great…

#1: You can level to 80 without spending a cent. A lot of things in endgame require a ridiculous about of grind, even if its just aesthetics. So if you want that portion to go much faster, you spend $$ on gems and convert that to gold. There are a lot of gem-exclusive gear in the shop. I would say you should purchase some bank tabs(with gems) because you get a lot of stuff. So…yah you CAN get by without spending any money.

#2: I don’t pvp. I played WvW…never pvp.
#3: Saving up gold in the game takes a lot of time and fortitude. I said to myself “Yah no problem, keeps me playing the game”. But after grinding your mind into dust, you realize that you’d have to be grinding in the game for years to get what you want sometimes. I spent months and months farming the materials for my legendary only to realize that even if I spend another 12 months grinding all that I need, I’ll still need to be insanely lucky with a precursor drop or somehow get 500 gold to buy off the TP. (expansion precursor acquisition method excluded)

#4: Like any game, even WoW’s barren chat or trade chat, there are 8 year olds and immature folks. Ive been cussed at for breaking up a farming train by killing a world boss on my own… I inadvertently messed up their farming and was thus branded an kitten. Ive also seen offensive stuff in chat too.
#5: When I stopped playing, I had about 150 gold. I also spent a lot on some items recently so I probably had about 300+ saved up. This is after about 1100 hours of game time.

#6: I played casual, 2-4 hours a day. WvW is where its at for server vs server competition

Many.8419:

This looks more like his personal feelings to the guy than professional list of CDI “achievements”. HoT must have been in production long before some of those discussions started and while it looks massive I don’t feel like it changed the direction of the game, only took away mods work to group players opinions in one place.

I can see you like the guy, dunno why but it’s not my problem. I just don’t feel like those long threads made anything important. We have no idea which of the implementions were made because of cdi and which were planned long ago and only by chance got in line with players’ ideas.

I’ll echo the general idea of your post in that Arenanet must have had a lot of these ideas to begin with…when we voiced our suggestions via CDI, they put them into production.

And that isn’t even a positive thing to hang your hat on.

Example: The wardrobe. I called for this within month one of release as did other folks. It took 2+ years and a CDI to get this put in? Or the alternative (which is worse)…Arenanet didn’t have the creativity to think of this on their own and we had to do it for them?

I disagree with you saying that Mr. Whiteside’s CDIs were a waste. I think it gave us an outlet if we were mature enough. Whether or not any of it was used as an original thought, like you said, remains to be seen.

Khisanth.2948:

Working on other online worlds sounds like maybe someone made an offer he couldn’t refuse.

At the very least that would mean someone though GW2 was doing well enough that it would be worth the money to hire away one of its leads.

Aside the topic that Mr. Whiteside sounds like he is leaving… all of this thread is speculation.

What came to my mind first was the CDI…and then what came to mind was how he devoted weekends and off hours to entertaining our babble.

All speculation.

Heres more… maybe he wanted to spend more time with his family and less in a position where we(grumpy MMO players) harp on every letter they say (I am guilty of this).

Doggie.3184:

cesmode.4257:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

It seems to be coincidental to me that Chris is responsible for the Living World idea that took GW2 to a wrong direction, that is so wrong that the initial vision of the game was lost or thrown out the window.

Don’t flame me — it’s just my observation and I am more than likely wrong.

I dont know if HE was the one that decided on Living Story, it was probably a collaborative effort and decision amongst some high ups.

But, agreeing with you, Living Story in my humble opinion took GW2 into a wrong direction and ultimately away from my desire to play and spend money on the game.

The living world was fine imo, just the temporary aspect of it was a bad idea. It also wasted time and effort in development to make content that was basically scrapped gameplay wise after a period of time.

On this note, is Josh Foreman still with Anet? I hadn’t seen him around for a while and heard rumors of him not with Anet anymoar and it doesn’t say that on the wiki.

Eh… I think the actual story and all, albeit in little puny breadcrumbs, was OK. Nothing amazing but certainly not kittenomeone who is not currently playing the game, I am sort of screwed if I ever want to come back and see all of the Living Story stuff. I would have had to log in once during the duration of each chapter. This is sort of against their whole mantra of “play, take a break, come back and pick up where you left off! You wont miss a thing!” Yeah, BS.

Honestly, I am contemplating coming back for HoT, but I know I would have missed many many chapters of LS simply because I didnt log in and that greatly kittenes me off. Its the principle of the matter with me.

As far as Mr. Whitesides apparent departure: Whether or not you are/were the foreman of the Living Story idea that I disliked so much, I wish you well. The hours you put into the CDI, whether or not one could see a lot of improvement in the game derived from CDI, you did pour your heart into Arenanet and I wish you well.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

It seems to be coincidental to me that Chris is responsible for the Living World idea that took GW2 to a wrong direction, that is so wrong that the initial vision of the game was lost or thrown out the window.

Don’t flame me — it’s just my observation and I am more than likely wrong.

I dont know if HE was the one that decided on Living Story, it was probably a collaborative effort and decision amongst some high ups.

But, agreeing with you, Living Story in my humble opinion took GW2 into a wrong direction and ultimately away from my desire to play and spend money on the game.

Serophous.9085:

There go the CDIs….

Thats the first thing I thought of.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/428839/page/1

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chris_Whiteside

Sad news if true.

Boanoah.6719:

It was confirmed by Colin in an interview that all Living Story segments, events, and updates will be gated behind the expansion. Nothing like the attack on Lion’s Arch, the Toxic Alliance, or the Silverwastes/Drytop will be coming out for vanilla players to interact with.

If you enjoy PvE but can’t get the expansion for a while you may as well quit or start playing WvW or PvP since neither of those are apparently being gated.

How do you guys feel about this? Is it justified that from this point on everything will be happening in Maguuma? It’s pretty much guaranteed to isolate the community between HoT and not so how will that affect PvE in general? If there’s a new hub in the jungles it’s likely that a majority of players will simply leave ‘Pact Tyria’ in the dust like ANet is doing.

I hope you enjoy doing the exact same content you’ve been doing already, because without HoT you get nothing from this point onwards.

Discuss.

Could someone please clarify this for me? I have barely played in the last 6 months to a year… if I get the expansion…what does this mean for me?

Edit: I just re-read…and yeah I agree with everyone else. This is how most other games handle their expansions. If you didn’t pay for the expansion, you still expect to zone into Maguuma?

However… the one issue I will have with this is the idea behind living story and thus gating future content updates behind the expansion.

Living world… living breathing world. If you don’t buy the expansion, your living world ceases to be living. And no to mention, the world is bigger than one zone. So the sound of the phrase ‘living world’ is funny, when all that is changing is one zone when the expansion comes out.

But again…bills must be paid and this is a traditional thing to do with expansions.

aerial.7021:

cesmode.4257:

I dont think arenanet needed to make ascended gear available outside of fractals. The gear is specifically for fractals…just let it drop in side of fractals. Then this entire debate is put to bed.

Please educate me as it’s a little hard to look up on a wiki of what terms to define a search for it, do PvP players (note I am not one, and never will be) when they use a PvE geared character use those stats on their armor in PvP ?

If its the case that stats from PvE are imported to your PvP character then its very much more important than just fractals, I’d say its essential equipment if you was going to be playing PvP to have the best the game as to off.

My point was this:

There was a pocket of players that wanted this sort of progression.
Seemingly endless fractals was a nice way to go, with a fractal-only stat(Agony Resistance) on each ascended piece. Agony only exists in fractals and you need AR to climb the fractal levels.

Since Agony only exists in Fractals, wouldn’t it have made more sense to only make ascended gear available in fractals, and only USABLE in fractals? Im sorry, I think that last point I was not clear in my first post. Only usable in fractals.

Outside of fractals, you would still use exotic gear and would be unable to use Ascended gear.

Vayne.8563:

@cesmode

If the gear was introduced to keep people playing, limiting it to Fractals would have made little sense.

Of course now, it would make less sense. How do you tell all the people who invested in making that stuff that it’s now only usable in Fractals?

My whole point is that creating a treadmill, however slight even in the case of GW2 ascended gear, is a fallacy.

There are more interesting ways to keep people playing and entertained than introducing more levels or a new tier of gear.

D3 is a decent example. They released their first expansion, and since then they have implimented seasons, new sets, new pieces of gear to acquire that do different things and promote different gameplay and build diversity, but they havent increased the level cap since they released their first expansion. Season 2 is right around the corner with new sets and new legionaries to create more build diversity.

Its just an example that you dont need to climb the level ladder or stat ladder in order to keep people playing.

Outside of fractals, ascended gear is not needed…so why is it available outside of fractals? If there is a pocket of players that wanted that sort of progression, fine. Give them fractals, and within the fractals themselves make the ascended gear available. Injecting ascended gear into the rest of the game served no purpose because the true benefit of ascended gear can only be felt in fractals.

I hope im explaining myself clearly.

As to your second point, obviously. It can’t be undone now. Im saying this is how I think it should have been handled from the start.

I dont think arenanet needed to make ascended gear available outside of fractals. The gear is specifically for fractals…just let it drop in side of fractals. Then this entire debate is put to bed.

I dont think, for the rest of the game, ascended gear was needed. Levels and any sort of gear grind, no matter how small, is an illusion of content. Instead, they could have kept us engaged with interesting systems, encouragement to explore any part of the world we wanted on any given day(even places we have been to), etc.

Ive said it a dozen times on these forums… if we had a system for PvE/Dynamic Events similar to the WvW system (in that as a playerbase we need to successfully complete dynamic events across the entire world to receive buffs, etc) I think the game would have been better off.

Stark.1350:

Alright, I’m going to ask everyone in this thread a very simple question.

Say ascended armor was made much easier to obtain. Say it only took a month to complete “challenging content” to fully deck out your character.

With nothing else to work towards, yes or no – would you get bored with the game? And for people that answer yes, isn’t that a major problem for a non-subscription MMO?

Also keep in mind, that there are not adding any gear progression or level changes in the expansion. The game has been out for 2.5 years. And it’s going to be another couple before we see another. So let’s say, you’ve had 4.5 years to obtain your ascended gear and you can get it done in a month now. See if that changes your answer.

No.

Levels, any sort of gear progression…all artificial forms of content.

If arenanet was able to keep us engaged without ascended gear and without upping the levels, then they would be exceptionally successful.

If ascended gear did not exist today, and I had a reason to go off exploring or play in any zone that I wanted at the current time, then gear grinds and increasing level caps would not matter.

Redfield.6174:

VodCom.6924:

Some people clearly need a recall :

• An MMO is considered “grindy” if one has to repeat a small set of simple and uninteresting tasks in order to reach the level cap and enjoy the “end-game content”
• Having objects or rewards that require grind in a game does not make it “grindy”
• In GW2 the end-game content can be summed up as : dry top + silverwastes ; megaboss ; living world ; dungeons and fractals. Of all these only fractals of level 10+ require ascended equipment. Thus one with exotic gear can access 100% of endgame content since you walk through the same fractals at level or 50 (only the difficulty changes).
• And GW2 gives you tools to bypass the leveling process for your alts (exp tomes + skill scrolls + gold to buy traits).

With that in mind, one cannot possibly claim that GW2 is a grindy MMO. The ones who do either :

• Want everything handeled to them immediately without breaking a sweat.
• bash the game for the sake of bashing Anet/the game.

Edit : I’d also like to remind you all that ascended tier items were added because a vocal minority (not pointing fingers here) asked for something to grind for once they’ve finished the game.

THIS. Just stick with this comment and erase the rest, please.

Just on your last point , " Edit : I’d also like to remind you all that ascended tier items were added because a vocal minority (not pointing fingers here) asked for something to grind for once they’ve finished the game "…

Curious, why would they cater and bend to one small minority of players and not others? (and they have said they knew it would have the reaction it got before they released ascended gear )

There are other vocal minority, or even almost majority of players that have large concerns about some areas of this game that get little to no attention their way.

I’d start with pointing out that there are probably more people that like LS, but theres probably more people that dislike it than there were people that clamored for Ascended gear. Just a guess though…

Aside from that…
-Dungeon revamps: theres a dungeon crawl minority that has been completely overlooked.
-Encouragement to play in the open world in any zone: Theres a section of the playerbase that wants to just log in and complete dynamic events in any zone that they choose, but not feel like they have wasted their time. 1.5 silver and 12k XP is a horrible way for rewarding what many consider the whole point of this game.

Just a few examples…

And I understand that they can’t possible address every pocket of players, but I do find it interesting that they addressed the one pocket of players (and issue) that would create one of the largest controversies and debated topics on these forums(and in game).

Errant Venture.9371:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Fallenfister.8341:

I had a shaman build warrior for support and buffing with banners and the war horn, it seems now form what I read that’s a worthless spec and should do something else?

I see people playing this build in the game today. What makes you feel it’s no longer effective?

Because regen and vigor are relatively useless in most of PvE where the vast majority of damage can be avoided by positioning?

Agreed, and to add…

People, most people, have enough gear to zerk down bosses without any buffs and whatnot from a ‘shaman warrior’.

This has been a core issue to your combat gameplay. Theres absolutely no need to go support in PVE because either a) mobs die too quickly, b) there are one shot abilities that take you down to half health or kill you so whats a little heal going to do in the face of that? c) people don’t stack enough to receive some of the benefits of these buffs and combo fields…

When you begin to pay attention to this and encourage actual teamplay rather than zerk and avoid bad floor, then these builds become viable.

I made a post about this over the weekend I believe but I don’t think it garnered a ton of traction and was full of speculation. Im not up to speed on Terms of Service or forum agreements, so if this post is out of line, please simply close it (without the lash of an infraction! )

Curious what Arenanet thinks about Living Story and the upcoming expansion? Will you continue to develop on a ~2week cadence with the living story that feeds off of the expansion? Or once the expansion comes out, you will return to a more traditional model of content updates and abandon living story?

Just curious where arenanet stands…

I read what Colin said, but I haven’t read what any of you have said.

I have been out of the game a while, but I guess you can acquire all of the materials needed to craft ascended gear via world bosses, temples, dungeons, etc. So by Colin’s definition, no this isn’t a grind.

And he is correct, we are free to form our own opinions on what a grind is.

One of the issues I take with Colin’s statement is that, and correct me if I am wrong, you can only acquire ascended gear via grinding (or at least the drop rate of ascended gear is most likely abysmally low). What if I dont like crafting and do not have a crafter up to max level? Must I grind that up, and then go farm all of the different modes for materials? Crafting for ascended gear may not be an activity I like.

Why can’t these actual pieces be rewards for dungeon play or something?

Now this is the kicker isnt it?

The hype machine is on full throttle with this announcement, everyone is losing their minds but they are forgetting: If Living Story is the continued focus after this expansion is released, you’ll have the same sort of focus and support for the game that you currently have.

Dungeons get zero love.
Guild Missions get zero love.
Raids would get zero love.

The details on paper sound amazing. But I know that arenanet will abandon the dungeons once they are in the game and once they re-turn their focus toward living story.

It’ll be same sh_t different day…

darkace.8925:

God I hope so. I wouldn’t mind period content added to move the world forward in time a few months (like the cleanup and restoration of Lion’s Arch happening over time), but I’ve had more than enough of the episodic content delivered through the Living Story that, in my opinion, falls WAY short of what ArenaNet is capable of.

I agree. So long as living story stays in the game, I’ll probably stay out. This announcement is very intriguing and I wish it happened a year ago. I just think, for me, its too late. This ship has sailed.

I hate to be a downer about it all and even I as someone who hasn’t played alot in the last 9 months or so, I am very intrigued…I think arenanet will find some way to chip away at this.

I mean…the game launched with amazing hype and it was pure awsomeness for 3 months until they started throwing new things in that they never hinted at, making fishy changes, etc. I honestly dont trust them at their word to make a great expansion, even though on paper it looks awsome. Ive taken my wallet elsewhere in the last year and I have enjoyed my time with more reputable developers. If arenanet can stay the course with this expansion and not foul it up by throwing in a curve ball at the end, maybe Ill think about returning but I remain VERY skeptical about this expansion living up to the hype and arenanets word.

I didnt read all of the info on it, are they increasing level cap?