Guild Wars 2

tigirius’s post is the best of this thread, that was my point too. their model of a dynamic world was broken from the start, and ive seen it from the beta. i guess this DE model could have been implemented better in this game, but they have chosen the easy path so they can release the game earlier.
but i have to make a few corrections about your points:
1. crafting is pure grinding in every game, i cant see it working other ways. of course the drop rates can be bigger, but this way you reach the best content too early, therefore you lose interest fast.
2. this really is a good idea, but the point in running dungeons is to be the most difficult and rewarding part of the pve. so, even if drop rates of champions in low level zones will be bigger, most people will still be running dungeons.
3. this is the main problem, too little pve content for launch date, i saw that coming from the beta, and they are trying to resolve it now.
i want to add a little thing that crossed my mind… pve is only going to last through grind for the simple reason that there is not enough human and material resource to create that much content to bring always something new to players who are playing full time. it’s only basic logic, this is where Anet screwed pre-launch.

^^i definitely feel that poor DE implementation and lack of reasons to spend time in starting zones are more of a problem than this new fractals dungeon and the new gear.

the game is still pretty much unbalanced, but i expect that in the next months sPvP will be the main focus, i can’t wait for for solo/team ladders and huge organized tournaments with great rewards

i’m not a grinder, i’m just a casual gamer, didn’t even had enough time to go to level 80. i also find the game a lot of fun.

The main reason many people play high-end PvE is grind, …

fixed

but i hold my point i made earlier, this was not the only thing in their manifesto, they haven’t broken their promise in this weekend, but rather on release date imo. so why all the fuss NOW?

i entirely agree with you, even last week the game was not the one promised by the devs/PR team, DE are not as game changing as promised, personal story not much of a roleplay, etc, etc.

I totally agree with people saying that A-NET didn’t entirely followed their initial manifesto, but i want to say that the main reason they did this is because their ideal model was not meant to last in time.
The only reason people play high-end PvE is grind, when you can easily get what you want there is no point to continue playing. I always thought that this game will be focused on PvP, because i don’t see a lot of players repeating DE or even dungeons all over again just for fun. There always have to be an objective to reach.
This change of thoughts is pretty much irrelevant because there is no major advantage for grinders in WvWvW, where zerging is much more important then high stats gear and no advantage at all in sPvP.
I think that this is the only way to attract grinders (and they are a lot out there) and i don’t see why you complain that much about this change. There is enough room for everyone, casual PvErs will get enough fun exploring, doing personal story or dynamic events, hardcore PvErs will get enough challenge in dungeon run, hardcore PvPrs will continue doing tournaments. There’s enough room for everyone, and A-NET had to attract this kind of people for the sake of lifespan.