Guild Wars 2

There was also a lot of complaints about dissapearing content with the old system and how once it was gone it was inaccessible and the game was exactly the same as it was at launch. It also meant that old story lines were inaccessible to new players. At best they could only read about what happened, not access it themselves.

Dashingsteel.3410:

Actually it is very different from the original game. Yes, you have to do events and map clearing to get to the next story in the original game, but you get to choose which events to do. In HoT because of mastery points, you don’t just level as usual but have to do specific often tedious tasks to get the points. I don’t know why experience wasn’t enough to satisfy the mastery bar demands. The mastery points are a real turnoff and an inhibitor to player freedom.

Not for just doing the story though. There are plenty enough points that are just communes, or lock boxes to get the story done, not to mention some VERY easy ones you can get from adventures.

For the story you only need gliding, updraft use, bouncing mushrooms and exalted lore, which is I think five points.

You get one point for just finishing the first story so you need four more. There are two communes right in the first zone. So those communes will get you through the first stories, each of which gives you a mastery point.

Getting later mastery points, I absolutely agree that they are harder to get. They’re also account bound and you only have to do them once, or it would be intolerable. However for a single time and done progression system, I find it acceptable.

There are obviously areas where it could be improved though.

Dashingsteel.3410:

Actually it is very different from the original game. Yes, you have to do events and map clearing to get to the next story in the original game, but you get to choose which events to do. In HoT because of mastery points, you don’t just level as usual but have to do specific often tedious tasks to get the points. I don’t know why experience wasn’t enough to satisfy the mastery bar demands. The mastery points are a real turnoff and an inhibitor to player freedom.

OP was referring to the story and mastery you need for that. Getting points for just that isn’t an issue.

Yep, I enjoyed it. Because like the original game, the story isn’t something you’re meant to do and fly through. In the original game you had to level. You had to do events in the open world to get to the next story. This isn’t that different.

I mean you need a handful of mastery points to do the story, not all the masteries anyway. And there are tons of XP buffs you can take that all stack. Guild XP buff, fireworks, food, utiltiies, celebration booster, birthday booster and a good old fashion XP buff.

This long grind people are talking about, some of us call playing the game.

Lothirieth.3408:

For all of you whinging about this happening on Reddit: an AMA (Ask Me Anything) is a specific Reddit thing (https://www.reddit.com/r/iama) so of course it makes sense to do so on Reddit. This sort of thing would be very difficult to try to carry out and read on traditional forums due to the format. The Reddit format makes it incredibly easier to identify questions and then have the answers to each question be attached to said question instead of randomly on page 24 of a 49-page thread in the forums. It’s far, far more organised and keeps the different topics of questions clearly separate. So really, just quit with the indignation that (shock! horror!) a Reddit thing was carried out on Reddit.

A user was kind enough to make a summary, so you can easily read all the replies: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/490u3k/missed_the_ama_heres_a_summary/

I find this forums format easier. Each red post has up and down arrows on it to go to the next red post in sequence, which makes it easy to quickly go to each one and read it. In addition, dev posts on that forum can be hidden by downvotes and just by the way that forum is set up. Whole comment strings can be closed and if you don’t open up each one, it’s easy to miss a dev post.

There is also no reason why a “reddit thing” such as an Ask Me Anything can’t be an “official forum thing.” If the Devs find the formatting on their own official forum so unappealing, whose fault is that? If that’s their problem then maybe they should shake lose the money for a new forum format.

One last point, none of the things the Devs said are on our forums Dev tracker which makes it difficult to reference and use for discussions on the official forum.

a few months too late but:

1. get on YOUR OFFICIAL FORUMS
2. answer all the questions and address all the comments HERE
3. Hit the reset button

Randulf.7614:

A good first post by Mike. Precisely the sort of comms long awaited.

Nice to see an acknowledgement of losing sight of their original aims with the increased grind, but also positive news to fix it and soon.

April sounds like fun

I will counter that, a terrible first post.

If your first post is not even on your own official forums that makes me question spending anymore money on GW. That tells me the tools that your own team created are not worth using and instead you go else where to post. Why not just close these forums down then and move them completely to Reddit. That was a terrible first move. Makes me not even care what information was shared right now since it already has left a negative feeling on the game. -100 on this one ANet.

TheGrimm.5624:

I will counter that, a terrible first post.

If your first post is not even on your own official forums that makes me question spending anymore money on GW. That tells me the tools that your own team created are not worth using and instead you go else where to post. Why not just close these forums down then and move them completely to Reddit. That was a terrible first move. Makes me not even care what information was shared right now since it already has left a negative feeling on the game. -100 on this one ANet.

I agree, but then I’m actually shocked that he participated in an AMA at all, anywhere, given the attitude he’s displayed in the past towards communicating with the players.

I recall his “Communicating With You” thread, where he started a “discussion” by stating that no matter what the players wanted, ANet wasn’t going to provide any information about game features or content until they were basically finished being developed. He then disappeared from the thread, never to return, ignoring all responses to his initial post. He clearly had no interest in discussing the matter with the community.

Of course, at the time of that post, he had exactly TWO posts in his entire posting history — and that includes the “Communicating With You” post — so I think it’s best not to expect much in the way of communication from him. And if he does communicate something, I would expect exactly nothing in the way of responding to player concerns as a result of that communication.

I do not see this as being a positive move for the game. Not at all.

Titles should work for a Reputation System, hats how they worked in GW1 where we hat reputation due to havign different Factions in the game, providing you basically on how much reputation you collected for a said faction increasing benefits that were basically only useful for PvE only.

Thats how Titles should work in GW2 again to make them more meaningful and rewarding.
also this Game needs alot more Titles aot of unused potential there.
Not to say that this game needs better titles also – alot of the stuff that we have so far aren#t even at all real titles…

Stufff like Been there, done that, Golden, Twice told legend, The be all and end all are no titles to me …

Titles are things like “Acolyte of Dwayna”, Grand Artisan, Professor, Hero of Lions Arch and so on..
Things, that say something out about you and your character, who or what they are.
———

This way would I change titles:

Achiever Titles
Wearing the Achiever Title grants you per rank +5% Magic Find, Gold Find and Karma.
So with 50k Ap wearign the Max achiever Title, you would have a Bonus of 50% MF, GF and Karma gain

Map Completion
Renamed from Been Here Done That to Master Cartographer
Wearing the Master Cartographer Title increases the speed for you in which you will gain Map Boni Rewards from doing Events by 25% and doubles the Rewards of the Map Bonis, so instead of gaining only for example 1 Lodestone as a reward, you get from a Map Bonus then 2 Lodestones while you use this title in PvE Maps.

Birthday Titles
Wearings the Birthday Titles will increase your Gold Gain as Rewards from doing Dungeons by 50 Silver per Rank. So a currently 3 year old Account will get from Dungeon Runs daily per done Path 1,5G more from doing a Dungeon Run.

Honorary Skritt
While using this Title in Maps in which Skritt live in, will you randomly receive SHINY things from friendly Skritt when talking to them.

Grand Artisan
Adds the chance that you craft sometimes items that you can sell twice per Craft. Unlocks also new Crafting Recipes that you can learn only when you are a Grand Artisan

Exotic Hunter
Slightly increases your chance to get Exotic Loot from Monster Kills

Acolyte of Dwayna
Increases in PvE your Healing Power of your Self Heal by 10% and lets Regenerations on you last 2s longer

Dungeoneer/Dungeon Master
Doubles Dungeon Tokens you receive when playing Dungeons and wearign this Title.
Unlocks new Dungeon Token Rewards you can get only by using unique Dungeon Tokens that you can receive by using normal Dungeon Tokens and a new type of loot that will drop for you only in dungeons when you own both of those titles and wearing one of them in the Dungeons.

Light in the Darkness
Enables you to see alot better in very dark places as you will automatically use a bright magical torch that will illuminate the way for you in very dark places, if you way this title.

Miniature Collector
Enables you to give your Miniatures also names, like Rangers can name their Pets, while usign this title.

Professor
Increases your Account Bonus Exp Gain from Monster Kills by 15% while wearing this Title

Hivemaster
Decreases the Damage that you receive from Chak while wearing this title by 10% and increases damage that you title to them by 10%

Mistwarden
Doubles Badges of Honors you gain from Player/NPC Kills in WvW. Increases you Boon Durations by 10% in PvE while wearing this title.

The Great Reformer
Reduces Gold Costs for you on the Personal Story Faction Equipment Colelctions by 25% while wearign this Title and increases your gold gain by 25% if you sell any Personal Story Faction NPC somethign by 25% while wearign this Title.

Ex Machina
Increases the Damage you deal with any kind of environmental siege weapon in PvE by 10% while wearign this title.

Fatebreaker
Adds the chance to receive new materials from salvagign that you would normally not get from savalging items, when usign this title, like for example at rare chance lodestones when salving equipment of rare or higher quality.

Illuminated Renamed to "Shining Liberator*
Gain a Bonus of more Exhalted Currency when fighting with this title active in the Exhalted Map in Heart of Thorns, which is especialy stronger, when successfully defendign Tarir, where you gain increase the Bonus, if you kill with the title active Modrem with an Auric Weapon equipped.

PvP Rank Titles
Gain Bonus % for speeding up the Process if filling up PvP Reward Tracks, so higher your PvP Rank Title you use by 8% per Rank. So you will get double PvP Reward Track progress when using Legendary Champion.

PvP Class Titles
Unlocks for you unique Class Specific Finishing Moves while using these Titles, that you can use only when havign the title active.

Master Crafter
Gain 50% more Crafting Exp and have 10% increased Critical Chances on Crafting, whle you use this Title. This Bonus adds to the effect of Crafting Boosters, so if you use a Booster, it wont be a direct addign, but a 50% increase of the booster effect then.
So you get 75% increase when having both at the same time, not straight 100% like adding 50+50%

Golden renamed to Piggy Bank
Talk to the Bank NPC with this title on and the NPC allows you a new Option to story money of your account away, Minimum Gold you need to have for this option to appear is 20 Gold. If you talk to the NPC again 1 month later, you will regain you money back that you gave away plus 1-5% Interest.
But think on this good, if you give it away, you wont get it back until 1 month is over …

Twice Told Legend renamed to "Fabulous Legend*
Gain slightly increased Exp, Karma, Gold rewards from doing Events while wearign this title in PvE Maps

The Emperor/Fashion Collector Renamed to Fashion King/Queen
Unlock both of them and wear one of them to unlock for your account the ability to be able to buy new Tier 4 ascended cultural armor sets and unlock collections for tier 5 legendary cultural armors.

Combat Healer
Lets you revive faster in PvE while wearing this title and gain protection while you revive.

The Sunbringer
Deal increased Damage against Undeads and receive lesser Damage from undeads, whiel wearign this title.

Great Jungle Wurm Slayer/Wurms Bane
Unlock both of those titles and deal increased Damage and receive lesser Damage from Wurms of any kind while wearing one of these titles.

Killer Queen
Deal increased Damage against Karkas and receive lesser Damage from them too while wearign this Title.

Hall of Monuments Titles
Enable to to use Title Specific Finishing Moves while using the Titles.
—-

Omnomnivore
Increases the Durations of Potions while using this title by 5 Minutes

WvW Titles
They all do count towards an overall WvW reputation WvW Exp Bonus System, that so more WvW Titles you gain, so more WvW Exp will you gain.

Each unlocked WvW Title will give you +5,889% more WvW Exp
Currently 17 titles = 17*5,889% = + 100% more WvW Exp if you have all current Titles

Wintersday Titles
Increase Wintersday Rewards so more of them you collect, while wearign one of them

Halloween Titles
Increase halloween Rewards so more of them you collect, while wearing one of them.

Minigame Titles
Increases Minigame Rewards while wearign them.

Hero of Lions Arch
Have an unique Heroic Aura, while being in Lions Arch while you have this title on and randomly receive daily random gifts from Lions Arch NPCs to which you talk to which you defended when Scarlet attacked LA, which is their way of thanking and honoring you and your bravery.

SAB Titles
Gain increased Bubbles when using the titles when whever SAB will come back …

The Blazing Light
Unlocks a unique Finishing Move you can use only, when using actively this title.

Silverwaste Titles
So more you get of them while wearign one of them, so higher is your Map Currency Reward Bonus and so higher your MF Bonus on the Map.

Golden Child
Unlocks a unique finishign Move you can use only when this title is active.

The Eternal
Unlocks a unique finishing move that you can use only when this title is active*

PvP Tournament Titles
Unlock unique finishing Moves that you can use only when havign the titles active in use.

Trail Blazer
Unlocks a unique HoT themed finishing move that you can use only when using actively this title.
—-

Thats what id do with the current titles, to make them more meaning ful, while alot of others would add something unique visually to the game in regard of special finishing move designs.

Malediktus.9250:

Not sure if I am the first to do this and it is not important to me

….says the person with the sig of “5th person worldwide to reach 30,000 achievement points. Currently bearer of 101 titles (excluding “No Title”).”

Not important, huh?

Well, good for you. No need to be modest. That’s your thing and it’s impressive. Congrats on finishing all those collections.

ArenaNet is incapable of pleasing everyone with their first expansion of Guild Wars 2, therefore don’t release more expansions.

Lol.

morrolan.9608:

What minor changes have already been made?

Melanion.4892:

This is how devs should communicate about works in progress which can’t be discussed in much detal. Succinct, lets us know the general area of things being worked on.

Bravo, John. First time I can say that in a while.

Hmm IMO the post is far too vague IMO. Why can’t they say whether its to do with full HOT maps closing just for example?

Because as soon as he provides one example he opens himself up to feeling obligated to answer every question like “is x getting fixed” and so on.

Furthermore, we know Anet’s tendency to close rank and let Gaile do all the verbal maneuvering she can to try to placate the masses. This is non-specific, but it’s communicative. We know a team is working on it. We know a team is working on a specific issue. We know that the issue is complicated and that they will be releasing various fixes over the next few months. WE GOT A TIMELINE. Do you know how rare that is? I don’t remember the last time when we got a timeline that actually felt honest. None of this “soon” kitten. A few months. Various stages over the next few months. Sure, those few months might stretch into a year, but he’s telling us a fair bit here, actually. Over the course of the next few months we will be receiving updates to a system that has been acknowledged to be flawed. I don’t see the need to want more, really.

I like having a variety of titles because it means I can pick ones that fit my characters, or what I’m doing.

Which means I’d actually prefer people to forget about where it came from and take it at face value because it fits how I’m using it. I don’t use ‘traveler’ to say “hey look I got a few HoM points in GW1!” (otherwise I’d only ever use the highest ranked one I’ve got), I use it on low level characters who are exploring new regions for XP and map completion.

Basically it’s another cosmetic feature, like changing the skins on your equipment or using minis, gliders etc. it’s a way of customising a character.

well OP, its a bit like being at a party where you are tired and not having fun anymore and just want to go home – except you want to switch off the lights on the way out even though other people are still parting.

Why does it matter so much?

Do you feel that it’s going to change if or not you’re going to continue playing? If that’s the case, then you’ve already made that decision, and are looking for an excuse.

Are you writing some sort of graduate thesis? If so, then there’s better ways of getting information and finding cite-able sources than a forum thread.

This thread feels like a thinly veiled means for doomsayers to ferret more ‘reasons’ to state the sky is falling.

It’s a clear day in my Tyria, and there are certainly enough people adventuring about that my banner is regularly swiped. ;-)

~EW

Meh. It is just the same general lack of communications everywhere. Saying General discussion is PvE is your own projection.

Fun fact! Kryta was originally established as a colony of Elona. Maybe that’s where they got the idea of lions existing and named a town after it.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Timeline

Red Zero.1850:

There’s a lot of things in Tyria with the word “Lion” in the title, and there is even a statue of a lion still left in Lion’s arch. However, I have yet to see a lion roaming around anywhere. Do they exist in Tyria? If so, where are they native to? Or are they considered some kind of mythical creature?

Edit: Even the GW2 wiki didn’t have anything to say on the subject.

They’re native to Elona.

Giving feedback, even purely negative feedback is fine. Even centering that feedback exclusively around your own opinion is ok, since, if a sufficient amount of people give their personal opinion, the whole will be a good average of what the players actually want.
And even if people keep thinking that they represent the vast majority, even though they dont, their self-centeredness(?) will still be obvious for every unrelated observer.
You are also by far not the only one who enjoys the game. But nobody goes to the forums, unless there is (seems to be) a problem to be talked about.
Just like you created this very post in order to point out something that you dont agree with.
Most of the forum posts that you can take remotely serious hold a lot of good points, and provide valuable feedback with actual suggestions on how to solve a problem. The very best of authors are even open to suggestions themselves. The others suffer from dunning-kruger and shallt not be payed to much attention to.

O.K. Guess I’ll have to be “that guy”. Excuse me while I whip out my ego.

The reason why it is everyone’s “claims” about HoT being good or not included everyone elses opinion, or appear to do so, is because those claims do not cater to opinions at all. They are the discussion of facts revolving around HoT, and the fact that you disagree means nothing to someone else.

While you may be used to a world that is full of “to each their own” and “live and let live”, the real world isn’t like that. The real world actually cares about what works, and what doesn’t. The real world is objective. So, when players discuss what the mistakes are with HoT, they aren’t talking about what is “bad for them”. They’re talking about what is bad, period. If you feel like that you are constantly being looped in with their discussions, then maybe it is your own ego that is to blame. When people disagree, they voice those disagreements, and get into a discussion where (hopefully) something productive will emerge.

There are many standards for which to judge the content of HoT:

#1: Teleologic. That is, what it is designed to do. If something is designed to do one thing (say, the megaserver system is designed to group like players together on maps), and it fails to accomplish this objective (random kicking and gathering onto empty worlds, random undisplayed map closing, forcing guild shards to close at full population, etc), then it is bad design. Not “bad design for me”. It is bad design, period.

#2: Technical Merit. This is what separates good art from bad art. This is the way the pieces come together and compliment each other. Issues like having voice acting that varies wildly in tone between lines, storylines that are too predictable, plot threads that are nonsensical or end abruptly, dissonance between gameplay and narrative, etc. When the tonal flow of the story is abrupt, jarring, or so narrowly focused that it leaves people unsatisfied, it isn’t “bad for me”. It is bad, period.

#3: Basic function. This is the ability for the game system to actually run. This is issues like bugs and memory overload problems, which would cause people’s game’s to crash near the end of event chains. If the game doesn’t function properly, in that pressing space doesn’t deploy the glider or the game can’t load a map that it is meant to load, then it is bad. Not “bad for me”. Bad, period.

There’s probably more, too. But, think of it from a basic standpoint: If you like something, you should be able to explain why it is you like it, and what is good about something. Your opinions don’t bampf into existence from nowhere.

I…don’t really understand this thread.

It’s one thing to say, “That’s your opinion, but I don’t feel that way,” when someone complains/praises something, but if you’re not talking about anything specific, what’s the point?

Ethnocentrism is quite a different thing to egocentrism, and quite different to what you’re writing about. So I’m not sure why you chucked that in as if it were interchangeable?

It’s also very worth pointing out that people on an MMO forum not wanting to listen to other’s opinions does not make the egocentrics. If you’re studying psychology that’s probably something you should get a handle out. A singular characteristic does not a diagnosis make.

People get excited about the prospect of video games being how they want them to be. It’s very easy to assume that one’s own ideas will make everything amazing and that anyone else’s ideas are therefore in direct opposition. People are also generally less caring of other’s opinions in online situations. The internet gives people a voice with no culpability. So yeah, people on the forums can be a little bit self-oriented, but that doesn’t make them egocentrics.

I’d also really like to point out that there’s nothing wrong with people complaining or critiquing how the game is. It is really important for people to be able to voice issues or concerns, and also to be able to make suggestions. The forum exists partly for those very reasons. Yes there is a lot of non-constructive criticism that goes on here, but that doesn’t necessarily invalidate it either. Not everyone has been taught how to make their criticism constructive, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to speak up. It’s up to the developers to decide what’s constructive and what they’re going to listen to.

People complaining about things shouldn’t have an impact on your own enjoyment of the game. If it’s bothering you then I’d suggest avoiding the forums :/