Guild Wars 2

Tommyknocker.6089:

Daddicus.6128:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Well many don’t post here as they are seldom replied to by anyone in power. That being said, Reddit lost 400+ subs yesterday alone, and as the devs actually post there I can see it being a trend (metric).

Is it millions, no of course not, because most people still playing don’t unsub, but it does show that many don’t like the direction the game is going in.

I think I’m still going to stand by my “millions” quote. The vast VAST majority of players have been casual.

But, remember that my “millions” includes players who have quit. The game DID appeal to them.

Now, certainly a larger percentage of hardcore players quit than casuals. Hardcore players get bored when the content isn’t hard enough (or new enough) for them, and the seek out more difficult games.

I was actually agreeing with you, and I am sure the vast majority are casual. The only metic we have is their quarterly report to be certain, but I was using the only method at my disposal. BTW that number is over 1k now.

Harper.4173:

400+ subs lost doesn’t mean those people left the game. It means they left reddit. Let’s not make things into what they’re not.

True, but it does show that players are unsubing reddit at a very fast pace and the devs actually reply there. For all any of us know they are still playing daily and enjoying themselves, however the quarterly report will give true numbers.

They might be playing. They might not be playing.

I doubt this is something that can be truly punished. It’s rude, of course, but the internet is full of rude people.

It is what it is, I guess.

Wasn’t there something previously about ArenaNet not being able to add Cantha for some reason or another? I thought I read something about this a while back.

If that’s the case, they may not be able to add Cantha to the game at all.

And the image does look like something way more modern than GW2’s world has, so I kind of doubt it’ll be added to the game just like that.

I think the game feels grindier now with the addition of HoT partly because all MMOs seem to get to a point where their developers depend on grind to fill the content gap and keep people busy and partly because HoT didn’t have a huge amount of content that would naturally keep people busy without a lot of repetition (i.e. 22 maps to explore and complete, new dungeons, etc).

So, they added things like masteries, which can begin to feel like a grind after a while, and mini-games that can be repeated endlessly. Even having to earn regional currency (ley line crystals) in order to buy items like collection parts and recipes basically encourages the repetition of a (more or less) small amount of content.

It’s what MMO developers design in order to keep people busy.

I’d have liked it better if there were some basic changes to the fight:

1. Your friends don’t get locked out of the fight if they die.
2. There were distinct phases and death would take you to a the beginning of that particular phase as opposed to the beginning of the entire fight.

These 2 things would have made the instance more enjoyable for me. I experienced multiple bugs while doing the fight and it was pretty miserable, as I redid it around 5 or 6 times before I could complete it. I don’t even really want to do it on alts and that’s fairly unusual for me.

Because they made the core game F2P.

Now the only thing anyone ever pays for is HoT. And it’s the same for all.

warbignime.4610:

Dashingsteel.3410:

Yeah, in vanilla gw2 jumping puzzles were an optional thing. Ever since HoT platforming has become necessary. It is an odious trend that I hope they stop soon.

lol? necessasry? who is forcing you to get the shoulder piece?

No one. He means it’s necessary for certain items if you want them.

Obviously.

Good point. Kinda sucks if you go to the trouble of getting these shoulders and then you can’t wear an outfit you like and still see their effects.

I dunno. Replayablility in this game for me usually involves making and leveling up alts. I do maps and the story on multiple characters.

There was a time when I was only playing 1 character, and once I had ascended gear for her and 100% map completion, I did some events around the world with her, but I quickly got bored. So I get the non-progression thing to a degree.

After taking some time off from the game (due to the aforementioned boredom) I came back and made some alts. Without alts, I honestly don’t know how I’d ever stay busy in this game.

It’s hard to say because it all depends on your playstyle. If you like the idea of leveling a new profession – the Revenant – and playing with it, then it might be worth it to you to come back. If you really liked fractals, there’s now 50 more levels of them than before HoT. There are 4 new jungle maps, a new mastery system (you get abilities and perks by allocating points in a given line), and all the professions now have elite specializations and access to new weapons that they didn’t have before. There are new collections, if you like that sort of thing, such as the new collections for getting legendary precursors. Guilds can get guild halls and upgrade them and there’s a new crafting profession for them called Scribing. All this might interest you. Or not.

Personally, there are things I like about HoT and GW2 in general now and things I don’t like. I enjoy leveling my new Revenant, I enjoy playing around with the new elite specs, I enjoy a couple of the new maps, I love gliding, I like some of the collections, and I like some of the new events and meta events.

Some things I don’t like right now – waiting around for full HoT maps so I can join in and do the meta events, waiting around for meta events so I can finish map completion, waiting around for help with Hero Challenges that I can’t solo. The new HoT maps work on a 2-hour timer and I’m not always in a position during my playtime to get something I need done, so I have to do something else or wait for the next 2-hour rotation. I’m not a big fan of how hard it is to get and then upgrade a guild hall if your primary guild is on the small side. Scribing is too expensive for my tastes.

These are just a few pros and cons of the game right now.

Obtena.7952:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Obtena.7952:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Obtena.7952:

I think your objections don’t make sense because Anet warned people HoT would be more challenging. I won’t debate with you if it’s overly hard or if getting level 2 masteries are a ‘grind’, but you absolutely can’t complain that you got HoT, and then were surprised that ‘hard’ content prevented you from doing what you assumed you would be able to. Anet put up the red flags; you ignored them.

The flags weren’t red. They were more like grey. There was so much vagueness as to what the term was actually referring to (and some things weren’t announced beforehand, anyway) that even cautious people were having a hard time knowing if it would drastically alter their playstyle.

Even if it was vague, that should have gave a cautious buyer reason to pause. You walk into a building if there is smoke and not fire, even if a fireman tells you it’s on fire? Then you walk in and complain you got burned because you weren’t 100% it was on fire because you didn’t see fire? Then blame the fireman because he was ‘vague’ and didn’t give you enough information which made it a hard decision for you to go into that burning building or not?

Sure …

Um, this overly emotional attempt at an analogy doesn’t even make sense in context…

lol

It doesn’t make sense or you don’t want to believe that’s how rational, responsible and mature people see these complaints?

Nope, it makes zero sense. It’s a very bad anology for a whole host of reasons, such as the fact that buying a video game expansion and running into a burning building simply don’t carry the same risk. This alone makes it a very bad attempt at analogy. Also, there’s nothing even remotely vague about the statement “It’s on fire.” Yet another reason why this analogy falls way short of its mark.

What it is, however, is a passive-aggressive attempt to say that people that purchased HoT despite their concerns are idiots. You’re being purposely insulting because let’s face it. Only a complete idiot would run into a smoking building with a firefighter standing right outside saying it’s on fire.

The obvious implication is that people that would do this idiotic thing are the same people that would buy a video game expansion if they had doubts about what exactly was involved in the vague phrase “challenging content.”

No,“rational” people don’t see these two things as comparable at all. People gambled (and not with their lives, mind you) on the expansion based on their experience with the game during 3 years’ time and faith in the company. Some of them lost that gamble, some of them didn’t. It depended on their playstyle and what they consider enjoyable in a game.

In the future, I’m guessing a lot more people are going to be a lot less likely to pre-purchase any more GW2 expansions. They’ll wait to have more information next time.

AirimirOfGondor.9081:

People in this thread have pointed out that some players look forward to Christmas all year. Maybe this is the one time we can lean more toward inclusion than exclusion.

We can argue the merits of where to draw that line in content in general. But this isn’t “content in general.” It’s Christmas holiday content. A lot of people seem to agree that it’s a time of year that should be a bit more inclusive and understanding.

I think this is OP’s sentiment for Christmas, and what this thread is really all about.

I agree. I would have no problem with holiday-specific content being easier and more accessible in general to the players in the spirit of the season.

Again, what it looks like to me is that Anet is overreaching in their attempts to keep players busy. Like they’re worried a large portion of the population will leave if there aren’t long, drawn-out grindy things to do like drink 10,000 drinks for a holiday event.

Although JPs aren’t my favorite content in this game by a long shot, and I wish items weren’t gated behind doing them (other than general reward chests and the like), the game is what it is. Jumping puzzles seem to be a large portion of gameplay, and I doubt it’ll change in the future.

Fluffball.8307:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Broom.2561:

Obtena.7952:

Kerin.9125:

Healix.5819:

Mitch.4781:

Welcome to play the game “your” way LMAO

That only ever applied to required vertical progression, leveling specifically. You’ve never been able to play however you wanted to acquire the extras.

There’s nothing you can do against latency, but adventures are a simple skill check. If the average player can’t handle silver, they’ll nerf it. For everyone else, find someone you trust and get carried.

That’s a heck of a business model.

Not sure if sarcastic or not … this is an MMO. It’s not all that unreasonable to ask someone better or more knowledgeable than you to help you out.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever read the EULA, but I think you should. Adventures are individual achievements, NO ONE can do them for you or help you with them, unless they log into your account. Which is prohibited under section 9b of the EULA. And could get you banned.

Interesting, considering they have no way of knowing if I’m playing my account, or if my sister is playing it, or my niece, or a friend, etc.

I’ve never met anyone in person that plays GW2 (other than my wife, who I bought a copy for.) They can’t tell if someone in your house is playing on your copy, but they can tell if your friend in another location who also plays GW2 is playing on your log-in. I suspect doing that will raise some flags, and we’ve seen instances where both accounts get banned.

Well, yeah, that’s a different case. It’s none of their business what goes on in my own home.

Obtena.7952:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Obtena.7952:

I think your objections don’t make sense because Anet warned people HoT would be more challenging. I won’t debate with you if it’s overly hard or if getting level 2 masteries are a ‘grind’, but you absolutely can’t complain that you got HoT, and then were surprised that ‘hard’ content prevented you from doing what you assumed you would be able to. Anet put up the red flags; you ignored them.

The flags weren’t red. They were more like grey. There was so much vagueness as to what the term was actually referring to (and some things weren’t announced beforehand, anyway) that even cautious people were having a hard time knowing if it would drastically alter their playstyle.

Even if it was vague, that should have gave a cautious buyer reason to pause. You walk into a building if there is smoke and not fire, even if a fireman tells you it’s on fire? Then you walk in and complain you got burned because you weren’t 100% it was on fire because you didn’t see fire? Then blame the fireman because he was ‘vague’ and didn’t give you enough information which made it a hard decision for you to go into that burning building or not?

Sure …

Um, this overly emotional attempt at an analogy doesn’t even make sense in context…

lol

Hard to say. On my world, WvW is very much crippled from what it was pre-HoT and I still see HoT events failing in the maps, so that might be a lack of players. shrugs Not sure. I still see a lot of players in the sPvP lobby and in cities, though.

Fancypants.9705:

Hey all I dont ever really complain on forums i just keep it to myself but this really put a bad taste in my mouth.

Anet, wanted to make the game less grindy and less gold orientated. Being able to obtain legionaries and higher end items just by playing the game. So they decreased the amount rewarded given by dungeons… horrible idea…

Now to be able to obtain skins like the Wintersday skin, we have to do endless grinding for 10k alcohol points or stuck paying 800g+ on the TP….. so… where/when is this less grinding and less gold orientated come in to play?

Even doing these new legendary achievements… sure you can do it all by just playing… but you will be spending countless hours farming resources. Is this suppose to be more fun then grinding/playing dungeons?

None of this makes sense…. if I am wrong please tell me, I welcome all types of criticism and hope that I am wrong in all of these cases. If you are going to say I am cheap just dont bother posting, I think anyone expected to spend over 800g+ to have some snowflake effects has some screws loose.

I can only imagine they’re desperately trying to keep people busy and this is something else that might take players some time. Also, it seems like they’re actively looking for major gold sinks, like they think players have too much gold in general. The gold sink aspect isn’t working on me, though, since I’m not planning to sink any gold at all into the shoulders.

No, the Halloween holiday is my favorite. I also wish they’d have a festival in the spring and summer, but so far, they haven’t really had a regular one for those seasons.

Hume.2876:

OR they COULD make it even MORE grindy and easier.

Well, they COULD also make it both less grindy and easier, but they won’t. It’s about decisions. They have choices, but they chose to make it the way it is.

There are a lot of very bizarre hairstyles across the board, yeah. I’m not a fan of the shaved ones, either. Or the mohawk look or the Afro look. Most of the charr styles, I find really “out there” but the braided one they just added, I really love.

Arewn.2368:

Nowhere was this game marketed as being for-casuals

It was, actually.

Broom.2561:

Obtena.7952:

Kerin.9125:

Healix.5819:

Mitch.4781:

Welcome to play the game “your” way LMAO

That only ever applied to required vertical progression, leveling specifically. You’ve never been able to play however you wanted to acquire the extras.

There’s nothing you can do against latency, but adventures are a simple skill check. If the average player can’t handle silver, they’ll nerf it. For everyone else, find someone you trust and get carried.

That’s a heck of a business model.

Not sure if sarcastic or not … this is an MMO. It’s not all that unreasonable to ask someone better or more knowledgeable than you to help you out.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever read the EULA, but I think you should. Adventures are individual achievements, NO ONE can do them for you or help you with them, unless they log into your account. Which is prohibited under section 9b of the EULA. And could get you banned.

Interesting, considering they have no way of knowing if I’m playing my account, or if my sister is playing it, or my niece, or a friend, etc.

Wintersday is going to run until January 12.

I agree with you, OP. I enjoyed your well-written post, too. Empathy, like common sense, isn’t really all that common, unfortunately.

So many players’ answers to any and all problems is, “I like it, so there’s nothing wrong with it” and “I can do it, so everyone can or there’s something fundamentally wrong with them.” I can only imagine that people like this that can’t or won’t put themselves into other peoples’ shoes have a really hard time of it in RL. lol

Mitch.4781:

That response from Colin is extremely defensive. It didn’t come across well at all. And equating the complaints about competitive pvp with wanting the game to fail was utter ROT!

he came across as a petulant frat boy. Not professional.

Somehow, I don’t see how this game will ever really make it in the e-sports arena. Game’s just not designed with that in mind, and it feels like all the effort to try and force it into a mold that isn’t likely to ever fit will end up being wasted time and money when it’s all said and done.

I’m kinda with you on the masteries.

So. Much. Grind. lol

Obtena.7952:

I think your objections don’t make sense because Anet warned people HoT would be more challenging. I won’t debate with you if it’s overly hard or if getting level 2 masteries are a ‘grind’, but you absolutely can’t complain that you got HoT, and then were surprised that ‘hard’ content prevented you from doing what you assumed you would be able to. Anet put up the red flags; you ignored them.

The flags weren’t red. They were more like grey. There was so much vagueness as to what the term was actually referring to (and some things weren’t announced beforehand, anyway) that even cautious people were having a hard time knowing if it would drastically alter their playstyle.

I’d think that 10,000 drinks would be grind by anyone’s definition. lol

Ayrilana.1396:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Considering the source, I don’t think this is much of a compliment. lol

If they highly criticized the expansion would you still hold the same opinion of them?

I’m not impressed with their reviews regardless of which side they come down on. Why would that alter my opinion? SMH

I’ve spent plenty of time waiting at various HPs, too, and often no one answers calls to come or LFGs advertising. Sometimes, this is the way it works. No one else needs them or they’re doing other things or many other reasons why it’s very possible to sit alone at an HP like Balthazar and not get even one other person to help out.

It happens. It’ll likely happen more and more as time goes by.

SgtOVERKILL.4701:

I really don’t get what all the complaints are about? It’s been the same for three years just because they tied an item to it? Just do the kitten puzzle you’re bound to get it. I ran it 3x in about 10min. This puzzle is easy compared to some in the current game or previous celebrations ex. mad kings clocktower.

It’s not really that simple. For some players, JPs aren’t something they’re going to “just get” no matter how many times they do it. Some just don’t have the aptitude for it and no amount of time thrown at it is going to change that.

Also, “easy” is a subjective term. For plenty, this puzzle isn’t “easy” compared to others at all.

Just sayin’.

How would they add a challenge mode to the open world landscape, though?

Risingashes.8694:

A game should not be designed around people with medical conditions.

Having empathy for people with niche requirements is a good thing to do, but there’s a gigantic chasm between accommodation and breaking the game for other people to serve a slither of the population.

Yeah, but removing the JP requirement from a shoulder item is hardly going to be “game breaking.”

warbignime.4610:

Basically, bunch of people wanted things handed to them on a silver plate, and if it’s not then they go on forum and complain. Bravo, Brave.

Since no one in this thread asked for anything on a silver plate, I can safely say that this response has no relevance at all. lol

Didn’t realize the shoulders require the jumping puzzle. That’s really too bad. Even on a good run making all the jumps, the freezing thing is really prohibitive.

Guhracie.3419:

I think it’s weird that they are churning out so many black lion weapon sets and yet their expansion shipped with three legendary weapons and an appallingly low number of new in-game skins overall.

Then again, they’re pushing microtransactions so hard you wouldn’t think they’d just released an expansion pack valued at $50.

I’ve never seen a game go F2P that didn’t begin drastically changing the design of the game to shuttle into the store and/or begin seriously altering and pushing their in-game store as opposed to actual gameplay.

PopeUrban.2578:

warduke.1780:

Ayrilana.1396:

warduke.1780:

Ayrilana.1396:

warduke.1780:

Ayrilana.1396:

1) There have been threads with players complaining about being harassed when killing ambient a whether it be to complete a heart, go for the achievement, or as they’re passing through. They were not in their own bubble.

2) It could be automated and was. Not difficult to program a bot to go around in a set loop I would imagine. Bots have done more complicated things.

3) Maize farming wasn’t restricted for the reasons that you listed.

4) Doesn’t mean that this method needs to get reinstated. Have you tried node farming for lower tiered wood logs and ore?

All wrong. ArenaNet just decided to ruin “lower tiered wood logs” in their latest patch. So, they need to reinstate old methods of farming gold.

All that I said were true. Please provide source that Anet ruined lower tier wood log farming with the latest patch.

Source? Look at the prices now. Go on. Have a little look.

It’s not ruined as you can still farm it as you did before and make a decent amount of gold. It’s just not as lucrative as before with the 30G/hr. I also don’t see anything stating what the cause so how are you certain that it is Anet?

Oh the bags. Like I said, you can still farm the nodes and there’s still the T6 node farm. It’s also not the only farm.

Farming wood is now pointless, like every other farm in the game.

That’s kind of the idea.

They want you playing the game because its fun, not doing boring repetitive tasks because they make better gold.

I missed this memo. How exactly did they change the lower level wood farm?

Shikigami.4013:

Haleydawn.3764:

Try again.

No thanks. I will stop wasting my time with your condescending answers and just end this with a “I don’t believe you when you say that 5-7 people with almost no gold farmed all the mats needed to go to level 31 themselves in 1 month”.

I don’t believe everything I read on the interwebz. It’s too easy for people to climb onto the forums and make stuff up just to make their points or to try to put people down.

I still think there could have been a better way to include smaller guilds in the whole guild halls and upgrades thing. They wanted to make scribing and guild hall upgrading take a long time in an attempt to keep people playing. With that goal in mind, it was just easier to gear the requirements toward large guilds.

I kinda agree. 10k is rather over the top. But then, they seem to like making achievements like this around here. Like they hope it’ll keep people playing or something by making it take a long time.

Tommyknocker.6089:

The first Wintersday and the first Halloween in 2012 beat these “small pocket” festivals hands down.

Remember when you could explore Gendaran Fields and open presents or doors? I do.
Remember when you could go to a different city and meet up with tixx or carve punpkins in queensdale? I do too.

Since then all the festivals are just a pale representation of the glory that was.

Only good thing is that they add to my daily total so I can log out quicker.

I wish we could craft all of the mini-toys. The first year for Wintersday, you could get items from the Tixx instance and craft the minis but not all of them. I don’t know if you can still do this at all, but it would be nice if we could not only craft them, but also craft them all in one year.

Randulf.7614:

I agree it is annoying, but it is something I have watched them use a lot recently. I have no idea why sometimes they put a timer and sometimes they don’t, but it def isn’t all items.

They need consistency in these type things. If there was always a set timer, like say a 3-day warning, for all items set to leave, there’d be a lot less surprises.

I’m not a fan of this, either. I wish they’d just run through the three or so songs and then get everyone out quick and begin again. lol

I liked at least 1 of each race’s new hairstyles. I like the ponytail for the human, long, long braid for the norn, braids for the charr, and barrettes for the asura.

Having a Revenant to level has helped with the boredom factor for me. It’s a good opportunity to get out of the annoying HoT maps for a while and do something else.

Wintersday isn’t much of a thing for me since I’ve done it 3 times already, so it feels lackluster and the achievements all seem to be the same, which means I prolly won’t bother with them.

I’m glad they did this. It needed to be brought more in line with the other metas. It was failing way too much.

Fluffball.8307:

They probably wanted more than about 1 map to try it per 2 hours. Very few people were even attempting it, which is a giant waste of a map.

It needed to be fixed. Glad to see it happen.

Considering the source, I don’t think this is much of a compliment. lol

The only way to know if you made a mistake or not is to play around with it for a few weeks and see how you like it.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Healix.5819:

For most of them, silver should be easy to acquire on your first attempt and gold for a few of them. You only need to memorize a video if you lack the sense to figure something out yourself. The Floor is Lava is the only one that really requires an optimized path for gold.

This kind of backhanded insult earns you no favors. And I challenge anyone to earn silver, much less gold, on adventures like A Fungus Among Us or On Wings of Gold . . . on their first attempt no less.

Keep in mind, to earn both mastery points, you need gold. No one is arguing that Silver is impossible. I am arguing that in order to earn gold on some of them, you need to all but memorize the path and patterns.

I guess most of us ‘lack the sense’ to know how to do something and earn a reward the instant we first attempt it. Silly, I know.

That said, there’s a reason the word ‘elitism’ is being thrown around on the forums these days.

Silver on a first attempt has been completely out of reach for me except for the Salvage Pit. That’s the only one.

From people I’ve talked to that actually like these games and are good at them, they didn’t get silver on most of them their first time through, either, so I’m seriously doubting that this is particularly common.

Supernaut.2684:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Adventures tied to Weapon collections are a mistake.

+1

When HoT first came out, I was very excited to complete the new weapon collections. That is, until I looked at the requirements. Please, give us tough quests, make us run all over the world, make us fight giant battles, whatever. Just, please, no kitteny timed platforming content.

And so, my excitement got subjected to a massive buzzkill. As implemented, I don’t plan to ever complete a weapon collection. Not one.

I’m not a fan of timed JP-like games, either. I prolly wouldn’t mind the mini-games so much if I could finish them all and get the rewards in my own time.

runeblade.7514:

There may be four maps, but they are leagues better than the core 25 maps combined.

This isn’t true for me. I prefer the original maps.