Guild Wars 2

Q: Why is every one farming pirates?
A: Because they Arr!

And yet back in GW1 people whined about some lucky few got 100p minis whilst other got 50g ones.

People have complained about RNG since release, and now when ArenaNet decides to not have RNG people complain about the lack of RNG.
Which way is it?

Kirschwasser.3972:

… Except that the games industry IS exceptionally sexist. And just because one incident of a very sexualized character (Lara Croft) not being abducted doesn’t make the trope any less overused, prevalent, or troubling.

If this year’s E3 was any indication, the gaming industry is still exceptionally sexist. You should look at the blogs of women in the industry and the kind of ridiculous things they have to put up with.

Also: Using “feminist” as a derogatory term is very insulting to anybody that’s looking for equal rights for women… which is what a feminist is by definition.

Except that I’m a woman and I can see that the industry is not sexist. Hell, like many other female developers (that worked on those games that you call sexist), I’m going to enter the industry myself. And want to talk about rights? Be an equalitarian and demand equal rights, instead of demanding women rights to be above men. And focus on real problems – like genital mutilation in Africa, women being put in prison for refusing to marry their rapists in Muslim countries. And in some cases fight for both – you don’t want women to be forced into military service? You know what? No human being should be forced into military service.
I really have no respect for people that invent problems instead of trying to solve real ones. And also please tell me what game in E3 today is sexist and in what way. Also if to invent a problem shouldn’t it go both ways? Men in video games are unnaturally attractive and muscular, they always have to show either their strength or their wealth. I find that extremely sexist against males. Why don’t we get an average bear gutted Joe with no job or income as our main character?

Just as Queen Jennah is about to cut the cake, a mysterious, well-dressed Asuran arrives…

Mysterious Asuran: Mr. Thackeray!

Logan Thackeray: Huh?!?

Mysterious Asuran: Is your name Logan Thackeray?

Logan pauses for a moment, contemplating the situation before answering

Logan Thackeray: Yeah.

Mysterious Asuran: I’ve got somethin’ for you…..

Mysterious Asuran reaches into his Plush Quaggan Backpack

Mysterious Asuran: …a letter!

Logan Thackeray: A letter for me?!? That’s impossible! Who the kitten are you?

Mysterious Asuran: Maguuma Union. Actually, a bunch of us at the laboratory were hoping, maybe, you could shed some light on the subject.

See, we’ve had that envelope in our possession for the last seventy years. It was given to us with the explicit instructions that it be delivered to a young man, with your description, answering to the name of Logan “Legs” Thackeray, at this exact location, at this exact minute, Season of Scion, day 253, 1326AE. We’ve had a little bet going as to whether this ‘Logan’ would actually be here. Looks like I lost.

Mysterious Asuran laughs

Logan Thackeray: Did you say seventy years?

Mysterious Asuran: Yeah, seventy years, 2 months, uh, 12 days to be exact. Here sign on line six, please. Here ya are.

Mysterious Asuran hands Logan a clipboard and quill

Logan signs the paper and nods at the Mysterious Asuran before opening the letter

Logan Thackeray: It’s from Snaff!!!

Logan begins reading the letter

Dear Logan,

If my calculations are correct, you will receive this letter immediately after you saw the Asura gate struck by Kralkatorrik’s lightning.

First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I’ve been living happily, these past eight months, in the Season of the Zephyr, year 1256AE. Kralkatorrik’s lightning bolt…

Logan becomes excited as he interrupts himself

Logan Thackeray: 1256! Season of the Zephyr, 1256!

Mysterious Asuran: Wait, kid! Wait a minute! What’s this all about?

Logan Thackeray: He’s alive! Snaff’s alive! He’s in old Elona but he’s alive!

Mysterious Asuran: Yeah but kid, are you alright? Do you need any help?

Logan Thackeray: There’s only one Asuran that can help me!

Logan hastily runs off into the cold, rainy night

Best Troll Post 2013

Most people are looking at Guild Wars 1 from the point of view of four products not one. Though Guild Wars Prophecies was a good game, it took many years before the game really came into it’s own.

That is to say, a lot of people liked Nightfall and Eye of the North more than Prophecies. Not everyone, but a lot.

Nightfall didn’t come out until a year an a half after Prophecies.

Guild Wars 1 WAS a great game. But some of the things that made it great, also made it niche…and it was niche. It was never a household name.

A lot of the stuff you see in Guild Wars 2 is an attempt to deal with the shortcomings of Guild Wars 1. As an example…the skill system.

Guild Wars 1 had to very big problems with skills. There were too many of them, and with the dual profession system it was literally impossible to balance skills. People complain about the inbalance in Guild Wars 2 but they never had to deal with the permasin, or even sabway. Guild Wars 1 had serious balance issues and less skills meant more control by Anet, which is what they wanted. But there was another problem.

Many people couldn’t figure out how to make a decent build. There really were too many skills and not everyone is capable of making a build. I’m a guy who loved to make builds. That’s what I did half the time. Make new builds. But at the same time I was doing an enjoying this, other builds were ruining the game for me, particularly because if you didn’t run Build A you weren’t going to be finding a group to do the Underworld. Everyone only wanted specific builds so they could do speed clears. It was pretty obnoxious.

So Anet lost a lot of people to the inability to have a build that worked. The solution was tie skills to weapons and introduce less skills at start. This way when they do finally have an expansion and they add skills, there’s more of a chance to keep it balanced and even a total noob can play a build because his weapons have the skills he’ll basically need.

Guild Wars 1 was a great game for a small percentage of the audience. Frankly I think Guild Wars 2 will improve a lot in the years to come, but it’s going to take another six months to a year before it’s the game it should have been at launch.

Oh, internet. What awful thing have you introduced me to today.

Arkham Creed.7358:

Phaedryn.3698:

Stark.1350:

War Siren.2346:

Brown Noses and lying to yourself doesn’t get the Dev’s to give you things just saying. :P

Now if you truly enjoy the joke of “Endgame content” then hey kudos, a lot of us don’t (I realize some of you do.) However, I’m at mind to think that you may not actually know what endgame content is supposed to be, and that’s why you’re happy.. but hey if I’m wrong and you enjoy the half hearted attempts they give us, kudos.

The only end game content in ANY MMO has been endless raids hoping for RNG gear.

This game doesn’t have that, for which I’m thankful.

Go play one that does and quit kittening.

So you are saying that GW2 has no end game content? After all if your assertion that “The only end game content in ANY MMO has been endless raids hoping for RNG gear” is true, then “This game doesn’t have that” would indicate that GW2 has no end game content, for which you seem to be thankful?

Is that really so hard to understand? I came to Guild Wars to get away from that crap. I don’t like having to raid five nights a week just to keep my gear current. I don’t like having to pretend to like a bunch of elitist min/max jerks because their guild does runs 2% faster. I don’t like the idea of “falling behind” because I got a few more hours at work some week.

I’m a grown man with a real life; I don’t have time for endgame. And don’t want to waste what little leisure time I do have with repetitive, boring grind and having to deal with a bunch of children who think they’re better than me because they don’t have real lives and can afford to spend fifty hours a week raiding.

First the “I’m a grown man with a real life”. Really? You want to go there? I served 20 years in the military, got a degree in physics after I retired and currently work in the field of magnetic engineering. Do I get to call myself a “grown man with a real life yet”?

“I don’t like having to raid five nights a week just to keep my gear current.”

Then don’t.

“I don’t like having to pretend to like a bunch of elitist min/max jerks because their guild does runs 2% faster.”

Good, I wouldn’t either. The solution is simple, don’t do it.

“I don’t like the idea of “falling behind” because I got a few more hours at work some week.”

Awesome, we seem to be on the same page.

“And don’t want to waste what little leisure time I do have with repetitive, boring grind and having to deal with a bunch of children who think they’re better than me because they don’t have real lives and can afford to spend fifty hours a week raiding.”

Then don’t, nobody is suggesting you have to. More to the point I do not know of a single MMO where this would be true. Either you are WAY overly sensitive or just have horrid expectations. Not sure which, but given the hyperbole with which you phrased most of that comment I will have to go with over sensitive.

Broadicea.8294:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

No, I don’t care to group with Elitists, but I don’t care to enable them either. I don’t want to reinforce that their ‘attitude’ is ok, when it in fact is not.

Its like giving a crack addict his next dosage. Are you an addict no? So it doesn’t affect you right? Wrong.

You don’t hand someone trying to commit suicide a gun or a razor blade.

You don’t enable the behavior that you are trying to reduce/get rid of.

Why can’t you let us play the way we want to play? You won’t be in our groups, we won’t bother you in map chat, in fact you’ll only ever glimpse us as we pass by each other in Lion’s Arch. Why do you have to be so controlling?

Why can’t you let me play how I want to play? I want to not have to worry about someone giving me crap because I choose to wear x over y, or because I choose to use a staff over daggers.

Why are you so controlling in telling me that I have to accept being inspected, whether I want to or not. Even if not by you specifically, by someone else. Potentially someone that has nothing to do with my play, just wants to be a kitten to someone.

The ‘let me play my way’ argument goes both ways. Your desire for /inspect infringes on my desire to be /inspect free. Both arguments are valid and have merit. However, its also the weakest argument that one can offer.

It does really depend on what you want to do.
Charr-wise though? Go with what you feel best defines the type of Charr you want to be. When I heard Charr were playable and could be any profession, I decided Mesmer. Why Mesmer? Because I wanted my Charr to be full of magic, but not Elementalist because the Flame Legion were all fire and stuff and I wanted to avoid that and Necromancer was a little too dark instead of just “magic.”
For you, do you want to be the kind of charr that stalks into the camp like a panther and takes down the enemy, always present but not noticed until it’s far, FAR too late? Do you enjoy the idea of shifting around like a ghost on the wind striking with ferocity and then vanishing into the night? Go Thief.
Or, do you want to be more like a Lion battle commander, shouting out encouragement that rallies the troops (and literally buffs/heals them) and either keeps them going with support or charges into the fray? Go Guardian.
I find that choosing something fun and creative will keep you enjoying the game long after nerfs/buffs/metagame/flavor of the month has come and gone. And as a game, that’s it’s purpose- fun.

Uberrod.1342:

If you are going to use stuff from the Norse culture, at least learn the correct way of pronouncing the word.

It’s not pronounced “Yo-tun” either; the “o” has an umlaut (ö).

You should stop being picky about stupid minor things, really.

There’s both positive and negative feedback. Then there’s also good and bad feedback. It seems we have an abundance of all four in this thread, mostly bad unfortunately. XD I hope that Anet will not write off the good positive/negative feedback just because of the bad.

The best way to voice your opinion and give criticism is to do it in the shoes of the artist. If you were the person or company who designed Rox, which piece of feedback would you likely listen to?

1. “What in the world?! Ewww, nasty gross. Ugliest character design ever! I hate you Anet for doing this. Blah blah blah. This is trash, I am never making a Charr again because of -insert reason here without any real constructive criticism- !!!”

or

2. “Hi there! I really enjoy the Charr, but I believe something isn’t quite right about the new character’s eyes. It may be at best interest to adjust them to look more natural. -example of what you believe is better here-. At the moment, they appear much too big. This is throwing off some of the other features on her face, and it’s causing her to appear slightly distorted or disproportionate in certain places. If you were to make them a bit smaller, it would -please insert why this idea would be better- Etc, etc, etc. I would be very grateful if you took all of this into consideration! Thank you so much for taking the time to read up on what I have to say. The original design behind the female Charr is very inspiring to me and I hope you remain loyal to it. I honestly think it’s great that you chose a female Charr to be the next lead in the upcoming patch! Seriously, Charr should lead everything!!!”

Short and simple, but still gets all the points across. A lot of heart and time goes into art. ^^ Giving feedback the way you would want to receive it is the another good way to look at things. It shows you have care, interest, passion and respect for whatever/whoever it is you are criticizing. In short, a little common courtesy can go a long ways.

(Note – The feedback examples aren’t actually something I stand with. They’re just random examples I thought up of. I don’t find Rox all that game breaking, but think a bit of improvement on the way the eyes are shaded wouldn’t hurt).

Dante.1508:

I think players should only be able to make 5-10 siege a day per account, obviously commanders could make more..

That would be a nightmare tbh.
As in t1 you can take a tower,then lose it,then take it ect ect.
and if your the one only holding the sieges because ppl are to tight to buy them,you would use up more than ten sieges through out the day.

What would be better would be a handful ppl clicking on the siege and click de-spawn.
if enough ppl do it then the siege disappears.
So commanders can have control over the sieges as well by asking there followers to de-spawn it if needed.

Unspecified.9142:

JJBigs.8456:

Unspecified.9142:

For the record, if Whirling Defense hits 12 times and the final number is 9.9k then each hit was only 825.

You also better hope your opponent doesn’t decide to move two steps to the side or back since you really have no way to lock them down for the duration and you can’t move. (Entangle might work but that’s only maybe)

Do you believe and support that whirling defense, needs a buff, and if it did, would become EXTREMELY viable? Buff as in, moveable, channeled but not interuppted if hit, etc..

All it really needs is the ability to move, or give the ranger some way to lock people down more easily.

It’s actually strange to me that ranger is the only profession with a “spin to win” that can’t move while doing it.

I think it’s because they don’t actually spin. They just kind of flail their arms wildly as if swatting mosquitoes.

But yes, being able to move while channeling whirling defense is something that needs to happen. The same is true for barrage.

Well, that didn’t take long.

I do still trust ArenaNet, and the various devs that represent them. Granted, that may be because of a pseudo-personal relationship built up over years of pre-launch marketing which made me feel involved and encouraged me to see them in the best light… but I don’t think it’s just that.

For me, the key is that ArenaNet are working for the long term here. They’ve had a game running for seven years and more, they’re planning for GW2 to last as long. For that to happen with GW2’s more dynamic style, there needs to be groundwork laid and seeds planted – this means story openings, but also stuff like ascended gear will (I feel) fit into a long range plan. Right in the here and now, it may not seem to make sense, but we’ve already seen things gradually slot into place as they develop other areas to support it.

I think they’ve got things they’re aiming for, and I don’t think they’re lying about those aims. Whether or not they’re going about it in the best way is always debatable, but I do think they have a plan and I do trust that this won’t just dissolve into another every-other-MMO. If nothing else, I don’t think that would actually benefit them at all, and I think they know that.

When you have a company developing new content on a monthly basis, new stuff will have bugs – that’s inevitable, I think. It’s a big game. A little tolerance of their working conditions would be kind. I’m planning on sticking around for the long term personally, and I have some faith that in a year’s time I’ll be able to look back at older additions to the game and see where they were going with it all.

“JonathanSharp
ArenaNet Poster

1. - 2012/11/20 06:28:40 PM (2012/11/20 13:28:40 UTC-5)
   A while ago Jon Peters said something that has been taken out of context. He said that only two people were working on the things he was working on (which was true – but he meant it differently than how it was received) and people have taken that to mean that we only have 2 people working on balance, or PvP, or both (at this point it’s morphed into different things in different threads).

Based on what was said, I understand how it could have been construed, so I wanted to be as transparent as I can be, so that you know what’s happening inside the studio.

PvP
On the PvP team we have programmers, designers, QA and an environment artist (Darrin Claypool – he’s the guy who just finished making Temple of the Silent Storm). Many PvP features need all members of the team, but some are programmer intensive, or art intensive. For example, while we’re still working on custom arenas and other core features (which involve server programmers, UI programmers and gameplay programmers), designers and artists were able to build the recently released “Temple of the Silent Storm”. Because the map required no code, we simply worked with art, design and sound in order to support this map’s needs. Work on custom arenas requires zero environment art, so those two features (custom arenas and a new map) don’t impact one another greatly, as far as work flow goes.

WvW
For WvW, we have a similar setup. We have designers, QA, programmers and environment artists. WvW is a massive piece of the GW2 pie, and the WvW team is able to focus on WvW needs. While many of us in the company may give feedback/ideas/suggestions to the WvW team, they are the ones who actually implement and carry out those changes.

Balance
When it comes to balance, we have multiple people who give feedback/guidance/suggestions, even though a smaller subset actually implement those changes (which is what Jon was saying in his post). After we have balance meetings, a few of the designers implement the changes. If it’s a WvW change, the WvW designer will implement that change. If it’s a PvP change, one of the PvP designers implements it (again, this is what Jon was saying). If it’s strictly a balance change, then we have a designer do it that has the bandwidth (sometimes it’s me, sometime it’s even Izzy, but usually it’s Karl or Peters). Currently, when we have balance meetings, the following people are present in various combinations, depending on the topic:

Jon Peters – game designer
Karl McLain – game designer
Representatives from the WvW team, including QA and design
Representatives from the dungeon teams, including another game designer
Representatives from the live response team, including QA guys who play ALL aspects of the game A LOT
Other representatives from the PvP team, like Tyler Bearce (designer) and Roy Cronacher (QA)
Izzy – lead designer
Myself – game designer
When we’re in those meetings, we’ll talk about hot topics, and issues that are currently a big issue for a certain piece of content. We also listen to high level players, we read the forums (sometimes we even take the best-written posts, print out 10 copies, and bring them to a balance meeting), and we play the game to get a feel for ourselves. Just because you don’t see a change that YOU want, keep in mind that someone else may disagree. Just because we don’t do every single change YOU want, doesn’t mean we don’t care about you or the game. We just try to make the best changes for the greatest number of players.

I just wanted to clear this up to let you guys know a little bit more of what happens here inside the studio so you understand more of what Peters was trying to say. He’s just as busy as we all are, and with a lot of us gone for Thanksgiving (he’s not here right now), I just took it upon myself to try to clear this up a little.

Cheers"

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/245674-the-teams-that-work-on-pvp-wvw-balance/

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/The-teams-that-work-on-PvP-WvW-Balance

http://eggbaron.blogspot.ca/2013/02/colin-johanson-on-loot-drop.html

“It’s worth noting, the X-files conspiracy comment was directly responding to the theory something changed in the November release that made it all suddenly worse that has been perpetuated since Lost Shores. _We confirmed nothing what so ever changed in November,_ as we posted after a complete investigation into all parts of that release, thus the comment. Probably not worded the best on my part, but please take the time to read the actual comment in context and don’t apply it to other situations that had nothing to do with the remark.
As posted within the loot discussion thread, we did exactly what we said we would do: we completed our investigation of the November release and all loot tables and found no issues what so ever, we immediately let the community know no issues were discovered from the changes in the November release.
We then expanded the search to other parts of the game, here we found issues that had existed since launch and have both let you know about them, and will be correcting them.
To those who theorized there were issues since launch with qualifying for loot, you were indeed correct and your tinfoil hat is justified, thanks very much for helping us find this issue! November however, remains an X-files level conspiracy that has been debunked. There ya go”

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Lol no, not even in the right hands. Its still a crappy weapon. If it was good, Id be on my ranger all day, instead Im on my engineer. No its not a learn to play issue either, Im actually good.

I use LB in Paids. Your argument is invalid.

It is true that they don’t list every single bug fix they do. I’ve reported a lot of minor text and graphic bugs over time, and every so often I go back and check on the ones I happen to remember and they’re usually gone. But I somehow doubt many people would want to scroll through pages of “corrected the punctuation in some random NPCs dialogue” or “fixed the position of a rock on the edge of the map in Queensdale to match it’s image” when they’re more concerned about skill changes and bugged event chains.

There’s nothing to complain about. If you don’t like ridiculous cost, don’t go to a high pop server.

Free server hops severely damaged WvW. This fixes it and gives Anet monies. Cry more.

irrimn.3192:

Hickeroar.9734:

ColinJohanson.2394:

That should say dynamic level adjustment system, way back in the day we called that the sidekicking system and that snuck through to the website.

How it did so without any of us noticing is an enigma wrapped in a paradox, surrounded in a mystery.

I’m guessing the name came from the idea that a lvl 80 toon could go wander around with a lvl 10 toon as their “sidekick?”

Actually it was the other way around, that a level 10 could join a party with a level 80 and be upscaled as their sidekick. This idea was ultimately scrapped.

See more here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sidekick

Again, the idea had its roots in the old sidekicking/exemplar system in City of Heroes. In COH, “sidekicking” meant you were upleveled UP to a higher level character team leader (to one level below the higher level character IIRC). The term “sidekick” (or “lackey” if you played a villain) was used for the system because it was thematic with the comic book genre. The system also included something called “exemplaring,” where a higher level character could “exemplar” DOWN (i.e. downlevel) to a lower level team leader. This system was eventually redesigned to be more dynamic and flexible in nature (dubbed the “super-sidekicking” system) where you were autoleveled up or down based on the level of the active mission (or to the team leader if no mission was selected). This was all based on the mission/team leader, none of it was map-specific.

The dynamic level adjustment we have now in GW2 is the natural extension of COH’s super-sidekicking system (by tying the autoleveling it to the zone rather than your party). The idea of “sidekicking” up to higher level character was in beta, but was scrapped for GW2’s PvE though because ArenaNet found too many people were bypassing content (so we now only see such upleveling in WvW and sPvP). In PvE, we only have something similar to “exemplaring” (downleveling).

Onshidesigns.1069:

Supersun.4603:

Not necessarily

As long as there is imperfect information and that the game is designed so that there isn’t a dominant strategy, but a variety of strategies with their strengths and weaknesses then you could still have a successful game with surprises.

You are describing “perfect imbalance” that is in the video.

Sorta

The issue with chess isn’t that it is symmetrically balanced like the video claimed. It’s that it’s symmetrically balanced with perfect information.

When both players have every piece of information at any given time then it becomes possible though a lot of trial and error or mathematical calculations to determine more ideal strategies over others, and since you can always see every piece of your opponents you can see and react to whatever counter strategy he may try to employ with your own counter strategy that could have very well been planned out ahead of time.

Symmetrically balanced games with perfect information can always be solved.

If Chess no longer had its perfect information for example if we added a “Fog of War” to Chess where you could only see enemy pieces if they were directly next to one of your pieces then this would radically change the game so that it would be impossible for your opponent to know your strategy and impossible for you to know your opponent’s counter strategy (ignore any gamebreaking implications, this is just an example).

Now that still doesn’t stop a game from having a dominant strategy like their example in starcraft where it turned into a fast-paced action game. Just because that Terran, Zerg, and Protoss are perfectly balanced against each other doesn’t mean a whole lot if the options within each race are atrociously balanced. If there’s only one viable build and way to play Terran and only one viable build and way to play Zerg the then obviously most of the strategy is drained out of the game since as long as you have half decent scouting you should know exactly what the opponent is planning to do.

That’s the real issue with Guild Wars 2 class balance at the moment. It doesn’t matter how well all the classes are balanced against each other when there are some classes that within the class just have flat out dominant builds (like Shatter Mesmer vs everything else in PvP).

Lol, for my argument? AoE damage is getting nerfed, end of story. If this was an argument, I would have already won

To be honest, I don’t care if this change makes PvE more difficult/time consuming. I’m just offering an explanation as to why it needs to happen. Instead of creating dozens of whine threads, maybe you lot should ask ArenaNet to nerf the health pools of mobs to compensate for the damage loss.

“Perfect Imbalance” is a terrible definition to what they are describing. What they are talking about is “Asymmetrical Balance.”

Likewise whether a game is based around Symmetrical Balance or Asymmetrical Balance by themselves do not lead to boring and generic or exciting and unique game play.

Chess is symmetrically balanced (well mostly), yet saying that it has boring and generic gameplay would be an insult to every chess grandmaster out there.

Rock, Paper, Scissors is asymmetrically balanced, yet to say that the game has exciting and unique gameplay that people must pay to watch high level tournament play is a bit excessive.

Not necessarily

As long as there is imperfect information and that the game is designed so that there isn’t a dominant strategy, but a variety of strategies with their strengths and weaknesses then you could still have a successful game with surprises.

Think of an online shooter where every avatar is essentially identical (like the older Halos). The map is for the most part symmetrical, but the design of the map itself offers a choice where you can go for a stronger weapon, but put yourself in a positional disadvantage or instead go for an area with a positional advantage, but are forced to use your default weapons.

As long the options are relatively balanced and there isn’t a flat out dominant strategy and you don’t know what the other team is going to do then the design of the map itself will create situations where players are forced to face each other with fair imbalances.

Now, yes, it would be a terrible idea for an MMO to have symmetrically based characters since you can’t really have character development with a bunch of the exact same avatars running around. Character development sorta goes hand in hand with assymetrical balance.

Hint: it’s not fun, which is why a lot of people don’t care
About it.