Guild Wars 2

Calae.1738:

I have a 5 year old nephew who got bored of Skylanders in less than a month.

I’ve installed an SNES emulator and downloaded the hardest SNES games I could find. Today I play with him from time to time and we solve puzzles together. Hard puzzles. Puzzles that even I have a hard time with. He thinks the games are too hard but I’m teaching him the value of hard work and effort. “Keep trying and you’ll eventually find the solution” I tell him.

I’ve already made the mistake of buying him easy games. I can already see behavioral trends steering him towards instant gratification. I’m working on reversing that.

He’s too young to fully understand the benefits of what I’m teaching him; one day when he gets older he will.

You seem to be associating the value of ‘difficulty’ with the satisfaction you gather from overcoming something difficult. There’s nothing wrong with that – and attempting to teach your nephew not to rely purely on instant gratification is something I admire – but as others have said, there’s little need to demonise ‘easy’ challenges when enjoyed as part of a wider spectrum of entertainment. I consider that understanding and appreciating simplicity and enjoying it in moderation with material that challenges you is an important way to enjoy life, but it’s when an individual relies too much on one side that they tend to lose the ability to appreciate the other. That just leads to a limited view, in my opinion – a fixation on the familiar stimuli and impulses that make us feel comfortable. In that way, a ‘challenging’ stimulus could potentially include attempts to enjoy something that you would normally consider to be of lesser value (perhaps even detrimental, within reason).

Not that everyone can or should do this, mind – it’s just how I go about things myself.

@TheProphetOmega: Good thread :]

I made this delicious chocolate cake, but I don’t know why because all life is pointless and eventually I will die.

(An aspect of time-limited content is the concept of rarity/scarcity that can drive public activity towards said content, temporarily increasing activity or focusing it upon desirable activities. Creating a constant stream of time-limited content is a method by which said activity may be prolonged without said content growing stale and allowing players to settle into disinterest and overfamiliarity, while also fostering the perception of a development team that is consistently building upon what they have created, further increasing the value of their initial work.)

If I follow this link and there’s not this guy’s CV at the bottom of the article soliciting games companies for employment as ‘a REAL Games Economist’, I’m going to be disappointed.

I’m confirming it here.

Some guy on a forum, confirming this.

Also, mounts, playable dragons, dual-wielding longbows.

I’m less certain that people are legitimately angry or as upset as their posts tend to make them seem to me and more certain that some folks don’t really know how or care enough to phrase their frustrations without appealing to emotion in the reader in some shape or form.

Saying that, I don’t believe I’ve ever truly been distraught over something a games company did to me, so maybe I’m just lucky and handsome.

Scootabuser.4915:

proxy.7963:

Sub-par player here.

I don’t think anyone has ever had big enough shoulders to give a shrug expansive enough to represent my reaction towards anyone upset about me not having Berserker gear.

I don’t think I’d particularly enjoy playing with anyone who would react like that anyway, so if anything it’s like an easy way to tell if I’m likely to be friends with you.

Right cause, if you have 4 strong players, it’s easy to carry the fifth.

But if there were 3 people like you in a group, you wouldn’t be able to get past the dungeon with a repair build under 1g.

I don’t feel that I’m utterly useless despite referring to myself as ‘sub-par’ – I’m erring on the side of caution because I honestly don’t care about being considered great at the game. Perhaps I’m slightly above par? Nominally over average? I’d rather be modest about my actual abilities than egotistical and demanding that others match my expectations of them, which is something that I tend to associate with people who screen party members based on their classes and equipment alone – and you can make requests of people without making demands.

My main’s an Engineer – I like the class and I’m fond of the aesthetic. I’m also fully aware that some people will dismiss me out of hand based on that alone. However, I don’t want to be ‘carried’ and I don’t encourage others to feel as though they have to carry me. I’d rather find a like-minded group of folks who are happy with accepting that we might have to work a bit harder at something due to our decision to go with personal preference over efficiency. However, if efficiency’s your preference that’s all cool – it just suggests that we might not gel too well.

And if my choices really mean that I can’t take active part in any particular content – if I don’t reach a certain skill level to engage with a dungeon or whatever – then provided I can, I accept that this is due to my own decisions and feelings about the game and move on.

I don’t really feel that it’s common for content to be created from the ground up to be completed as efficiently as possible and so the community pressure for this efficiency is a community-based behavioural option, not necessarily the intended one.

lLobo.7960:

you’ll get a town clothing b-day hat.

And like it.

Sub-par player here.

I don’t think anyone has ever had big enough shoulders to give a shrug expansive enough to represent my reaction towards anyone upset about me not having Berserker gear.

I don’t think I’d particularly enjoy playing with anyone who would react like that anyway, so if anything it’s like an easy way to tell if I’m likely to be friends with you.

I’m not about to say that I know anything about GW2’s development, but software development is quite often iterative – it’s cyclical and is reconsidered many times before and after release (the latter made possible through the ease of patch distribution). This means that a project is constantly being reviewed throughout development, on both a large and a small scale, to try and ensure it meets its targets.

There are many restrictions during a project’s development, but two that come to mind force people to balance the scope of what you intend to create versus the resources you have available to create it. Many times, a project’s deadlines are adjusted in order to accommodate the ideal finished product. Other times, deadlines are strictly enforced, developers work within them and are often forced to scrap, delay or reconsider concepts so that they can meet the final date. Both have advantages and disadvantages and can be applied particularly well to certain industries and pursuits.

I don’t believe any developer who cares about their work and respects the resources sunk into it likes to see something released that isn’t perfect. However, sometimes something just needs to be released – it needs to hit the shelves – and in these cases they have to make concessions with knowledge that some things could be improved – often, considerably so. However, as mentioned, software has the crutch that it can be continually improved over time provided that resources to do so can be found.

This is an example (heavily simplified) as to why you might find ‘broken’ games – they were released so that Devs could have the opportunity to ‘fix’ them during the software’s lifespan, fuelled by our cash dribbling in through sales.

Also, publishers are people too, so while they might well act as a source of pressure for release, it’s not always their fault for attempting to do their job.

Josh – Just want to say that I really appreciate your engagement in these threads. It’s great to see a content developer discuss the limitations and issues you guys have to deal with in implementing something like SAB in a completely different genre.

Hopefully that’s not patronising .__.

These demand an in-game score board (with names limited to three characters).

Grok.9725:

Wolfheart.1938:

I’m sure that the guys who worked on the Super Adventure Box would’ve done a great job balancing the game. /sarcasm

Why not? You don’t think SAB required a game designer who had to create and manage the overall gameplay? Do you think that game designer is only proficient in designing platformers and has no skill in other types of gameplay? You don’t think the graphic designers and programmers who worked on SAB could have executed the direction of the game designer?

The employees used in the creation of the Super Adventure Box and the money used to pay them most certainly could have gone towards balancing the game.

Define ‘balance’. Josh Foreman seems to principally be a level designer and artist. I’ve mentioned elsewhere that the novel mechanics added for SAB aren’t extensive and instead the whole thing has been created from a limited set of tools which have been applied with a strong visual flourish and a familiarity with level design. I hope Josh and those that worked on this don’t take this to heart, but none of these things speak of being able to balance one set of skills against another on a mathematical level and there’s nothing to say what jobs the programmers involved would have otherwise spent their time doing. But programmers and artists don’t usually balance – that’s a designer’s job.

Frankly, if the folks who put together the SAB focus in art and level design/geography, I’d say they did exactly what their job title says they should be doing.

Alarox.4590:

Guy 1: I bought a serious RPG because that’s what I like playing, and that’s what this game was promised to be. But the additions are directly compromising this.

Guy 2: Dude, brighten up. It’s just a game, it’s just a mini-game too. Are you just anti-fun or something? Stop complaining, you don’t have to play it. Jerk.

Guy 3: How dare you! ArenaNet worked so hard on this, and all you can do is complain like an entitled child. You’re just an irrational and hateful person. This isn’t your kind of game; we don’t need you here. You’re just a GW2/ArenaNet hater, therefore anything you say is invalid.

---

Pretty much every thread on this. People who are annoyed because the game they bought and enjoyed because of what it was, is slowly going in a completely different direction. People who have no capacity to understand the viewpoint of the previous people and assume they’re anti-fun or just jerks. People who are the previous, except also view the game as part of their identity, and act as if you’ve insulted their religion (which you essentially have), and use straw man/ad hominem in every response.

It’d be really nice if people would try to understand where other people are coming from before insulting them and removing all chance for an actual discussion. But that’s what all game forums are now.

Isn’t this a strawman in and of itself?

I do see where people are coming from, but I personally believe that their reaction to this is somewhat overblown. Perhaps that’s because this is a sore subject with some – perhaps it’s because they feel victimised by the implementation of something that they feel strongly enough against to complain about it. However, I’m not convinced that April Fool’s joke content – regardless of the depth – should be considered as severely as some seem to want to or feel the need to – that some guard their opinions as to what should go into the game so closely that they can’t deal with joke content that’s contrary. And I think that’s why the joke works so well – because it’s so directly contrasting with a fairly vocal subset of the playerbase, but is also sincere in its delivery.

Hardly – if anything, it goes to show how much members of ANet’s dev team are capable of given the restrictions in play. There’s clearly a lot of creativity at work even if you’re not keen on the content and a lot of community members have responded positively to it.

It’s not unbelievable that some aren’t keen on the SAB – no content is released without negative feedback. But this is the first time I can remember there being such a volume of positive praise on the forum. As an April Fool’s joke – a bit of a subversion of the norm – I’d consider it pretty successful. As a piece of content in the wider game, it’s worked on a level far beyond its novelty value alone.

Not trying to undermine your feedback or putting words into Josh’s mouth, but I get the impression that JPs are an exhibition of level design over mechanics. The act of jumping in GW2 is pretty basic and is likely limited by a bunch of other factors (animations, fighting mechanics, etc etc) and JPs are really showcasing how platforming sections can be built up around this very simple ability using the level design alone rather than attempting to play with the act of jumping in itself. If anything, I’m amazed how much fun I have with the SAB considering that it doesn’t involve any of the fancy stuff I’ve come to expect from platforming games over the past decade or so – it’s really an example of how working with constraints can encourage creativity. In addition, I’m not sure how much freedom Josh and his team had over the mechanics in place – there’s clearly been some work on the level design, art and animation fronts, but less evidence in the physics of the SAB, where the team would need to be larger and cover more roles.

So while I agree with you all that the mechanics of the thing are a bit restricted and occasionally pretty off, I’m not sure that playing with these was the intention of the SAB. However, the SAB could well be a nice, self-contained method of experimenting with new jumping mechanics and physics without them spilling over into the main game if the Devs felt like it.

None of the elite skills as an Asuran Engineer really support the builds I like to play – they’re enjoyable enough but I think I’d appreciate the choice of another Utility skill for the slot if I wanted to really fine-tune my build. I often find myself one Utility away from something I feel would work really well, but as they stand I don’t feel that the Elites on offer really contribute to a build but instead add more options – fun options, but ones that might not necessarily gel with my build.

That might be the intention of Elites though – to add variety in a way that doesn’t necessarily rely on your general build but instead can potentially benefit all builds in a fairly unspecific way.

So ‘Yes’, it would be nice.

Perhaps for a period BLCs could also give tokens (more tokens! ) with every chest opened.

10 tokens, get a skin?

I don’t know! However, I do know that I’d be more likely to buy into the chests if I knew that I would get what I wanted, even if that’s limited by spending a certain amount of cash. Plus, the promise of one skin and an opportunity to also pick up a maximum of 10 additional skins (which is unlikely, but nonetheless) could scratch the gambler’s itch.

I use lotion on my gambler’s itch – works wonders.

E-Sport.

No.

Vasham.2408:

Two million sales and the fact they’re officially offering free transfers shows exactly how brilliant I am. Two million is pathetic for an MMO at launch these days, especially since successful new MMOs have a 50% player retention rate, GW2’s retention rate being somewhere in the order of 20-25%.

Besides, if the game was successful they wouldn’t be basing server populations on accounts tied to server. It would be based on active players.

Are those figures for non-subscription-based MMOs? And how are retention rates being considered for non-subscription MMOs that promote the concept of taking time away as much as GW2 does/did, where the concept of ‘retention’ is nebulous at best?

-edit- Also, where are those figures coming from and what MMOs are you using for the 50% / sales figures comparison?

Everyone is given a Legendary of their choice with a custom description.

‘Be careful what you wish for’.

I wonder if whichever Dev said they would / confirmed they were working on the Scavenger Hunt on the forums is regretting it yet?

That sure is a list of things.

Morena.9604:

I do not claim the result or the final state of GW2 bad or good but only works for some type of players.

Sad thing is they feel better by saying ‘this game is for me’. Elitism with no sense. I say ‘no sense’ because elitism at least makes a bit sense when there is competition or when you have something unreachable but here…

I hate elitism in all platforms.

Stop me if I’m misunderstanding, but …

While it’s true that some people do come off as a little too defensive when they say that ‘This game isn’t for you’ (and similar), you’ve essentially highlighted all of the things that people might logically be looking for from GW2 based on current market alternatives and merchandising that are not currently found in-game. It’s not an unreasonable expectation for a person who has played no other MMO than WoW to come to GW2 and expect a largely similar experience. In fact, many GW1 veterans are pretty fiercely proud that the game they played bucked many of the trends that were around at the time and resisted some of the changes implemented since its release. If a game’s specific design appeals to someone more than another design, it’s pretty natural to feel more satisfaction from playing it and be resistant to changes that might reduce their enjoyment, and I don’t think it’s particularly inappropriate for someone to tell another that what they’re looking for might not be within the intended design scope of the game they’re talking about, provided they’re not rude about it. GW2 doesn’t have raids or raid-like content, for example, so it’s accurate to say that if you’re looking for that, you won’t be able to find it here (at the moment, anyway). That’s not really elitism unless I start injecting my own feelings into it (‘GW2 doesn’t have raiding because I think raiding is dumb’, etc).

Am I wrong in saying that you expected all of your points in your original post to be included in the game? I’m getting that impression, but I might be wrong.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Anyway, I have yet to actually touch PvP in this game . . . mostly because I’m not compelled to beyond the limited experiences of WvW. It’s a wonderfully chaotic experience which is sure to make me rage quietly at how ineffective I am at keeping daggers out of my back.

Since we’re merrily romping around off-topic territory, being massively incompetent is probably one my favourite things about my limited hours in WvWvW. I doubt it makes me any friends, but sprinting around trying my darndest and getting bounced around by folks more skilled than I am is just part of the fun for me – it’s more a game of scrappy, desperate survival than anything glorious and heroic and I’m cool with that.

I didn’t really like hopping all over the place just to do Dragons and Maw for easy loot. Made me feel dirty.

Thanks to ANet for managing my compulsions for me!

Exotic dancing.

I don’t really know what this thread is about besides an opportunity for people to back-and-forth about everything in the game all in one place. It’s like a microcosm of the entire General forum.

The actions of getting all the items for a Legendary aren’t really something that align with my playstyle, so no. I’d be happy with a neat Exotic skin from the Mystic Forge.

Saying that, if a Precursor happened to drop into my lap I might think differently.

proxy.7963:

Sky / OP:

I’m not too sure if this is the driving point of your criticism, but what sort of dailies would you like to see introduced that would help reward you for your chosen playstyle?

Just quoting this in the hopes that I’ll get a response from Sky.

Sky / OP:

I’m not too sure if this is the driving point of your criticism, but what sort of dailies would you like to see introduced that would help reward you for your chosen playstyle?

Please don’t start thinking that there will be a chance for a precursor at the end of this event :[ You don’t have anything to gain by building yourself up for something that might not happen and that we’ve not been told will happen.

Speaking broadly, it seems that many of the issues that people have had with the monthly updates so far is a disparity between communicated scope and perhaps internal pressures due to the strict schedule. For example, the ‘big WvWvW patch’ was moved back and the impact of these teasers for F&F was much smaller than people seemed to have expected. I don’t want to patronize (but I feel I’m doing so by posting here at all .__.), but it strikes me that the marketing team need to have discussions with the developers and content providers to strike a more representative balance between selling the content before it’s ready and actually implementing the finished product.

Saying that, monthly updates set a pretty hard bar to make and I fully recognise that not only is ANet shifting its gears towards this style of development and content but that iterative processes and hard deadlines don’t always allow for things to be released as one might hope – which is why marketing them accurately is difficult. I might even suggest that the deadline is the toughest thing here and not the content itself. We’re familiar with ANet’s ‘release it when ready’ creed of the past, but these recent changes take them pretty drastically towards ‘release it when we have to’. Readjusting your scope to fit this scheduling might not be easy.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I’m not going to think harshly if F&F doesn’t quite live up to hype. Like others, I feel that the content we currently have might have been better implemented with less hype based on its scope and people who are hungry for more narrative-driven stuff will eat through this in an afternoon. It feels that the actual content might have been intended to have been a lot more subtle than it turned out to be and perhaps they could have been better received had they remained completely in-game – perhaps with some out-of-game character-based blogs to give things a bit more of an emotive lean than the currently faceless refugees. Folks were mentioning the whales earlier in this thread, despite them being a tiny part of the goings-on at the time – whales are pretty emotive things to some people. Characterless NPCs driven from homes we’re not familiar with by things we weren’t aware of for reasons we’re not aware of is a much tougher selling point, particularly when many players have churned through rescuing hundreds of NPCs like these during their time in-game.

I’d argue that focusing or simplifying enemies towards certain ‘functions’ is a little undermined by a player’s ability to remove or negate a lot of different statuses very efficiently and without too much effort. Dodging as well tends to mitigate the effectiveness of all attacks, regardless of the status that they might cause. Both of these are pretty much a catch-all defence – avoid attacks and remove the worst of what hits you. This could be down to the game’s solo-friendly design – by reducing reliance on a group, you also increase your ability to deal with more threats by yourself.

I like theming enemies, though I hate feeling that I’m just fighting reskins of other enemies.

Off-Topic Misc Design Blah: Generally, GW2 very much encourages players to switch up their abilities on the fly (or immediately prior to … the … fly?). Having access to a pool of skills and traits that can be changed so long as one is not in combat offers pretty substantial means to tailor your set-up to suit a situation, barring the inability to fundamentally alter your trait investments. Exotics are fairly easy to get – Rares even more so – and I wonder how many players carry around alternate gear to suit challenges their normal build doesn’t work out on.

I know, for example, that my current set-up isn’t DPS, but certain challenges would benefit from me having increased DPS; for timed events where I have to kill a bunch of things, it makes sense that I would want to kill them quicker and spend less time absorbing damage. And I know that tweaking with my pow/tou/vit build to push out more damage wouldn’t be efficient in the long-term (without respeccing traits completely), but it could shift the balance in my favour.

I’m curious as to how often people actually do change their set-up to adapt to difficult sections and how often they attempt to push on through with their regular build and perhaps become frustrated as a result. I’m also curious to know how many enemies and events are designed with this flexibility in mind, ie; the idea that players will add a Stability-causing skill to their set in response to an enemy with knockback.

I’ve always found it interesting that some people’s view of ANet time-gating Ascended gear via Laurels has pretty much resulted in a directly opposing opinion to mine.

‘I have to wait a month (or more) to get a piece of Ascended gear via Laurels!?’

vs.

‘I get a piece of Ascended gear every month for playing the game no differently to as I was playing before? With very little effort?’

I’m likely misrepresenting the first reaction because I want it to be concise, but I still feel that the relative impact these changes have had on me are essentially minor unless I one day became bothered about how my gear was impacting on my effectiveness in WvWvW (read: none – I’m legitimately not skilled enough for my gear level vs. an opponent’s to really have any significant impact on me and I believe that there are more factors not under my control influencing this sort of thing).

LordGustoff – I’m happy to hear that you’ve reconsidered your thoughts, if only because you seem happier in yourself now. I was never bothered about Fractals and I felt it was something that would push players towards hyper-efficiency and elitism, but the truth is that as little play time I’ve spent there, I’ve enjoyed it all. I’m a very casual player in that I prefer to chase goals under my own steam and not someone else’s – or the expectations of the community – and this has resulted in a lot of play time being generally very inefficient. But regardless I’ve enjoyed myself.

Engineers for multiple backpacks, please. Just pile them on top of each other – a weapon kit pack on top of my Toymaker’s Bag. Maybe multiple kit packs showing at the same time depending on how many I have slotted into my skills.

I want to look like a pack donkey. An angry Asuran pack donkey.

I’ll probably never pick up Town Clothes – if I wanted to buy something to support the developers, I’m more likely to stick my money on buying Gold than Town Clothes, because I don’t really spend enough time standing around. I liked the Quaggan Backpack because it was silly and could be used elsewhere, so it’d be great to see more armour/weapon skins, or perhaps some unique dyes.

Meret.5943:

“In my opinion” most of the comments in this thread, particularly on the first page and starting with the OP, have been very thoughtful and constructive, even when I don’t agree with everyone. I’m not sure this thread needs a lecture on positive discourse.

Intended less as a lecture and more an expression of my own opinion and thoughts on the matter. Sorry if it came off as starchy.

I’m honestly sceptical with some arguments setting GW2 against GW1 how much of the argument is coloured by nostalgia for something that was doubtless quite influential during many years of the person’s life. Trying to argue that certain mechanical choices were just ‘better’ in one version over the other, for example; of course you feel that they were better – you engaged with them for years. You’re bound to identify with them. If you’re attempting to objectively argue something you’ve invested so much of yourself into, it’s very difficult to do it without inherent bias from a subjective standpoint. Managing that means that you’re being self-critical as much as you are defending your viewpoint, because you’re attempting to look at something unclouded by preconceptions that may be distorting your view.

People prefer one thing over another – that’s fine. Simply saying that you like a thing so that makes it better – and even trying to justify your view without sufficiently addressing opposing views – doesn’t make a constructive argument. You’re not taking part in discussion at that point, you’re attempting to make a statement and things just become confused when someone decides to disagree with that statement. Or you’re ‘stating an opinion’ that you actually consider to be either fact or more valid than opposing opinions.

There’s an irony in that I’m saying all that as though it were fact, and I understand that some might not agree. But I see more arguments here (EDIT: On the forums) than discussion – more attempts to debunk people than understand them. And I don’t feel that we benefit from these at all.

As thisolderhead has said, these points could easily be made without specific inference that GW1 was a superior game – implementing challenging AI is an industry issue, not just limited to GW1 vs 2. That marginalises the topic in my view.

However, I don’t necessarily believe that the application of GW1’s AI was inherently superior to GW2’s based on their use of player skill-set templates. I liked that the PvE material felt like training for PvP despite not intending to play any PvP – it was an interesting concept and balancing act for a game that promoted both styles of play. But I didn’t like how my reactions to each ‘class’ of enemy became scripted over time and how enemies felt like reskins of each other. As much as people complain about ‘just having to press the same buttons’ for GW2’s enemies, I fell into a set response to each GW1 enemy type that didn’t feel particularly more engaging, and I might even argue that it restricted solo play due to the necessity of proper target management. In general, I feel that GW2 is more open to experimentation within the player’s own class and less punishing of misstep, and I hope that future content builds on that and provides more opportunities for it as I admit that I would like for there to be more choice within skills and such.

I enjoy challenging content and complexity (and an associated difficulty with predicting an opponent’s next move) generally makes things more challenging if they are not hampered in other mechanical ways. However, I don’t feel it’s right to suggest that all players should agree with me, so I would never suggest that GW2’s system is inherently inferior to GW1’s based on my own preferences. More challenging content without an associated change in loot drops would likely have an impact upon farming and the ability of certain classes to efficiently farm and regardless of farming being something I enjoy, it is something that others enjoy and it fuels the economy as a result. That’s just an example as to how looking at this from a purely personal perspective could result in a negative impact on people who don’t share my point of view, and who I don’t expect to.

cesmode.4257:

@proxy: Either way, I feel that there were a lot less unhappy people before November 15 when they introduced the first ‘power creep’ or ‘stat increase’ or ‘gear treadmill’. It seems that every patch since then has been under intense scrutiny, and I feel thats because many were burned in november.

In my opinion, before the November patch, mostly the only people that complained were of bugs(naturally but has no bearing on this debate) and people complained of lack of endgame(which they still do now. This will never go away until there are instanced raids which I do not want).

Post November patch, people complain about bugs less, still complain about lack of end game, and now complain about gear treadmill/stat increases/unexplainable innate urges to complete mundane tasks set forth by the game devs to acquire another form of currency to purchase better stuff.

Whatever your perrsonal opinion is, or anyone’s, just from the forums alone or even map chat in LA, there are more disgruntled people now, and last month, and the month before that, than there were in September or October.

This whole direction just piled onto the disgruntled people that are still disgruntled with the lack of stuff to do.

I’m not arguing with anyone’s opinions of feelings on the game – they’re valid, even if I happen not to share them. But this is something that seems rife in communities such as this. We enjoy the majority of the game – your list of goals above, barring acquisition of Ascended gear, still consists of a majority of things that can still be pursued and presumably enjoyed. But despite this overwhelming amount of content, we allow one aspect that we are not happy with to apparently sour everything else. I see a lot of people actively complaining about Ascended gear not because it simply exists, but because they feel compelled to take part. And if this is a compulsion – and if you can’t moderate or manage it – then I’m not surprised this has impacted on your enjoyment. But I would suggest that this isn’t something you should allow to rule your time.

There is another aspect to this debate that I’d like to acknowledge – the mechanical, quantifiable benefits offered by Ascended gear. Now, it’s true that ANet might introduce content that will be made considerably easier by having Ascended gear – and it’s true that the community may become fixated on ensuring that everyone they party up with has this gear (a solution to that could be actively opposing it in-game and ensure that you include everyone you can in your time there, regardless of equipment). But at the moment, the only real areas in which stats can significantly make your time easier/more satisfying are dungeons and WvWvW.

Do me a favour – head into WvWvW in all greens or rares. Play as you normally would (though I’m presuming that a portion of that is within a group and against a group, as WvWvW does have a significant lean towards group play). Every time you fight an enemy, try to identify whether or not they have higher-level equipment than you. Then try to identify how much your decision is riding on your own win:loss ratio (which is not necessarily dependant on your gear) and your preconceived idea that you’re going to be weaker/less useful due to your gear. If you can accurately manage this I’d be surprised, because there are many factors that influence your performance other than equipment, and there’s a strong possibility that the anonymity is fuelling your concern.

It’s easy to allocate blame to ANet. I’m not saying it is or is not justified, but it’s easy – they’re the developers and they’re the biggest target. But much of our own discomfort with these changes seems to come down to our feeling that we have to take part in them. Our enjoyment is being defined for us in this manner, rather than us taking control of it for ourselves. If we feel that’s wrong, I don’t see how anyone can change it more easily – and more fundamentally – than us.

I will never have the chance to complete this jumping puzzle.

This knowledge hurts me.

I’ve never seen the whole ‘Play the way you want’ thing to really be as literal as some seem to have taken it. The phrase is based on inherently subjective and unquantifiable values, presuming that ‘the way you want’ essentially means ‘whatever is fun for you’, or perhaps ‘whatever you feel comfortable in doing’. I see a lot of criticism from people regarding ANet’s decisions regarding the Dailies and Ascended gear and, regardless of how much I agree or disagree, I can’t help but wonder whether these issues are far too personal for the developers to ever really address. If you enjoyed the game a few months ago, then ANet just so happened to make a game that appealed to you – they had a design document and they followed it and you liked the result. Recent changes are the result of a change of focus, that’s true, but for me it really does boil down to either you being a member of the original intended audience for the game or an incidental member of this group. Now that ANet are following a new design document (or a refined one), you feel left by the wayside. But I’m not convinced that this loss of ‘fun’ is really something that people can pin on ANet – it’s too individual. ANet don’t necessarily make a game for us, they make a game for people like us who like approximately the same things that we do. That approximation’s important, because it’s how they appeal to a wider audience – but it also means that sometimes they won’t quite hit the nail on the head.

This boils down to the following, as far as I’m concerned: You played the game a way you enjoyed, but apparently saddled yourself with a goal and journey that you may have enjoyed at the time, but has since turned sour (as many goals and journeys do, regardless of someone switching up the rules) – the acquisition of top-level gear. The addition of a new level of gear has led you to make some tough decisions – you want to stay on top, for whatever reason, but you don’t feel comfortable in the requirements. The easiest route out of this issue is to blame the person who has brought you to this, and it’s understandable. The hardest is to really consider why you actually want this at all.

The more you say that Ascended gear is needed on some intrinsic level to enjoy the game, the more you promote the idea within yourself. But do you really need it, or have you just convinced yourself that you do? Why do you have the concern that you fear being left behind the curve when even taking part isn’t something you want – when all of the other activities you’ve listed as wanting to do can be performed without caring too much about the curve at all?

This curve is an activity too – a goal for many. Take part or don’t. The rest of the game will still be here. If your perception is your reality, maybe you need a new perspective.

TexZero.7910:

The warriors who are complaining about this arent warriors, they are derps and should be ignored.

They believe in nothing was wrong with Glasscannon Facetanking. That should give you insight into how they believe the game should be balanced or in their cases not balanced.

I don’t have anything to add to this conversation besides that this is going to be the name of my Warrior when I make it.

I’m personally fine with dungeons being made tougher/re-balanced for the sake of those players who derive more satisfaction out of a challenge, and I appreciate that the Explorable version of a dungeon is naturally more difficult than the Story alternative, largely due to the consideration than one should probably play and master the latter before the former. I’m also fine with accepting that I’m not a particularly skilled player and that it’s entirely possible that I could, with experience and practice, overcome the unsuccessful run that I had last night at the new AC content.

But I do think that there’s an issue with effectively communicating the intended skill level these revamped dungeons require, because regardless of the skills and experience that the designers had in mind for the new AC, the result is a dungeon that seems quite drastically separated from the actual mechanical limits on who can enter – and who is encouraged to enter. The danger here is that far from being challenged and learning from their time in a dungeon, novice players – players that you might want to encourage to stay in an activity – could be overwhelmed and leave with a sour taste in their mouths. I don’t have an issue with a dungeon being rebalanced to rely more on skill than equipment/bug abuse/exploit abuse, etc, but the experience should still be about learning at that level, and I’m not convinced that new players will be learning anything besides that their time is best spent doing something else. I spent a considerable amount of time unconscious on the floor last night, and I couldn’t really engage with the experience from that position.

Personally, I’d love to see a system in dungeons similar to Fractals whereby the chosen level impacts on the relative difficulty of the dungeon and the quality of the loot, but perhaps in a way that doesn’t potentially segregate folks as Fractals has been accused of doing. And I’m by no means suggesting that loot should be drastically increased in quality (or decreased), just that content requiring greater skill might be considered to be worthy of greater reward and vice versa. Because the message ’you’re not good enough to do this yet’ seems a bit out of place in a game that encourages casual, relaxed play as much as GW2 does without alternative options, and options are always nice to have – such as the option of being able to earn Tears at a lowered rate because I’m not very good at pressing buttons.

Just wait until people run out of movies. Problem solved.

Tachenon: The process of writing a novel is completely different to the process of writing story-based content for a video game, and that’s completely ignoring all of the other supportive content that needs to go with it. It also involves a substantial investment of time and resources by a team of people, and so is inherently more risky in terms of effort vs. reward. Pacing is also utterly different, and crafting a strong narrative in a game that promotes player freedom (ie; the ability to specifically not follow any narrative) as much as GW2 does can be difficult. I understand what you’re saying and I appreciate that F&F may be better enjoyed when its has more meat on its bones, but it’s clear that the Devs are purposefully testing the waters to see how people take to this.

If anything, I’m appreciating the team’s stab at content that’s more geared towards long-term narrative. I’m curious to see where it goes.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I wonder if there’s a market for a MUD again . . .

Ruined City of Arah – Exits: S. The weather is: Foul
There is a Zhaitan here
The City of Arah has seen better days. The buildings are shells of the grand structures that stood here previously, acting merely as hollow shelters for the long-dead and rotting that shamble about mindlessly. The air is thick with decay and an unidentifiable mist that clings to your skin and makes you feel filthy by simply attempting to traverse the shattered walkways and twisted flora, seeping into your clothes and hair. The sky is an unnatural hue, green-grey and boiling with distant lightning. The sun is only a memory.

What will you do?
- go north

There is no exit North.

What will you do?
- cry

I do not understand ‘cry’.

What will you do?
- dance

You start to dance a merry jig.

A Zhaitan attacks!

What will you do?
- press 1

You arm yourself with your Pistol and fire. Your Explosive Shot strikes a Zhaitan for 5 damage!

A Zhaitan swoops down, raking your back with its claws. You are dealt 103 damage!

What will you do?
- prses 1

I do not understand ‘prses 1’.

What will you do?
- pressew 11

I do not understand ‘pressew 11’.

A Zhaitan lashes out with its claws, scoring deep lines across your chest. You are dealt 142 damage!

You are dead …

Character Creation Screen – Exits: Create Character; Log Out
You are presented with a selection of character slots. One is filled with your Level 80 Engineer.

What will you do?
- Create Warrior

Wolfheart.1938:

Here’s some screenshots. P.s. someone do a creepypasta of this.

I was at home playing GW2 and my phone started to ring. I didn’t recognise the number, but I picked up anyway – I was waiting for an Event chain to start up again.

‘Hello?’ said I.

Nothing could be heard, except the distant creaking of wood and rope, rustling of sails and the swish of the sea.

I thought it was an error or something, so I hung up and continued playing. Several minutes later, the phone went again – the same number.

‘Hello hello?’ said I. Still no response and still the same sounds. Could I hear a seagull in the distance?

I hung up again, perturbed. What was going on? Was someone trying to call me and was being interrupted by weird interference?

I don’t know about phones – I just know that they sometimes make noise and you have to push the button and then I hear voices coming out from one end. You speak in the other end and sometimes it’s someone I know and sometimes not. But I was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, so I tried to trace the call using Hacking Techniques that have been passed down through my family since my great-great-great-grandfather’s day. When they didn’t work, I read the caller display for the last caller.

‘Wait,’ I muttered. At the edge of my senses, I could smell seawater, ‘I recognise that number.’

It was mine.

The call was coming from inside the house.

And then I was a boat.

If you see me online, Ray, I’ll group with you and your partner for the dungeon.

Please keep in mind that most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing, I jump around excessively and I make inappropriate jokes on a pretty consistent basis.

Also my main’s an Engineer, which some people don’t like and I feel is pretty mean of them.

It does seem silly!