Guild Wars 2

Tim.9850:

Their in game emails, there is too much thinking and reading going on, for a GAME that is supposed to be about fun.

To me thinking and reading ARE fun.

However, I don’t think there is much of either going on in the GW2 storyline at this point.

The reading in minimal and the story is fairly superficial and predictable. Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining. It’s a story in an MMO and there is more depth for people who want to seek it out – but it boils down to “players get to vote in an election” – which I think it actually a pretty interesting idea for an MMO and I’m curious to see how it plays out.

No one has any idea, but my best guess is that it’s like Dragon Bash=>Aetherblades and will continue through Cutthroat Politics.

Hastur.6231:

It’s not exactly “free” Cellach, its 5000 achi points of work and you get it in a mixed bundle, but even a crafting booster is better than this, since I can waste a bit of gold and get some extra skill points in the process.

Yes it is.

It’s a BONUS, a pat on the back – a congratulations for reaching 5000 – and anyone at 5000 could be in any situation so there are items that are good for multiple things.

If you were actually PAYING the 5000 AP to get it, I could see a complaint. But you’re not. It’s just a reward for hitting a certain point.

The rewards are an incentive to push ahead and try new things, but if you’re grinding to 5000 AP just to get these rewards that’s pretty silly. None of the rewards that are exciting or game breaking – and the item you mention falls into a “stocking stuffers” type category – whereas the skins are more of the “gifts”. Yeah, so what you got toothpaste in your stocking ? You got other stuff too.

ANet can’t know your exact situation and what exactly you want – so it’s a mixed bag. You whine about getting this, but someone else might whine about a crafting booster and would have preferred this. What everyone should be doing is just chilling out and viewing it like free gifts – no one was entitled to anything in particular, you weren’t robbed of anything – you got an EXTRA thing you don’t want. So what ? Just get rid of it if it pains you that much.

It’s like winning a free vacation, car, and baby cradle but whining that you don’t have a baby and never will. So what ?

I don’t even have a level 80 yet – my highest was level 61. That character is now level 74, I think – and a lot of that came just from fighting any Veteran or Champion that came on when I was in the Bazaar.

I play usually 1-2 hours a day, but not all days – and on some days when stuff is new I’ll maybe even play 5 or more ! I have one of each Profession – so I’m sure I could have had one 80 by now, but I spread it out and play whichever one I feel like.

But, whatever, the point is I’m a pretty “casual” player.

But I got 40 of the optional-to-find crystals in the first two days (originally I told myself I’d do 10 a day, but I got a little caught up in it) and I think I got the 16/16 a few days after that.

The day before I’d given up on the Aetherblade jumping puzzle because I just wasn’t getting it. I took a Mesmer portal to the dive on the first day, but I went back for personal satisfaction and was able to get to it myself. I think this map is a lot easier than a “Jumping Puzzle” – maybe some people will still have trouble with it, but I think it’s significantly different.

I don’t think playing a low number of hours a week is something that will deter a person from enjoying or being able to complete the BotFW. And, anyway, if a person is totally “casual”, why do they care if they get all the Achievements or the Node ? What use would it be ? I had a lot of fun AND I got the stuff – but I was having fun even after the first day when I didn’t have squat.

The only place I can really see a person getting hopelessly stuck on the way to the airship is at the #1 jump bridge. And if you were really stuck you could ask and people would tell you there’s a #3 crystal under some stairs right by it that makes getting across involve barely any skill.

It’s all free crap. I “can’t” use some of the stuff I got but o well, it was free and it everyone gets the same thing and I’m sure it will be useful to some of the people who get it.

I don’t see the point in buying gems just to get a “gift” that may or may not happen. The gift has been only worth 500 gems. If you want that thing and didn’t qualify, just buy it and then be qualified for the next “free gift”.

Personally, since I stopped playing WoW I decided to throw $10/mo at GW2 instead – although only if there’s something I actually want.

I think the content would be more enjoyable and “last” longer if given a deadline.

For instance – people rushing to get everything in the first three days – they just burn through the content. If they know they have until August 5th, they can spread it out and not worry about burning out and keep trying on some things they find more difficult without having to do it for hours at a time.

They already have count-down timers on the Daily and Monthly pages, I can’t believe it would be THAT hard to add them to other ones, too.

I don’t think it should be a big deal to develop an in-game calendar, but if it was I think that players would be happy to contribute to a fund to pay a team to do it if it was really that big a deal. Either have it be like a Kickstarter in-game in the BLTC or have it as a buyable add-on. Although I feel like it’s a simple enough and necessary enough game addition that that shouldn’t be necessary.

What are you using to play now ?

I wouldn’t do it, personally. I’d sell it and either upgrade what you have now or start over with what games you do play in mind. You CAN use it in a system, but without a dedicated GPU you’re going to get terrible performance.

I had a comparable card in my laptop which I used to open up GW2 to show friends once or twice and it was not enjoyable. Even with no one around the framerate on low everything was under 20fps (I remember getting like 15-16 just standing around in Rata Sum) and I did an event to show them and I believe I said, “I have no idea what’s going on right now” because it caused just the regular game to act like a giant WvWvW zerg with only name plates and everything stuttering around.

I have always recommended the A8s for a budget build where the user doesn’t want to play particularly intense games. But based on my experience with it I would not use one for GW2 by itself. I’m sure it would fare slightly better than the mobile one, but Googling for reviews it shows that it falls FAR below even the HD 7770 which is a cheap, “entry level” discrete GPU. It’s close to the cut off where the game will not even open to play.

So, yeah, not worth it without a GPU.

Well, for #1, you can use an invisible bag – anything in that bag will not be deposited, so it’s useful for other things as well. You can just organize your bags so that that particular one is full of stuff you’d be carrying already or just put it last.

Personally, I don’t think this is the issue with minipets and why you don’t see them. I think you don’t see them because they’re largely BLTC.

Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them being in the BLTC, but without having some discoverable in world they’re pretty sectioned-off from the rest of the game. Even the ones for achievements don’t really contribute to that. Some could be Karma rewards from hearts or sent to you in the letter for completing the heart. Or some could be just found walking around – in a hidden location, has to be fought, rare spawn. These are the reason that WoW is so successful with pet collecting (I stopped playing WoW and find GW2 to be better over-all, but there are some things I miss – this is one).

Without minis being really integrated into the world there’s nothing to get players “hooked” unless they were already interested in the idea from another game or just want to throw money at RNG mini boxes. Now, I think the BLTC pets and how to get them are FINE, but only having them there isn’t really encouraging interest – because then it’s really largely ONLY a pure vanity item and doesn’t show skill or event participation (though there are some) or anything. If WoW hadn’t gotten me interested in the idea of pet collecting already I don’t know if I would have justified spending money on them.

I think your idea is really great, and I totally support it – I just think there are more problems with minis in general, not just making them easier to use.

Not voting in this is just as pointless as not voting in real life.

Actually, it’s even more pointless because in this you’ll presumably get rewarded for voting and the process of collecting the influence tokens. I suppose in the USA they tend to give you stickers for voting but it’s just not the same.

Dude… that’s like if you went to buy a new car and found out that a sale on the car you decided you MUST have ended last week. Yeah, it sucks, but that’s life and capitalism – companies need to make money and need to have incentives for you to support them. ANet is not requiring a subscription so they need to actively sell things to support the game. A free kite isn’t putting anyone at a disadvantage for not having it and it’s a nice way to say thank you to the people who have been throwing money at them on a regular basis and encourage them to do so in the future.

Sales come and go – there will be another one and it seems if things keep going as they are you’ll get a free shiny next round of free shinies.

I’m really happy to get the free kite because when I heard that kites were coming I wanted one – but if I hadn’t and I bought one because I wanted one it would mean that I’d be on the list for the next free shiny thing. See how that works ? I did recently buy gems so that I could buy the mini quaggans because gosh darn I love me some quaggans – but if I don’t get a free shiny in the coming months I won’t be too sad because I did get my quaggans that I paid for. The free gift is extra. At this point it looks like it will be a “thing”, but it would also not be good to count on it and get upset if there isn’t one in a few months.

Lokki.1092:

Simple

Gold medal = reward for coming in first in a race
Sanctum Sprinter achievement = reward for coming in first in a race.

Yes (as I said) the scale is off but they are literally the exact same thing, a reward for winning. We put more weight on one than the other rightfully so, but they are the same thing just on a different scale, and it doesn’t matter if its a family picnic, potato sac race, Jr high track and field or a video game.

We are just talking about the reward at the end of a race and why some people want everyone to get a ribbon, medal, achievement, or trophy and some people want only those who “earn” the win, to be able to get that same reward.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say (I don’t mean that in a rude way), but while, yes, you can compare them with words… the comparison is pointless and saying “reward for coming in first in a race” is just mincing words, something that you can do for anything.

Potato, Hemlock = plants.
Felis catus, Panthera tigris = cats, member of the Family Felidae.
President of the USA, President of Book Club = presidents.

If you’re at a family sack race and you push a 3-year-old out of the way in order to win your family will disown you and call you names that this forum will convert to “kitten” after they take the crying 3 year old out of earshot.

Sanctum Sprint is somewhere in-between that and the Olympics and is being treated by players as such and it’s natural there’s some disagreement.

When the wins and times aren’t even recorded in-game I really can’t care more than a potato-sack race and dragging a “well what if Phelps gave up the Gold so others could feel good” is not a worthwhile comparison any more than it is to say that people ought to wear masks on the back of their heads so that their housecats don’t attack and eat them and defending it with, “well, they’re both literally cats !”

I don’t really care how people play, but the comparison is just a bit silly and an obfuscation. If a person wants to win, that’s fine – if they really don’t care one way or another, also fine – if they let other people win, that’s fine too. It doesn’t really matter because this game isn’t a structured and serious competition.

That would be really fun and engage the community.

I don’t really see the comparison to a gold medal of Nobel prize. Those are things that go in people’s biographies and obituaries and that influence career and sponsorship opportunities. Sanctum Sprint is really none of those things – it’s not a respected accomplishment that is going to appear in the news – it’s not even important within the game itself.

They both occur in real life, yes, but Sanctum Sprint is like someone else said – a race at a picnic. It’s definitely not an Olympic level event. Of anything, that would be video game tournaments and high-level competitions – like exist in LoL. Things that people can and do make money from. Not that money is the most important thing, but placing first in Sanctum Sprint is like coming in first in a small town’s 4th of July egg race – They might call you “Egg Champion 2013” and you might even get a picture in the local paper, but no one really cares – it’s about fun and festival spirit. Since winners in Sanctum Sprint aren’t even listed and there’s no list of fastest times or most wins or anything like that this is clearly “just for fun” – not even the level of high school sports or band festival.

Getting to the crystals can be a “puzzle” in that sense, indeed. If a person isn’t reading a guide or watching videos they will likely need to “puzzle it out” and try different strategies of reaching a certain destination. And likely die a few times during the effort even if they have high latency.

And I agree that the ability to only hold 10 charges does indeed make some destinations require an amount of strategy and “patient effort”.

If anyone hasn’t logged in yet and is wondering they are 500 gems each.

The letter says you’ll receive one if you bought gems between April 1st and June 30th (so if you did and didn’t receive it yet it should be on the way as they roll them out in waves).

They are account-bound.

I’ve been playing since the pre-release beta and I only have 1,200 because I couldn’t really play during school.

I DON’T CARE.

So what. The skins will be there when I get there.

MMOs in general are not the kind of game where you should expect to max in a week and get literally EVERYTHING possible. What’s the point ?

Keep playing, you’ll get it eventually – if it takes years, so what ? It’s not like it’s the only armour in the game and you have to run around naked otherwise.

You don’t want to do a thing, you don’t get the reward for doing the thing. Since there are people who WILL do the thing there should be a steady flow on the TP even after the possibility to get the node is over.

Honestly, I’m a dirty rotten casual and I already have the meta done I don’t see what the big deal is. I didn’t do a single jumping puzzle – I got the “Poor Man’s Kite” and didn’t even actually need that (since I’ll get the 8/8 Charged Quartz in a few days) which doesn’t require any jumping at all.

6 of the 16 are complete “Freebies” – all you have to do is show up. After that another 6 are “Easy” and don’t require to you actually be skilled at anything – you do something so many times or you go to the right place (no actual JPs required). That means that only FOUR of these require you to do something that actually requires raw skill or low latency. And you get to pick which ones.

Yeah, it’s “forced” in that if you want a Reward you need to do something to get it. I don’t really see a problem with that.

Today 3 regular and 1 charged.

I got 8 regular today.

zerospin.8604:

If you crossed the finishing line, the game should recognize it and stop bugging you with the kickout message. It’s pointless and extremely annoying.

QFT

I got the Title on my own on my 7th or 8th run and I am very happy. I would never have thought to ask for it.

However.

I think it would be a great improvement and solve all these problems by having a match-making set-up. That way people who have more trouble are grouped together and people who keep winning and want to have more competitive matches are grouped together – BOTH parties get what they want ! That way the people with the high latency will be competing against each other on a “fair” field so that they have a chance to get it “fairly”.

As it is, those people really have no chance so after I got my win I admit I don’t try to “compete” any more. I firmly believe that high latency is just something you should expect being far away from a server and “play at your own risk” applies – and that it’s unrealistic to expect ANet to just get a server in Australia when even the giant money eatbeast that is WoW hasn’t been able to do that. BUT – I do believe that there’s nothing wrong with being nice and helping others, either.

Jae.5138:

aren’t you basically asking people what their main is

Yeah. I would just stick to my main. I do agree on the “A” and “B” idea, but I’ve definitely decided that my “main” is the one who is the official Collector of All the Shinies.

I came into this game expecting to play a Sylvari – and while I still really like them the Asura are definitely my favourite to actually play as. Beauty and grace are great, but it’s more amusing to be tiny, wobbly, and sarcastic.

I’d still stick with Engineer because I like explosions.

And Order of Whispers because Tybalt.

Okay, what I got out of this thread was that it would be really cool if there was a “fleet” map in the future with perhaps a much larger “city ship” with other ones docked to it.

There could even be some kind of “intruder / infestation” on the ship plot that spins into a dungeon. Likely the aetherblades, but it could also be cool to introduce some kind of unique “high sky” monsters that are rarely/never seen on land (perhaps their bodies burn up at death, thus closing that plot hole – though perhaps sometimes the bodies fall to the ground and create “Big Foot” type legends).

I’m levelling one of each, but don’t have all to 80 yet so… for what it’s worth…

My Guardian is one of my favourites for PvE when it comes to “run into a bunch of things and they all die” – my Warrior is pretty good at this, but still comes in second. I can run into things that outlevel me without a second thought (unless it’s so high that you start to find that your attacks no longer hit at all).

My Engineer can drop a turret or two and use grenades to just keep pulling things over.

With the health minion thing my Necromancer does pretty well, too – I hardly ever see HP go down although I did “overpull” yesterday and die spectacularly – a bunch of at-level bandits re-spawned and loldead.

Mesmer is interesting – I’ve gotten out of worse situations than I thought a light armour class would be able to.

How you “build” will make a huge difference. You can choose skills and traits for better survivability for any class and well as avoiding a “glass cannon” build.

However, anything less than Guardian or Warrior is going to feel more “squishy” than them if you’re being directly beat upon – their abilities to survive come from obfuscation – directing the damage/attention away from themselves and onto a pet/turret/clone/et cetera. It becomes more about strategy of movement, circle strafe, dodging, using things like turrets, et cetera.

Mesmer is also really useful if you want to do things like Jumping Puzzles with something of a safety net – having a Portal ready for if you miss a jump is pretty nice, been seeing people using it all over BotFW.

Daraku.5389:

I can choose a signature move before I click ready but there I only have Boast even though I beat Berddi and Maddie. And I can only activate boast one time for 3 stacks.

Unfortunately, that is how it is supposed to be – it is not a bug.

I’m not really here for the story so I don’t care that much.

Now, I’m a big reader and I do like the “lore” – but that’s not why I’m here. To me that’s just extra.

And, honestly, the characters and writing in general is way less… erm… kitten-y than the last MMO I played so I can’t really complain.

The zone is fun, it looks amazing, and the story is at least believable and doesn’t make me want to throw things. There’s room for improvement, sure – but I do definitely think they laying the “groundwork” at this point. This is just the first few chapters of a story. If they DON’T go that route with this it’s a big, stupid mistake – but if they’re not stupid they’re introducing us to new characters/factions. I feel like the Aetherblades had a good introduction – it was dynamic and filled with action and I don’t mind that this one is a “break” from that – in fact, it’s probably a good thing.

It’s different – and more fun – against other players since it’s an even playing field.

I think it would be more fun in both situations – PvE and PvP if the Signature was on a cool-down for everyone. Say every 5 turns (maybe more for the ones that last several rounds). That would give the player the ability to actually use strategy against the NPCs – instead of just trying to get lucky and get chain spammed to death. I think it would still be fair if the NPCs could use their own Signature more often, but still have at least one round in-between – otherwise it’s just a steamroll and you’re banking on luck.

It can work having the Signature only once when it come to PvP – because I get the feeling that most people don’t want a match dragged out into a half-hour fiasco, but if the NPCs can spam it there should be SOMETHING to balance that !

Some of the NPCs are quite good in that you can use strategies to reliably beat them. It’s fair for them to have different levels of difficulty and different health pools – but the chain-spams are what seems to be killing it for everyone.

Glaurung.1076:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I hope that if there are future plans for player-housing, that there is a way for us to place the mini Zephyr Sanctum as an actual miniature in our house. Because I don’t want to carry this portable video with me, or have it cluttering up my bank space. I want to be able to place it somewhere, and then actually see it as a small 3d model.

That would be great! I wish with each living story there would be stuff that changed our Home Instances. Trophies, new merchants, simple decorations and stuff like that.

That would indeed be really cool. I don’t really care about another “house” – but if the already existing Home Instance reflected what you did that would neat – like a visible Achievements kind of thing showing your history and what you’d “been around” for. That would be the perfect place to keep the Model (and perhaps scale it up) – it would look cool and if you could invite people over then those who weren’t here could view it, too !

Zedd.8239:

Ceallach.8740:

How do you know they’re not referring to the show? Many people know it from just or mostly the show and there’s really nothing wrong with that – after all, the show does have a story that has all the elements being discussed and could be used as an example in the same capacity.

Because they mentioned the books and George R.R. Martin right after mentioning Game of Thrones.

Whatever the case, that part of my post was intended as a clarification in case people don’t know what the books are called. And I was disagreeing that they don’t have much magic. Initially the novels don’t have much magic at all but that grows along with the story. The show has intentionally cut most of the magical elements from the books. The Stark wolf dreams (not just Bran but all of the Stark children, including Jon), prophecies, and actual spells. So in the case of the show, it’s more of a medieval thriller. The books, on the other hand, are a completely different matter.

Both the show and the novels are obviously fair game for making comparisons to other media. I just think there should be a clearer distinction when discussing them. It’s like using the Harry Potter movies or the Harry Potter books. They’re so different that they are barely related beyond names and very basic plot details.

I agree and disagree, respectfully. I think it was clear that they were talking about the books – as you said – but in the event someone didn’t catch that it would have had the same impact on the conversation.

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the “magic” elements in ASOIAF, it just doesn’t work for me – I put up with it for the rest of it. I guess I’m just old and jaded and it goes to show that (not speaking to you directly in this) that everyone has different taste. I don’t play video games to escape the troubles of real life and don’t read for that reason, either – I do it because I am interested in exploring the troubles of real life and I just like killing monsters on the Internet.

What I love about reading is a good story. I love how much Tolkien put into the linguistics of LoTR it makes it so much more “alive” to me. I don’t think I’m “not a fan of” fantasy, but that I’m just a bit too picky. I understand it’s not fair to hold everyone up to Tolkien so I appreciate others for what they are. Since books are reading the lack of linguistic skill can make a very large difference, though – I think that’s one reason I find the HBO Game of Thrones a bit more tolerable in that respect; good actors can impart meaning to words that might otherwise sound a bit too-too just as good actors can make Shakespeare sound “comprehensible” to even unfamiliar modern people.

Like I said in another post, I don’t expect that level of storytelling in an MMO – it’s not that I give it a pass to be “bad”, but I expect serial content and that’s a challenge, too. The Lore is fairly decent and the level of writing and depth of character is to me deeper than I’ve experienced in any other MMO and if you really get into Lore as a whole and not just the PS and LW it can be up there with solid single-player RPGs. I just watched The Avengers for the first time and I feel that’s what most people want out of these stories – cool characters being cool and doing cool stuff and explosions, but I hated the lack of… substance and it required too much work on the part of the viewer to impart any. At least with an MMO we are here for many hours, not just one or two – so we reasonably have time to read about the lore and talk to NPCs and learn things – fill in the blanks.

If anything, I really wish the dialogue was more in-depth. I wish there were choices like in a stand-alone RPG and spontaneous quests and hints. The Heart system is great – I like it, but I also wish there was that chance of random commoner #93 saying she lost her ring somewhere in the forest/other district/et cetera and wishing she had it back, implying you could go find it. It would make the world seem more alive and dynamic.

Hmm, but I think I’ve gone off-topic for this thread.

tl;dr I’m a miserable old fart

So, the day before this came out I had just given up on the Aetherblade JP and told myself that I would practice on some simpler ones and come back.

I was really bummed when I heard that the new update was going to be a “jumping puzzle” too because I sucked at it.

But I gave it a shot and I had a lot of fun with it ! I think it will just vary person to person – you say it’s getting harder and harder, but I found this WAY easier than the Aetherblade one.

You don’t need the Dive here or in Aetherblades to get Dive Master, do you ? I know a lot of people already have it and had it before the Aetherblade one, too (making it optional). I really do wish there was a checkpoint or two in there.

I got my first place in my 7th or 8th try all by myself but after that I don’t really try as hard – I don’t spam 2 as much, I don’t attack others or grab power-ups as often – because I don’t need to in order to enjoy it and get my 25 runs for the Achievement. I usually still place top 3 even then – I honestly feel bad for the people in SEA – it’s not like they can do anything about it (I feel like that’s the risk you take when you’re that far away from the server – but it still sucks for them) – so giving them some extra time to overcome that challenge is actually MORE “fair” of a race – it’s like a handicap in golf.

It doesn’t bother me if someone “undeserving” gets the Title – it doesn’t take away from me and me knowing that I got it on my own. On the other hand – hey – I took a Mesmer portal to the goggles on top of the Sanctum and I feel no guilt about it. Thank you brave Mesmer who gave ports for like an hour.

I guess I got my 1st before the second patch, because I just got the same karma as all other races (where I placed 12th my first time, lolol – but consistently top 3 after I learned the course) and the same silver – the only difference was that I got an exotic piece of gear instead of something lesser.

If you have trouble again, you might want to link to the guide since not all people are aware of it – so they can see which one you are talking about.

And just so you know, there are 52 crystals on the map, so you can skip a good number of the ones you find really hard !

I have only gotten two so far – one from a Kite Basket and one dropped from a mob.

However, I haven’t really tried for them so far – I’ve only been to three Baskets and spent 90% of my play time collecting the crystals in the sanctum – so it’s not a good sample.

Zedd.8239:

Also, George R.R. Martin’s series is called A Song of Ice and Fire, not Game of Thrones. The latter is the HBO series that’s loosely based on the former.

How do you know they’re not referring to the show? Many people know it from just or mostly the show and there’s really nothing wrong with that – after all, the show does have a story that has all the elements being discussed and could be used as an example in the same capacity.

And even if they weren’t there’s really no shame or particular stupidity and calling something by a colloquial and well-recognised name. If I talk about the song “Baba O’Reily” a few people will smile and nod and be happy that someone called it by its “given name”, but I’m not going to correct anyone who calls it “Teenage Wasteland” unless we’re playing trivia and they ask me.

Sorry, my ability to be an Old Fart is showing.

Yeah, the point is that he copies your moves so you have think what can YOU use that will throw that off ?

Personally, I don’t like overblown “fantasy” so I’m quite happy with it and this game in general.

One of my favourite books is Dune, so I feel like, yes, it’s possible to have politics AND beating people senseless in only your underwear.

Lord of the Rings also contained some pretty “political” stuff, it was just fairly hidden. I like that, too, when a story has multiple “layers” – but I don’t really expect that from a video game whose nature is basically a serial. They try, but the aspiration is to something like “LOST”, not a story that was planned over years and revised as a whole.

And, yeah, like someone else said – this is really not in-depth politics at all. It’s like a high-school election – and I think it will be actually pretty cool if we’re able to do something to influence the outcome.

I mean, I guess I don’t really care because I’m not playing this game to hear an amazing story. So far, I think it’s serviceable, but I’m not expecting something that makes me stay up all night reading and makes me go, “whoa dudes you gotta read this” to everyone I know.

I died a decent number of times, but about half the time I was revived – the other half I landed somewhere totally out of the way and no one was around.

I also got 8-10 silver per bag running the race the past hour or so, so I’m pretty sure that I’ve gained over-all.

I got it on my 7th or 8th run, so now I just hang out in the back as I make my way to 25 total. I’ve seen other people doing it to – once they have the title people generally are just there to finish the “Crowd Favorite” achievement and will gladly let others go ahead.

I’ve seen this happen both days so far so I don’t think it’s ridiculously uncommon.

I totally understand the pain of those who are physically far away from the server – it sucks and there’s nothing you can do about it.

But if you have low latency it’s just a matter of knowing the course and luck isn’t really a huge factor – yeah, it helps but I’ve been getting top 3 without using any attacks and largely ignoring the power ups (since I’m not trying to win any more). Maybe people will improve in general as time goes on, but right now it doesn’t really take much – just knowing the course.

Yesterday, when I read Dulfy’s guide and saw all the jumping I was really disheartened. I had just given up on the “Not so Secret” Aetherblade puzzle for a while because I’d never done a JP before so no wonder I was bad at them (well, I did the one in Bloodtide that has no actual jumping because I had found it by accident). So the idea of another thing that I wouldn’t be able to do sucked.

… But…

Then I tried it.

I have about 21 of the crystals so far and the vast majority I didn’t even alt-tab for help ! The Lightning Pull is fun and works like “training wheels”. BUT I’ve also already gotten better at regular jumping, too – and I now fearlessly run up and down thin poles (er, sometimes).

Yes, it won’t work for everyone – but if there are people out there who haven’t tried it yet reading this, don’t get discouraged before you do – and if you get really stuck with a crystal move on to another one and come back later and think of a different approach or read a guide.

Medazolam.3058:

An in game calendar would be nice, not everyone checks the forums or the website

This would be really, really great.

Apparently I’d already +liked the page a long time ago.

I almost cried when he died, while at the same time wondering what the heck he was even going to be able to do to make a difference.

For me, it would have been “enough” if he’d had some kind of plan more than just “stand there and fight in some ambiguous way”. Maybe if he’d been gravely injured and stayed behind to set off a bomb to buy us time, it wouldn’t have solved the “the ships are swarming the island” thing, but at least it would have at least kind of made sense instead of, “bro, what can you even DO? You’re going to get torn to pieces in a few seconds and the outcome will be the same as if you didn’t, but okay”

If he came back as a ghost it would be way cool. I mean, there are clearly already ghosts in the world, maybe he just refused to stop fighting and is still guarding that door – maybe people see him flickering in and out around the island, keeping it safe always on the lookout. Not really sure how the ghosts in the lore here work, though (like, if being “at peace” would make them go away). But it would be cool as something emphatically described by a word that would be changed to kittens.

Ah, I see. It’s hard to say. If they’re going to not do a big “lead in” with spoilers as a Living Story event it seems like we will have to wait until an expansion – unless they do some kind of mini-release of “new zones + more Personal Story” in the meantime. It would be odd to have more Personal Story but not to raise the level cap ? I wonder what anyone else would think about that. I guess it’s not absolutely necessary and could be like how we went looking in various areas for the Dragon Bash suspects – and it wouldn’t have to be a huge production, just little “updates” that you can play through to let you know how things are going.

I think this is a really good idea, too.

Do you mean for people who haven’t completed the personal story ?

I think it’s okay like it is – there aren’t many “spoilers” in the Living Story and I’m glad. My highest is only level 50, so I understand the “being in the past” feeling.

I did know from the start that the Personal Story was going to culminate in a Kill the Dragon plot and I knew that we would prevail – so I don’t feel like too much was “spoiled” – and I had a lot of fun doing Dragon Bash !

I think it’s okay to leave the Personal Story as-is. It gives new players something to work through and get to experience that “past” first-hand while they “catch up” to the current level cap. I think they’ve done a good job of keeping the Living World separate from the Personal Story as much as it makes sense to do so.

Depending on rate of new expansions I don’t necessarily think that would be a bad thing – BUT I do think it would be good story-telling to have a “lead up” to the next one in way of various events/impacts on the current world. Things that might not seem like an all-out doomsday, but that build up threat and anticipation.

Yeah, I noticed the change and appreciated that they’re now unique – they make a lot more sense !

Not sure about the idea of them expiring, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. I would doubt it ? I mean, that’s not really happened before, has it ?

Anglvamp.5632:

If your (and I am referring to the general your, not anyone in particular) enjoyment of an in game item is focused on the fact that someone else doesn’t have it, I don’t know what to say. If the only reason to not extend an event or repeat it is so that some people can feel superior to others, I really don’t know what to say.

I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. It’s not about “superior” it’s about a piece of history for being somewhere at a certain time. It’s like getting a special tour shirt from your favourite band that was only available during one tour. Yeah, some people might be like, “oo, I saw them in ‘86 I’m better than you because you saw them in ’95” but for normal people it’s just being there and being part of something – it’s about living life, life that isn’t static and always the same.

Having an item tied to a certain things creates an association with that thing. The “Dragon Bash 2013” helm or wings are unique. But the 2014 ones will be, too – whatever they are. It recalls a certain time, a specific date not just Dragon Bash in general and I think that’s really worth something and I’m happy they seem like they’ll put in the effort to do that instead of just using the exact same things over and over. It’s something to look forward to – yeah, I got almost all the achievements this year, but a new thing next year will be a reason to participate again instead of sitting it out because I already have everything done.

I’m sure they’ll give out a different item next year. All I think is “superior” is the idea of getting a different thing next year – who wants to just have the same thing over and over ?

I agree with you that it would be good to repeat the event at the end because of the poor communication – however I really, really, really doubt it would be possible to do that and not have it go just as badly. Yeah, it was a fumble – but hopefully they’ll work on the problems and learn from them. If they’ve been really working on it and have already worked out the problems, great ! But I don’t think it’s as easy as some people think it would be.

There are other chances to make memories. I’m 90% sure I’m going to miss out on most of the Sky Pirates stuff but it’s okay because there will be more in the future that I can participate in.

I’m not saying you’re wrong for feeling bad that you missed it or that it doesn’t suck – but that being part of a living world means more than just going to one particular event. There will always be new events and new memories – just like in real life. If you get sick or have other plans on the real 4th of July you miss the real life fireworks and you have to set off your own when you’re feeling better or you wait until next year – when there will be a totally different show.

I guess I’m just a happy person. :/

@Anglvamp, it wasn’t some big, spectacular amazing thing that would make or break a game experience. It was a cheesey fireworks show. For me, most of the “excitement” came from everyone being in it together and people congregating and running around and stuff.

If it was really about some kind of enjoyment about seeing a digital fireworks show people would be happy just to watch it on YouTube. It’s about a helmet and achievement – that’s what this fuss is really about, not about enjoying content.

I feel like if they tried it would just have the same problems. Maybe they’ve worked out the issues this fast, but I doubt it. I would guess it’s something they will need to work on and test for the “next one”.

I guess I don’t have faith that “only enjoyment” would be gained – I feel like it would still have frustrating problems and people would still be just as angry and frustrated about everything when they logged on and STILL weren’t able to get it.

And, honestly, yeah, it’s somewhat of a badge of honor. No, it wouldn’t destroy a person if WoW gave everyone a Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal but that’s not the point of the item. The point was for the people who were in a certain place at a certain time that did a certain thing. I don’t see why not have that kind of content. It’s fun. No, it’s not fun that this particular event was buggy, but I don’t see a problem with the type of content in general. It’s not ruining anyone else’s fun because there will be more chances to get your own piece of history. I think that’s more exciting to think about than to dwell on having missed something. I didn’t get to do some of the events on here, but I’m looking forward to ones that I can do in the future.