Guild Wars 2

munkiman.3068:

mando.2730:

As an experiment, I would like to suggest this to everyone: Next time you do some dungeon runs in a full zerker party, any time someone goes down, let them die. Or if they rally, have them leave the fight/area completely, and see how that affects your run. Now try it again, but with a more balanced party composition and see how you go. I tried this earlier today with a group (did AC, CoF and HoTW), and the zerker runs were far more painful than the runs with a more balanced group. All of a sudden, we had a real need to run less glassy builds, and we actually had a couple players specced for power/healing, and a couple specced for tank/condi/boons, and one for dps (but slightly less squishy).

Just a nice little experiment, which improved my experience a whole lot. Of course, put the downed state back in there and we can just zerker our way through picking people up as they go down.

While i agree with most of your observations, this game, any game, will develop player adopted tactics to achieve a win state. Unless Arena changed the fight dynamics every couple of months, i just don’t see how stat changes would prevent these optimal builds and preferred professions from being prevalent.

Yeah, the funny part is these same players will go out of the way to make the game easier for themselves then complain that the game is too easy.

Better off not having any, why should our characters celebrate Xmas for example. Xmas and the reason for it isn’t part of the game world.

warbignime.4610:

LOL, flying mounts and open world PvP does not affect community? I am laughing so hard , man you know nothing about how MMO community works. Flying mounts cause players to fly on different attitude which reduce the amount of player you see and cause communication much more difficult. Open world PvP caused nothing but hatred between Alliance and Horde , I remember the first time I play WoW, a zerg of high level Alliance just killed all the low level quest NPCs over and over. Mechanic like this caused terrible community of WoW , say it’s caused by elitist is pretty Mich pure BS.

Flying mounts (lack of) don’t effect how players behave towards each other in-game. All it does is cause arguments on the forums between those that want flying and those that don’t. The game mechanics of flying mounts does not cause anti-social behaviour.

Open world PvP, there’s nothing wrong with open world PvP as a game mechanic it’s how it’s been implemented in WoW. Resentment tends to be fostered in that game. Imbalance is classes (class traits, human being the latest or at least was). High level players killing low level players, high level players killing NPCs (including quest givers) repeatedly. There’s a lot of hatred in the community in WoW and a lot of it is due to the way the game mechanics has been implemented, resulting in the way players can and do behave towards each other.

When they made GW2 they recognised that game mechanics leads to the way players behave towards each other, which is why they made the game the way they did. Although was surprised they left aggro dragging, but then again in as far as aggro dragging goes it can make things interesting sometimes having to deal with extra mobs.

Elitists divide communities, so does poor game mechanics as does competition. But of course you also get a small part of any community that just likes to grief others and will do so if the game mechanics allows them to do so.

But from what you’ve replied with previously I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.

warbignime.4610:

Azala Yar.7693:

warbignime.4610:

What’s wrong with elitist think what they get out of it? People play video games for their enjoyment , there is nothing wrong with wanting better reward because we are playing an RPG. Also WoW’s community is terrible not because of the reward or encounters, it’s because WoW has a terrible looting system and the biggest player base. Like I said, you don’t understand WoW enough.

Started playing WoW at the beginning of 2005 had a few minor breaks from it.
If you put all my game time together that was spent on playing WoW, the game time (actual time playing) would be at about 4 years (when you add all the time spent playing together without breaks).

So I’m sure as you claim I know nothing about WoW’s community or even its development of the game or its community.

It’s WoW’s game design mixed with elitists (encouraged by game design) that leads to a lot of the WoW community’s anti-social behaviour.

GW2’s game design is actually not that bad as the only anti-social behaviour I see on a regular basis is aggro dragging.

based on your statement , I can tell you do not understand WoW. Also play a game a lot=/= you understand it. Elitist is a very minor factor of WoW’s anti social community, you are foolish to think it is, Blizzard done a lot of things that screw up the community such as flying mounts open world player killing, it is not because of elitist.

I can tell it’s pointless talking to you as you just don’t grasp what I’m saying.

Flying mounts has nothing to do with it neither does world PvP.

warbignime.4610:

What’s wrong with elitist think what they get out of it? People play video games for their enjoyment , there is nothing wrong with wanting better reward because we are playing an RPG. Also WoW’s community is terrible not because of the reward or encounters, it’s because WoW has a terrible looting system and the biggest player base. Like I said, you don’t understand WoW enough.

Started playing WoW at the beginning of 2005 had a few minor breaks from it.
If you put all my game time together that was spent on playing WoW, the game time (actual time playing) would be at about 4 years (when you add all the time spent playing together without breaks).

So I’m sure as you claim I know nothing about WoW’s community or even the development of the game and community.

It’s WoW’s game design mixed with elitists (encouraged by game design) that leads to a lot of the WoW community’s anti-social behaviour.

GW2’s game design is actually not that bad as the only anti-social behaviour I see on a regular basis is aggro dragging.

warbignime.4610:

There is nothing wrong with wanting better reward from more difficult encounters, it’s a core element of RPG and GW2 did not do well on it, but that is another topic which I can rant a few thousand words on. Like I said there is nothing wrong with elitist, GW2 should appeal to both casual and hardcore as they promised before the game even launch. Anet want to appeal to hardcore players , that’s why they promise us difficult and challenging content in HoT which I wish are going to be organized small- medium size group content instead of massive zerg fights. What you mean it would divide community? What’s wrong with dividing the community, because pvp divide the community too, then should Anet remove pvp from the game since it divide community, your point is invalid.

That’s where the division starts casual and hardcore, you’ve already divided them into 2 groups. Rather than one community which it should be, you get kind of a class system which breeds the elitism.

The problem is elitists tend to just think of what will they get out of it, rather than being concerned with the community as a whole.

Like I said if this game goes down the same road as WoW the community will end up just as bad given enough time.

But what ever happens the decision is ultimately ANet’s let hope they think it through first.

warbignime.4610:

Downed state is not what set GW2 apart from WOW, if you are saying it is then you clearly didn’t play enough of both games to the point of understanding. There are a lot of mechanics and feature set GW2 apart from WoW, downed state is a very minor one.

I didn’t say it’s the only thing.

No, didn’t play WoW much, only had over 300 characters, most deleted now although I’ve still got 9x 100’s and a 92 plus a few others.

Not had so many here though, only got 7x 80’s a 64 a 53 and a 32. So yeah I’m kind of new to GW2.

Doesn’t bode well for a community when part of it starts to want better rewards if they do a dungeon on hard mode. Like I said elitists will divide a community, but they will only do it if you give them the means to do so (game mechanics). WoW did give them the means and the community is probably one of the worst in an MMO.

warbignime.4610:

Let’s face it, downed state doesn’t matter that much, people don’t buy or stay in the game because of " omg GW2 got this downed state system which when you think about it in depth does pretty much nothing but making content more forgiving and easier" they stay because of GW2’s other aspect, i’m sure 99% of people would not give a kitten if downed state is removed from the game.
No, balanced casual and hardcore is the key of making a successful game, there is nothing wrong with elitist, there is nothing wrong with playing the game at the most optimal and efficient way .

Downed state is one of the good things about this game, it also helps keep it away from being just another WoW clone. Too many of those already.

I played quite a few MMOs over the years including WoW and I used to level characters in an efficient way. That doesn’t help the community much though, because as I was being efficient I never had much time to actually get too involved in the community. That was a different story in some other MMOs though.

Elitists don’t do anything for a community either except to divide it.

If you want a game more like WoW, you will end up with a community not much different to WoW’s and that would be a shame for this game.

mando.2730:

Azala Yar.7693:

GW2 has a lot of the same types of people, but with GW2 the game has been designed less on being individually competitive and focusing more on players working together in a more casual way. This is something that makes GW2 a lot better.

You’re right, perhaps the majority PvE content is just too casual for me. I don’t wish it to be though.

You don’t wish it to be?

You didn’t come back from WoW did you and now you’re trying to change the game to suit yourself ?

A lot of us like the downed state, why should the game change so that you get your way ?

Without the downed state this game would become boring for a lot of us.

The game has been designed this way, so stop trying to get it designed the way you want it.

Casual is good as it tends to keep the elitists at bay.

Nyx.7342:

Hm i had the same reaction as someone else thinking it was peta file as in a really large file but ofc i got the connection to that other bad bad thing. Kind of clever but yeah obv some people are rightfully sensitive to that so makes sense to have your name changed.

Wat i dont get is why every name change has to have its own thread?

You saw the connection and that was the intent.

Always amazes me when people think they’re being clever when in fact all they’re doing is trying to be noticed by using similar sounding names.

Like others have said, it kind of shows immaturity.

@ the op

I’d also add that you appear to be someone that prefers competition, competition is why WoW’s community is so awful in general.

GW2 has a lot of the same types of people, but with GW2 the game has been designed less on being individually competitive and focusing more on players working together in a more casual way. This is something that makes GW2 a lot better.

The looting system in GW2 is far superior as at least you all get some loot. Whereas in WoW you always get players complaining someone has ninjad their loot.

The downed state is actually one of the things that makes this game fun.

Many a time I’ve survived by the skin of my teeth thanks to the downed state, I still die sometimes even with the down state.

Get rid of the downed state and that will make this game more boring.

If you’re going to go for the superior builds then you shouldn’t be surprised if you feel over powered. All my characters are not based on the superior builds and the game is fine. Some classes are better than others but that’s the same in any MMO.

Arkinos.7245:

I am/were in a similar situation like you.
I stopped playing shortly after the Mad King Thorn event and came back recently.

I personally wouldn’t recommend coming back at the moment, especially if you left because of living story being inaccessible.

There is basically no new content at all in the game compared to pre LS GW2.

LS season 1 is unavailable and most likely will be unavailable for quite some time.
LS season 2 needs to be bought with gems and is heavily based on characters introduced in season 1.
The trait fiasco makes creating new characters intensely frustrating and despite over half a year of complains Anet still hasn’t changed it.
They plan on fixing it but talk is cheap.

The only new content are 2 maps that actually arent bad, but are nothing special either and have been turned into grind fests anyway.

I personally would wait for HoT, then get some actual info about it from neutral sources and decide based of that. There wont be any new content until HoT anyway so you don miss anything.
Overall GW2 is probably worse than it was 2 years ago, especially if you care about the story.

Personally I think it has improved, but then I’ve never really been into the lore of an MMO.

Got 3 new characters in addition to my old ones, not noticed any issues with the traits. Since being back already levelled one to 80 (world completion) and presently working on the others.

Or with traits is it a PvP issue?

sorudo.9054:

i much rather wonder if there is a way to get something useful from account bound mats, i have no use for dragonite ore or whatever but nothing needs it that i want. (like a vendor that trades useful stuff for ascended mats, i am not stupid enough to waste time getting my crafting to 450 and spend tons for a stupid looking armor))

I’ve got 400 in cooking, jewellery and huntsman the rest are at around 200.

Not sure if it’s actually worth crafting, as I was told it cost 200g to be able to level to 500 from 400. I know cooking and jewellery max is 400 for now at least.

TwistedFate.8705:

Please for the love of god bring these things back. Everything else has made a return but the dam bunny ears q.q Charge what ever you want for them just bring them back please!!!!

Yeah, bring them back, just make sure there’s an opt out.

I’ve been back about 3 weeks.

I left mainly because of the LS and the fact I levelled 6x 80’s (92% map completion – minus PvP areas) too quickly and kind of burnt myself out.

That and the fact those sonic periscopes kept interrupting me. I didn’t want nothing to do with LS at the time, but LS had other plans for me.

Map completion no longer involves PvP areas btw.

If you have old characters, they’ll also get birthdays gifts.

My combined characters got me 15 sets of gifts, some of them are good ones. 1 set of gifts per character per year old. But you’ll see when you log in.

I think the game has improved, plus they’ve actually put more effort it seems into the game and not just LS.

Anyway welcome back.

Lazuli.2098:

Azala Yar.7693:

…
I don’t tend to use rage as a response, prefer a more logical argument.

Let’s look at it this way, you’re in a room filled with sounds that irritates you, do you just sit there and decide you will like the sounds, or will those sounds continue to irritate you? For me they would continue to irritate me.

You could say leave the room, which is in effect don’t play the game. But that’s not an acceptable solution.

You could turn the sound off, but then the overall gaming experience is diminished. Playing games with no sound is not great either (maybe a matter of taste or with some people no choice).

Having a character with their arms up all the time is also irritating to some people as it’s just completely stupid to them. Stupid doesn’t always equal funny.

Which brings us back to there needed to be an opt out option.

It’s not the players fault, the fault is with ANet for not thinking it through fully and neglecting to add an opt out option.

An option to opt out would have been nice and appreciated by many. I was certainly glad that I could log out and back in to get rid of the bobble heads last year, which I found way more irritating. But we don’t always get what we want. How we respond is our choice. (And not playing is a valid option.)

Not playing is a player option, but it isn’t the solution. The solution would have been the opt out had ANet implemented one.

Gamers like to game, they’re usually not happy if they can’t.

Lazuli.2098:

Azala Yar.7693:

Lazuli.2098:

KrAzY.7285:

…THANKS (sarcasm) ARENANET FOR RUINING MY EVENING AND CAUSING MY BLOOD TO BOIL. …

No one ruined your evening but yourself. You chose to respond the way you did. Take responsibility for your own happiness.

So they ruined their evening (and during the day) by playing GW2.

No, by responding as they did.

They didn’t choose to respond the way they did, they couldn’t have responded any other way. You either found it funny or didn’t and if you didn’t find it funny like I didn’t it was not a very pleasant experience.
…

OK, so you both did not find it pleasant, but did you also choose to respond in a rage?

It is not external stimulus that determines our happiness but how we choose to respond to it. The same truly tragic event can happen to different people, say loosing a limb. Some learn to overcome it and to use it to grow and make a happier and more fulfilled life. Others let the event “ruin their life”.

We choose, although some like to think they have no choice – it’s always someone or something else’s fault.

I don’t tend to use rage as a response, prefer a more logical argument.

Let’s look at it this way, you’re in a room filled with sounds that irritates you, do you just sit there and decide you will like the sounds, or will those sounds continue to irritate you? For me they would continue to irritate me.

You could say leave the room, which is in effect don’t play the game. But that’s not an acceptable solution.

You could turn the sound off, but then the overall gaming experience is diminished. Playing games with no sound is not great either (maybe a matter of taste or with some people no choice).

Having a character with their arms up all the time is also irritating to some people as it’s just completely stupid to them. Stupid doesn’t always equal funny.

Which brings us back to there needed to be an opt out option.

It’s not the players fault, the fault is with ANet for not thinking it through fully and neglecting to add an opt out option.

Lazuli.2098:

KrAzY.7285:

…THANKS (sarcasm) ARENANET FOR RUINING MY EVENING AND CAUSING MY BLOOD TO BOIL. …

No one ruined your evening but yourself. You chose to respond the way you did. Take responsibility for your own happiness.

So they ruined their evening (and during the day) by playing GW2.

They didn’t choose to respond the way they did, they couldn’t have responded any other way. You either found it funny or didn’t and if you didn’t find it funny like I didn’t it was not a very pleasant experience.

Again it comes down to having no opt out.

So ANet if you read this, next time at least add an option to opt out when people have had enough of the joke.

Valento.9852:

An MMO without underwater content?!?! Even World of Warcraft has it. lol

Some people are just clueless.

They need underwater sections, gets to boring if it’s all land based.

Merlot.8567:

Azala Yar.7693 you are entitled to nothing. Your access to the game wasn’t inhibited by your character being in a T pose.

Some people have such an outrageous entitlement complex.

It’s not about entitlement it’s more about common sense and if ANet had exercised common sense they would have added an opt out.

As I said in another post it did ruin a lot of players gaming experience for the day. That has nothing to do with entitlement.

lordkrall.7241:

Azala Yar.7693:

Really, disrespectful?

Could argue that it’s inconsiderate for a company to force something onto their customers without giving them an option to opt out.

An option that doesn’t include not playing for a day, as they’re entitled to play the game just as much as you are.

Yes, I find it disrespectful. It is after all only a single day out of 365. It is not like we have this forced upon us a month or even a week. It is a single day.

You could play the game during the event as well. You might have CHOSEN to not play it, but it was in no way or form unplayable.

I find your logic odd. That you think people shouldn’t play rather than the company giving people an option to opt out when they like.

I did play the game for about 8 hours in two 4 hour sessions.

I was sure glad when it was over.

For a lot of people it ruined their gaming experience for the day. It was kind of strange when I first logged on, thinking this is different, but the novelty factor didn’t last long, in my case around 10 minutes.

lordkrall.7241:

The group that accept that a SINGLE DAY each year have pranks and if you don’t like it you can take a break for that SINGLE DAY?

Pranks like these takes time and resources to make. Giving people the ability to simply turn it off at will, when it is only available for such a short time, is disrespectful for the people that spent their time working on it. Simple as that.

I’ll also point out, from your point of view it would also be disrespectful for them to log out for the day as they would also not be doing the content provided for the day.

lordkrall.7241:

The group that accept that a SINGLE DAY each year have pranks and if you don’t like it you can take a break for that SINGLE DAY?

Pranks like these takes time and resources to make. Giving people the ability to simply turn it off at will, when it is only available for such a short time, is disrespectful for the people that spent their time working on it. Simple as that.

Really, disrespectful?

Could argue that it’s inconsiderate for a company to force something onto their customers without giving them an option to opt out.

An option that doesn’t include not playing for a day, as they’re entitled to play the game just as much as you are.

Algreg.3629:

Azala Yar.7693:

Styxx.1564:

Azala Yar.7693:

Except that someone with a more “mature outlook” wouldn’t be whining about a game all day on forum, especially for an event that lasts only 24h.

That’s actually a very childish outlook.

If they didn’t voice an opinion then nobody would be any wiser that a lot of players didn’t like it.

It’s not childish to have an opinion and not be afraid to voice that opinion.

All they needed to do was have a means to turn it all off and then most likely there wouldn’t have been many complaints if any.

so, why exactly are the people arguing against your point of view – having an opinion and voicing it – childish? Because they are not your opinion or opinions rubber-stamped by you? Ah, the good ol SJW trick, of cause, everyone is entitled to an opinion as long as I consider it politically correct.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, couldn’t agree more with that.

No, now you’re just trying to be clever. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, now with people as they are that would be a miracle.

Comments in-game
Comment from those that didn’t like it, ‘is there anyway to turn it off’

Comments from those that liked it, ‘you don’t have to play’, ‘turn the game off for 24 hours’.

Now which of those two groups is being more reasonable? I know which group I think is being more reasonable.

VodCom.6924:

Azala Yar.7693:

DarkWasp.7291:

The irony is people don’t want to go in the water because its broken. In return people are not drawn to that content, and it gets pushed to the back of the table by the devs.

I like the underwater content just as much as the land content.

Doesn’t seem broken to me, so what is broken about underwater content?

• Half of your traits do not work UW. Depending on your profession, some mechanics can be entirely shut down (stealth for thieves, conjures for ele).
• Mobs also lack visible telegraphs (like the boss of HotW P2) and one shot anyone who tries to melee him.
• Cross class combos are unreliable at best.

Do I need to continue ?

Don’t get me wrong, UW content is fun from time to time when I’m bored of my daily dungeon routine. However, in its actual state it is not something I can see myself play for an extended period of time.

I’ve got all classes, 7 of those different classes are at 80, only one that isn’t is a necromancer which is a work in progress with another 3 characters.

I’ve not had any issues, sure some are stronger underwater than others, but that’s no different on land. That’s not to say that one class being weaker in the water is also weak on land.

If anything it’s more a class balance issue than an underwater is broken issue.

Styxx.1564:

Azala Yar.7693:

Except that someone with a more “mature outlook” wouldn’t be whining about a game all day on forum, especially for an event that lasts only 24h.

That’s actually a very childish outlook.

If they didn’t voice an opinion then nobody would be any wiser that a lot of players didn’t like it.

It’s not childish to have an opinion and not be afraid to voice that opinion.

All they needed to do was have a means to turn it all off and then most likely there wouldn’t have been many complaints if any.

DarkWasp.7291:

The irony is people don’t want to go in the water because its broken. In return people are not drawn to that content, and it gets pushed to the back of the table by the devs.

I like the underwater content just as much as the land content.

Doesn’t seem broken to me, so what is broken about underwater content?

Merlot.8567:

serenke.4806:

What i really don’t understand is how people can play a game and have so obviously no sense of fun whatsoever. What are you playing a game for if you can’t have fun?

I think they just go around the world farming herbs and delete their character if they kill anything.

People’s idea of fun is different. What you perceive as fun some others will just perceive it as childish nonsense. That doesn’t mean they do not have fun, just that they have a more mature outlook when it comes to fun.

Vinegaroon.4369:

take a break from the forums for a day.

Agree completely, would make more sense than opening threads complaining about complainers.

Conner.4702:

Haishao.6851:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

RoRo.8270:

Tragedies happen everyday you can relate any tragedy to video game content. It’s just that the media decided to cover the plane tragedy extensively that everyone knows about it. I don’t know how you people get by in your daily lives if something that lasts a day in a video game provokes anger out of you

When 9/11 happened, Konami reworked the entire ending sequence of Metal Gear Solid 2 to avoid references to the Twin Towers.

A week after a mass murder by airplane, Anet could have not had an April fools where you get victory music for crashing and dying.

Timing is a key part of comedy, but it seems Anet have no understanding of timing, nor tact.

A lot of their white knights here on the forums appear to have no understanding of empathy either.

If you had empathy you wouldn’t be associating a joke about a bug from the beta to a plane crash that you will have forgotten about in 2 or 3 weeks.

You don’t know what empathy is, do you?

So it shows empathy, making connections where there are none and causing the subject to become a hot topic in these forums?

I think not.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Dragon.8612:

Please fix and let us all get back to the game we love!

Okay. itll be fixed tomorrow.

@ Above:

No, the amount of negative posts is proof of how tragically delicate our society is becoming.

Not sure I’d say delicate, more like manipulative.

Thought jumping puzzles were removed because of too many people abusing them, parking characters by the reward containers.

Better off keeping those out of dailies.

Styxx.1564:

This is escalating very quickly. We’ve already reached Human Rights and stuff..

Is this really a games forum? Or is this all a big joke? Heh.

It’s mainly just people talking kitten.

Killface.1896:

Its a good April fool joke,thinking this have anything to do with air crashes is just beyond stupid.

Or just trying to associate it with the crash because they don’t like the event.

Which I see as being worse than just not liking it as its dragging a tragedy into the spotlight (this forum) and trying to associate it with an event that has nothing to do with that tragedy. Causing more heartache for anyone reading this forum that has lost someone in that tragedy.

frost.7156:

Hi,
PLEASE, give us an option to turn the “april plane” thingy off, I beg you, the game is so annoying, I can’t enjoy it. I play this game for a week, almost 80 and then you put this into game and it completly ruins my experience. So freaking irritating. It might have been funny for first 2 minutes, but for a day? C’mon, you went too far with the joke, not funny.

There’s probably only 10 hours of it left, so doubt they’ll do anything. Best time to get those small jobs done that you keep putting off (if you’re anything like me).

With my old PC I used to see around 15 -20 people and it was extremely laggy.

With a i7-4770k, GTX770, 16GB ram, I could see a lot more people and didn’t notice any real lag, however the fans in the PC were getting a little excited.

Edit: However I’m sure that was before the megaserver, megaservers seem to have their own issues.

One other change here, there was no Megaserver back then. Maybe that could be the issue.

I installed the game weeks ago (returned player potentially) and couldn’t get the game to launch, it kept losing the server and asking me to try later. Error code 7:1000:7006:462. So deleted it again.

Returned today and installed it again thinking whatever the problem was it may have been fixed. But you guessed it it’s still the same.

The security I use I’ve used the same company for years and never had any issues in the past on other software or this one.

Interestingly enough I re-subscribed to ESO and also having issues there authorisation issues, waiting on ticket answer.

However WoW works fine, pity they wreaked that game.

I can’t think of any reason why they don’t work, only thing that might have changed since playing either of those I’m having problems with is upgrades, maybe Windows 8.0 to 8.1.

Well, still can’t connect.

So guess it’s time to forget this game and find some other game.

Devata.6589:

Stooperdale.3560:

Let the company make their money. The gem shop does not infringe on the game play. Most micro transaction MMOs would have locked the wallet, the wardrobe, etc behind a gem store transaction. All the ‘quality of life’ improvements that do come through the gem store seem reasonable enough, and I don’t begrudge anyone their infinite mining pick if they want to buy it.

“Let the company make their money.” Sure there are many ways to do that, some better then other.

“The gem shop does not infringe on the game play.” It very mutch does, it makes it much more of a grind.

“Most micro transaction MMOs would have locked the wallet, the wardrobe, etc behind a gem store transaction.”
If it was a true F2P game (so without initial buy) I rather would have these one time unlocks as that would make it in fact more of a B2P game then having rewards / items linked to the cash-shop. Especially in a game that is all about cosmetics. In a game that is all about cosmetics, putting cosmetics in the cash-shop is the P2W equivalent of putting stats in a cash-shop that is about competition.

“All the ‘quality of life’ improvements that do come through the gem store seem reasonable enough” Like adding a lot of junk to the game so every body’s bags are filling up and then starting to sell the possibility to allow for more items per slot Yeah that does seem fair enough.. not.

“and I don’t begrudge anyone their infinite mining pick if they want to buy it.” Because having to grind to get it or buying it with real cash is much better then having some actual game-play (you know it’s a game) around it that rewards you this sort of items. Adding more to do to the game and giving the content nice rewards. No we would not want that.

Actually you’re right in this game it does have more of an impact, than it does in EQ2 or Eve online because those other games also have a subscription method.

The problem here they need to make it more of a grind to try and encourage people to use the shop, especially those that are impatient and want everything now.

You could also argue that it’s only a grind because you treat it as such.

Azhure.1857:

What is boring and what is not is strictly in the eyes of the beholder. I, for example, do not find levels 1-60 boring at all. I have 14 characters too, mind, so I think I have the experience and the right to speak towards this.

You have the same right as anyone else.

I levelled 6 within 2 months so 7 and 8 were more boring than they would have been if it was spread out over a much longer period.

But it is true some people handle boredom better than others.

Chuo.4238:

I’d rather pay a sub for a quality game than be ‘monetized’. If it lets devs focus on good content instead of cash shop funnels.

Why? I want my free time to be fun.

Why else? 15 bucks a month is literally pocket change per day. Far less than most people pay for cable/bar tabs/movies/you name it each month.

Paying a subscription doesn’t mean you will get a better product.

It really comes down to how a company invests their capital/resources. From what I’ve seen the MMO industry isn’t doing very well and haven’t been for sometime. It seems a very stagnant market especially in terms of ideas and execution of those ideas into the existing products.

Making the levelling process faster is not the right way to go about it.

Levelled 6 to 80 gave up on 7 and 8 as I’d got so bored of questing by then as I didn’t take any short cuts (i.e. via crafting).

Levelling was actually fun the first few characters, extremely bored on 7 and 8 as by then it was just going through the motions as done and seen it all before.

But why speed up levelling and ruin the experience for new/newer players to the game just because you’ve done all the quests a few times already.

Consensus.2785:

Stooperdale.3560:

Let the company make their money. The gem shop does not infringe on the game play. Most micro transaction MMOs would have locked the wallet, the wardrobe, etc behind a gem store transaction. All the ‘quality of life’ improvements that do come through the gem store seem reasonable enough, and I don’t begrudge anyone their infinite mining pick if they want to buy it.

It does interfere with the game much more than people think, especially since the Gem Exchange is basically ANet selling gold for money. This is a sharp contrast to many other games (most subscription based) who actively discourage real world trading.

That’s nothing new in MMO’s, Eve online has been doing that for years, long before this game was released. Probably where ANet got the idea from. Was looking on the EQ2 website yesterday, a game I used to play a long time ago and noticed even they’re doing it now for EQ2 and EQ.

Better for people to buy from ANet than a RMTer. Not ideal for gaming but the better of the two evils. They don’t actually impact the game that much, certainly in the case of Eve online although the company themselves must do well out of it.

It’s certainly something that doesn’t bother me in MMO’s. Especially as I used to be a gamer that would spend 12 -16 hours a day gaming which of course gave me a huge advantage over those that could only spend a few hours a day gaming. Being able to essentially buy in-game currency just makes it easier for those that spend less time playing to be able to compete with those that can spend all day playing.

MMO’s have never been a level playing field, not even worth thinking about what is fair. Factors, such as time, internet connection speeds, lag adding RL currency to that isn’t really going to be that noticeable.

I played Eve online for years, even spent 100’s of £ on PLEX* to sell on the in-game market to raise in-game currency quickly. It has a minimal effect on the game as a whole.

*PLEX is equivalent to gems here.

Azhure.1857:

To Whom It May Concern,

Every time I get a Shatterered, Broken, or Bent Lockpick I feel like I’ve been kicked in the gut. Was this your intention? To laugh at us old Guild Wars veterans and the good memories we had of whole, unbroken lockpicks that could be used? To spite us with never being able to claim a lockpick from a bandit or pirate without breaking it first?

I propose that intact lockpicks become a rare drop AND that they have a low chance of opening Black Lion chests. What say you?

Not sure about lockpicks but keys drop from mobs although very rare. Levelled 6 to 80 and only got 2 keys from world drops.

Black Lion chests are common and keys very rare, for the main purpose of you buying more keys from the shop.

They have to try and generate some income somehow.

Maybe those chests should be on a separate timer, one that resets 7 days from when a character loots it.

Devata.6589:

Obtena.7952:

Devata.6589:

Thats funny because you would think they pitched the model that worked so great for GW1 and also the one they told the customers we would get. And at release they said it was a B2P game and the cash-shop would only have a very minimized role.

There is also no reason why investors would not be satisfied with that B2P pitch especially because Anet could point towards GW1.

The whole LS is something they started with months after release so you can really wonder if that was part of the pitch as well.

The argument here isn’t that investors may have liked a similar model as GW1. The relevant argument is investors bought into the model that GW2 uses now. Your perception that we didn’t get the model we were pitched is just a matter of opinion. I think it’s disingenuous to claim the gemstore has anything but a minimal role in playing the game; nothing in the gemstore is necessary to play this game … for free. Again, if the model of the game doesn’t satisfy you for whatever reason, you have choices as a consumer to take your time/money to a game that does.

The point you make about LS is an interesting sidebar. IIRC, the pitch of an evolving game world was always there … LS fulfills that beyond my expectations. I’ve not played many games where the devs change the world to the extent I see in GW2. I think that’s awesome and makes me hope that at some point, PLAYERS will be able to have an effect in changing the world to the same extent. That’s exciting.

“The relevant argument is investors bought into the model that GW2 uses now.” But is that true. Are you sure they pitched a cash-shop model? It’s what they ended up using I don’t know if it’s what they pitched and even if they did it’s still relevant because it’s not good for the game and it’s time to change it. With income dropping it’s time for a new pitch.

" I think it’s disingenuous to claim the gemstore has anything but a minimal role in playing the game; nothing in the gemstore is necessary to play this game" I did give perfect examples of how it effects the game. Yes you can play it without using it, I never said you could not but it does very much effects how the game works.

They can’t get rid of the cash shop, that’s here to stay.

I see the main problem as being the LS (temporary content), all that time messing about with the LS when they could have been making some meaningful expansion that they could have sold as additional content.

Question is after all this time have they the resources left to do anything about it. Or are they just locked into a holding action, doing the best with what they have.

Problem I think this game has, it’s not developing the way they thought it would. Ok this is my view, but I think the shop probably isn’t making as much as they would have liked.

There’s no expansions being produced that could have been sold as a genuine expansions, keeping the no subscription model healthier.

Resulting in the necessity of making the shop more desirable to use, hence generate more income.

That’s just my gut feeling.

I don’t really see they have much choice, hence why the thread seems redundant to some extent.

How could they change the model anyway, it was sold as having no subscription.

It’s not just those that are currently playing the game that have active accounts it’s all unbanned accounts are active.

Anyway even if it was subscription doesn’t mean things would be better. In some MMOs the amount made through the shop is worth more than a subscription alone, those that have a means for people to essentially buy in-game currency.