Guild Wars 2

This kind of stuff became a problem in GW1, as well. Until we all woke up one morning and half the PvP community had been banned by Dhuum. That first day of all the bans was entertaining as hell, but it was far too late by that time to save the legendary Guild Wars PvP.

They took YEARS to get around to banning the exploiters. By that time, a significant percentage of the community was either exploiting, or had left in frustration.

If they’d just written tighter code at the beginning, and stayed on top of fixing exploits, they wouldn’t have had such a mass exodus.

Sadly, I don’t see ArenaNet learning from that lesson. By the time they get around to fixing this, there’ll be nobody left in PvP but exploiters and bored PvE-ers.

Odd bug. Everything I typed in my previous post never actually posted.

Well, my point was that in retrospect, I’d have preferred a GW1 expansion over this particular GW2. If they’d stuck with their manifesto, however, and delivered the game that they promised, and delivered it “when it’s ready” as they promised, that would have probably been the best MMO ever, and well worth the years of eager anticipation.

As it is, I feel like I wound up with a cheap Korean knockoff of something that should be of much, much higher quality.

[quote=986571;ProphetSword.5427:]

proxy.7963:

But if any of those who really love GW1 want GW2 to be a similar experience – not the same, because it can’t be, but provide you with similar good feelings – then refusing to support these shaky first few months is the worst thing you could do.

I agree. Which is why I started this thread, and have shared my opinions in other threads. I’m hoping that ArenaNet see a trend here, and accept some of the feedback they’re getting from their longtime fans that are now feeling alienated.

I really, really hope that people of consequence at ArenaNet, and not just Moderators, read this stuff and discuss it at their meetings. I just wish they’d talk more about it to us.

I’d like to see threads like this one stay alive, constructive, and polite, so we can get our point across before it’s too late.

Please please, everyone, however you feel about the game, let’s talk about it so, hopefully, things get better for all of us.

I’ve heard if this happening, too.

This is most definitely not the old Guild Wars community.

Alipius.4783:

And maybe I will address some prayer to the green frog.

Hear hear! Hat’s off to that sentiment

I couldn’t care less. If a player wants to get a commander title and wear it, that’s their business. Doesn’t change my game one iota if there’s a blue chevron wandering around my PvE map or not.

Can’t fathom why this is a big deal to anyone.

If someone is angry about someone else’s epeen (real or perceived), then they very very obviously find epeens important.

Just let it go, and press ‘ignore’ on the persistent ones.

Edit: spelling

Chadramar.8156:

I’m seriously, seriously sick of the MMO mentality that we’re worth less, or worthless, as players and customers if we don’t grind our brains out because that is the only approved and acknowledged way to show “dedication”.

I am, too. Thank you for saying this! I will never, ever play a grindy game again. They are not fun, and the mentality of the communities in general is very selfish and negative.

I LOVED Guild Wars because it got far, far away from all of that. GW2 has walked right back into the middle of it.

Grammarye.3064:

If anything, I would say that this complaint (mine at least) is that I want more from GW2, not less. I want better tools to coordinate & feel like I’m part of people taking down some nasty enemy beyond spamming in the lag; I want reasons to go kill stuff beyond ‘diminishing returns loot, please go to the cash shop’ etc. I want reasons to replay the same area or event trying a different approach for my own personal player progression & skill. Maybe the personal story just didn’t grip me and that’s what was missing for me; I don’t know.

I agree with this. The more I think about it, this is exactly what started chipping away at my smile every day I logged on to GW2. I didn’t feel like I was really a part of anything. I didn’t enjoy the story. The rewards for doing anything are generally minimal. There’s no real incentive to play with other people, because outside of dungeon grinds, nobody really wants to do anything with other people.

Metalripper.5406:

3- Anet Blunders and Apathy- I really am sensing a sort of Apathy from Anet. This doesn’t feel like the company that made and ran GW1. They keep the community in the dark concerning their gameplay changes, while the community is desperately trying to determine some sort of pattern or order to the decisions ANet makes. Please ANet, we aren’t troglodytes, communicate with us! Oh and the way ANet continually chases the White Whale of Esport is akin to a doctor in an ER show, continually defibbing a patient that’s dead. It’s NEVER going to happen. Meanwhile, WvW is all but ignored with a massive playerbase that are thrilled, and are waiting for Anet to take it to the next level.

And this iced it for me. I think, with all the issues I had with the game, this is what killed my enthusiasm altogether and turned me into a very disappointed fan. ArenaNet doesn’t communicate often, or well. They speak in vagaries. Their explanations and defence of the manifesto is weak, weasely, and generally ignored as much as possible. Staff comments are buried in Reddit, and players on their own forums are generally ignored.

And when they do talk…

- I’ll refer to the AMA here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PmsDw6AfTYzy7Wh1j_bnaz4Fyop3_8wpbxGcxrhgNUI/preview?pli=1&sle=true

- and this post, buried in Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c7762pk )

…it always seems like they’re trying to convince us, the players why we should like what they’ve made. If we need convincing, something is wrong! If this game was healthy, I think we’d be talking quite a lot with ArenaNet about the future of the game; rather, there is no dialogue and we get infrequent and weak semi-answers to player’s concerns. This just doesn’t feel like a healthy relationship, to me.

At any rate…

A few of you who like GW2 have said so here (and thank you for those responses!) but I haven’t really heard a convincing argument about why it’s such a special game. I guess this was a last-ditch effort on my part to find a reason to keep playing – but so far, all I see is that almost everything that kept me coming back to Guild Wars is gone from this game. I’ll keep checking back to see what people have to add to the discussion, but I’m not feeling very confident at the moment.

Do we have a forum bug? The entire thread seems to have been deleted…

AcidicVision.5498:

Rose tinted glasses…
Yes, GW was amazing. Over 7k hours I would say I had my fun and got my money’s worth. But I’m not sure it’s reasonable to compare the number of activities and options in a game that had over half a decade to build on itself to one that is still less than six months old.

Anyway,

A lot of you have made some good points. This, in particular, makes sense.

That said, I’m not really complaining about the quantity of things to do, or lack thereof, as compared to Guild Wars. I’m more disappointed in the entire direction the philosophy of ArenaNet seems to have taken – and by comparing the two games I feel I can identify some of what’s bothering me.

I havent yet, however, heard a longtime GW fan explain what’s better about GW2, and why they love it even more than GW (which is what I hoped would be the case when they announced GW2). The build/trait discussion so far has been interesting, but not convincing at all.

Is there anyone who absolutely loved GW, and loves GW2 even more? Can you tell me what I’m missing?

I think the point here, with respect to build variety is this:

In Guild Wars we had literally hundreds of skills to choose from, and could make a build using any skills from any two professions, which is a lot more possibilities than I care to try and count. you could take a team of 8 players, and actually make a Team build that synergized in very creative ways. One of the most satisfying things about the whole setup was making such complex, well-oiled machinery work together.

I really feel like I had far more options in Guild Wars. It’s such fun to get together with friends and work out a really synergistic team build and head over to HA, or UW, and watch it all come together.

We used to do things like FoW, but we’d put in fun limitations like “Prophecies skills only” which could sometimes induce interesting results.

We had a guild teambuild that we used in HA and AB, just for fun.

I do miss the PvP options of Guild Wars, that’s for sure.

Stuff like that is just not possible in GW2. Of course GW2 isn’t GW1. I didn’t expect it to be. However, I DID expect it to be better

I, too, am looking for a reason to keep playing. At the moment, I just can’t get motivated about GW2.

…continued…

Lore: Some things just don’t add up, and the personal storylines seem hastily and crudely assembled. I think that the voice acting, by and large, is worse than what you’d see at a High School play. It’s like reading a cheap, poorly-edited fantasy or romance novel. It realy distracts from immersion. And it’s not nearly as epic as leading the Ascalonians to Kryta with Rurik was.

Economy: I realize that ArenaNet has always hated farming, for whatever reason, but this has become a certifiable witch hunt. Even in Guild Wars, after all the farming nerfs (600/smite for example), you could still just play the game and do a few dungeons here and there and make enough cash to get by. I feel like I’ve got to farm 24/7 just to be able to afford some mediocre gear on the Trading Post. I used to be able to go do a few events in Orr to make some quick cash, but even that’s been nerfed.

Are ArenaNet catering to the botters? It sure seems like botters are the only ones who can make enough cash just to buy something now and then…Between Diminishing Returns, abysmal drop rates, and a complete infestation of botters, there’s just no hope for people like me to ever be able to afford anything.

Crafting: Well, Guild Wars didn’t have crafting, but at this point I’m not sure that what we have in Guild Wars 2 is an improvement. I can’t afford to buy enough materials to level my crafting – I don’t have the time (or interest) in farming up that astounding amount.

Gem Store: has anyone else been getting the impression that it’s getting harder to get gold in the game, but due to gem prices, more tempting to just buy it from ArenaNet? This is really starting to turn me off. I don’t mind if they have a Gem Store and put stuff in there like we had in Guild Wars. Cosmetic items like armour and town clothing are fine. Character makeovers are a fantastic idea.

But if I need to get on the gem store so I can get an XP boost because it’s taking forever to level, or a Karma boost because the grind for second-rate Karma gear takes too long, or ( and this one really chaps my hide, folks ) a Glory Booster so I can increase my PvP title faster…this isn’t right. It just isn’t right. I really feel like I’m being deliberately funneled to that Gem Store – that the game is designed to force me to either grind my kitten off, or buy gems. Does this feel dirty to anyone else?

Grind: The grind in Guild Wars for some fancy items (Obsidian Armour comes to mind) could get to be pretty hefty. But there was never, ever a grind for better stat gear. I felt like I could max a character and then go anywhere/do anything and never grind unless I wanted to, for a pretty skin. This really turns me off. If I wanted to grind for gear, I’d play other games that do gear progression much better than ArenaNet. This is a big reason why I loved Guild Wars so much. I didn’t have to worry about gear.

I’d be tempted to forgive the Ascended Gear if it was just as easy to get as Exotic, but man. Such a turnoff, for this longtime Guild Wars junkie.

PvP: Where is GvG? Guild Wars orbited around GvG – and even if you didn’t GvG you still followed the ladder because it was interesting and fun.
What about all the different arenas? Where is the esport? All we have are several maps of the same thing: capping points. That’s it. You can’t even go into your guild hall, invite a friend, and duel.

There were great rewards for PvP in Guild Wars: Lots of titles, /rank emotes, and special capes for guilds that did well each month. Now we’ve got one title, and it can essentially be bought in the gem store. Seems cheap. Everything, and I mean everything, was equal in Guild Wars PvP. I think the lack of sPvP content in GW2 is one of the biggest letdowns, after the gear grind and gem store.

WvW: This really started out as a very redeeming feature. Enter gear grind. Sigh…

I know they said that GW2 would be nothing like Guild Wars – but I just assumed that by that they meant they were basically modernizing it and adding lots of fun new things to do. I didn’t realize that the entire philosophy of the game would be upended.

I feel, as a Guild Wars lover, that I got left out in the cold with GW2.

I want to like this game, but so much of it is such a turn-off.

So I guess my question to you longtime Guild Wars junkies out there: do you love GW2 as much as Guild Wars? Why? What turns you on about GW2 that you can’t find elsewhere?

Please, I’m interested in your opinions, but I ask that you read what I had to say and think about it a bit, first.

GL and HF

-Chuo

This post is mainly for those who played Guild Wars for so long, and loved it. Does anyone else feel like I do? Prepare for a wall of text. I really hope that some of you old school Guild Wars junkies out there give it a good read and a good comment

Here’s where I find myself:

I love Guild Wars. I’ve logged thousands of hours over several years in Tyria, Cantha, and Elona. I’ve been excited about Guild Wars 2 since they announced it right around the time that Eye of the North was released.

I was really excited for Headstart. I made a few characters that I fully intended to play for years, with all the heart and gustso I put into my Guild Wars characters.
Since then, every day, my smile has gotten a little smaller. Since mid-November, I haven’t even been able to log on and play for more than a few minutes. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that I loved so much about Guild Wars – all the things that made Guild Wars different and special and kept me coming back year after year…

..they’re all gone.

Playstyle variety: with every class I’ve tried, I feel pigeonholed into a specific playstyle. I must have a pet if I’m a Ranger, for example. Most traits aren’t really designed well, and tend to force players into fairly similar builds. I can’t use secondary skills from other classes. So I always wind up playing the same builds, because there just isn’t that much variety.

Levelling: It takes forever (especially if you’re a working adult with family). I can’t level a new character from 1 to max in a week or less like I could in Guild Wars. So when I want to try that dungeon with something different, it takes weeks/months for me to level an alt. Basically, I’ve got one character to 80, and no other past the early 40’s.

This post is meant to be honest and sincere, not asinine and trollish. Take it for what it is, folks. No need to get worked up – and I’m happy to discuss any point I make civilly.

It’s sad. I loved Guild Wars. I played it for thousands and thousands of hours. I wanted to love this game. I looked forward to it since it was announced when EotN came out. I was so excited at headstart to get a new character made that was going to be my online alter-ego for years to come. I didn’t sleep the night before, I was so excited. So maybe that will tell you a little about how much fun I had in Guild Wars.

I logged on today. Stared at the screen. Couldn’t think of anything fun to do.

Exploration? Done. That was fun, but it went a lot quicker than exploration in GW did.

I’ve got an 80. I fitted it out with exotic gear, happy in my mistaken belief that now I was set forever to be able to go anywhere, do anything in Guild Wars 2. We all know what happened to that belief.

Level an alt? I can’t get one past 40 without losing interest. The higher level content is, sorry to say, really really boring between about 40 and 70. Compounding the frustration is the fact that once I DO get to 80, I have to start the gear grind on my alt, too. Sigh…I just wanted to play, not grind.

Level a profession? I don’t have the money to do that. Have you seen the prices of materials on the Trading Post? Since I’m honest and don’t bot, I don’t have the mats or the money. I don’t have the time to farm up all the stuff needed. I’m a working adult, yada yada. I just wanted to casually log on for a couple hours after work and play around in the world, just like I used to do in Guild Wars.

Fractals? With whom? Guild is quiet. Friends list is quiet (most threw up their hands in frustration and left last month). I’m not Level XX so I can’t PuG a Fractals group (not that I want to do that dungeon a million times for a remote chance at a drop I don’t even want). I don’t particularly care for the raging and snobbery that this community has developed, either. It’s certainly not the good old fun Guild Wars community. It’s more like WoW.

Other dungeons? I’m not a farmer, so I’ve not run them all a million times. I don’t know all the speed routes and exploits. This community is not nearly as friendly as it was in Guild Wars – it’s more like the WoW crowd and I really don’t think dealing with all the raging over nothing that goes on is fun. So I don’t PuG dungeons in GW2, even though I used to PuG in GW1 all the time (it was fun to meet people in that game).

Farm? If you have to kill monsters for what you want, the drop rates suck, and you need far to many of everything for it to be enjoyable. Nor do I enjoy wandering around from node to node for hours on end. Yawn. This game is grindy beyond description in that regard. No thanks.

WvW? There were a few people running around, but this week’s battle has pretty much already been decided. Essentially the only option is to run around capping supply camps with the 4 other people there. No thanks.

SPvP? Cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap cap I’m over it. Maybe if there was a /rank type emote, or a GvG ladder, or something worth being proud to have it’d be worth getting in some practice. As it is….the PvP title can basically be purchased in the Gem Store. So what does it really mean? Nothing. It’s definitely not the esport that it was made out to be.

So I log on…and stare at the screen. It’s just no fun any more.

Log off.

Where am I? Not in Guild Wars 2. Sadly, I’ve found other things to do.

I keep checking here to see if ArenaNet has awakened and smelled the coffee, but nothing yet. They’re just not the fun, involved, creative, intuitive, wonderful ArenaNet that they used to be.

WAKE UP ARENANET!

Fuz.5621:

I have a shocking revelation: The people who complain and hate the direction took by anet with the game (ascend, grind, etc.)… is because they like the game.

Yea pretty much. I used to really, really like the game. I want to love this game. But I thought ArenaNet had standards, and however buggy, I thought the game had potential. I was willing to forgive them for releasing it in such an unfinished state, mainly because I thought they’d worked really hard for a very long time in a labour of love, and circumstances all but dictated that something finally get released.

But instead of moving in the right direction to improve things, the bugs go unfixed, the economy is in a shambles, the game is infested by bots and goldsellers, and they release new, hastily cobbled-together content that adds a grind for better gear that’s out of this world.

And there’s still no GvG. This game should not have the words “Guild Wars” in the title at all. I do wish they’d have called it something else….

Anyway, I keep hoping for ArenaNet to realize what they’ve done and try to rectify it, but the more I see posts from them on Reddit, the more I suspect that they know exactly what they’ve done, it’s deliberate, and calculated to eek out as much cash as possible from their players. They don’t care if the game is fun, just so long as we’re paying.

I’m not opposed to them making a living, but this behaviour really isn’t any different from any other game out there, which means that Guild Wars 2 isn’t special any more.

Which is a shame, because in the heady days of Guild Wars, they cared about the game and the community, and we had a blast. Now I’m just left out in the rain, feeling manipulated and disappointed.

You’d see the same heroes, killing the same monsters, in the same dungeon, over and over and over and over and over….

ASB.4295:

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

phooka.4295:

Ascended gear, infusions, FotM-levels and the confirmation that the level-cap will be raised that the game that’s currently called “GW2” is not the “GW2” we bought. So we stop playing it.

The hell? Level cap being raised ALSO?!

Link please?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c7762pk

Because if this, I just gave up on Guild Wars 2. Such a tremendous disappointment. I loved Guild Wars so very much for many years. This game is exactly the opposite of everything ArenaNet and Guild Wars ever stood for. It’s grindy, it’s broken, the economy is in a shambles…it’s a pain in the kitten to do anything, and it’s just simply not fun.

Sigh. I had so much hope for this game.

FLFW.3105:

Original GuildWars had great community because it didint attract wannabe 14 old whinners . I was really hoping to find same great community in here. It seems i failed.

ArenaNet drove that great Guild Wars community away back in November. They are catering to a different kind of player, now. Unless they make some major changes to their direction quickly, that community will be nothing but a fond memory.

Queensdale. You don’t get enough xp to get to level 15. The hearts are generally cheesy. The other starting areas are much more fun, imo.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say some moderator added the “In my view” bit of your title.

I miss the 8-man team too. The 5-man limit is definitely on my list of frustrations with GW2. The way the open world works in GW2 pretty much means that a party isn’t really necessary at all, except in dungeons. But it definitely feels a lot less social than GW1.

And speaking of GW1, I am almost always in a party when I play. My friends and I love the game.

I can’t work out what the technical definition of GW1 has to do with this discussion.

Seems to me that we just need to grind more, and maybe something good will drop. That formula works in Korea, right?

Keep grinding. You might eventually get one.

Azure.8670:

Its a lose lose for Anet.

And that’s pretty much all ArenaNet’s doing. The promised something. They sold us something else.

People are upset and disappointed. Especially the longtime Guild Wars fans. People who don’t understand this never played Guild Wars. We’re not the usual MMO whiner crowd who’d kitten if you gave us 50 bucks. We’re crushed that they just up and sold out the principles that made Guild Wars so amazing, and Guild Wars 2 so promising.

But don’t worry. You may have noticed that there are fewer and fewer of the old Guild Wars community here. We’ve pretty much had our say. We tried. We’re leaving. We’ll be gone completely soon. Then you can sift through the rubble of Tyria in peace.

Ascended gear was the biggest reason why I stopped playing, but not the only one. My other reasons are (in no particular order):

The game wasn’t ready. So many things were (and still are) broken about it since launch.

This game is grindy beyond description. In so many ways. It’s demotivating.

I’m concerned about where the gem store is going. This game appears to be moving in the “pay to win” direction.

ArenaNet doesn’t appear to actually stand for anything. They don’t communicate well, and most of what they do say is vague.

PvP is not what I’d expected from a Guild Wars game. Nothing but capturing points. No GvG. No apparent reason to grind out the PvP title, either. No /rank emotes or whatever. No special guild capes or similar to compete for.

WvW was fun until they introduced tier gear. Lame. I really don’t want to have to grind for days/weeks/months to remain competitive.

They pretty much threw the manifesto out on 15 November. The game they advertised in that manifesto is not the game I seem to have paid for.

The only reason I still lurk on the forums is because I loved Guild Wars for years, ankittenep hoping that ArenaNet is going to say something intelligent and fix this game.

So far, however, nothing. So I won’t be logging in. I’m finding other things to play, and I can say that if something really catches my interest, it’s going to be even harder for ArenaNet to lure me back.

xiv.7136:

Found this on a website, guess it answers your question

That screenshot has no verifiable date. For all we know, it was taken on Launch Day.

Tolmos.8395:

Any RL money you spend on gear, or items to get gear, unless it is just for a look you want is like flushing your cash down the toilet. This is the lesson they taught with the Nov 15th patch, and its one I hope many of you take to heart.

Agree completely. I am reminded of the old saying: “A fool and his money are soon parted.”

And before anyone rages at me for saying that, I’ll admit that I am feeling very foolish for the show of support I gave ArenaNet by buying some gems back in October. November 15th made me feel very, very foolish indeed. If I’d had any clue that ArenaNet would go against their manifesto in such a blatant manner, and completely screw the people who did support them in the gem store, I’d never have bought the game, much less any gems.

Unfortunately, I fear that if I ask for a refund for the money that I spent on those gems, my Guild Wars account that’s linked to my GW2 account will be deactivated.

We need the First Lady to start a “Say no to gems” campaign…

Ahlen.7591:

You can’t play around with builds and gear in Guild Wars 2?

Are we playing the same game?

As for GW1…Nostalgia is a powerful drug.

You clearly haven’t played GW1. The build versatility in GW1 far, far outclasses GW2. Literally hundreds of skills to choose from.

You could rune up your gear as desired, as well. Oh, and have 4 gear/weapon sets that you could swap to instantly.

Gw2 build variety is non-existent compared to Guild Wars.

Four words: No Guild vs. Guild.

Meret.5943:

I’m not telling you what to do, but those who never played or liked GW1, and think GW2 is just fine, I’m asking you to have a little understanding. Please give us a chance to mourn what could have been. Many of us played GW1 happily for years at a time, and were strung along for at least FOUR years waiting for GW2 (I first heard beta was supposed to be in 2008). So please cut us some slack. You don’t have to, I’m asking nicely though.

Well put. I’m in mourning, too. Guild Wars was really special. Sadly, GW2 is a big disappointment.

Mirta.5029:

to all of those that think that GW1 is better – GW1 servers were never closed. Advertise it to your friends, play it, keep it alive and hopefully it will survive for many years to come. I will attempt to do the same with Guild Wars 2. I’m not going to abandon it. I’m going to have fun in it and hope that it survives for many years to come. Everybody wins this way

I loved GW1. I still play it every now and then. It’s not my every day game, however, because I did eventually run out of content.

Now that said – it took me YEARS and THOUSANDS of hours to feel like I’d mostly played GW1 out. It took me a couple months with GW2. I had every character slot full with alts I loved to play. I had so many options of things to go do! The dungeons were quality, and fun. The PvP was beyond compare. The titles were fun to earn. I miss missions.

Oh, GW1 was fun. GW2 is a very repetitive grind. GW2 takes away my motivation to play an alt because it takes so long to level, and then get max gear. I cant do a GW2 dungeon with one class, and then easily swap to another class for a different flavour. I can’t change up my build (not really, not like GW1) and try something new. My friends and I can’t make synergistic team builds to try in various ways.

Everything that was fun about GW1 is gone. While I’ll admit that there are things about GW2 that are pleasantly innovative (no mob ‘tagging’, for example), by and large it’s got all the same annoying characteristics of every other MMO.

So what I’m getting at is this: I’ve been a GW player for years. I’ve been excited about GW2 since it was announced right when EotN came out. I made it through 2 months of GW2 play before I was frustrated, annoyed, and bored.

It was years before I stopped playing GW1 every day…

GW1 is the better game, by far. It’s just been played out after all these years. I was really hoping for something just as quality with GW2. Oh well.

Maz.8604:

It all has to do with the game economy. Since gold is tied so tightly to gems and RMT, restoring the items and coin of hacked accounts would upset the balance. It’d be akin to printing money for you every time someone was mugged.

Another glorious side effect of our monetized game.

I’d be inclined to agree if the economy was actually balanced. It’s complete chaos at the moment, and virtually owned by goldsellers and bots. There’s no balance to upset.

Restoring his stuff wouldn’t upset anything except the person who actually had to do a little bit of work to help out a customer…

Asglarek.8976:

theres a new title out by SOE and its freaking awesome.

That’s also what they said about GW2….

How on Earth does something like that get past QA?

That’s good feedback. Hopefully they’re working on all that, but I’m not really confident. People have been bringing these issues up since the Beta weekends…

I’m not sure where the priorities are at ArenaNet anymore. They don’t appear to be putting much effort into making this game really good. Rather, they seem to just be adding rush-job content to a game that wasn’t even close to “when it’s ready” at launch.

But who knows…maybe one more disappointed fan bringing up all the same problems will be the wake-up call. Meantime I’m with you. The game is not fun. I don’t play it. I check the forums from time to time to see if they’ve fixed this game, but so far I don’t see anything promising. The only reason I even bother with that is because I loved Guild Wars so much.

Good luck out there! If you find any PvP that’s as good as Guild Wars used to be, let us know!

Edit: spelling

Mark Katzbach.9084:

In the strictest of terms, the number of people who post on the forums is a minority of the game population as a whole. The forums do provide a modest, self-selected sampling of the player population, but so do fansite forums, twitter and facebook.

Thanks for the response. Out of curiosity, for what purpose, in ArenaNet’s view, are these forums? Since you can get similar samplings from the aforementioned fansites, twitter, etc., I’m thinking perhaps ArenaNet has something else in mind?

JaironKalach.4938:

Um… Yes… That’s exactly the job of a forum moderator. Best of my knowledge, that’s the job of forum moderator on every forum that ever existed. They exist to try to keep conversation civil. They are not spokespeople.

Which is the point I think he was trying to make. It’s sure be nice to actually here from actual spokespeople instead of only moderators. As it stands, you don’t really get the impression they’re listening, even if they say they are. Why? Because they’re not interacting.

I agree. The only posts I see anyone of consequence at ANet chime in on are the occasional “I like this” posts.

For the huge volume of negative traffic, the only staff I see are Moderators closing threads and infracting people. Well, except for when Regina closed the mega-thread, but she didn’t say anything useful at all. Just closed it. What kind of message does that send?

I’m getting really really frustrated with the lack of useful information from ArenaNet, and the lack of communication. And I don’t understand why, when they DO communicate, it’s on Reddit, and it’s vague. It’s never here. It’s never to the point.

They don’t really appear to actually care much about the community.

The price was fine until they introduced Ascended gear. Now I’m angry that I spent all that time working for my T3 set and it’s pointless. Oh wait, unless I want to grind Ascended gear and then buy Fine Transmutation Stones from the Gem Store.

No thanks. I don’t do Free to Play but Pay to Have Fun.

Gah. Just one more thing to be disappointed about.

ArenaNet really ruined this game last month.

I’m not terribly hopeful for an intelligent comment from ArenaNet here, either. I’ve noticed that every single thread goes unanswered by anyone of consequence at ArenaNet. The only posts you ever see are Moderators closing threads and infracting people.

Way to communicate there, ArenaNet. Ugh.

I was so excited for this game, too. Biggest gaming letdown ever.

What are they for in PvP?

Pardon me for asking, but…WHERE IS GvG?

If there is no GvG, it’s NOT GUILD WARS.

Just sayin’

My entire guild, which has been together for years (big fans of GW1) all pretty much decided, on our guild forums, to quit GW2. Most feel that ANet lied to them. None like the gear grind. None like being pigeonholed into dungeons. Most think the economy went from broken to destroyed. All think the game wasn’t ready for release. All are astounded that they dumped a bunch of broken Lost Shores content on us before fixing the game to begin with.

And all think that ANet doesn’t listen, doesn’t care, and doesn’t really want to get involved with the community.

Most believe that ANet panicked when the game started losing players because the content wasn’t finished, and was broken. So they released Lost Shores before IT was ready, and pulled a bad gear tier idea out of the blue. Now they’ve driven away their GW fanbase, too.

So GW2, something we anticipated eagerly for years, has really, really let us down. ANet won’t admit it, won’t try and fix it, and is completely ignoring their fans and community.

That’s why we don’t play anymore.

mantrunks.4810:

Remember, at the end of the day, it’s a game with 0 financial commitment after product purchase. If you are concerned with how much of your obviously valuable time you have (it’s a game), then pick up another game, read a book, go be productive. It’s just a game.

Mantrunks,

Normally that’s exactly what I’d do if this was a game I’d only had a relationship with for a couple of months. But this is not just about time spent or money spent.

I (and thousands of others) have had an ongoing love affair with Guild Wars since 2005. That just got trainwrecked on the 15th of November. We’re shocked, confused, and grieving. We’re in the process of breaking up and need to go through the stages of grief.
There’s a lot of history here. A lot of time spent, and a lot of love poured into the community and one’s individual characters. It’s not easy for a longtime GW fan to just up and walk away without telling ArenaNet how disappointed we are in what they just did.
Have no doubt that we’ll move on (I think this AMA iced it for many), but let us have our painful breakup first.

ProphetSword.5427:

I agree with what you’re saying here. If these people are unhappy, they just need to leave the game and move on. Let those of us who are fine with the game and who were happy with the answers given enjoy both the game and the forums in peace.

If GW2 isn’t living up to your expectations, then do something else.

Normally that’s exactly what I’d do if this was a game I’d only had a relationship with for a couple of months.

But realize that I (and thousands of others) have had an ongoing love affair with Guild Wars since 2005. That just got trainwrecked on the 15th of November. We’re shocked, confused, and grieving. We’re in the process of breaking up and need to go through the stages of grief.

There’s a lot of history here. A lot of time spent, and a lot of love poured into the community and one’s individual characters. It’s not easy for a longtime GW fan to just up and walk away without telling ArenaNet how disappointed we are in what they just did.

Have no doubt that we’ll move on (I think this AMA iced it for many), but let us have our painful breakup first.

Flynch.6034:

Chuo.4238:

Well, I read the AMA text.

TL:DR – ArenaNet is going to do what it wants with Ascended gear, no matter what anyone says, and they won’t grow a spine and actually stick to any principles. They’re wishy-washy, difficult to pin down, and don’t appear to have a clue.

I’m done here. Goodbye ArenaNet and GW2. I waited patiently for this AMA in the (vain) hope you’d realize that the game you sold me and the game you have now are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I’m sick at heart that I was actually stupid enough to spend money in your gem store thinking that this was going to be a long-term game for me.

Boy, was I a sucker.

Enjoy your $40. It’s the last you’ll ever get from me, and hopefully many other people. You don’t deserve it.

Not that you will read this, or care. You’ll just ignore this thread until you think you can get away with locking and deleting it.

Yes, I’m angry and disappointed and frustrated. I’ve wasted money and time on yet another RIFT/Aion/SWTOR type crap game.

The spirit of Guild Wars died on 15 November 2012. RIP

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

Flynch,

They’re not removing Ascended gear from the game, nor are they promising not to add higher tiers of gear in the future. The only thing they’ve actually committed to is this new tier of Ascended gear.

My full exotic set is now a waste of time, and crushingly disappointing because I really believed, before November 15th, that adding tier gear would never happen in a Guild Wars game.

Therefore they are not trying to rectify the situation. They are trying to misdirect my attention and get me to think they’re trying to rectify the situation.

Well, I read the AMA text.

TL:DR – ArenaNet is going to do what it wants with Ascended gear, no matter what anyone says, and they won’t grow a spine and actually stick to any principles. They’re wishy-washy, difficult to pin down, and don’t appear to have a clue.

I’m done here. Goodbye ArenaNet and GW2. I waited patiently for this AMA in the (vain) hope you’d realize that the game you sold me and the game you have now are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I’m sick at heart that I was actually stupid enough to spend money in your gem store thinking that this was going to be a long-term game for me.

Boy, was I a sucker.

Enjoy your $40. It’s the last you’ll ever get from me, and hopefully many other people. You don’t deserve it.

Not that you will read this, or care. You’ll just ignore this thread until you think you can get away with locking and deleting it. You’ll give virtual “infractions” to anyone who speaks up against the about-face in principles that you just performed.

Point is, you don’t care any more about your game. And your target audience is clearly not your original Guild Wars fan base.

Yes, I’m angry and disappointed and frustrated. I’ve wasted money and time on yet another RIFT/Aion/SWTOR type crap game.

The Spirit of Guild Wars died on 15 November 2012. RIP

Edit: Added an afterthought.

I’m not playing at all. I gave up after November 15th. I keep checking the forums in the hope that ArenaNet will wakeup and unscrew this last update. Mostly, I’m waiting to see if there are clear, direct answers given in the AMA about where Guild Wars 2 is headed.

I have hope that they’ll point out they made a mistake in the AMA, and talk about how they’re going to fix it (it’s OK to admit you made a mistake, ArenaNet! CCP did!).

Unfortunately, that’s just hope. What I think will actually happen is some kind of spin job on the whole thing.

Time will tell. Hopefully they’ll convince me and a lot of other people to give GW2 a second chance.

I also have lost all motivation to play. I’ve not logged in at all in this entire weekend. I’m playing other games, instead. The AMA on Monday is going to be the decision point for me – will I give GW2 another try, or give it up for dead?

This really sucks. I was a GW1 player for years and thousands of hours. Now I’m being forced to decide if I want to stay with a game I don’t enjoy, and isn’t what was promised, just because of the old GW1 Community (which was fantastic like no other). Of course, that seems to be changing, too.

Earlier in this thread, I answered the question posed by the OP. My answer got deleted because “the Code of Conduct you accepted by joining this forum, does not allow you to contest members of the Community Team or Arenanet.” I shall therefore repost what I said, with the names removed. Please don’t delete it again. I’m not violating the Code of Conduct by sharing my opinion here.

Original post, with ArenaNet staff names removed, as follows:

Because GW2, a game I’d been excited about since it was announced after the release of EotN, is not what was promised.

See any of many other threads for a description of things not promised. Don’t forget the 10500+ post thread that was closed, with EVERY SINGLE ONE of the questions therein left unanswered.

TL:DR – What they advertised and what I bought were completely different. Feedback is ignored and/or not welcome, as it gets closed, and goes unaswered. I feel that either ANet have no clue, or no conscience.

If I don’t see an improvement after Mondays AMA, I’m done. The ArenaNet I knew and loved during Guild Wars is gone, and I’ve got no interest in the new one.