Dear Guild Wars 2,
I owe you. I owe you big. I have a short story to share, and I hope you take a few minutes and allow me to tell it, as I promise you, it is a story I will remember for the rest of my life…
I wasn’t going to buy you. But constant pressure from my closest friends lead me to the local game store. I purchased it with hope that it wasn’t a wasted effort, that this game wouldn’t end up on the pile of games that I would start, but inevitably never finish. Silly me.
I QUICKLY became enthralled with a fantasy land with so much to offer. I created a snarky Asura Engineer, and with a backpack of grenades and a realm to save, I was off on an adventure.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, things weren’t going so well for me. I was 28, and my life was… well, it was bad. I won’t go into details, but things were looking awfully grim for me. I was surrounded by a lot of darkness in my life, and while everyone experiences these from time to time, it was one of those low points that you know you will be looking back at in a few years, and wonder how you ever got out of it (and how you got INTO it in the first place). I wish I could convey the magnitude of the low point my life had reached, but I will leave that tale for another day…
So day by day, my trusty Sir Sprocket soldiered on. Before long I joined the ranks of the Priory, had joined a guild with many active members, and protected our server from invaders with all the gusto my little Asuran character could muster. I was living a life that I only hoped I could. Where I could give my all in the service of all things right and good. Where I could protect myself and the things I cared about with my own two hands (paws? what do we asurans call those? lol). I was living the life I only hoped I could live in the real world.
I was using you as a ways to escape my real life problems, but that’s where things get interesting…
Ser Sprocket met a Sylvari. It was innocent at first. I only wanted to help, to provide the kind of assistance to someone that I never thought I had the bravery to in the real world. My real self was beaten, broken, and reeling from blow after blow the real world had dealt me. But Sprocket; he was strong, mighty (no short jokes!), capable of protecting things he cared about with a satchel of grenades and a strong resolve. So this “Ms. Sylvari” and I started taking on the rigors of Tyria together. She was a gentle sort, our conversation was easy, flowing, and soothing. We developed a friendship that, despite the distance and the digital shroud that covered our true selves, became something very real.
In my real world, things had become worse by this point. I felt like I was fighting a tide that was threatening to sweep me out to sea, where the good parts of life would only be a distant shore that I would never reach.
Tyria was home to me at this point. Ms. Sylvari and I were growing ever closer. We talked about how these internet relationships work from time to time, how we felt about each other, and realized that despite the fact that it was just a game, we are real people, with real feelings, and how we had come to see each other was also very real. I had found a place where I could live the life I had only dreamed of, and be appreciated by someone at the same time. Playing games was a familiar feeling, feeling like I actually mattered, that was something totally alien. And that’s where she brought me to a realization that was so blatantly obvious to me, yet I had failed to realize:
Sir Sprocket and I were the same person.
The bravery I channeled into Sprocket, the goodness, the steel willpower that I fed into that character, was a reflection of my true self. It was the me I never grasped in the real world. The problems I was facing in the real world, no matter how large they seemed, needed to be met with the same resolve I used to take down the largest opponents in Tyria. Ms. Sylvari was instrumental in this. Call me sentimental, call it cliche, but love is an insanely powerful thing. You can find it when you least expect it, and in the strangest of forms. Remember this, fellow players, that the people who you see day by day in-game are real people, and have real feelings, and you never know just how they might change your life.
GW2, thank you. Thanks to you, I came back from the brink. You brought together two people, who lived 1000 miles apart, and gave us the opportunity to find happiness with each other. I moved a few months ago. Dealt with those bad situations, and made a journey of my own. 1000 mile journey, to be exact. And now I write this as Ms. Sylvari sits in the very next room. And let me tell you, I have never, in all of my 28 years, been happier than I am now.
You helped me find my heart, and a person to share it with. And for that you have my everlasting thanks.
Your game will be one I remember until my dying day.
Thankful and Happy,
Sir Sprocket
And my Alter-Ego- Kyoryu Gold, Mesmer, Thundering Hero, wielder of the Legendary Meteorlogicus!
I personally am still 100% loving Guild wars 2 even with my lvl 80 fully geared out and seeing updates like this really puts a smile on my face. I was just expecting some f/f retribution update but WOW guild banners, new guild missions, a new dungeon, custom arena’s, spectator mode and more WvW abilities. Anet is doing quite a fantastic job at keeping me into guild wars 2!
Let’s be clear: You’ve chosen bad names (not borderline, not gray area) in December, January, March, and now April. On each date, multiple offensive names were identified and censored. Going through that process takes an agent more time, but we do it as a kindness, to reduce suspensions and suspension durations. Unfortunately, this extra kindness has been repaid with… more offensive names. 
You also were shown benevolence—twice—in the lifting of any suspension at all. You were required only to rename your offensively-named characters. In truth, this should not have happened a second time. Which means that you should have served three suspensions and your current suspension should have been longer.
To answer your question: Offering a means for someone to buy his/her way out of an administrative action isn’t in the cards.
Lastly: I am not saying this to be rude or pejorative, but if you continue down the path of choosing rude, offensive, and sexually suggestive names, you are at great risk of permanent account termination. As I have said in the past, you need to choose wisely.
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet
I still think the big problem in this thread is that almost everyone seems to be acting as if we all need to agree and that all guilds should behave the same way.
I love that my guild requires 100% representation and after seeing how it can work I don’t think I’d want to be in a guild without it. It means even though we’re not a huge guild (about 100 members and about 20-30 online at any time) I know whenever I log in there will be people in guild chat to talk to and people who can help if I need it, or requesting help which gives me something to do if I don’t have specific plans. It also means because of this I’ve gotten to know these people, I can put (character) faces to names and actually have something to talk about.
But, not everyone is like me and I’d never expect them to be. Other people want to be in multiple guilds and represent them all equally, or only rep one and use the other for specific purposes, or whatever. And if they can find enough like-minded people to form a guild that’s happy with that then that’s great.
This game would be bloody boring if all guilds were identical, if they all had to have the same rules and do things the same way. It’s much better having a system that lets people pick and choose what they want.
All it means is that just like you wouldn’t join a hard-core WvW guild if you didn’t like WvW, or a role-play guild if you’re never in character you shouldn’t join a guild that requires 100% representation if you don’t want to do that. (And on the other side don’t complain if you join a guild that doesn’t require it and no one ever represents them.) If the guild isn’t right for you then find one that is.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
Many of us want dueling. And since it has not been implemented yet, I propose we the players, set an area in WvW that players can come and peacefully duel 1 on 1, no stomps.
This has already happened. Last night there were 40+ players from all 3 servers in the same spot, dueling. People told their friends and guilds, and more people just kept showing up for the fun.
It starts with a /bow. And if the other player /bow’s, a duel can begin.
It was the most fun I’ve had in-game in several months. I participated in dozens of duels. Many were rematches and bests of 3. Many times enemy players would invite me to their party and we would talk about the duel, our builds, strategies, etc, I even added a couple new friends to my list.
I was there for over 3 hours. I witnessed no foul play, no trash talking, everyone was very polite.
The area this happened in, and the area I propose we set as our unofficial player dueling spot is the southern most point of a boarderlands map, just passed the skill point, next to the giant windmill. It happened to be in the green boarderlands, so if people went along with this.. It could always be in the green boarderlands.
Posting a couple pictures for you guys.
(edited by Darx.9842)
They deserved that. Awesome event. First one without any screw up’s.
It’s not like they can read a good suggestion and put it in game within the hour… these things take time. I’m really getting tired of all these impatient posters who want everything their way before they can refresh the page to see new posts…
If you don’t like the current state of WvW then don’t play it in it’s current state. Things change over time, try it again later.
I remember the good ol’ days… those 3 hours between when we launched, and when every single secret was laid out and demonstrated for the world. 
For as long as you incredibly intelligent people fall for their marketing shenanigans, you will continue to lose gold/$ – I have pretty much lost any and all respect for this company. Anet/Ncsoft is making Blizzard look like a darling angel in comparison, which is impressive…
You have this great gem store concept, and you reduce it to a money grubbing, sleezy casino that doesn’t have to post the odds of winning – absolutely disgusting.
It appears that it’s time for:
- Guild Calendars
- Last Online Feature
- Alliances
Those three things will make A LOT of the “problems” in this thread go away.
“A release is 7 days or less away or has just happened within the last 7 days…
These are the only two states you’ll find the world of Tyria.”
I can’t remember the last time I ran a dungeon with a warrior. I think they’re highly overrated because I don’t really care if I get a dungeon done 5 minutes faster or not.
I also don’t pug, because people like to “run” dungeons, where as I just enjoy playing the game. I’m not in any rush.
So I play with guildies. No one gets excluded in my guild, no matter the profession. And though I main a mesmer and there are several guardians in the guild (and several other mesmers), we regularly run dungeons with a ranger, a necro, and a couple of engineers, oh and and an ele. Overall we do quite well.
Naturally we know each other and play with each other very well, which is the point. If you’re just trying to build a team of strangers who have no experience together, you want to fill roles. If you play with people you play with all the time, you naturally fit yourself into roles that work…they won’t necessarily be the standard roles though.
The manifesto stated that instead of competing with other players for kills, you’d both get the full reward, to promote teamwork.
On my server however, guilds seem to adhere a policy of “don’t tell the other guild where the bounty is so they won’t steal our kill”. That way, when they spend an hour seeking out bounties, they at least won’t have to suffer another guild stealing their target.
If nothing else, this should be the reason to change the bounties.
At least a reply, dagnabbit!
We have a missing guild leader. I realize that this is a minority problem, but there is no existing workaround for it. I have contacted support, and they:
- Don’t have the tools to manage guilds externally.
– Don’t have the right to log into a client’s account without permission.
– Don’t have the right to contact a client without the client first initiating contact.
My missing guild leader had not been a major issue, as she had given me every permission set bar promoting me to full leader status. Now it is, because the new Mission Control permission set is only available to her and can only be granted by her. My guildmates are getting anxious about the fact that we can’t play guild missions.
It appears to me that there already was a permission set under which the guild missions could have been placed, which was the Activate Build Upgrades set. While the mission unlock has a hefty influence price tag, the guild missions themselves are cheaper than a number of existing upgrades, so I don’t see the necessity of separating it. Even there was a need to separate it, why not make it a default ON option permission subset?
I realize to some this may seem an unnecessary reversal or change, but it’s the only solution I see which doesn’t require the introduction of new tools or a mechanism for dealing with inactive guild leaders. Those mechanisms should be on the table – there was such a feature available in Guild Wars 1 – but if it isn’t, I think this is a reasonable alternative.
Asura on patrol in defense of Gandara and Bessie!
Administrator of http://thisisgandara.com
This is admittedly an edited copy of a post I put on another topic in the Guild section…but it pretty much sums up my personal opinions on it…along with a possible solution that I bounced around a few people.
As a small guild owner and dedicated player trying his best to keep his members interested in the game…I really dislike the structure of this guild mission system…
My guild is made up of mostly friends and friends of friends, who’s only desire is to play with people they know in a small/tight group. Sadly we have noticed that we are slowly the very surely running out of content to do, and a lot of them are going inactive. When I heard about the ideas of guild missions, I pretty much spammed all of them the good news, to which they were very excited to participate in and overall come back to the game. We were all ready tonight to play the hell out of this new feature, only to learn that it is currently (and will be for some time) a complete impossibility….
I’m very disappointed, my guild is very discouraged with the game in general, and most of all I feel like we were misinformed…
The current state of the guild mission system provides too steep a slope for smaller guilds to participate in this. I understand that a player must work in order to participate in premium content, which is a totally understandable concept, but it would take months of constant influence grinding (a very inconsistent system to begin with) to ever have a chance to unlock these missions with my smaller guild.
As a possible solution, why not lower certain tiers or types of missions to a lower upgrade ranking…have these missions reward the guild with merits AND influence? This new, constant source of influence, will allow smaller guilds like mine to be able to unlock the higher ranked missions over a shorter amount of time by constantly participating in the lower forms of these missions.
More NEW entertainment while we WORK to a higher ranking…best of both worlds.
(edited by Vodac.9742)
White Charr: [&AgFmmgAA]
OMG, it’s Tybalt!
Dear Arenanet,
As a guild leader, I’m really upset by the fact that a simple feature as showing Guild Message in the chat panel when a guildie logs in game isn’t implemented, this feature was present in GW1 and was extremely useful.
As it is now, people just don’t open the guild panel to see if the message has changed since last time and we (me + officiers) are forced to spam important notifications in the guild chat to be sure that everyone got the message.
This is a very essential fetaure to help guild management and I really can’t understand why you chose to exclude it in the initial release and still now we didn’t get any official statement from you.
Please Arenanet, tell us something, either that you introduce or not the feature, but don’t ignore us.
Oh, another very useful missing feature: Let us EDIT the guild message, dont force us to rewrite it all the times if we want to change a letter.
Thank you very much and keep up the good work!
P.S.
Sorry for bad English.
Ci Assediamo Da Soli [SIGH] ~ Officier
(edited by stemare.2578)
I run with a fairly good group. I don’t pug Dungeons because it’s a headache. I’ve had plenty of groups fail in the past with the old AC set up. I expect it to be even worse now.
On that note, I really like the new AC paths, the only boss I “disliked” was the last both @ Detha. Not because it was hard, but because the boss kept bugging out and because he kept attacking Detha, so it was irritating to try and position him. We had to wait until Detha died to get anything done.
What I like
- You can’t skip the first boss.
- The bosses HP was lowered, making it feel less like a tank and spank
- Better mechanics, though you can still skip Kohler. I suggest locking the doors until Kohler is defeated so people can’t skip him.
- The burrow’s actually spawn an intimidating amount of mobs now.
What I fear
- It will get nerfed to the ground
- Pugs can not do this, which will result in nerfing, which in turn will disappoint players like me who enjoyed the challenge.
The dungeon actually required some type of coordination, which is why I think pugs or bad players will fail. But if this is your PVE endgame, then you’re heading in the right direction in terms of revamping boss mechanics.
Overall, the Dungeon feels less sugarcoated and a snooze fest or a place for quick gold (next to COF P1). I look forward to what Anet does with the other Dungeons in the future.
When the game launched, there were 5 major currencies:
- Gold
- Gems
- Karma
- Dungeon Tokens
- Badges of Honor
As of now, the amount of currencies has nearly doubled with the addition of:
- Laurels
- Commendations
- Fractal Relics
- Pristine Fractal Relics
I did not include Influence and Merits in this because those are earned on a per guild rather than per person basis. I also did not include sPvP currencies.
At launch, players could effectively earn the majority of the currencies with a playstyle that included 1 or 2 of the major game systems (open world PvE, WvW, Dungeons).
The consequence of all these currencies is that they all now have exclusive rewards.
- I can not earn ascended amulets or other laurel vendor gear with by playing though dungeons, WvW, or fractals. I must do dailies to gain awards that are exclusive to dailies; therefore, I must add dailies to my playstyle.
- I can not earn ascended earrings(accessories) by doing WvW, fractals, dungeons, or PvE. I now must add Guild Missions to my playstyle OR sacrifice a month worth of dailies + monthly + 50ecto to afford one earring.
- I can not earn ascended rings by playing dungeons, WvW, or open world PvE. I must either add fractals and dailies to my playstyle .
- I can not earn ascended back pieces by playing dungeons, WvW, Guild Missions, Dailies, or open world PvE. I must add fractals to my playstyle.
So, as of right now, I must do the following to gear 1 character:
- Guild Missions
- Fractals
- Dailies/Monthlies
- Dungeons/Crafting for exotic armor
God help you if you prefer playing WvW…
Oh, and by the way, I have 8 characters…
I humbly submit that you do not add any more currencies. You are not extending the goal post anymore; you are adding multiple goal posts in every kitten direction. As soon as I run one way, there’s a goal post in a COMPLETELY different direction. I consider myself “hardcore”, but this is getting extremely tiring.
To be clear, I am NOT saying that you should not add more content.
What I’d like is for rewards for new content to be tied to existing currencies.
I suggest that you:
Add all ascended gear types to
- Guild Merits
- Dungeons (i.e. require 3-4 gifts to make an accessory)
- WvW
- Fractals (edit)
- Karma (edit)
- CRAFTING
And for the sake of Lyssa, use NEW SKINS AS INCENTIVES INSTEAD OF STATISTICAL INCREASES. I can tell you right now those using medium armor classes really could use some options.
Skins and titles are what kept people playing in GW1; new long term goal posts every month are what’s driving wedges in the game now.
“A release is 7 days or less away or has just happened within the last 7 days…
These are the only two states you’ll find the world of Tyria.”
(edited by Vorch.2985)
The description of this update was pretty unclear, so let me clarify. The change to portal made it so that you can’t interact with a portal that is on the other side of a wall from you, but that a portal whose entrance and exit are on opposite sides of a wall will still function.
I would appreciate it if you guys made the game, dungeons specifically to where content could not be skipped in any way. I understand different paths and the path you choose should be the path you do but the ability to get out of a mobs aggro range is really annoying seeing as many people abuse this.
glad that it will probably get a complete revamp. CoF is the easiest dungeon out there and attracts the most noobs in berserker.
Please add Cyrillic in Chat. It is very necessary for a comfortable game.
The guild system uses a fairly typical role-based security. There is no such thing as titles; they are simply named security categories. So, when creating one for yourself you need to make sure it has the permissions desired.
That said, I believe a warning dialog should be displayed when changing something as significant as guild leader. And, picking a member at random or otherwise as guild leader should not be the province of the software, it should require a human to make the selection. I wish you good fortune with the support folks at Anet. I know it must be a very uncomfortable position to be in.
Totally agree and what a lot of people seem to forget is that many players in gw2 have never run a guild before, myself included. In most games, including gw1, it was complicated to start your own guild and that made people think about it before going for it. In gw2 they have made it very simple and easy so lot of novices decided to try it. Perhaps a person with prior experience in leading a guild may not have made the same error?
But imo, if you create a system that so readily lets u change names/titles/edit ranks or whatever, then a preventative system should also be in place to help people avoid making such silly errors that have extremely dire consequences. We’re all humans and even devs make mistakes sometimes. To expect an average person to never do so is unreasonable. It’s so easy to push a wrong button when you’re being distracted or whatever and the system as it stands is terribly unforgiving and intolerant of any errors.
I misclick and sent expensive axe to wrong guy and he return it to me
ty so much Lacero Omni there are good ppl
This is a sad and serious matter, at least for me and all should have a read. It’s a bit long but it’ll only take a few minutes of your time and you may find the information of some value.
Unintentional error has caused me immeasurable upset and I’m having a hard time dealing with it. About a week ago, I was having a bad day, game crash after crash and in between, people sending me messages, keeping me distracted. Amid all of this, an officer in my guild, of which I am the founding leader, suggested I create some fun titles for the members. I’ve never tried this before, but thought why not and decided to give it a try.
Before I go on, I think I need to give you some background here so you understand what this means to me and why it has affected me so. I’ve played gw1 for number of years and eagerly awaited gw2 release. The moment it was available, I pre-purchased it and began playing on BWE1 and then the 3-day head start. I had all the char and guild names planned out and could hardly wait for it to go live. Due to my time zone, I had to stay up all night to be one of the first to log on and reserve the names I wanted. I was so excited when I finally registered my guild and it was accepted.
My original thought was to create a small guild for myself and a few friends, a place we could call home, but when the game went live, there were so many people I decided to invite a few. Before I knew it, I had 40+ members. Soon though, they began to drop off, or log in occasionally. Up to now, I have kept the numbers roughly the same, but some haven’t logged on for a long time. It’s hard to tell, since we don’t have the “last logged” information available. In the end, it’s been mostly me and my 8 alts that have earned the influence for the guild and through sheer hard work I’ve managed to get many upgrades for my small guild.
Now back to the topic. Considering the acronym of my guild is (GOD), the officer in question suggested I give myself a new title Godess and for him, a War Marshall. We’ve been playing WvW lately so it made sense he wanted that title. I laughed and said ok, sure why not, thinking we would all get a nice nickname added to our names. The moment I took on that Godess title, was the moment everything fell apart. Suddenly, all permissions in the guild went grey and I realized, I had lost access to my guild. My first thought was, with all the crashes I’ve been having, it must be a glitch. To add to my woes, the game crashes again just then and I’m like freaking out, as I still hadn’t figured out what went wrong.
When I logged back in, my worst fears were realized. It wasn’t a glitch at all. In fact, I was the lowest member in my guild! So in a matter of seconds, I went from being the Guild Leader, to the lowest ranking member! Now there’s a cruel joke for you if you ever heard one, right? So I’m staring at this guild panel, feeling kind of giddy, when my eye catches a glimpse of the Leader tag about half way down the list of members. Until I saw that, it still hadn’t sunk in I wasn’t the Leader any more. A member that has been inactive for a long time, now has the Guild Leader tag! Is this really possible? How did this happen? Why is he the leader? Who made him the leader? I had so many questions and no answers.
I was so confused and distressed by all this and still am. I didn’t know what to do and still don’t, but after discussing it with the officer who suggested this in the first place, I finally figured out what had happened. I created this title but didn’t give it any permission before accepting it. When I took on the title, it replaced my Guild Leader rank with it and removed me as the guild leader. It sounds dumb when I think back on it now, but I had no idea this thing would actually change my rank! I thought it would simply be an addition to it not a replacement and didn’t realize I had to give it permissions as well. I always believed if I ever did anything to affect such a serious change, it would come with a strong warning, but I was wrong. In a blink of an eye, I was stripped of my leadership and the system indiscriminately picked some random member (perhaps the oldest on the list) and appointed him the Guild Leader!
Why wasn’t there any warning? Like; are you SURE you want to do this? This title has no permissions and if you proceed, it will remove you as the Guild Leader! Is that too much to ask? Instead, no warning at all and the whole thing was executed by pushing 1 button! I mean, they can put a pop up window asking you to confirm some purchase from a vendor, but not for something as important as this? Surely this is a fundamental omission that should have been in the original guilds design? Or at least, taken seriously and fixed now that it has been brought to their attention.
(to be continued)
One of the reason i’m causing trouble really is because i feel everybody (especially IRON) is being so aggressive for no good reason lately, look at the locked matchup thread, and i’ve seen other instances, both on the forums and ingame.
That’s because their leader is awesome, that IRON is the best WvW guild and they hold Desolation on top by themselves. So they can be aggressive and condescending, even with their own server. Don’t try them, you fool!
Its very group comp dependent. I’ve been with tanky groups who take a while but never go down or have a problem getting back up, and I’ve done it with glass cannon groups who go down frequently but burn him faster.
I think the better metric would be how efficient a group is, but I don’t mind any time for the most part as long as the group play is solid throughout the entire experience.
Please add main hand pistol as an option. I don’t know what to say that isn’t immediately obvious as far as why this should happen. We have a trait line called dueling…I don’t know what screams pistol more than that. Dual pistols would just be sexy. Our only other one hand ranged option is scepter…