Guild Wars 2

I purchased some gems yesterday and it took 20minutes for them to finally appear in my balance.
In the same session all guild information went missing (again) and skill/server lag was over lots of maps that me and guild mates entered culminating in a plethora of crashes and insta downed state if we were lucky to not get DC’ed.
The ingame performance is getting worse and worse imo.. of course it could just be me and the all the others that are suffering this decline all at the same time are maybe using the same poor ISP or the same poor hardware.. but I think that might just be stretching it a bit.

Net lag I can live with, afterall none of our gear/connections are 100% perfect 100% of the time but obvious server issues are imo obvious when your waiting for skills to activate for 10, 20, 30 secs a pop whilst everything else is working fine including your #1 attack.

Get rid of all the cruddy glamour footprints and mass particle effects and then invest in better server tech, then maybe things will start to get a little more playable for a lot more players a lot more often….

Reanne.5462:

there is no expansion. and if there is, it will take them at least 2 years to release it. How quickly you forget how long it took them to release GW2 after deciding to abandon gw1.

Whether there is and expansion incoming or not is yet to be made clear and announced but should this in fact be the answer to all the hyped speculation this week then why would it take 2 yrs to release it? – Do you really think they wouldn’t of already been busy planning/developing it within some kind of operational schedule sometime prior to the announcement, unless of course you actually believe they are going to come out and say " hell yeah expansion everyone, were starting on it tomorrow, pop back in 2 yrs….

An expansion, although a lot of work in itself to bring to the players, is less of an undertaking than developing and launching a whole new product borne out of the success and popularity of its predecessor.

Be sensible and engage brain before opening mouth maybe.

As for what I would like to see.. a morning star, double headed greataxes… ooh yeah and much less mobility penalty in game.. my Mesmer runs slower than a 1 legged donkey with sore feet.. errm foot. – even before it gets tagged inadvertently when running through maps !!

One thing I really, really would like to see is some Quickslot bars we can position on screen to allow us to utilise items in our inventory when we need then instead of having to keep opening the inventory every few mins…

Novuake.2691:

Bloodstealer.5978:

Novuake.2691:

Sorry to hear about the abuse, its actually pretty rare for something like that to happen in GW2. Normally the playerbase does not freak out in PvE unless provoked quite badly.

O right.. yeah, all those pages upon pages regarding Queensdale champ train toxicity, Blix failtrain toxicity, Frostgorge LS toxicity, etc etc etc.. where have you been playing GW2 cos I am pretty sure its not as rare as you like to think – this has been a problem across many maps for quite a while. Wherever there is a champ train or an event mechanic that can be abused /exploited the masses will hoarde and attitudes let loose on both sides of the issue.
This new event completion mechanic does nothing more than expand it across any map on any given day there is an achievement to be had and champs/events to faceplant repeatedly.

It’s a poorly thought out attempt to move players around the maps to “swing a sword once, swing it 10 more times”…. only difference is the speed in which it’s carried out is now a massively out of balance because nothing gets scaled meaning all you get is a saturated 10 second faceplant (10sec being a worse case scenario of course).

I am not gonna engage in a discussion on the exploits and the “poor implementations” you are referring to.

However I will say.

Exploiting is NOT normal circumstance. Its an UNINTENDED byproduct of the system. The people that exploit are still a VERY small portion of the actual playerbase.

Trains are also not normal gameplay, unfortunately this was a much larger portion of the playerbase because it was so common in lower level zones, which was rectified very aptly by ANET.

So my statement is still perfectly true and relevant. Thank you…

You seem to have missed the point – I was not looking to engage in anything regarding exploits.. its about reporting of players for abuse, which has been bourne out of the knock on effect of players massing in all level of maps not just low level zones culminating in the ensuing map wars

It was never rare before, then certain areas/events got hit by the ANET hammer all in the name of toxic war avoidance especially in starter zones (take a read back if the threads haven’t been consigned to the trashcan).
By now implementing an achievement incentive that pushes players into hitting those maps in mass, in order to get events done (yes that again includes all those low level/starter zones once more) that same train wreck of a toxic overspill now has the perfect kittentail in which to manifest itself once more, and already is.
Only difference now is that it’s every map/level that has the potential for chatwars on any given day across Tyria..

I was in Frostgorge yesterday and boom straight away players were being called f****ing c****s for not calling out champ events before killing them or players insulting others cos they want to kill the 3 Converts at Coil watch before the zergs can farm as many champs as possible. Of course the rhetoric went both ways with players also insulting the zerg for killing small events around the map far to quick and not waiting for them to get their etc etc.. Heck there was even players getting called kittens just because the were rolling over “farm train” champs out of order before the zerg had finished at coil – its a hamster wheel of carnage now imo.

You may feel it’s a rarity, but I disagree.
As for Gaile’s “don’t worry all lvl 80’s get scaled down so there is no issue with players hitting zones”… that right there suggests a lack of understanding of their own game balance/mechanics because downscaling has very little effect when soloing map content, and makes it even more of a farce when suddenly events are hit by masses of blood thirsty players over and over throughout the day with low level map content simply being faceplanted in a matter of seconds.

Novuake.2691:

Sorry to hear about the abuse, its actually pretty rare for something like that to happen in GW2. Normally the playerbase does not freak out in PvE unless provoked quite badly.

O right.. yeah, all those pages upon pages regarding Queensdale champ train toxicity, Blix failtrain toxicity, Frostgorge LS toxicity, etc etc etc.. where have you been playing GW2 cos I am pretty sure its not as rare as you like to think – this has been a problem across many maps for quite a while. Wherever there is a champ train or an event mechanic that can be abused /exploited the masses will hoarde and attitudes let loose on both sides of the issue.
This new event completion mechanic does nothing more than expand it across any map on any given day there is an achievement to be had and champs/events to faceplant repeatedly.

It’s a poorly thought out attempt to move players around the maps to “swing a sword once, swing it 10 more times”…. only difference is the speed in which it’s carried out is now a massively out of balance because nothing gets scaled meaning all you get is a saturated 10 second faceplant (10sec being a worse case scenario of course).

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hey Bernie,

First, you’re right. There’s a definite difference between a down-leveled/downscaled character at, say, lvl15 and a natural lvl15. Point well taken. I did want to mention the downscaling, though, in case a new player reading this didn’t know about that feature.

And I’m really glad you agree that we’re takin’ care of business in relation to chat issues. We really want the Guild Wars 2 world to be a pleasant place for everyone, so we have reporting systems and agents in place to do our best to make that happen.

It’s not just the ascended gear vs low level gear.. there are also a host of skills/traits etc that lvl 80 has in its armoury even when downscaled/down-levelled, and always has been making most maps a 1,2 hit cake walk.

That said, I have nothing against the revamped dailies/achievements/daily login, in fact its really not that noticeable imo… except that is for the fact that every map now pushed out for daily event completion achievements just becomes another Queensdale with large pug zergs flying across them hitting every event/champ in its path and then re-done on an egg timer.. so now when new players or players playing low level alts hit the maps they struggle to get events done due to lack of WP’s, gear, skills, traits or knowledge of map rotations meaning they don’t get there quick enough or cant get a hit/sufficient dmg done before the event is over… I too have witnessed the map chat turning sour.
It will be only a matter of time before the arguments start, the name calling and abuse takes hold making all maps just a toxic zerg train..

We already have enough maps with champ trains and failtrains running across them.. now you go and introduce all the elements and mechanics to create the perfect storm across all of Tyria… nicely thought through!!

I’m thinking maybe ANET are getting some of that Christmas DDOS. that’s been passed around by the Secret Santa’s…..

Anyandrell.6238:

Oh no, there is not the same amount of dogs. The more people the more dogs, sometimes it’s practically impossible to pass them to go to the middle chamber.

There is more than one way to get to the centre.. if all you do is try running straight up the centre path then yeah your going to find it tough in a capped map all wanting to farm the labby.
Smart players look at where the dogs are then take the side paths and then climb up and pinch the chest from behind.. there are never more than one or two dogs actually in the centre, but there will always be a lot of dogs chasing players up the easiest route to the centre.. .. so take yourself off autorun and use a bit of common I say.

Another player who cant get past Bob… .. seriously OP if you cant open your mind a little and use some creative thinking then your gunna need to get used to feeling unhappy…

Bottom line is you have no idea which accounts are banned, dormant etc, etc or why.
Do you have some data to suggest that the name Bob will still become available if ANET decided to release a stretch of those account names, heck what’s to say they did and someone else got in an took the name before you could log in and create it .

Simple fact is naming is not difficult if your prepared to loosen up on your creative thinking, maybe try thinking outside the box a little or if all else fails there are a wide variety of naming sources available to you that can help.

If ANET were to enforce a time limit on account inactivity that would see character names deleted then I personally think it will cause more of an issue than this non-issue your imagining.

OmniPotentes.4817:

I’m having fun watching movies and spending quality time with family and friends, Thank you.

I have a question @ Orpheal. Can you remove an appendix?
My point is. Just because it might seam easy, it still doesn’t mean everyone can do it!

Same.. Wintersday has been a real disappointment for me this year – so much click, click, click grind or a run, repeat, repeat, repeat content.. just nothing substantial in terms of content is beginning to wear thin on me.
Still, as it’s my birthday just as Santa pops down the big ole chimney the kids and I have also been watching those movies whilst waiting and hoping for some real snow to fall and have a proper Christmas snowball event of our own.

@Orpheal… I guess your just too darn pro a bell ringer for us all – I guess while you were honing your bell ringing skills many of us were busy learning how to write sentences and paragraphs that we could read without our eyes bleeding.

Jumpin Jack Portal Flasher

yip its just such an outdated approach for a modern day MMO to have single click malarkey like this.

Go by all those sun stones from the Hylek chappy to make the beaded weapons for example… opening multiple loot in the quantities this game likes to make you grind out.. its getting to the point macro’ing isn’t such a bad idea to risk .. I bet doctors and nurses are loving ANET for keeping them gainfully employed dealing with RSS.

Such a poor backwards lazy game mechanic.. surely it shouldn’t of been that much of an issue to 1-click then bring up a Qty box or select all option… this is just bullcrap imo.

Time-sinking to this degree, if that’s truly the ploy.. its pretty lame imo.

Gaile Gray.6029:

This is an interesting question. Looking for Group (LFG) could include the sale of a run, sure. I’d rather do a run with willing players than buy one, but it’s ok if someone offers an honest run and legitimately fulfills the offer.

Does that mean it’s ok to offer the sale of merchandise in that channel? No. There’s no way that LFG = WTS.

The tweet (which is more than a year old, btw) refers to selling spots in a party. Run sales are not prohibited, but they fall into the “Gentleman’s Agreement” space. So if someone tries to sell a spot on his run for in-game currency, and if someone else is willing to pay, we’d not act against it. The matter gets cloudy if either party reneges on the agreement: Fails to supply the offered service; fails to pay the agreed amount. In that case, Customer Service looks for and takes action on obvious signs of scamming, but does not try to force the fulfillment of these player-to-player arrangements. (Just like they don’t try to resolve player-to-trading situations. Be safe: Use the bloomin’ TP. Please.) So CS would consider whether the non-payer or the person who didn’t fulfill the agreement was an obvious scammer and act, but they’d not make arrangements to resolve financial issues, like refund monies paid, etc.

Seriously, really!!

You call it foul play to post WTS items on the LFG board, but allow WTS achievements, dungeon last boss reward chest posts etc and only then look down on that decision when it becomes clouded.. talk about double standards – why do you think it becomes cloudy!.
That kind of thinking is completely wishy washy and is why the board is now so full of all these types of scam posts.. Looking For Group is not “buy a spot into my group to get rewards”, its not “buy a spot and I will walk you through and portal you to every jump puzzle or achievement” and its not “Join my group to buy my items” – it is supposed to be a community tool to “Join a Group” not a sales tool!

Then again ANET seem to have a backwards view on what’s considered abuse of in game content, systems and mechanics anyway …. I give up!

lordkrall.7241:

For everyone complaining about this:
Would you really prefer to have a (potentially big) release now with potential progression breaking issues that would not be fixed for weeks due to holiday?

I can almost guarantee that the same people complaining about the short break would also be the loudest if they did release it just before the holidays and something broke and couldn’t be fixed until after the holidays.

If their scheduling had been better and episodes not cut up into small portions so much lately, then there would likely not of been the need for such a delay.
Honestly though for every player complaining about it, there is someone complaining about those complaining in the first place until pretty soon no one really knows what it is they are actually complaining about or too.

I honestly see it as a sign the LS schedule is flawed with little room to breath.. with the 2 week window becoming more of a fire fighting exercise every update…it only takes few poor patch releases to suddenly infect the delivery schedule which I would hope has been planned months in advance… there in lies the issue I think and to get round it they have been forced to rehash episodes and cut them about. I mean lets be brutal here, the last few updates have carried very little in terms of story development but a lot more grind of the same previous content in the Wasteofsilver to grind different body parts for armour. I am guessing that’s been used as a way to soften the blow of small LS patch content due to last 2 episodes being cut in half.. hence the two cliff hangers… its poorly thought out imo and I can understand the frustrations of others.

As for Gaile’s red post stating its all done in the name of festive holiday planning where players play less cos they have gone away, at parties etc… hmm I don’t buy that for a second and would love to see the metrics that demonstrate it… how many kids are on breaks, how many industries afford their workers holidays, how many people might get bought the game as presents only to see it sit idle… nah I am not buying that one ANET.
As for running Wintersday alongside LS.. why not, its not like the LS takes all that time to digest .. farming Mordrem parts aside each time.

I do agree though players would likely want the content to be better quality, not rushed through and not have it supported properly over the break.. but then even regurgitated events are prone to throwing up those same kind of things, worse still the same kind of things that affected it previously… will shall see and lets hope that the next episode is as good as they are leading us to believe.

Vayne.8563:

Mavis.1463:

Vayne.8563:

Wolfey.3407:

The only thing that really annoys me with this note….
Veteran players are stuck for a few weeks with nothing to do but re-re-play wintersday content with the added bonus of most likely not being able to unlock anything from season one, unless it’s stuck behind another lottery. And the possible chance of some super adorable mini being locked behind wintersday gifts at a drop rate equivalent to precursors with the added insult of not being able to be sold or traded to other players.

Whereas veteran players in World of Warcraft waited a year while paying a subscription with no new content and just repeating stuff.

And I know people who’ve already beaten the new WoW and returned to Guild Wars 2. There’s no game alive that can keep people in content as much as they want.

FF14.
“Baaah, I don’t like THAT game, it sucks! therefore, the fact that they produce more content is irrelevant!”

Did I get that right?

According to a Developer interview the stuff in the game was supposed to be in there at launch and they just finished adding it. Sounds to me like you don’t read stuff about a game you’re touting. It also sounds like you’re deliberately trying to mislead people.

Or did you not read the bit where the developers of that game said the game is now complete with that last patch?

Edit: Aside from which my comment is about WoW, not Final Fantasy. I didn’t bring up Final Fantasy here, you did. So not only is your comment off topic, but as I’ve said above, it’s also misleading. It’s okay to like whatever game you like. No real reason to invent stuff about it.

Question is why did you feel the need to bring WoW into the topic either…. this topic has nothing to do with WoW or FF14 it is to do with GW2 LS2 going on another 6 week sabbatical veiled by the holiday season and lack of staffing…. which personally only spells out poor planning resulting in preference to rehashed content over story progression at a time when many people will also be enjoying that festive holiday whilst being able to spend a chunk of extra time playing the game for a whiles.
What I see happening is that Wintersday will pull its crowd until it begins to ware thin, but like the Halloween event I will put side bet on it that there will be another RNG farm item to be gotten in the hope it can keep players logging in.

I have enjoyed LS2 but experience suggests that confidence in releasing the next episode without faults, bugs and a plethora of issues is low so its be rescheduled after the holidays when they will likely have more people around to sort it out rather than letting things fester…. add to that some things will be outsourced and perhaps beyond the control of ANET to cover adequately.

Anyhow the 2 week schedule they initiated, I feel, has been a constant source of issue with quality of content maybe they should consider a rescheduling next LS (if indeed there is to be another LS).. I mean the last few episodes have not exactly been much of a much, in fact it almost feels they have been cut apart from each other to pad out time and hope the tunnel maze/puzzle keeps people interested long enough to get to the holiday season before having to ramp up the fir engines for the next instalment.

The analogy of Game of Thrones and cliff-hangers (added by a red post (forget by who without looking back more) .. yeah I love a good cliff-hanger, as frustrating as they are but if that series cut each episode length in half, watered down the story and threw in a set of things for the viewer to do to win a “best viewer achievement” sticker in order to pad the season out, add in marginal cliff-hangers each episode and then once a holiday period approaches just stop the current series in favour of rerunning various season 1,2,3 episodes before continuing on 6 weeks later.. pretty sure ratings might slump not increase, but hey that’s just my opinion.
To me it merely suggests ANET are struggling to keep up with the promised schedule and are having to cut many corners to keep it up then add in gaps whenever they become saturated in bugs and issues, forcing them into catching a breath and reschedule, reschedule things again.
So why not just push out an announcement that its not working as well as they hoped and a new 3-4 week schedule devised to try and deliver something more polished, with more meaningful content that has greater depth to each episode which pushes us for a much greater chunk of the scheduled period, not 30mins of talking to NPC’s, swing a sword to kill a trash mob, then kill a few more then.. come to a door STOP! (kinda sounds like everything they wanted to avoid in their original outline of the game to me).

HHR LostProphet.4801:

The way I see it this item will either be useless or overpowered. Either way, it’s something this game doesn’t need and ANet could’ve used the resources otherwise but they didn’t. They chose to go for that extra money this item will grant them.

Gees how is this affecting you.. you have the choice to use it or not..
I looted a key in the wastes earlier and opend one of my many hundreds of redundant BL chests.. I got a friend port stone and yea.. it can be useful but no more useful than a mes portal. your argument that the Mesmer is a nice person doing you a fovaor is so poor.. check your LFG’s.. those nice mesmers now want gold to do it, very few offer them for free to puzzles.. those that do offer YOU a choice, just like the port stone does.
If YOU don’t want to use it then don’t, if you do then great but don’t beat yourself up about something that has no affect on you in game.

Sure the stone is a bit of an easy win, but ANET, like any cash shop in MMO’s know that there is always coin to be made out of peoples laziness, especially when the content has such low replay value like most puzzles do in game. I mean its not like the rewards are worth the time, especially this new puzzle… so easywin will be a nice earner for it until the boredom sets in…. but no one is making you or anyone else use them in the first place.

A friend of mine was lagging bad this evening and could not get anywhere close to getting one of the coins in the Drydock (yes the designer of this map/maze/scavenger hunt is crueller than any dragon I have slain) so this portstone proved a saviour for him, so it does have an upside if used for the right reasons

Josh.5839:

I think you guys never played a subbed game with consistent updates and content

WRONG! – I think you haven’t played many MMO’s… I have been a sub payer for my main MMO for almost 10 years.. and each week, each month, each quarter, each year .. there are bugs and there are long standing bugs.. my favourite is a ladder bug that’s been in game for almost as long as my subscription has been leaving my bank account.

Show me an MMO that is bugless cos honestly the very nature of the beast suggests inevitably it will fall fowl of some kind of coding cascade, human error or hardware/software conflicts with the plethora of options we players have in/on our rigs across the big ole globe.

Content updates are as often or not as the game developers choose/allow/want/can afford… GW2 or any other MMO all have their own agendas.. in fact many times I have been waiting 6months to a year+ for content updates in sub based games.. be happy GW2 has a regular schedule and has rarely missed the patch day – I can name a few that promise updates then months down the line there is silence except for ooh we found issues just as we were about to release and were busy rectifying them, closely followed by the infamous “SOOOON” statements.
The only thing I would prefer from ANET is maybe taking an extra week in the schedule to ensure the content better QA’ed and proper ready for patching, cos to me I think 2 week turnarounds are what’s causing them the issues w see repeating each patch.

Sure bugs are annoying.. the inventory and guild bugs that keep creeping into GW2 patch days get my back up but hey.. within hours, days its normally rectified and things settle down.. some of us don’t expect 100% perfection form an MMO, we do expect whiners though.

Except not every class can leap, fly, portal etc.. this rope is definitely a little buggy imo.

OP – You don’t need to slide down to the rope.. for that one you can go to the end of the boat and you will see a narrow ledge you can walk onto.. then follow it round to the rope harness and drop onto it.. not terribly difficult to that point.
The fun begins when trying to go up the rope and get to the ledge where its anchored.. I have tried probably 30 times tonight and everytime you just end up sliding no matter how careful you are.. so imo its borked design unless you can use ceetain skills that my ranger doesn’t

Lets be honest .. it wouldn’t of been a patch day without the infamous guild and inventory resizing bugs cascading back into game.
You would think after all the previous patches producing these issues they might think to look out for them prior to patching.
Still lets draw a positive from this.. at least we’re actually showing as in a guild this time round, cos before we weren’t even showing as being in a guild and couldn’t see our guild stashes period…. so errmm well done 5/10 for QA

Palador.2170:

Elves? What kind do you want?

If you want the mystical, in touch with nature kind, then you have sylvari. I know you don’t like the look of them, but that’s what they are. They are, quite literally, wood elves.

If you’re more after the ancient race that’s fading away as the world around them moves past, then you want humans. That’s the role they’ve fallen into in GW2. They’re the only one with a monarchy, they’re the ones that came from a distant land, they’re the ones with ruins scattered all over, and a great big castle in the middle of their main city.

Adding elves would be redundant. And stupid. About on par with adding in a barbarian horde of Care Bears invading from the mists, I think.

Hmmm.. your obviously not up to date with your MMO folklore… every serious fantasy MMO player knows that the Care Bears could never invade Tyria by way of the Mists or any other way simply because they were annihilated by the Unicorns in the Great Rainbow Wars…

Pfft … players these days just don’t follow the news leaks!

OP.. .. I am curious.. if Elves are that important to your (and your 34 friends), why on earth did you ever purchase GW2 without looking into it beforehand and why did you decide to leave the Elves behind from whatever MMO RPG you played them in prior to GW2.
I’m a long time DDO player and imo Sylvari in GW2 do take on the Elf role pretty well and actually have a lot more depth than many of the Elven types I have played in other MMO’s – but it’s all down to personal preference and opinions.
But all that said…. really, you and your 34 friends are gunna leave cos Elrond and his band of pointy eared pew pewer’s didn’t make it into the boxset.. c’mon, this is a joke right!!
If not, then you and your 34 friends might need to get out more.

As for the gem store.. why bother spending out real coin if 400 gems is all your after.. that’s pretty easy to make in game during the week.
Then again if your only looking for 400gems anyway, why not save up your $5 and buy 800 gems the following week, is it really that bigger problem.. nah surely not.

Scruffy.3982:

Elana (Trading Post) does not respond – asked someone else to try with same result.

TP from that NPC has been buggy since like forever and highlighted to them on numerous occasions.

It’s patch week imminent.. lag always seems to intensify a few days before/after for me.
I would hazard a guess something is being done behind the game affecting the servers.. Guess we just need to run with it best we can and hope it doesn’t escalate to much to the point it becomes unplayable, although yesterday for me in Silverwastes that was almost at that point for a good 2-3 hours then it settled only to reappear for a while later on in the afternoon.

Vayne.8563:

Bloodstealer.5978:

Well I guess we can all gleam what we want from whatever we see or hear, but I still see this thread as nothing more than a " yay, see fools, I told ya so… I think" statement.

Actually now I know the journo has seen stuff I am more confident than ever that there is a secret internal cake menu and that the Unicorn chase will land in game soon.

Actually this thread isn’t an I told you so thread. You really don’t get it?

This writer felt that people are talking nonsense. He felt strongly enough about it to add it as an aside to an article about something else. Now it’s not just me, it’s me and that author. Because if he didn’t hear those things, there would be no reason at all to add that aside.

Me pointing this out to the forums is just giving them more information for each person to do what they want with.

People who have decided stuff already, those people are NOT going to change their minds. Karla Gray isn’t going to start a Guild Wars 2 fan club. But those aren’t the people that this is aimed at. There are people who haven’t made up their minds. Who don’t know. Who would like more information even if it’s not definite information.

If Anet were providing us this information this writer wouldn’t have had to write this. Anet isn’t. And since he wrote it, I thought I’d share it.

Still not sure what your problem with that is.

OK, just a last gasp attempt you help you see the error of your misinformed assumption.

I accept that what you have read has a grain of meaning to you and quite honestly I am glad it makes you feel all warm and cuddly about the future.

Yes there are people who always take a “its rubbish, its dying” point of view in any MMO.. why, because an MMO won’t ever be all things to all men/women.

My issue is that you seem to want to throw out the opinion that what this journo apparently saw and wrote has some kind of meaning, some evidence and its big news that will alter opinion, and sway others to “the future looks bright”… in fact it does nothing to help anyone make an informed decision, it holds no substance to suggest that anything this person saw has any relevance to GW2 at all.

Read through the responses, I don’t see anyone thinking this means anything to anyone, why?.. because as I have already said “no one thinks ANET is doing nothing”.
Those forums posts you feel you need to try and silence and defend against are not actually saying ANET are “doing nothing”… cmon, please we all know they must be working on something.. its not like every 2 weeks they have to make a LS chapter up and run with it.. those kind of things are worked on months prior and the stuff the journo apparently saw, if relevant to GW2 at all “might” at some point enter into the game … even that cake menu perhaps (we have apple pie already)

All you have actually done is try to counter the arguments that the game is dying, ANET won’t speak to us about the future content, with some random person stating they saw ANET working on stuff… so welcome to the "Overated Opinion Club, a place where people can promote non informed information as fact, assume everything and anything is fact and feel that what means something to YOU “MUST” mean the same to everyone else we are wrong if it doesn’t… please enjoy the club facilities while your with us.

Look bottom line Vayne, whit and joke aside, many of us admire your support of the game and likely we all hold out some shred of hope that there is something big in the pipeline, though to be honest I am happy with being drip fed content on a schedule like we currently get.
In fact my personal view is 2 weeks is too shorter turnround in order to get better quality content out to us. If they slowed down the time between patches and concentrate on ensuring the content has better depth, is more engaging, more focused and better qualified through process then perhaps many of the doombringers wouldn’t feel the need to demand ANET talk to us about everything all the time because they would be too busy in game playing rather than out of game whinning.

Drow.2081:

Vayne.8563:

KarlaGrey.5903:

Grasping at straws, this thread is~

……………..snip………………

Five years from now, when they game is still fine, people will be telling us it’s dying.

…………..snip ………………..

.

Who stays with any mmo for more than a year?

Do you really judge an MMO right out of the box.. any decent MMO evolves over time otherwise why play it in the first place.. 1 year doesn’t even allow for it to bed it and find its feet. So I would hazard a guess and say that there are a heckofalot of players that stay with an MMO for more than a year, many might proclaim to of left and whine on forums about it, but likely still log in anyway.

Well I guess we can all gleam what we want from whatever we see or hear, but I still see this thread as nothing more than a " yay, see fools, I told ya so… I think" statement.

Actually now I know the journo has seen stuff I am more confident than ever that there is a secret internal cake menu and that the Unicorn chase will land in game soon.

Vayne.8563:

Bloodstealer, I have never supported Anet’s silence policy. Nor have I supported the trait changes. There are things I like and things I don’t like. Trying to paint me as someone who only says positive things is factually wrong.

However, that doesn’t mean I like when people make stuff up or exaggerate to try to make a point. In this instance I’m doing neither.

I’m responding to a small section of the forum who have said some things for which they have no evidence. This may mean nothing, but it’s certainly more evidence than those posters had, particularly the ones saying Anet is doing nothing…and it has been said.

And since that’s all I’m trying to say, I don’t really see an issue.

But your failing to see that what you think is more evidence is actually nothing more than Joe Blogs looking through my window and seeing a few people sat at some PC’s doing something.. doesn’t mean its stuff for them or stuff for others.. so it is evidence of , well, nothing.

As I said.. no one believes ANET is doing nothing, anyone with the tinniest bit of common can work that out so why even post if only to say.. “there, look, told you they are doing stuff”.. the tea lady might of being prepping tomorrow’s cake trolley menu in PowerPoint.. its after all stuff, not that the journo would know any different.

So yay you got a one up on the masses speaking out of turn, thinking the ANET building is devoid of activity.. well done.. can we get the thread removed now and move on… also can I reserve a cake from the menu plz?

Sorry Vayne, as much as I enjoy reading your posts highlighting your vehement defence of anything ANET/GW2.. I really cannot for the life of me understand the point of putting this out here.
What does it really prove.. that ANET employs a range of people to do “stuff”…
Fact is I employ a few people to do “stuff” but anyone knowing my business/projects will still have no idea what “stuff” those people are working on unless it is directly linked to “stuff” you own, order, and are responsible for.
Simple fact of the matter is that journo has no idea what he was seeing other than people doing “stuff”.. was it stuff related to day to day ANET business, was it other “stuff” not related to GW2 or was it “stuff” specific for GW2?.. if so what is it and will it ever make it into real live content.. you, I, the journo, the paperboy, the maid, my aunt, your pet goldfish – none of us know nowt, but that still does not mean ANET are working on specific “stuff” or other “stuff” and only ANET know.
No one in their right mind really thinks that ANET are doing nothing, cos if they are they sure do pay a lot out each month to do nowt.

So I ask, what is your point, what is your proof that this in anyway means GW2 is going to get any more than what we are already getting (don’t get me wrong I hope they are and would expect them to be— >working on lots more “stuff”).
Your are in danger of becoming one of the many who like to speculate, contemplate and .. guess by way of opinion and conjecture.. just like those people your attempting to silence by this.. sorry, but I see this as nothing more than an over extension of your own beliefs.

To be honest, the only thing that anyone has to worry about is whether the game is fun for them, is it worth the time they have/want/will invest and do they feel there really are unicorns worth chasing over the big ole rainbow… the model they have in place allows easy and free movement across MMO space and then come back when they are ready if they so choose. That said, as along as GW2 has power running from the switch there will be a need for “stuff” to be done whether it be store fluff, bug fixing, routine maintenance, accountancy, budgeting, oh and development for the future where possible, when possible, if possible).

Let’s all hold our breath and hope for the unicorns, failing that a butterfly hunt.

Yunielesca.2850:

Sizer.5632:

I hope they put something like this in game even if it makes the 10% of the population that rages about this quit.

10%? You’re dreaming dude. Any subscription would anger far more than 10% of the players, and the publicity made by those leaving on other community websites would severely damage the image of GW, and of Anet.

+ if it’s to pay a subscription, it worths better to play a game in which there are real updates.

You may also be dreaming.. .. subscription in a game that’s currently seeing a downward trend wont necessarily mean it will have any effect on what we get in terms of updates or content quality/support.. it just means it gives them another revenue stream to utilise.

I have no issues with a sub based game, I have been paying a sub for my main MMO fix for almost 10 years now (and NO, I am not a WoW player, in case anyone wants to put that accusation into lights, as is the norm these days)
Similarly I have absolutely no issues with the GW2 model or other traditional F2P/B2 games as I know as soon as I log in for the first time the main aim of the game is to make money by way of cash shop fluff etc and that’s fine because it becomes my choice to spend or not.
GW2 though does have a decent model better than many others I have tried imo. One major plus is how we are able to utilise in game currency when it comes to the gem store/purchases Other MMO’s make it a lot more time consuming to gain enough ingame currency in order to buy things.. even worse when there are dual business models like with some of the newer games – There in lies my concern.. if a dual model was brought in, how will it affect the normal player who bought the box and has been happy logging in for a few years, spending/converting, spending as and when the mood takes them.. will this mean there becomes a need to buy unlocks to see maps, content, game modes, item usages, level gating etc.
One not so old MMO has changed to this approach and I find it laughable that content I used to be able play, use, trade etc out of the box I am no longer able to, in fact I can run quests but not even be able to take/use the rewards until I buy a cash shop unlock… this is where the focus becomes mudded imo and would loose my interest.. Sure if that’s how it was out of the box when I bought it, then that’s what I bought into… but to switch and changed the game around such elements is a bit of a bad taster for me.

But hey.. nothing is known, nothing has been announced its all just hearsay and opinion.. but yeah nothing is beyond the realm of possibility for sure… let’s just all wait and see.

I am struggling to see what is 1 hitting people.

Ran it on my “nothing special” Necro and found the fight pretty mundane.. a few dodges when it charges, then standing in the middle of the floor and dodge a few tentacle pulls then 5mins of chasing it round while it did it’s Tasmanian Devil thing around the outside, just letting conditions slowly reduce it to puppy feed.. range or melee its a boring fight whichever way … the best bit about it was seeing it take flight and doing pretty much nothing if your smart enough to not be in its path.
The final Troll boss is nothing more than what you get in Silverwastes except its been on the Roids and gained a gazillion more HP.. still the same easy to avoid/time out main attack with the bee swarm…

I get the feeling a new Gem Store item is gunna jump out and hit us….. wallet expansion inc

My take on it.. anything that has a crafting element to it should be placed into resource storage and be able to be utilised directly. For actual currencytypes that are only useable at vendors then wallet has to be the obvious choice.

I also think it may now be prudent to offer further bank tab expansion, possibly even guild bank expansion.. whether that be done by gem store or achievements.. there is so many items in the game now after 2 years I would love another bank tab or two.. these kind of items are always a good seller in cash shops.. I say bite the bullet and start planning what you could spend your Christmas Sales Bonuses.

This has been asked for since before launch.. the reporting tools have always been dire, but no matter how many times its been asked nothing has been done to improve it, so I wont hold my breath this time either .. would make a pleasant surprise though.

Yep that looks Midnight Fire to me with maybe a lighter brown colour as an offset

Devata.6589:

Behellagh.1468:

Wildstar hasn’t failed other than expectations and hype. It’s first full quarter numbers are still better than any of NCSOFT’s previous subscription MMOs marketed only in NA/EU.

Isn’t failing expectations what you can consider failing? They already had to send people home.

It’s not like the game hat to be shut down or anything but it did not preform like it should and I think you can say thats failing.

How can you even make comment on the policy of sending people home.. you know nothing of the circumstance, you know nothing of the internal make up of the teams, you nothing of the internal/external demands/requirements of the game after launch and you certainly have no knowledge of the individual contractual tie ups .. bottom line – you know nothing.
Take a look at any MMO through its development process then take a look 6 months after launch.. I will hazard a big guess every single one of them “sends people home” as you so delicately put it, but that is nothing new even for stellar performing MMO’s.
WHY? – Because during development, just like many other products out there, there is a requirement to get it done, meet shifting deadlines, larger initial budgeting, need for specialist elements etc etc… once all that is done and the product launches, many of those positions are no longer required and were likely always going to become surplus to requirement at that point, hence contracts are tied in to that effect… just because ‘X’ MMO sheds people at that point it does not necessarily mean its a pre-cursor for doom.. in fact what is also then common is a shuffling of internal responsibilities, new positions get recruited in to meet the changes of the business model as it moves from initial concept/development to live generation/evolution, sales and support.

To note though I wouldn’t be at all surprised if ANET’s business model had the same things forecasted to happen at some point after launch as well.

Dondarrion.2748:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Just look at the quarterly reports corresponding to the release of each of the major titles over the past 2 years and you will see a dip in profit for GW2 that never recovers.

In particular look for:

WoW expansions
Wildstar
ESO
Archage
FF some large number

Now correlate that with the ‘I just recently returned to GW2’ threads on Reddit / GW2 forum that occur 2-3 months after those other MMO launches…

Speaks volumes of the quality of GW2 over its peers in the MMO market – GW2 has a great platform and Anet should see the golden opportunity they have to further strengthen their position with a great xpac annoucement to reel in other players who left.

A few forum posts is just that I am afraid.. a few forum posts.
Sure some come and go between titles, that’s the beauty of the GW2 model.. but if the number leaving outways the number joining/coming back each quarter then it might correlate something a little less desirable.. and the figures they have put out there seem to suggest that might be the issue.
A cash shop can help spike the figures over the short term but it needs something a little more than fluff items in a shop window to keep the game above the OK line, it needs something a little more substantial to drive some impetus back into the game and I hope it does have that in its armoury because I agree with you the game has a decent enough platform and past experience to draw on in keeping a stellar title fresh and interesting..

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

Behellagh.1468:

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

So according to this report, Guild Wars 2 is making $5,968,222 per month…roughly anyway.

Seems pretty good for a two year old game without an expansion…to me anyway.

~SNIP ~

~SNIP~

~SNIP~

The second you said Guild Wars 2 would be right next to Wildstar, a game that didn’t make six months before they laid off people and canceled their holiday updates, you lost any credibility.

Even if Guild Wars 2 spiraled down now (and there’s no real sign of that) it’s far more successful than Wildstar was. Comparing the two on any level can’t be anything but disingenuous.

It’s like saying that if the game hasn’t been moderately successful for the last couple of years, it would have been the same as a failure. Terrible comparison.

All MMO’s reduce their staffing a short whiles after launch.. staffing levels through development are always larger prior to launch.. after launch many positions are simply suplus requirments and are most likely contractually designed to be terminated at that point.. nothing new to report here I am afraid.

Focus more on the actual relevance of the report not what you surmise it to be Vayne. Face facts qtr on qtr there is a downward trend to GW2, some of which coincides at points with other launches that have so say now bombed.. so where is the upspike in players coming back to GW2 that should theoretically affect future earning … unless of course they are coming back but more leave .. not the kind of balance I would want in my own businesses finances.
I am not saying GW2 is doomed, in fact I agree with you I don’t think it is (yet) in that sense as all MMO’s see drop offs, plateauing and upsurge’s but facts remain GW2 appears to be struggling to curb the decline albeit it’s still generating a decent amount of money (profit.. not known) in its launch market… does this however represent the players left are being generous shoppers or has the game been pushing more to the cash shop of late to maybe stretch out some figures running up to the latest report… we all are guessing in part but using what we can draw from the game, the press, the players and the results, but the fact remains GW2 has had a poorer than expected year, lets hope the next Q on Q period can ignite the upsurge in both content quality and player interest like it did this time last year, but with a view to maintaining it going forward because 2 years still doesn’t make the game a success.

I am hoping they have content plans at least a year in advance of this and are working hard to seeing such plans come to fruition (maybe in the form of traditional expansion or maybe something else), but it needs something because even though these figures show a decent generating pull, downward trends cant really be expected to keep pulling those numbers and there is only so much shopping players will do until even the most loyal either run out of coin or simply get fed up with it and look elsewhere.

wwwes.1398:

Was in a map tonight best I’ve ever been in. Everybody worked to keep it going and then farmed chests after breach. So not really a ghost town.

Errm yeah about that – I may have been on that map as well.. yep got to 4/4.. but that’s nothing to be all warm and cuddly about.. still couldn’t get more than 4 bosses downed though.. ooh and the chests yeah I ran around for those 5 chests between Amber and Indigo.. no point running across to Blue or Red after all the efforts up to that point cos I have got enough Dragonite, sand and crests already. But hey the hour it took for it was pure golden….. hmmm

By the way having a single map getting to 5/5 once in a day is hardly anything less than a ghost town.. just saying.

Well the Silverwastes kinda doesn’t really seem a fitting name for the map any more – I propose it renamed “Wasteofsilver” cos judging from the emptiness many players don’t seem to want to spend the cost of WP’ing to it anymore

Heavy handed, non intelligent nerfing has pretty much killed it imo, so for those who QQ’ed and cried for the chest nerf, gratz on your success… have fun with what’s left out there.,, achievements aside I cant really see a reason to keep running the same events for a few more crests and grains of sand then hope there is enough around to take down 1 champ let alone all 5 in the Breach. Once those players still out there have got their achievements/Legendary kills and got bored of running around the map to try and answer the calls of “Indigo needs help, im alone here” etc etc… there wont be much left to do and a lot less to show for your time there.

As I have said in other threads.. ANET took completely the wrong action in controlling the chest farming, but hey I guess that’s their way… easier to hard nerf and kill the map completely rather than considering how tweaking other factors that affected the over abundance and affordability of keys/chest – well speaks volumes to me.

I mean whoever dreamed up the idea in the first place that limiting shovels per player whilst rewarding players with silly over the top amount of crest currency compared to the costs of keys, then making the chests lootable by anyone and everyone was the way to go .. … well, sorry to say it, but that person definitely needs to download GW2 on to their PC and spend a little time playing the game in future before having that light bulb moment cos that was a complete lack of understanding of anything Openworld in their own game.

Keysha.2815:

Ok, let me break it down a bit. First, I posted this in response to the numerous posts about oh the poor farmers have such hate focused on them. I am saying that they often deserve it.

As ONE example in SW that I, personally, saw. I was in a new map, we were organizing to actually do the events. We were ferrying people in to do this, not to chest farm.

As we get going, we start seeing yellow commander tags pop up for the chest farm. In map, they were asked to tag down, so we could stay organized, as this was not a map for farming. And if they wanted a massive farm, could they go somewhere else. IMMEDIATELY about 5 more tags popped there, and we were told to kitten off, they could farm where they wanted. We tried for over two hours to get the events to work, but the chest farm kept this from happening. They lost Amber twice, and so players began running over there to try and get it. This caused Indigo to fail.

We gave up, many left the map, the rest joined the farm fest.

@Joshc: yes, just like for Teq, TT, or Dry top, farming should take over specific maps. I’m not saying they should limit how many maps they get, but they should not shove into maps where there are groups trying to do something that their farming interferes with.

If you come into a map, and are asked, ASKED, mind you, not ordered, to tag down or to stop interfering in something that was going on before you got there, you should expect hate if you refuse, or if you smart off. period.

Ok I would agree there was at times an over abundance of yellow tags around Amber .. but then you get those kind of idiots all over the game not just there. Sure ok I can run with the fact you were organising a map defence, but if all those tags are at Amber and that fort is being defended adequately whilst also being farmed, then there probably wasn’t a reason to even try to get them to tag down.. either that or just ask your commander to pop a different coloured tag to make it stand out… really can’t see the big issue here.

I appreciate the fact you wanted to run the map for events, if I was there I would of helped out at Amber as would many others especially as I found “The Executioner” the least common Legendary to spawn.. many were in the same boat hence why Amber also ended up being stacked a lot, not just for lootz.

But .. and this is the crux of the toxic issue…. if players were flaming, trolling etc then simply report them and let ANET decide because like the exploit farms over the last 3-6 months, any toxicity that occurs not only gets acted on it likely forces through a more immediate change in the content… Amber though imo never has/had this kind of element.. tag frustration is not really what I would call toxicity especially in light of recent issues around this subject.

Keysha.2815:

Farmers who accuse everyone of QQing about things like the Amber farm need to wake up. You don’t want people complaining about it, yet the way you all act gives us no option. Yes, I have done the farming runs, but the toxicity drives me away.

You want the farms, but cannot respect others who do not want to do them. You come into every map, and interfere with any attempt to do the actual events that your farming interferes with, refuse to coordinate yourselves and restrict yourselves to just a few maps, get rude and vulgar when asked to NOT farm on a map that was already being used for actual organized events, and basically act like you are entitled to run the show on all maps, at all times, regardless of anything else.

Every time a loot farm has been nerfed, the player base doing the farming became toxic beforehand. If you organized yourselves, left MOST maps alone, so that others can do what the zone was meant to have done, and were polite, you would not get reported so much. And Anet would not have to nerf your farms to stop the hate. I’ve seen it in Orr, I’ve seen it with the Queensdale champ train, and I saw it at Amber.

TL;DR stop crying about how you are so put upon and grow up. Act like adults and you will be treated like them.

Hmm… I don’t consider myself a loot farmer and I dislike any farm that exploits a specifc game mechanic in order to keep resetting content over and over in order to farm it uncontrollably, that kind of behaviour undoubtedly ignites a toxic war… but please explain where the toxicity was in SW.. you said you saw it at Amber but I have spent a lot of time there this past week running the events and farming the chests during the calm periods.. not once has there been a murmur of discontent amongst the various player types hanging out there.

Sure I agree certain farming exploits of late have been a communal trainwreck waiting happen, but Amber I disagree.. players got to have both sides of the content argument actually working for them at the same time – some half decent content which needed some participation and organisation, whilst it offered a new kind of openworld loot mechanic for everyone to enjoy …… Sure the loot drops needed some tweaking to make the events a little more important after players had got their achievements, the overly abundant supply crests needed to be nerfed, keys are far too cheap in comparison to the crest drop rates and the chests spawn mechanic should of been altered to only grant a max number of players to loot it… this would of controlled the loot and require players to run the content at each stage in oder to keep getting the necessary amounts of materials in order to keep the chest farm viable as well as maps busy.
ANETS actual way of handling the issue does nothing to keep the map a viable place to have fun and get loot now… most of today I have seen low numbers trying to get the forts defended and when that has happened there isn’t enough players to successfully get the Breach done.. in fact more often than not just defending forts was a game of chance… give it another few days, a week maybe and I think players will just be settling back into CS, FG or rat farming in Rata Sum. Having fun is one thing but how long does running the same time consuming content that rewards a bit of sand and more crests that will simply start being thrown away, hold players there.. not long imo.
Anyway its done now.. time will tell what will become of SW, but for sure my time and likely many others will be done there now that I have the achievements out the way.

Strange I thought we might of seen at least one Red post in these threads to explain how ANET think it was a good idea to all but kill the map in one big swing of hits nerfhammer instead of trying to tweak the concept and mechanics a little more intelligently …. but guess not.

joshc.3129:

It was a bug that caused them to spawn so fast and all in one area in particular, anyone could have seen that. Feel lucky all they did was nerf the spawn times.

Given Anets track record they could have called this an exploit and banned anyone caught camping in the area.

Lols.. track record… ooh please.

They have had ample reason to throw that line into the game these past 6 months and have done nothing.

This wasn’t a bug, it was a way to retain players in game as long as possible until the next patch was round the corner. The content has nothing more than a few mob zergs that dropped little no loot even when scaled. Why were there pauses in between events/phases.. purely to keep players interested longer with an open world chest farm because the content then just endlessly repeats the same waves until breach.. then whoopedy dooh da if your lucky enough to of retained players interest long enough they rewarded you with a small amount of loot bags for your trouble.. approx. 1 hr for that doesn’t sit well with many players and they knew that would be the case.
So consider why they made the bandit chests lootable by all and not exclusive to you or your group… because they knew keeping players interested in the content would fall short without a little farming until the time came to turn the tap prior to next patch… simple bait and switch thnking imo.

CureForLiving.5360:

Kurrilino.2706:

Any thoughts ?

I think it’s a matter of what objectives the game gives to you. In a Raid-based MMO the goal is constantly shifting as new armour tiers are released along with new raid tiers. That is to say the primary objective is to get the new loot, so you can be ready to get the next set of new loot.
ANet doesn’t have armour tiers (beyond rare -> exotic -> ascended, the last of which was only included because of forumites complaining. It didn’t work out though but that’s another conversation). So the question then becomes, what is the carrot? We’re on the hamster wheel, sure but why continue running? At present the goals (as far as I can tell) are: make money (which can be done via farming), get mats for crafting (which can be done via farming) and get new skins (but with the slow introduction of skins a fare number of players have already done dungeons and stuff needed to get skins). So it’s really a matter of engagement, and given that we’re talking about MMOs here (which has for years now been training us all to be engaged not in the experience of play but in the rewards produced by play).

Trice.4598:

Biggest problem with open world event right now is that they don’t reward completion of said events, they reward during the event.

See exactly what I’m talking about. Players are engaged not because gameplay is engaging (something which makes or breaks most non-mmo games) but rather by the carrots we have dangling in front of us (which as I’ve previously noted is rather farming centrist at this point).

Bloodstealer.5978:

Cant see the point now in spending the amount of time necessary farming events and defending forts just for the pitiful Breach rewards and an inventory full of crests that serve no meaningful purpose anymore

If this was a single player RPG we were talking about the point would have been to have fun, or be engaged in the experience. A certain amount of rewarding would have been present but you don’t play through at least 10 hours (if we’re talking about a shooter) just for the reward. Not sure if this is good (for the MMO genre in general) but I guess that’s the situation we’re in.
To make players like these happy, we don’t need engaging mechanics or interesting and novel experience, or well done narratives. We need them to feel rewarded.

You might wanna take a read properly, and read back at other posts I’ve made regarding SW and farming in general, before making such statements.

I like the mechanics, I like the events, I also liked the fact that the chests were a way of being rewarded for the time spent defending forts and building defences.. I dislike farming leechers who do nothing to contribute to the map, not even picking up a shovel and digging chests.. no where did I say that I was there only because of the farm for lootz. I always run the events and still do, there are pauses in the events that were able to be farmed, which I found time enough to get my lootz fix without disrupting the actual goal of reaching Breach and completing all 5 bosses.. ANET made it too easy to bypass this fact by over the top amounts of crests dropping and keys being so cheap in comparison.. add to that the chests you dug up were lootable by everyone.. it was a mess waiting to be abused.
As I have said, ANET choose the hard nerf rather than correcting their dog awful reward mechanics to encourage participation of the events as a means to an end.. but now its simply gunna be a case of “hope others are on the map today”

But as good as the content might be, if players are continuously running the same event or events over and over with a lack or sense of reward then even the most enjoyable content becomes a churn and burn till your eyes fall out. .. its called replay value and I am sorry to say but in my opinion SW has very little to hold players there now that any meaningful reward for their time has been taken away

Well I just took my first look at Silverwastes since the nerfbat descended and have to say… its gunna be a ghostmap pretty soon. Cant see the point now in spending the amount of time necessary farming events and defending forts just for the pitiful Breach rewards and an inventory full of crests that serve no meaningful purpose anymore.. shame the map was fun to run and farm at the same time before the nerf but now its lacking any real purpose once you have the achievements done. But like most of the content the replay value just isn’t there and the farm was the only reason it was so populated.. another map consigned to history

All you had to do ANET was make the chest either personal or limited in number of players able to open them.. that way shovels would run dry much quicker. You should of reduced the amount of crests players got from events around them so they didn’t overflow our inventory faster than the rate keys were used/bought/used etc. I mean giving back as many crests from a chest as it cost to buy a key was simply a bad design choice, as ever imo.

The content allowed for ample time to farm chests in between events so chest farming wasn’r really the issue as such and will still be relevant for any that want to pursue it. The issue was the content became unimportant to many that simply leeched the map not doing any events until they needed more crests for keys and rarely if ever used a shovel of their own… but that is something ANET should of thought of and tested out prior to implemting the patch. Making it so easy for players to simply AFK and farm chests when they appeared was a silly lack of thought and has been a large reason why its been farmed so easily.
The concept of the content is good and the need to gain one currency in order to obtain another is fine but then making the chests usueable by everyman and his dog was plain stupidity and was always going to encourage the leech farm plague mentality at the expense of the actual reason for being on the map.
Then again when you consider the, yet again poor rewards compared to the free for all lootfest.. it was hardly suprising players decided to ultimately take the path of least resistance.

Note to ANET.. better content requires better consideration not just put an easywin farm in for over half the patch time in order to retain as many in game for as long as possible before the next patch, then call it a bug when it gets abused (or was that really the issue.. maybe the farm had already done its job,)

HHR LostProphet.4801:

This wont be toned down because it’s intended.

Seriously, if noone at ANet saw that coming then it’s their own fault.
There is one simple rule to follow: The game doesn’t offer anything for the players with proper rewards, so anything that is more rewarding will be farmed like crazy.
And this will be the case until ANet fixes their economy, which is way too gold reliant at the moment. Having everything aviable on the TP is bad.

Must hurt to be wrong… farm nerf declared… loot suppression incoming

As for it being patched due to a bug.. doubtful, more like ANET just yet again failed to understand how their content becomes insignificant when easy loot is available and that is a trend we seem to be seeing more and more.
Thankfully this kind of easy win farm required no exploitation in order for it to bare fruit but the fact remains it was a really poorly thought out idea which, like the exploitable farms previous has now allowed the economy to be flooded with excess of materials, item and gold…. but pfft, I enjoyed it while it lasted, not like the rewards for doing the actual events or the breach are anywhere near worth the effort, so back to CS or Drytop for me

The Map events aren’t being failed intentiaonally, especially around AMber where all the chest activity takes place .. most players farm chests when there is calm then hit the events when they spawn, whilst also spawning chests.. so shovels keep coming, crest drop in silly amounts so keys are never an issue.

The issue I have is the usual leechers that hang around on the rocks and cliffs doing nothing, (you know same players that we see see hanging out around the borders of the normal map champ rotations until the pre’s are completed) then when others use their shovels to dig up chests .. they pounce on the loot then jump back up and wait for more.

ANET should have made the chests limited to maybe only players in a party, thus limiting the leeching capabilities of these players and make them earn their loot. That way they will have to run some defence events to get their own shovels.
Only other thing that perhaps needs tweaking is the silly amount of crests we can get .. make keys a little harder to obtain and once again those leechers will have to think about doing something other than leeching of others work.

Aside from that .. this chapter is working as intended for ANET… they seem to of realised that even though the content has very poor replay value.. player retention can be bought by excessive loot farming allowances… but at least this farm, like the champ trains before… don’t require the need to exploit mechanics to still be able to farm your phat lootz, so I see nothing wrong with Amber being crowded cos whenever I am there its always getting the events done .. its up to others to organise themselves at other forts if they want to get the breach to spawn or as others have said, open up an LFG specifically stating organised map defence etc.

Guessing the OP has been relentlessly farming Amber Fort in Silerwastes and hasn’t been dropping endless amounts of rare/exotic/speciality stuff like he/she thought they would.

Putting buried chests in the sand doesn’t mean its a different loot table, its just a different container it comes in

Loot is loot.. it all holds a value no matter what you get.. personally I prefer to hone in on enjoying the content not the loot drops.. if I get something nice then that’s great, if not I still had some fun trying.

It certainly a decent idea bringing elements of other game modes into the new map whilst at the same time encouraging some co-op when it reaches the Breach stage… heck it was also fun for a short whiles when players became attackable at the bandit camp…. But I guess the whines and moans that immediately began to surface were a little to much aggro for ANET to take on board so it was declared a bug.

For me there is one small fear for this map.. its great they have added the ability to farm chests amongst everyone and actually encourages players to dig for everyone, but what happens when players have got all their Silverwastes achievements and collection bits done.. will the events hold the same level of interest to complete like a TEQ or Wurm does… nah I think our eagerness to dig up chests will take over and already is, myself included. It may also have a profound effect on the populous around other maps/zones as well.

kolompi.1287:

The loot system in the Silverwastes is rather good, because it encourages you to actually succeed in the events not fail-farm mobs.

Lol really.. as soon as everyone has their Silver waste achievs done (and I would hazard a guess many players will have already done this or will have by Sunday) all that’s going to happen is the events will get ignored except when they need to retake a fort to buy more keys.. in fact its already happening.

Why is it happening?.. obvious because its far easier to hang around forts (I am looking at you Amber) and just dig for Tyria. What makes it even more ridiculously easywin is that you don’t even need to use your own shovels, just grab a 100 keys and away you go, sit back, hold your CTRL key down and loot till your fingers drop.

Don’t get me wrong I like the look of the map, I think the theory of defending all forts in order to get bosses to spawn is a step in the right direction, but as soon as you don’t need the Legendary kills there is simply no point except to tag mobs for crests and farm chests.
I personally hate the failtrain shenanigans that exist in GW2 and maybe this was ANETS way6 of dissuading that kind of mentality, but seems to be an awful waste of time and effort putting this map/event chains together just to see it become nothing more than a chest digging farm.. but hey-ho.. time to go fill my boots again

Gaile Gray.6029:

I always figured the NPCs were already staying over a bit, since they don’t depart until November 4th. That’s a +4 to Halloween, giving us a bit of extra time to complete our transactions. As much as I love Halloween, I think part of its appeal is the limited time that the whole event, including the NPC crew, is around.

Basically, having a bunch of NPCs with jack-o-lanterns and candy corns over their heads in April or July might be a little odd.

Bellizare.5816:

Santa and the Easter bunny are Americans.

Oh really? Seems rather international to me, with origins in Scandinavia. And hey, the North Pole isn’t located in the U.S.

Huh.. silly answer is just silly… you moved other items to the vendor in the plaza.. ie candy corn cob exchanges.. why couldn’t you do the same for other Halloween items/exchanges?

ANET decided to keep the Halloween event +4 days not the players… by keeping +4 days and keeping the events etc open until the very last second before restart meant some players were still gathering materials that may of needed refining, not to mention not everyone revolves real life around GW2 as much as you might hope we do. Therefore many player simply couldn’t log in this week and are now stuck with masses of items they cant refine and cant store effeciantly… admit it, it was missed!

So tell us ..how do players now refine things like Chattering Skulls, Fangs, Nougat?.. the refined versions of which are required for forge recipes if I am not mistaken… it makes no sense to of closed such things off when cobs etc are still available..

Hmmm.. would of been useful if the Halloween merchant had been left in game after the patch, at least for a few days so players can exchange all the Fangs, Nougat, Skulls they have amassed of late.

Failing that why couldn’t you of just added the above item exchanges into the other merchant in the plaza.. it already has the Candy Corn exchange why not the others.
Certain Recipes require the exchanged items but this is problematic… especially as we have the maize balms to allow us to keep dropping ToT bags.

Sure we can use them in small of quantities of their unrefined state for other things or sell them on the TP, but some of us might just want to learn the Recipe for Gift of Souls perhaps and such recipes require the refined versions of the materials.. ie Tyrias Best Nougat, Gibbering Skulls and High Quality Fang’s… does it serve any real purpose not to of kept them obtainable in game? ….

If I am missing another vendor.. I would be grateful to know where cos I got shed loads to offload