Guild Wars 2

Oh, I like this one… let me describe my own experience.

Back in 2012, before the game was launched, I had 6 friends who had bought the pre-purchase edition just like I did. Two of them were super-hardcore grinders, so they got really fast to the 80 and after a little time they had their top exotic gear. And at this very point, they had nothing to progress for, so the quit the game.

Three more friends were kinda slower at leveling, they wanted to enjoy the whole content, so it took them more time… we are talking months here… and then the same story like with the first two – they max-geared and had nothing else to do.

One last friend stood for more time in the game, he got first 80 a few days after I did (end of November 2012, I guess)… and he was casually playing along, he did some dungeons, he did some WvW and he was the only real-life friend, who stood in and was playing the LS content with me. This year, he made an alt and leveled it to 80, he again did some end-game content on casual-pace, but somewhere around the beginning of September, he didn´t really log into the game for more than few minutes. I asked him why is that, and his response? “I don´t know what to do in the game anymore.” – it´s translated from Czech language, so it is not 100% accurate, but it´s pretty much what he said.

And it is what I feel about Guild Wars 2 too… I love the world, I love lore, I love graphics, I love the pace you give us new content (2 weeks are amazing for payment-free game), I love combat and so on… I REALLY DO LIKE GUILD WARS 2, but sometimes I just lose interest and skip few LS patches, because of rewards for my time. Don´t get me wrong, I like playing games just for fun, but I don´t like all the content, its nobodys fault, you can´t like everything… but if there were proper rewards, I would do the content even if I didn´t like it. Now I do content just if I want to, and that is what differs my GW2 experience from other MMOs, which had better rewards (Example: opening chest at the end of 1 hour battling through the Nightmare Tower and getting 3 greens? Come on…).

You really did try to improve this end-game stuff, and I mostly like it, but I still expect more to come – how about unlockable PERMANENT dungeons? You have to do a lower dungeons to unlock higher/harder ones with better rewards – but the rewards have to be worth it ofc., or we would return to classic CoF farming. Ascended crafting is a good example of you trying to improve motivation for end-game players – and I appreciate that, but the 400 to 500 leveling is just annoying, discovering xy weapons which I am never ever going to craft again is not the best way imo, but I still do it, because that is exactly what I wanted in the beginning of this year – some progression.

Also don´t forget the Fractals – great end-game kind of stuff, but the rewards… maaan, people do it just if they want to, not for the rewards, if they want rewards (proportional to the time spent in), they would rather do some fast dungeon paths. Same goes with Tequatl, do you know why I didn´t even bother trying to do that new version? REWARDS, there are no good rewards except for 0,001 drop chance for good stuff and some achievements (which is not good enough for me for this amount of effort).

One last example – train farms, somebody from ArenaNet in some video said, that they like it because it´s something they wanted – community doing stuff together, but at the same point it´s not really the way ArenaNet intended community stuff to be. What to do with these trains? If you raise rewards in… everything from dungeons to Living Story, people definitely would do less brainless train running around the map (and yeah, some LS content is about that too), which gives them good rewards compared to the time spent. BUT THAT DOESN´T MEAN “NERF THE CHAMPS”.

My point is, if you want to improve character progression, you have to start with the rewards, they have to match the time/effort spent into content, and if they don´t, people just stick to easier (but with pretty much same rewards) content. Lets give us new permanent dungeons with progression as described above, lets give us proper rewards for doing harder content, lets give us progression which isn´t about farming achievement points.

As I said above, I love the game, it´s amazing, but it has alot of space to improve if we speak of “end-game character” progression. Most people don´t play just because it´s fun, not if we speak about MMOs… they also expect to be somewhat motivated by the game itself. Keep on doing good job, lets make 2014 to be the year in which players return to Tyria! :-)

ZeftheWicked.3076:

6. gem store

The prices – aren’t we a bit too expensive NcSoft? I mean it’s simple economy (which i have master’s degree of) that teaches that if something is cheaper more people will buy it (given it’s attractive to them) and the number of purchases will often outweigh the loss in price. Looking at other mmos i recently played i can certainly say your prices are way above the optimal pricing line.

Skins – it’s epic we’re starting to get good skins, but doesn’t that mean that those go into gemstore instead of ingame? And now people who could get new and cool looking customization options are stuck behind a pay-gate?

I agree with your opinion on prices, very much so.
It has happened to me many times that I refused to buy an item in the gem shop simply because, in my opinion, what I paid was not worth what I got.

For example, the special dye packs. I refuse to pay real money for RNG anymore. 125 gems for one single Black Lion Key? No thanks.
Last year, I bought and opened 45 (!) of the Wintersday Gift Boxes, in the hopes of getting one or more of the minis. 45 boxes later, not a single mini, I was out 50 dollars, and all I had were a bunch of useless turret cannon things.

That made me realize that there was NO way I would spend money on RNG stuff in the gem shop anymore. A year later, I still haven’t.

I bought all the mini packs (with fixed drops), armors, Marjory’s Dagger, I have spent hundreds of dollars in the gem store (I want to support Anet and vote with my money on items I like). But I would buy even more if the prices were lower and in accordance with what I feel like I’m getting.

The ONLY items in the gem shop that are, I feel, at their correct price is the Hair Styling Kit and the Makeover Kit.

As for more armor skins in-game as rewards or at vendors or as drops, YES PLEASE!
I am kind of tired of buying full sets of skins in the gem shop. No feeling of achievement or reward.
Want a new looking armor? Get the gems! Nevermind that I will then see everyone and their mother run around in the same set for the next 2 weeks.

Awesome, great we have devs ears on the subject:)
I have 7 things to say on the subject, hopefully it’ll be your lucky 7;)

1. Be brave - i know no one likes flames in their thread, but as a dev you gotta be though like John Rambo. Forums are usually half the unsatisfied people (satisfied ones are ingame!) wanting change be it through discussion or flames. Some shells will be fired, but escaping community contact has been a downfall of many a game. Hopefully not this awesome one:)[/b]

2. Horizontal progression = good I really love that you made ascended the “top tier” less through stats, and more through ulitity (account bound and not soulbound). I also heard legendaries are to have dynamically changeable stats. YEAH! That’s the way to go A-net!:) New builds, trait improvement and skills are the way to go!

3. Fractal wepons Word is they are extremely rare, unless you’re looking for a trident. I’m no fan of RGN loot with 1 in 10000 chances. Time and effort put into running them should be met with sure reward even for the less lucky of us. Adding a fractal weapon box for “number of run fractals achievement” should even the score. Box lets you pick one fractal skin you want, kinda like box with ascended gear.

4. Gear looks Yesturday i spend 5 or so hours on hardcore….mix & matching armors for my necro. Not exactly a role model for posterity, but making my character look unique is a huge part of the game, and there’s room for improvement.

Why can’t i dye my weapon?
Where are all the non-chubby looking swords?
Asian weapons?
Why some legendaries look awesome, while others are a clear joke? I mean sure, i have lotsa sense of humor, but i’d like to have a choice if i want to wield a kitten looking legendary pummeler, or a disco ball, and not be trapped in “you want a legendary mace? Hope you like to boogie!”

Less important but more personal – i could not find one dedent looking light short sleeved chestpiece to match dungeon inquest pants + inquest gloves. The inquest top is bland and makes my character look like “lotsa on bottom, little on top”. Arah one has the right idea – the scarf around sides and back, but the textures are just horrible and in no way match inquest’s orderly, world-explorer design.

Profession tweaks There’s a lot of make or break in there. Good balanced skills & trait set with lotsa tempting options and builds is a huge horizontal progression factor and good reason to stay and play..and experiment!

Nedless to say what the opposite does. Right now you’re in the middle with that. There are professions with interesting skillls, traits and many builds, and there are some that are severely lacking in anything meaningful save one, maybe two options (necros!).

Listen to player feedback, i’ll b glad to help and give you my opinions on what and why, as long as i know there’s a dev ear listening to that. Please remember – you guys get payed for it, we don’t, and it’s no less of a job to make trait/skill/ improvement ideas or invent new ones.

6. gem store Ah the gem store, this is another huge topic to discuss. To sum it up shortly here – just like with traits you’ve made some good and bad.

Good – account bound harvesting tools – excellent idea. Convinient, beutiful, doesn’t break the game balance. And lets us support the game without looking stupid while doing it.

The skins – marjory’s dagger was epic (too bad i didn’t get it)..

Bad – instant retrait item in gem store. That’s P2W starting to rear it’s ugly head. If i can retrait in dungeon, then that gives me advantage over my teammates who can’t.

The prices – aren’t we a bit too expensive NcSoft? I mean it’s simple economy (which i have master’s degree of) that teaches that if something is cheaper more people will buy it (given it’s attractive to them) and the number of purchases will often outweigh the loss in price. Looking at other mmos i recently played i can certainly say your prices are way above the optimal pricing line.

Skins – it’s epic we’re starting to get good skins, but doesn’t that mean that those go into gemstore instead of ingame? And now people who could get new and cool looking customization options are stuck behind a pay-gate?

Time limited stuff – you would have a marjory’s dagger and axe profits on me had you not made it time limited. I just told you about your pricing, right? Well yeah…i couldn’t muster enough on time to get the dreamcleaver axe AND marjory’s skins on time..

7. New professions? Well nothing is more clear horizontal progressions then new profession! Seems gem store took off the need for expansions off your shoulders, but that doesn’t mean we don’t expect you to deliver new BIG content asides current world polishes. Ofc it’s your game your rules and you didn’t start with mmo classic “3 starter classes”, but you know;)

I feel like the late game has become the grind that I loathe about other mmos. I loved the consistent level ups and new gear that the early game offered, but once I hit 80, I hit a wall. After watching videos on getting a legendary, I instantly told myself I should never commit that much time to obtaining one, despite how cool they are. And once I got my exotic armor set, I didn’t touch that character for months. The challenge of character progression is absurd amounts of time doing mindless grinding, not enjoying the great dungeons or the massive world the game has to offer. When I see somebody with a Legendary, I don’t think how much of a traveled or skilled player they are, I see somebody who just grinded for weeks or months on end to get it. I feel like portions of the game are barred off to me since I can’t play the game as much due to other responsibilities in life. I really respect how competent gear is easy to get, but after you get that gear, its a grindstravaganza for everything else in the game, and that’s no fun. I bought this game on the premise that it doesn’t waste your time, and I feel like that isn’t the case when I try to obtain an ascended weapon or armor set.

In summary, Grinding has become the late games focal point, and there is no real challenge to obtaining Legendary and Ascended gear, only time commitment. As a result, players with moderately busy lives are mostly incapable of obtaining these items.

yes to horizontal progression
- each gear can unlock and change stats
- each gear can unlock and change skins

no to vertical progression
- max level 80 (please do not increase any further)
- max tier ascended (please do not add new tiers)

thank you.

Animation Set Kit: Allows the player to change specific animations such as how the character holds a weapon when walking/idle/jogging, what their idle animation is, how they run etc…

The ILWSW-1 Light Machine Gun Skin: Concept art. Because it’s a skin, it still behaves like a rifle, but appears to be firing in bursts.

Race Children Minipets: Suggested already, but I really think it’s a good idea. I’d like a Charr cub. =3

Emotes: Come on; emotes. I love emotes. /eat (Charr animation should look something like this: Lion Eating) , /unimpressed (a face palm), player interation emotes that behave like How to Dance vol.1 , the talking animation that NPCs have, but we don’t etc…

Town Clothes: You get the idea I imagine, also, I want a rice hat for my Charr.

Camp site kit: Makes a little camp site around the player for 60 minutes. Makes a fire pit (No, not a communal boost bonfire), a tent, wooden log seats (Press F to sit on) and pots and pans.
Dunno whether it would just be cosmetic fluff, or be useful. Can also be worn as a back item when not in use: Example.

Decal Kit: Allows the player to design decals to cover their character in. Uses pre-made shapes like the guild emblem designer (although a bigger selection).

Total Makeover Pack:

Includes:

*Total Makeover kit
*Name Change Contract

Cots: 1000 gems (normal 800+350)

RoyalPredator.9163:

Yes. The Gemstore kins should be Unlocks, like Zenith skins.
Would not brake the income, since there is very very very small amount of people who buy the same skinpack. So then, why not making a kind step towards loyal and supportive users??

Having Gem Store Skins become an unlock like Zenith skins would make me buy them alot more often, that way I don’t have to worry about using them only once.

Of course, Anet likes the money they make off of those transmutation stones/crystals/etc. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting more money, but, I am guessing there is a realistic reason why all the Living story skins and gem store skins are one time use only.

Flytrap.8075:

There’s too much transient fluff and not enough substantial, permanent content.

thank you. thats why I lost interest after the first two tries. You guys (dev team) killed my interest in this game. Good job.

What I wanted to expect, even if only remotely:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoPpgwU39mY/TySSOfSLDdI/AAAAAAAABi8/Ixe0hzKs2CY/s1600/Rothfuss_Name-of-the-Wind02UK_LauraBrett.jpg

What I feel like it actually transformed into:
http://www.disney.co.uk/disney-junior/mickey-mouse-clubhouse/games.jsp

Nope, i dont care at all because these there is no story to follow and the things the new events offer are limited and not permanent. Why don’t they release an event every 1-2months, so they can write a good story, create maps/new armor/skills etc. I thought gw2 was going to have an epic story with expanding world. what did i get? A kitten story and poorly executed events every 2weeks. THANKS

btw hey, a solid expansion is necessary to keep the playerbase alive dudeeee. dude(anet) give me something new to do. i dont give a d*mn about your living story.

I feel your pain RoyalPredator.9163, I know everything depend on taste but look at all these people in LA, most of them look like easter eggs. I miss GW1 style.

Zaoda.1653:

sorudo.9054:

when they do finally add it you have a good thing and a bad thing.
good: armors from GW1
bad: they are in the gem store

I wouldn’t mind them being in the gem store… as long as they stay there as permanent sales, because some of us aren’t extremely rich and people like myself need time to save up to buy them – not have them as limited sales for 1-2 weeks like most skins these days.

the reason why i am against gem store sales is because they become skins for just one character, not unlocks like the HoM armor skins, if they do become actual unlocks i would not mind it as much.

Hello,

To this day the fractal skin box did not drop at all. No one ever got this item.

All rare items, from unique skins to precursors to ascended weapon boxes drop all day and no one is complaining about them missing. Also, they are indeed listed in the API.

When I run the API to fetch all known items, nothing similar to the fractal skin box is present.

Could you please perform a double-check that the box is indeed on the loot table and accessible to us?

Thanks!

This is not hate thread so please don’t.
Also don’t post everywhere that devs are lazy and such….

Since launch I was a big fan of going from GW1 to GW2.
I know those are separate games, classes, mechanics etc…

But world, lore and history are just one and you can’t deny it.

At launch we hot 3 armors from GW1 and I think everyone were sure that we will get more soon, but developers went another way. Many people in comunity almost begged for more armors from GW1, but it didn’t happened. Basically I don’t recall any announcement, but after some time we got newly designed armors when they finally were added to gem store.

I thought, OK it’s a philosophy ‘lets discard old and make only new ones’. I kinda accepted that and though ‘you can make new ones, hopefully you will make them very good’, Many armor skins were really good (maybe aside from heavy armors that would have that knight look on Norn, but I will leave with that).

NOW we for the first time got reused skins. That was a kind of blow for me, cause I see those as a kind of side job made in few hours of work and thats it.

WHAT I FAIL TO UNDERSTAND is why if you have armor designed for GW1, that people for over half of year begged on forums. If you want to add something just reserve time on making it. If you don’t have a design or idea, use GW1 armors that people still want (I’m sure there are more people who want them than only me). Please don’t more of those easy and kinda poor reuses when you have such an amazing catalog of armor in GW1…

I know that there is a lot of work with those, maybe you have to redo the from the start or you have to at least make them scaled and changed for all 5 races instead being only for humans.
Yet, that would really make many people very happy. Everyone would also have a reason to buy them and don’t feel betrayed or cash grabbed.

People still consider those 2 of 3 first armors best designed in entire shop.

For those of you who don’t know that I’m talking about, please visit GW1 wiki, go to armors and look for all the designes. Basically every class has multiple designed armors just for that class. It’s a full closed of armors that have even 3D files that can be used at least as a concept arts.

I think many players want new areas to explore in this game whether it is Tyria, Elona or Cantha. The hard thing here for Anet is to give us something new in these new zones without raising the levelcap and still be worth while to explore and spend time in.

I believe this was something they tried to do with Southsun Cove and the result is that that zone isn’t that much worth to be in.(except the karka queen)

Now Guild Wars 2 has one thing common with pretty much every other MMORPG out there and that is grinding.

I’m a pve player and the places I see most players at is in either Queensdale or Frostgorge Sound where they’re champion farming, FotM and people farming worldbosses. Now we can argue pros and cons about things Anet release in LS but it’s quite obvious the champion boxes were a success along with the weapons that can be dropped in those boxes.

So here comes my list with things that would makes new added zones worth playing and exploring without splitting playerbase up too much and still leave the levelcap at 80.

Unique
Make the new zones unique, something that can only be obtainable through that zone. Like the Orr temples vendors armors but also weapons and trinkets. This game needs more models obtainable through pve. The dungeon armors is almost 16 months old now and when we see new sets it’s through the gem shop.

Grinding
The karmagear was easy to get and Anet did explain that they didn’t know people would get that much karma in such a short time. Raise the price for the pieces from 42k karma(Orr prices) to maybe 84k or 126k. Players like to feel unique and legendarys and dungeon armors are more than quite common now and when you see someone with gem shop armor it’s sometimes quite good looking but it’s not hard to get if you have money.

Dailies
An RPG is much about seeing progress through stats and aesthetics and seeing your character developing in generall. But make the new zones have daily events that maybe occurs once or twice that will lead you to a chest which contains a token/tokens for something you want to buy. A slow progress that’s not RnG based. Again this makes the zone unique. However we can at first point agree that this games doesn’t need more currency but with the new wallet system it doesn’t need to be so inconvenient. Say we get to travel in to Dominion of Winds or to a heavily populated Kodan zone. The tokens can represent some sort of honor value of some kind that shows the faction that you’ve helped them which gives it more rpg-feeling to it.

New enemies
I gotta say I loved the karkas. But that’s a personal preference. However this game could use new enemies. Something that ties the enemy to the region. Pretty basic but not as effective as previous suggestions but I always find it quite nice to see new enemies in game whether it is karkas or twisted.

Lore
This game needs more lore for old veteran GW players but still be enjoyable for those who haven’t played the first GW. It’s always nice for the experienced eye to see that they are running around in a world they took their first step into in 2005. Make relics, books or ruins or just a place in generall that might be preserved. This was something, which for some, made Southsun Cove a bit… meh… Just because it came more of a shock. Give the playerbase something we want not something we maybe want.

That’s my take regarding adding new zones. Bare in mind that this is something I was thinking could fit in a LS as much as an expansion but since we’re pretty custom with the LS it thought of it out of that perspective.

I don`t play,I don`t care anymore…guild wars 2 is ruined!!!

We care about the game itself, but we don’t care about the state of the game in regards to LW, achievement points, dailies, and other skinner box tricks that they are utilizing to get people to log back in and check the gem shop.

We actually want real content (think expansion), not a progress bar, kill counters, or F key hunts.

-New patch.

-Read the mail.

-See whatever little story there is at the moment.

-Check meta-achievement reward/temporary rewards.

-If they’re useful/desirable, grind for them and get it done ASAP.

-If not, ignore it.

I used to care. Seeing the little story bits almost make me care again. Grinding for the meta rewards/other temporary rewards makes me quickly stop trying to care, as well as all the things that require a small zerg to have fun with.

By this point, I’m about ready to say that they should just go with expansions. I mean, it worked for the first Guild Wars, right?

I don’t care. Haven’t cared ever after the Crown Pavilion. That was the beginning of the downfall of living story and this game.
PvE … became a grind. WvW… became uncompetitive. Living Story… became a farm.

I still care for this game enough, to read forums.
I still care enough for LS, to feel really bad that it’s burning good lore to the ground and replace it with utter bullskrit.
I still care enough for updates, to think “what will they screw now?” hours before release.

But with every nonsensical achievement I care less.

living story should be a cool event per 2 weeks with some story and NOT a archievement grindfest

everytime we have a living story patch i dont think “oh lets check story” – its always " oh lets check the meta archievement"

I did care in the beginning, but lately I’ve stopped caring. I have no interest to grind the achievements over and over again for some new reward I will rarely even use. Story isn’t interesting enough in itself to keep playing, so I guess I will wait until an “expansion-type” content update until I play seriously again.

btw, I’m against a two-week update schedule, I personally can wait a month or even two if it means we get more meaningful content to do and not just AP grind in a different skin.

Never cared, LW has never been presented in a way that I truly liked and the story is almost non existent. Been patiently waiting for them to go in a different direction.

The idea of an MMORPG that evolves and changes is great but i have seen little evidence that it’s happening.

Achievement points are a cheap trick to get people to keep coming back
The To-do lists tied to the AP are the same thing with a different name every update
None of the characters in the LS are interesting or memorable to me
New weapon skins and back items don’t matter to me because of RNG and all of the above.

I used to do my daily well daily but now i don’t, if I happen to get it from playing, great, other-wise who cares…

Fix the core game please! This what i play for.
Plan a true expansion too that would be awesome!

Temp-Content = Temp players

Long Term Content = Long Term Players

Let’s hope Anet figures this out, soon!

First, I stopped doing dailies. Then I stopped doing monthlies. Then I stopped crafting. Now, I am almost about to stop doing Guild Missions. This game is boring as all. I wish this game had SOMETHING going for it… but unless you like grinding (which I define as doing anything you wouldn’t normally do to get something you need to stay up to date in something you want to do) and WvW.

I have the char name Boring Story for this very reason.

I no longer care either. My current time spent in game has dropped significantly because the Living Story has resolved nothing and is just meandering around accomplishing nothing but a tease at “grand plans” and to make permanent aesthetic changes to the world.

The year is pretty much over, I want some resolution. I want to know that all that we have done actually means something, and are not just excuses to spoon-feed us shinies by coaxing us to log in every day. Because I won’t do that.

lordkrall.7241:

Nick.6972:

I no longer care about the Living Story updates, I really don’t.
I don’t care if I don’t get all achievements or minis.

Honestly, I’d rather wait 1-2 months and get no new content for 3-5 New Crystal Desert maps with new Dungeons and WELL WRITTEN story.

I still care. I like the story, it is quite interesting.

If you really think they can produce 3-5 complete new maps and dungeons in 1-2 months you are quite naive.

They spend four months+ on each bi-weekly release. If they went back to a single monthly release, they could double-up the teams and essentially get the equivalent of 8 months of work from each one. It’s still nowhere near long enough to constantly produce new maps but it would seem they could then add a little more meat to the living story’s bones.

Don’t expect things like that to happen. Arenanet doesn’t know how to handle a game with so much potential. I’m actually amazed how they screwed it up compared to GW1.