Guild Wars 2

Jordy.1570:

im 30 and i dont like the new content. was hoping for a “normal” content update. this doenst fit into an fantasy mmo and i dont unterstand why we dont get any good content that stays interesting like fractals. it took time to devolope this stuff and for me its a waste of time. its lacking more and more…

While I appreciate where you’re coming from, I can say that I’m so sick of “normal” that I’ve been beginning to wonder if anyone was willing to stick their neck out for the sake of creativity, and apply something new and intelligent to this genre.

Pure fantasy MMO’s are a dime a dozen. There for awhile, I thought GW2 was going down that path as well, but I’m glad to see they’ve finally, in true GW style, bucked the system and did their own thing.

Maybe it’s because I’m older than you, and have been around the fantasy video game block more, but to be honest, you just seem to be asking for more of what’s already out there.

That’s fine, if that’s what you want – but do keep in mind that some of us are looking for things more creative, intelligent, interesting, and stimulating that the same old same old, rinse and repeat.

I thought about this a bit, and I guess I find it rather entertaining that someone from a younger generation is getting spooled up over a video game with elements attractive to an older generation.

Usually it’s the other way around.

Serves you right, you young hooligans! (cough cough wheeze…)

Doggie.3184:

Skins are more fun. Maybe if they keep the Superamazing Adventure Box Medium armor wearers will get a Link or Sheik skin.

That’s actually a pretty cool idea…my Asura dressed as Link o.O

No tier gear involved. It’s only for cosmetics. This kind of grind is fine with me, because that’s how it always was with Guild Wars, and what they promised us with GW2.

I just can’t find the sweet spot…any advice?

So is the SAB going away after April 1?

I hope not…

Some of the old GW1 April Fool’s were classic…my favorites were the gender swap and Gwen doll ones…so I’d say expect cool stuff from ArenaNet on April 1 each year…

Keiran.1896:

Chuo.4238:

I’d check for viruses. And expect a ban forthwith.

What if you buy this million gold from Anet? they won’t say anything^^

Oh! Well then…I’d buy a jazillion Black Lion Keys and open a small fraction of the ones in my storage

killcannon.2576:

killcannon.2576:

I’m curious, because I’ve never played, could you go through guild wars 1 and complete all the content with the skills you would normally acquire just by leveling to twenty (no buying skills, getting them from dungeons, doing quests for them, etc etc) ? If so, would this be a wise play choice? Would a character who did do this be considered underpowered? Did you need certain skills to do certain content? Did having certain skills make content easier? In pvp?

Noticed that no one answered any of the questions, any input would be great.

Yes to content completion (although the Doppleganger would have seriously challenged you)..

This would be an unwise play choice because you would be missing out on the best part of the games’ content…

Yes, such a character would be underpowered because said character would have many fewer choices at hand, and therefore the inability to deal with very many situations effectively and efficiently…

Having certain skills was not technically required for any content, although groups of people often required them…if you had friends who weren’t fussed, you could do just about anything…but this leads into the last question…

Yes, having certain skills and builds made things easier. Read Sun Tzu. Basically, if you knew your enemy, you could choose your weapons beforehand. Therefore, if you fought a nuker, an interrupter would be nice…if you had to deal with knockdown, then stability skills would help…you get the idea…

Basically, in GW, you had hundreds of tools to choose from…and what you did with them could make or break you. A random selection of skills that hadn’t been thought through might work, but using your brain really helped…

I’d check for viruses. And expect a ban forthwith.

Vayne.8563:

You’re acting like this new gear is so significant a portion of the game, but it’s really not. It’s a couple of rings, an amulet you can get from dailiys and a couple of earrings…and a backpiece.

That’s all there is, so far. You’re making it sound like this will just keep getting worse. What I think is likely is this is a stopgap measure to keep people playing while more content is developed.

I don’t know if it’s going to get worse, but I am concerned that it will. They’ve already indicated that there are Ascended weapons and armor planned. They’ve left the door open to increasing the level cap.

What this means is, are they going to go the cheap and easy route of keeping players, rather than focusing on really, really good content? From a management and creativity perspective, it’s probably easier to just throw in some shiny new gear.

I realize they’re battling short attention spans as well, and every time a new game releases they’re going to have to deal with a new competitor. There’s enough brilliance at ArenaNet, however, that I should think they’d be able to keep the creative engines rolling, rather than falling back on gear grind to keep players. Supposedly we’re getting a “Super Adventure Box” soon. THIS is the kind of thing that’ll keep me interested and playing. Add some tier gear and I’ll get bored and annoyed and go play something else.

But hey, maybe I’m not the kind of player they care to keep playing. Time will tell.

Edit: I’m really enjoying this conversation with you, Vayne.

Vayne.8563:

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

Maybe this is some strange usage of the word interesting I wasn’t previously aware of.

Nope, it’s exactly what I mean.

And it’s more interesting than a gear tier because a new skill gave you something new to play with. Something you could add to a build, or make a build around. I agree that there were certain “stock builds” and elites that were more popular than others, but one of the genius things about Guild Wars that a lot of people seem to forget is how much creativity you could put into character and team builds.

Which is far more interesting than getting another piece of tier gear, who’s only purpose is to add a few numbers to my character sheet. You can do so much more with a new skill than you can with a new piece of gear.

Well the problem is, you’re comparing skill to gear, but in reality, what takes the place of those skills is traits. And I personally find traits far more interesting.

As you prefer. It’s the same idea, though. I’d rather have new traits to unlock than gear. Traits engage the brain. Gear is, or should be by now, very uncreative, cheap, and passé.

Vayne.8563:

Maybe this is some strange usage of the word interesting I wasn’t previously aware of.

Nope, it’s exactly what I mean.

And it’s more interesting than a gear tier because a new skill gave you something new to play with. Something you could add to a build, or make a build around. I agree that there were certain “stock builds” and elites that were more popular than others, but one of the genius things about Guild Wars that a lot of people seem to forget is how much creativity you could put into character and team builds.

Which is far more interesting than getting another piece of tier gear, who’s only purpose is to add a few numbers to my character sheet. You can do so much more with a new skill than you can with a new piece of gear.

Vayne.8563:

killcannon.2576:

I’m curious, because I’ve never played, could you go through guild wars 1 and complete all the content with the skills you would normally acquire just by leveling to twenty (no buying skills, getting them from dungeons, doing quests for them, etc etc) ? If so, would this be a wise play choice? Would a character who did do this be considered underpowered? Did you need certain skills to do certain content? Did having certain skills make content easier? In pvp?

In Guild Wars 1, you could get skills leveling, but you didn’t get skills BY leveling. You got skills by doing skill quests, or buying them from skill NPCs who were in certain towns. You never just leveled and unlocked skills.

Elite skills, however, had to be captured, unless you’d already unlocked them under a different character, then you could use skill tomes.

In PvP you could get PvP currency to buy elite skills.

Which is a far more fun and interesting and rewarding way to progress than stupid gear tiers.

Spicyhakitten605:

I feel like if, down the line, they increased the level cap and introduced a gear treadmill it would actually work. I think the majority of/at least a lot of people are level 80 and geared up by now, so it wouldn’t really break anything. WvW is getting stale and it would add a reason for people to actually do content.

If they do that, I’m gone. I can get that crap in any of dozens of other games. I bought GW2 because supposedly ArenaNet doesn’t make grindy games, and I thought they might actually be able to make another good game without it.

No tier gear, and no raising level caps. I don’t want another lousy McMMO. Be different.

HiddenNick.7206:

Give me REAL examples of that kind of content!

Every update, new content release, and expansion to Guild Wars. None of them ever created a new tier of gear. But we got lots of new skills, and new things to go do. It kept me going for years, and I loved it. So much more interesting than just adding more gear to grind.

There are times when the forums are just as entertaining as the game, so I do come here frequently!

SadieDeAtreia.8912:

Oh, also…
If a mod can fix the thread title with “In my view” or “I feel” like you do with all the negative threads, that’ll be groovy :-)

SadieDeAtreia.8912:

Chuo.4238:

They still haven’t put “In my opinion” into the title of this thread…

I know I’m probably the only person who finds this amusing, but well, I do…

;)

First page, last post.

;-)

Yea, I see it. Kinda funny that it’s been mentioned a few times in this thread, and still hasn’t happened…

Minor detail, but deserves to be pointed out.

I realize that there is a lot of QQ over Swiftness, Rangers, Warriors, and such. This, I think, is perfectly normal for any ArenaNet skill update since 2006 in GW (don’t belive me, have a look through GWGuru).

Aside from the expected, I don’t see much more in the way of rage or disappointed fans. Therefore I’d say this patch has gone better than any previous one – fewer bugs, and definitely didn’t create new issues that further fractured the community.

I like that the new content actually has some substance. I especially like that they focused on improving the game, not feeding the gear-hungry treadmill rats. I hope they never, ever, release another piece of Ascended gear. It was such a relief not to have another gear grind added.

A bit tongue-in-cheek, I’d say that GW2 is just about to the point where we could say, “it’s ready”.

So, ArenaNet, from a longtime GW fan who’s raked you over the coals concerning some of your decisions in GW2, I’ll say, “nice job”. This is exactly what I’d have expected from a GW game update, and you’ve finally delivered. Please, keep it up, and you’ll have one more happy fan.

MisterEction.9382:

This is my favorite staff in the game. The way the light swings around is awesome.

I just like how your screenies appear to animate if I scroll down at the right speed :P

Vol.5241:

Have you done the math to see just how expensive it would be to acquire a legendary for $?

Do you think there are hundreds of players out there willing to shell that kind of money?

Let’s call it $1500 USD. If buying a copy of GW2 costs $60, that’s the same as selling 25 new copies of GW2.

And believe me, there are people out there with either that kind of money or that kind of poor judgement (depending on the situation). I’m not saying that they are by any means a large percentage of the GW2 population, but then all people who have legendaries already, aquired through whatever means, are not a large percentage of the GW2 population.

But you just never know who’s who, and even the possibility that someone could buy one is a turnoff. In the same sense that some people would consider a piece of gear with 1% stat increase a big deal (and they do). It’s a very small difference, but it also makes all the difference.

Anyway, I’m trying to suss out if there are people like me who want a legendary that looks good, and can’t be bought on the TP.

Kaeden.6952:

Not defending Anet by any means, terrible setup for a legendary system, but there is no point in crying over spilt milk. The system aint gonna change.

I certainly don’t expect them to change the existing legendaries, but I can dream that they’ll add some more that not only look good, are also only earnable ingame, and not via the TP.

Simple answer:

I personally think that the designers of these ridiculously flashy, tacky weapons are intending to target people who just want a “look at me” effect, and have no concept of taste. In essence, it’s more important for them to be noticed because you are over-the-top than for them to actually look tasteful and well put-together.

There are, apparently, a great many of such who play MMO’s. Or at least someone thinks there are. Come to think of it, there are lots of people who go for the same effect in real life…

Mileinnor.7125:

… but really, why is that 80% of all the … new greatswords are twice the size of my guardian.

Some people feel the need to compensate for something?

;)

It’s been a big turnoff for me that precursors are either purchased from the TP or acquired through RNG. It also bothers me that they are not account bound, and that legendaries are not account bound. This means that if I have a legendary, I didn’t necessarily do the work – I could have just applied my credit card to the gem store.

Because of this, I’ve no desire to put any effort whatsoever into obtaining a legendary.

Now I realize that, however dodgy and distasteful this setup is, ArenaNet are not going to change it as long as people with credit limits are spending hundreds on these things. It’s all about the money.

So, what I’d like to know is, how many of you out there are like me, and would be more interested in a legendary if it couldn’t be bought? If it could only be worked for?

If some legendaries were only account bound, and had precursors that were only account bound, would you be interested? If they took the RNG out of obtaining the precursor and, rather, made it a difficult Mystic Forge recipe instead, whose components were also primarily account bound?

If there were legendaries like this, would those folks who, like me, have no interest in the current legendaries, be more interested? If you could have a legendary that could only be earned, and not bought, would that be more meaningful to you?

Vayne.8563:

So yeah, I don’t find it amusing that mods make people put in my opinion.

I think we’re in agreement on that…mostly I was thinking that they’ll do it for negative posts, but not positive ones…

Anyway, probably neither here nor there…

They still haven’t put “In my opinion” into the title of this thread…

I know I’m probably the only person who finds this amusing, but well, I do…

;)

Gelltor.3015:

Nearly all the profession forums are complaining about nerds atm….was any class actually happy with this patch?

Had a good chuckle at the autocorrect

That aside, this is no different than any skill update since 2005 in GW. I could probably copy and paste from gwguru archives…

While I’m all about options, at this point I’d prefer to be able to turn off commander icons outside WvW…

They didn’t add any more ascended or tier gear. They gave us new stuff to do, fixed quite a few bugs, did some balancing, and left us with the tantalizing tease of more content to come…and they didn’t have to add any more tier gear!

I really really really hope that this trend continues. We’ve got a full suite of Ascended accessories and back items, along with the commensurate grind. I’d be absolutely ecstatic if they came out and said they’d work on making a quality game from now on, and add no more tier gear.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Oh, you mean they fixed the texture glitch it had before that was confirmed ages ago? Good job, ANet!

They fixed Vision of the Mists, too. The preview and the actual item now look the same. So I’ll add my thanks!

…for not adding any new Ascended/Tier gear to this update. It’s really well done…new activites, the promise of further new activities, shiny new skins, and all the other things are everything I’d hope an update should be.

If we can limit the new gear to skins only, and just focus on making fun content to play, I think I’d be very happy with this game. I was very nervous that there’d be a new gear grind added, and am very, very, pleasantly surprised that there is not!

I feel that this update was a move back closer to the spirit of Guild Wars. This was a step in the right direction. So thanks for that – I have hope

Claims to be the “Last Ancestor of the Last Jotun King”

Rather confused…shouldn’t he be the last descendant?

If the OP had said “worst game”, do you reckon the title would have been changed to “In my opinion”?

Yasashiku.8275:

I thought you were going to ask why is it 3 for 3 instead of 1 for 1, which I think is a far better question.

It’s time gating. Makes you play 2 days more.

If the mediocre storyline was my biggest complaint about this game, I’d feel like I’d just found the game for me, and probably be quite happy with it.

Trajan.4953:

The only Complainers are GW1 people who wanted a new improved GW1. Those and WoW players who want vertical progression. Yup, that’s about it.

What’s funny about your statement is that these two groups of people, in theory, each want a completely different game from the other.

Rhaps.8540:

It gives me deja vu seeing as there was a mega thread not that long ago that started with exactly the same video with the same theme.

There have been many threads like this one. I do find it interesting that it keeps coming up…

I have to admit, that is a great video. Whoever came up with it got a Christmas Bonus, I hope.

Tachenon.5270:

Imagine, if you will, a boat floating on a lake. There’s a ladder on the side of the boat with 10 rungs, each spaced 1 foot apart. The water level reaches the 2nd rung of the ladder. The Lake Level Committee decides to raise the level of the lake by 5 feet. What rung does the water level reach on the ladder on the boat after the lake level is raised by 5 feet?

That’s gear progression. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

The second, because the boat floats? I have no idea where you’re going with this analogy…

Oh you found it! ArenaNet have removed it from their blog page. No idea why. It used to be here:

http://www.arena.net/blog/guild-wars-2-design-manifesto

Tachenon.5270:

.

Was Ascended Gear truly in the works before the game launched? Is there any mention of Ascended Gear prior to its unveiling in November? If Ascended Gear had been mentioned in the Manifesto, how would it have affected the launch of GW2?

It was never mentioned before the Lost Shores update was mentioned. I think it was a knee-jerk reaction to a declining playerbase (normal after a couple months in any game) that backfired horribly, because they didn’t believe that all those people who didn’t want Ascended gear really meant it.

They were convinced, I believe, that the gear treadmill formula was something most players wanted.

kenshinakh.3672:

Chuo.4238:

Tachenon.5270:

You know, this might make for a great episode of The Guild, considering they have only six members. What would they do if The Game introduced content like this? Felicia Day, are you out there?

lol yea…merge with some giant mega-guild…lose all sense of self…drama ensues…and they all realize that it’s just not fun.

The mistake you made here, ArenaNet, is you tied this new guild content to tier gear. If you hadn’t, I think the complaints would be far fewer.

Wake up. Read my lips. No new Ascended Gear.

It’s jacked your game into something you didn’t intend, and your players hate it.

All this time people were asking for more ways to get ascended. It’s a tier of endgame content, so it makes sense to let guild stuff reward you ascended parts.

I think they wanted multiple ways to get the same piece – not a different way to get each piece.

Tachenon.5270:

You know, this might make for a great episode of The Guild, considering they have only six members. What would they do if The Game introduced content like this? Felicia Day, are you out there?

lol yea…merge with some giant mega-guild…lose all sense of self…drama ensues…and they all realize that it’s just not fun.

The mistake you made here, ArenaNet, is you tied this new guild content to tier gear. If you hadn’t, I think the complaints would be far fewer.

Wake up. Read my lips. No new Ascended Gear.

It’s jacked your game into something you didn’t intend, and your players hate it.

They should have. They didn’t. It’s too late. Say goodbye to most of the PvP crowd.

GW was legendary for it’s PvP, especially HA and GvG. There is nothing like it in GW2.

I was going to have a look at that wonderful video that got me so excited about GW2 again, but it’s gone. So, too, is the thread where people were talking about it.

http://www.arena.net/blog/guild-wars-2-design-manifesto

Odd…

Would never have purchased the game if it had a fee. And I’ll never again play a game that has a fee. The work they’re (not) doing just isn’t worth it.

Shade.6081:

maddoctor.2738:

Shade.6081:

What would improve this game infinitely is to remove level scaling from the game. Its a system that destroys a game by making it so called “fair”. Level scaling takes away your sense of power from your character and takes away the satisfaction of working your a— off to become more powerful. If a game has level scaling then gaining levels becomes irrelevant.

Level scaling is one of the best features in the game, keeping content as relevant as possible no matter your level is important to give players a variety of activities to do. Also, last I checked, your rewards scale as well so I don’t see an issue here, if anything, every single MMORPG that is to be released in the future should have level scaling.

It would have been irrelevant had they made a more reasonable level cap – say 20 or 30. Then, instead of taking up all that programming time adjusting, tweaking, and such, they could have spent more time focusing on making the world deeper, richer, more interesting, and less buggy. Why on Earth do we actually need 80 levels? It’s just so…passé. Why waste so many programming resources on this?

Leveling is such a pointless exercise. I’d rather just play. But we just had to have 80 levels…I still don’t see the point to that, but I’m seeing what can go wrong because of it.

I think the real problem here is twofold:

1) ArenaNet have their idea of how people should play, and they punish other playstyles. So what winds up happening is this game isn’t for casuals, it isn’t for hardcores, it isn’t for farmers, it isn’t for raiders, it’s not really for anyone except those who like to poke around the world, generally at random, and have no particular goals.

2) ArenaNet have some brilliant ideas, but can’t execute anything properly. I haven’t seen any update since launch that didn’t seem poorly thought through, segregated the community, and upset large portions of the playerbase. They always seem to break something every time they fix something else, too.

These two things are what have driven away every person I know that has given up on GW2. Most of them sadly and reluctantly.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I run every dungeon in the game, bar high-level fractals (depends on what we roll), in 30 minutes or less. The only extra time required would be for me typing explanations for bosses if they need one. Like I said before, I’d be happy to show anyone who doesn’t believe it. This has nothing to do with my personal ego or whatever; I just want to convey the best way I can (by showing) that this game does not need to be made easier, players just need to be willing to listen, research, and learn.

I’m not saying it’s very difficult to learn. It can be done, especially with a group that’s used to working together.

What I am saying is that it’s either boring (one or two mechanics that are easily dealt with) or frustrating (insanely large health pool that makes the fight take 10 minutes more than it should – you just have to be repetitive with your timed dodges or whatever for 10 minutes).

Neither of those is fun. Merely learning the mechanics and then being able to finish is very, very cookie-cutter (cough WoW cough).

Personally, I want to see a bit more intelligence in dungeon bosses, not just a couple mechanics added to a giant health pool. Yawn.

Edit: on a side note, I’m noticing that GW2 is dropping like a bomb on Xfire and Google.

Wake up, ArenaNet. People have been trying to tell you stuff for a very, very long time.