Guild Wars 2

Xcom.1926:

That is a good thing. MMOs should make you feel like you have to play them. Not randomly log on here and there. Which is exactly why GW2 has things like dailies and perma content. They want you to log on and have the urge to log on.

And yet, if I don’t like those dailies that day (like today’s made me go “meh”) I feel absolutely no compulsion to do it. I’ve already got my money’s worth, and I like that feeling.

As a result, I will NOT play ANY game that has a subscription fee anymore. I don’t care how good you think it is.

While I’d be up for an expansion, I think it’s worth noting that selling a large, bundled product like an expansion does have some negatives as well as positives. When you do an expansion, you split the playerbase between those who have it and those that don’t, which means that the expansion can only have a very limited effect on the existing world. If the Clockwork Invasion, for example, were heavily extended and developed further into a full expansion back, for example, none of the invasions could take place in existing zones, because people in those zones might not have the expansion pack. Or else they’d have to cook up some off-the-wall solution, like forking zones between “with expansion” and “without expansion” versions, which still splits the players without pushing people to repopulate older, emptier zones. (Which a lot of the Living World releases encourage.)

Another disadvantage is the lack of flexibility. If you develop an expansion pack for a game, you’re limiting your ability to react to changes in the community, much less things you’ve done before. The Living Story, for example, has substantially fewer “talking heads” cutscenes than the Personal Story does, and that’s because the Living Story team, having decided that particular cut scene system was too distracting, decided to change it up. If we had an expansion already, it would probably be running off the same ideas and assumptions that the base game itself is.

People generally don’t seem to like Trahearne. I think it’s safe to say that, if they did an expansion without waiting to see what the reception to the base game storyline was, we’d probably be seeing a lot more of him. Maybe not, but my point is that the Living Story model is a lot more flexible than an expansion model, because you don’t have to develop tons of content at once and then release it in an expansion pack; if one Living Story release flops or the team learns something from its execution, they can apply those lessons. Maybe not in the next month, because these things take some time to change and test, but certainly a couple releases down the road, which is enormously more flexible than an expansion pack.

It is clearly Logan folks!
He hasn’t shaved, he’s drunk, and he’s running around Divinity’s Reach screaming “Jennnnaaaahhhhhwwwwwwwww!”

It’s been a while, but I finally got time to paint some stuff for myself! Mesmer with a fan, and some Sylvari dude hugging some non-GW2 dragon. Because the dragons in game only give hugs with their teeth.

If you think I’m feeling shame over giving money to people who entertain me, you’re tragically wrong .

Skan.5301:

I’d think of it as “Hi! I’m the guy who has no idea how an MMO should be in reality and have nothing better to do except swipe my credit card multiple times every 2 weeks.”

As opposed to what? “I’m the guy that thinks artists are supposed to live on photosynthesis and churn out the pretties for free”?

I KNOW what an MMO should be in reality: a money making venture. Because if you don’t make money, you turn the lights off. Its a JOB for these people not a public service. I’ve enjoyed (many) monthly sub MMOs, right up to the point where they don’t deliver what I feel is and average $15 of service per month, and frankly none of them seem interested in reinvesting in their product enough to maintain that standard. So the world has moved on to micro transactions, and I at least have the certainty that everything I’ve ever bought from ANet has been logged in a database that tells them what they are doing right enough for me to pay them for it.

Nike.2631:

If you think I’m feeling shame over giving money to people who entertain me, you’re tragically wrong .

Woo I like it!

Edit: Sans the boots. Don’t like the boots haha. And which gloves are those?

Erick Alastor.3917:

Trajan.4953:

Behellagh.1468:

You are not being forced to learn to play a musical instrument or being force to play a youth sport that you have no interest in learning or playing.

You bought a product. You don’t like it. You state your opinion to the manufacturer why you don’t like it. They don’t address your concerns. You chalk it up to a bad buying decision and you move on.

You don’t set up camp and a soap box on their property and restate your objections over and over and over again for the rest of the product’s lifespan. We get it, you don’t like it for reasons XYZ.

If this was a subscription based MMO then you would have to keep paying to hang around protesting but since it’s a buy to play game you get the linger here forever and frankly after a year it’s getting old.

The only hope we have against you types is when ESO, Black Desert or whatever new MMO you choose comes out is that when it disappoints your echo chambered, self deluded expectations that you will then glom onto their forum and we can have relative peace and quiet with players that are willing to provide constructive criticism rather than a list of nonnegotiable demands.

This exactly.

Constructive criticism run out its course months ago after hundreds of suggestions and not a single response.
Btw a lot of the people who complain (me included) are not interested in grindy mmo, this is why we are still here hoping that something will change in the future.
I doubt you’ll see us definitelly disappear when the next wow clone will be out.
On the contrary (imo), when those games will be launched, gw2 will lose a lot of players, but most of us will be not between them.

It’s not constructive to ask them to abandon their game design for another game design. No they won’t bring back the MMO triad. No they will not add dozens upon dozens of trait/skills to complicate character builds, they simplified it for a reason. No they will not add a tool to allow party builders to exclude players, they intentionally want as many players to be included as possible which is why no tagging, no KS, no loot ninja, XP for every activity under the sun, etc.

And grindy? I’ve played some grindy MMOs and this ain’t one of them unless you choose it to be or you define grind so broadly that any activity other than sandbox is considered a grind.

So we’re stuck with the collective droning of why this game is so bad. Is that what you’re saying, you will never move on. What you like abusive relationships? You all obviously don’t like this game yet you stay on.

You are not being forced to learn to play a musical instrument or being force to play a youth sport that you have no interest in learning or playing.

You bought a product. You don’t like it. You state your opinion to the manufacturer why you don’t like it. They don’t address your concerns. You chalk it up to a bad buying decision and you move on.

You don’t set up camp and a soap box on their property and restate your objections over and over and over again for the rest of the product’s lifespan. We get it, you don’t like it for reasons XYZ.

If this was a subscription based MMO then you would have to keep paying to hang around protesting but since it’s a buy to play game you get the linger here forever and frankly after a year it’s getting old.

The only hope we have against you types is when ESO, Black Desert or whatever new MMO you choose comes out is that when it disappoints your echo chambered, self deluded expectations that you will then glom onto their forum and we can have relative peace and quiet with players that are willing to provide constructive criticism rather than a list of nonnegotiable demands.

It is still an enjoyable game. Newcomers will probably like it too.

Many people complain about ascended gear(which is not necessary to do any of the current content except for FotM), but that is probably the only very bad thing about this game. The rest can be balanced and fixed if need be.

The only reason why a player would call this game bad or boring is because they can’t let go of the old MMOs. So jaded that they don’t know what is good anymore. The sad part is that there are champ farmers out there when there is content and events to be played everywhere else. Good luck having fun while not immersing yourself into the game.

Guild Wars 2 has a unique experience as far as presentation of quests/events, combat style(other MMOs come close but not this fluent, I am looking at you Tera), and content updates.

One year later. Lions Arch is still full in my server or servers I have guested in. There are still people in Queensdale(reminds me alot of the pre-searing players in GW1). 19 out of 20 players I run into are respectable and helpful.

Depending on what is going to happen after this Scarlet business will decide whether or not the game is still good. I myself would really like to see new skills, traits, races, and zones. All of which will come in due time.

I browse the forums these days and I’m reminded of the words of Veruca Salt:

I want the world,
I want the whole world.
I want to lock it all up in my pocket
It’s my bar of chocolate
Give it to me now!
I want today
I want tomorrow
I want to wear them like braids in my hair and I don’t want to share them
I want a party with roomfuls of laughter
Ten thousand ton of ice cream
And if I don’t get the things I am after
I’m going to scream!
I want the works,
I want the whole works!
Presents and prizes and sweets and surprises in all shapes and sizes,
And now!
Don’t care how I want it now!
Don’t care how I want it now!

It’s not just the hairstyles or the colors. It’s the wanting of all of the things.

I saw OP’s post as “Gimme free stuff”.

Red Falcon.8257:

TooBz.3065:

Well, some players. I know I was happier with the game before.

Correction: the large majority of players.

If you were here back then you’d know 90% of this forum was asking for treadmills and whatnot.

No.

I’ve been here from the beginning. There were some threads complaining about “no endgame” from the content locusts. It wasn’t nearly as huge as you’re making out. And only a fraction of those were specifically asking for new tiers of loot. Most of them were just asking for something new to do.

Crazy how people expressing dislike of ascended weapons and armor are a vocal minority, because people who enjoy the game play it instead of posting on forums, but forum complaints about the need for new gear levels to chase somehow represented a vast portion of the players.

Not going to read through this whole thread which is probably just a lot of the same complaint repeated/people agreeing to the same complaint so this might be covered already.

To answer the topic question. I can think of two reasons.
1) Well this is obvious, ANet as a company must have a revenue. They’ve pretty much always said you will be expected to pay for cosmetics.

2) They would have gotten complaints either way.
If they had made it possible to select these new styles on new characters there would have been complaints about how it is unfair that they get fewer styles just because their characters were created earlier. Then there would be some demands for a free style kit for every character created before the update. Probably some more complaints with something about face slapping and how they really deserve the free kits since an older character means they’ve been supporting ANet for longer.

Now the obvious response to that is why can’t they give a free style kit for every character created before the update? However the answer would be fairly obvious too, these styles didn’t create themselves.

The AP chest for every 5k AP also includes a Total Makeover Kit and 400gems which would be enough to get a second one.

Saviourslave.6715:

What is up with that? They are new hair styles added to the game, why would you lock them behind gem-purchases…? I’m sorry, I defend Anet alot lately but this is just nonsense. My fiance and I both opened up one of our char slots just in anticipation of the new hair styles…. now we’re just… dismayed, speechless, and quite disgusted.

This is not a new thing, and it was well to be expected. When the change kits first came into the game, they introduced unique hair colors and eye colors exclusive to those kits (i.e. not in character customization from start).

You also get a free kit -and free Gems- at your 5,000 Achievement point threshold, as well as your 10,000 point threshold.

artsed.9702:

“Just let me pay for expansions if you want my money and stop this sort of things. If I like that I would have gone for a F2P game that also did not charge money for the initial game.”

This is my problem, too. The idea of a “living story” is alright, but the fact that they have to subsidize it in ridiculous ways is just not fun.

As someone who was very excited for the hairstyles, and an avid dungeoner, I’ve never been so hopeful for a patch before but let down so darned hard.

I was planning on buying a hairstyle kit to get one of them on my existing characters; I don’t think I will now, because I don’t really want to support that kind of design.

Wait…the idea of piecemeal content every two weeks for “free” is good to you; but the OPTION of supporting it via purchasing cosmetic/fluff items is somehow ‘wrong’? Please, clarify this position.

I’m very confused on your stance of first saying “I was planning on buying a hairstyle kit to get one of them…….. I don’t think I will now,” . That makes no sense. It’s $3 per kit [if you purchase Gems instead of converting gold], which is so little for something such as a permanent avatar skin change. Compared to other games, which costs ridiculous for these sorts of things (see League of Legends, see WoW)

But as mentioned above, the gold-to-Gem transfer rate allows everything to be purchased in-game. This means that paying $$ is completely optional with supporting the developers.

Also, if they did an expansion with these kind of things, you’d be FORCED to purchase the expansion to get the new hair styles you’re wanting, at a cost of $40-60. And since expansions are bundled content packs, you’d not have the Living Story -or much of any content- for an extended period of time until the Expansion comes out. Now if they do an Expansion on top of the Living Story, then it’s great for the gamers because we’ve had content flows to keep the game fresh while waiting for other content (that we cannot know and is completely speculation on the tight-lipped developers, for good reason because of the hyperbole customer-players).

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

notice how many times “can we” is mentioned?

they tried?

the problem is the players, not the developers.
the players left the game because there was not enough grind.
the players felt boring because there was not enough grind.

etc.

I firmly believe that the kinds of players who stuck around for carrots, treadmills, and grinds are the exact kinds of players who are going to jump ship the moment the next flashy MMO hits the market. I doubt they were ever in it for the long haul regardless of what changes the developers made. If I’m right and they do leave, that leaves a game designed for players that no longer play. Just as bad, that leaves a portion of jaded players who otherwise would have supported the game long-term with a game they no longer enjoy.

With the next-gen consoles, several AAA MMOs, and an inevitable WoW expansion all around the corner, we’ll see soon enough whether I’m right or wrong. For ArenaNet’s sake, they’d better hope I’m wrong.

For those who think that these new hairstyles should be included in character creation now and be free.

That’s fine for all the new accounts or for old accounts who want to make a new character. Otherwise, old accounts are going to have to purchase the kits. Don’t you think that people who have already have level 80s wouldn’t complain about this? The forums would go ballistic if new people got these for free and old accounts didn’t. They can get these for free with ingame gold now and people are complaining.

So what would ANet have to do to make the complainers happy? Mail out kits for every character slot you have? After all, you might want to change each one. And why about when/if more hairstyles come out? Or new faces? Should ANet mail out additional hair and total makeover kits each time they make more options? To everyone that has ever bought the game and one for each character slot?

ANet is offering a non essential vanity upgrade. An upgrade that was not included in the initial purchase price. If it was your business, and you included a vanity upgrade on an item would you give your work away for free to every one of the millions of people who had bought the basic package a year before? What would you say to a customer who told you that you should have done this work a year ago and in addition, it should be free now?

Everyone of course wants free items. I want free items myself. But you have to consider it from the point of view of the business. its not reasonable to expect a business to do work and then hand it over for free. I very much doubt that many of the people complaining here works for free on a regular basis.

Gear treadmill.

This is a perfect example of an entitlement thread.

Goodness people. If they put them in at character creation you’d still be whining & complaining….What about my existing lvl 80 characters, newbies get these styles for free and I have to buy makeover kits. Whaaaah.

Another case of ANET can’t win. I love the new hairstyles and I’m fine with them where they are. It is a cosmetic change. Go play the game and quit complaining about every little thing!

fellyn.5083:

How much time do they need? Most of the issues have been around since the betas. And then there are completely new ones in the last month or two like the charr main hand weapons shrinking magically.

So again, how much time do they require? They sure as hell can make things worse at the drop of the hat so how much time do we have to wait?

Hell, charr still leave footprints in snow that go in the opposite direction the character is facing. And that would be such an easy thing to fix. It would literally take them about 15 seconds to fix it. But no, we have to stare at that kitten for more than a year now.

And the end of the day it’s pure stubborn laziness on anets part and they should be embarrassed. If they wanted to they could probably fix all the problems revolving around charr and engineers inside of a week.

And we do know what the whole story is. They flat out said it’s not worth their time to fix. There is nothing to interpret or guess at.

How much time do they need? As long as it takes. Development isn’t done using a magic wand. Tracking an issue through potentially thousands of lines of code, is grueling work. (Makes my eyes cross at least)

They did not say it wasn’t worth their time. They said because so few people play it, it’s a lower priority. Again, something that happens in every development situation. They have to prioritize their work somehow, and cosmetic issues aren’t game breaking. kitten , GW1 is almost 9 years old and it has clipping issues that were never fixed, and will never be fixed.

Kitten happens, they have to draw the line somewhere. I’d dearly love to have some of you slammed into their dev’s shoes and try to do what they do. Let’s see you do better. No game is perfect, kitten, no software is perfect.

Use whatever language will give you the best chance of reaching whatever audience you intend your message for.

If anyone complains about it, that’s their problem.

You guys might want to check out the GW2 FB page right now :P

And just why should we get a free hair style change?