Guild Wars 2

This thread is kind of becoming a grind in and of itself. Maybe if anyone at ArenaNet reads it, they’ll have a small taste of what it’s like to play Grind Wars 2.

Dulfy should charge ArenaNet for the service, imho…

Wow…again…no Ascended, no thread like this. That simple.

TooBz.3065:

Which is better? And really, what difference does it make? We are where we are. Does it really matter if someone said this wasn’t where we were going?

It makes all the difference in the world.

You know, this entire thread would never have existed had ArenaNet not introduced tier gear, and a grind to get it, however large or small. Why? Because long before, Mike O’Brien said grind should be about cosmetics, not stats, and so many, many people bought GW2 with that expectation.

I seem to recall an 11000+ post thread back in November full of people saying “don’t do it, people don’t want that, and you’ll be called a liar if you do.”

Yet here we have it.

Would it be too childish to say “we told you so”? Probably. I feel like doing it anyway, though.

Vayne.8563:

You’ve found a couple of quotes that Anet changed. Anet literally said hundreds and hundreds of things and by percentage, far more than 90% of them are true.

Nobody complains when you tell the truth. That’s almost a tautology. It’s also pretty universal, though, that if you tell one lie, forevermore you’re a liar.

If I told you the truth about everything, except one thing that mattered a great deal to you, would it be ok because 90% of everything else I said was true? I doubt it. And if it is Ok, I’ve got some swampland in Florida for sale…

Khal Drogo.9631:

I think a lot of people arent really complaining about the ascended tier per se (albeit a few are concerned about a neverending treadmill) but the amount of grind required to obtain ONE weapon as opposed to getting a ring and accessory. Cannot imagine what has to be done for ascended armor.

I for one, am complaining that the gear even exists. This is my main issue with GW2, and why I quit playing. The amount of grind is a distant second place in my complaint department. Actually, it’d be third, after the endless AP grind, followed by poor Living Story and Personal Story quality.

I really can’t find a reason to play any more. What are my options?

1) grind gear
2) grind meaningless AP
3) do the same set of dungeons that have been in the game since launch.
4) play a poorly written living story, in a blind panic to get the achievements in time, before they go away.

Since Fractals, there have been no new dungeons. WvW is essentially the same zergfest it’s been since launch, and sPvP has had few meaningful improvements – it’s still the same old same old, at heart.

The few bits of really good content that ArenaNet have come up with since launch were temporary, and can’t be played any more.

So what’s my motivation to stick around? There isn’t. The only reason I still come to these forums is because I was a huge Guild Wars fan, and I keep hoping they’ll find a way to plug the leaks in the sinking ship that’s becoming GW2.

Meili Ying.3820:

I think this thread should be renamed to "Feedback on Ascended Weapons " or something.

Whenever anyone tries that, the thread gets locked :/

So the other tack is, I guess, talking about the grind for gear.

Some of the questions are, I think, a bit off due to translation. Fun survey, but I suggest you get a native English speaker to give you a hand with the wording.

Treborlavok.3504:

Chuo.4238:

QuadJunky.2736:

I’ve stop playing completely due to the living grind cycle.

I started playing GW2 to get away from having to game on a schedule. No need to log in 2-4 times a week to raid or pvp. Was great until the addition of the living grind cycle. I played nearly everyday not because I had too but because I wanted too.

This is exactly what’s driven me away, too. I never felt behind in Guild Wars. In Guild Wars 2, I’ve missed so much of the Living Story, and am completely behind the gear grind, that I don’t even want to log in anymore. And I don’t.

I think this content has backfired on me. It was intended, I’m sure, to make people feel the need to log in. It’s had the very opposite effect on me. I can’t play the game how I want if I want – I have to be there or miss it forever. So I’m going to miss it all, now, and play something else.

What do you need to complete the living story for? If you don’t want to do something in the game, then don’t. I play 2 times a week and don’t feel behind at all. I have ascended trinkets on most of my 6 toons and they’re in all exotics atm too. That’s just running dungeons of fotm and doing whatever else I see for on my 2 nights off.

This game is only a grind if YOU make it a grind. I’m making it a grind atm because I’m attempting to acquire the mats for my legendary. But the only reason I don’t have the mats already was because I never saved them in the first place because I don’t care about crafting and didn’t care about a legendary.

Ascended gear only effects WvW in evenly matched fights. Other than that ascended gear means dog kitten. I was effectively killing ppl with up leveled toons in greens. In the end the gear is there for your choice to obtain it or not. Unless youre in a 1v1 vs a player of equal skill, ascended gear will never matter. As many ppl have stated and shown this game is actually about skill not just gear.

I think it’s mostly about feeling manipulated. I realize that technically I could just ignore LS, and ignore Ascended…but I still feel like I’m being subtly manipulated into those directions. Especially because they’re the only content that ArenaNet are working on. So even if I decided to keep playing, and just ignore LS and Ascended, well, I’m stuck with the original content from launch, which has been played to death anyway.

But the bigger point is that I really feel like they’re trying to manipulate me into spending time in GW2 by giving me the feeling that I’ll be missing out on the stat points and achievement points if I don’t log in for the period of time the content is around, doing dailies, doing time-gated activites, and the like.

Instead of providing content that makes me actually want to spend time in GW2, they’re trying to make me feel like I need to spend time in GW2, and that’s a huge turn-off, because I sure as heck don’t need to play GW2. I’m absolutely not going to pay for content that makes me feel that way. I can find other ways to have fun, and they don’t necessarily even have to be video games.

QuadJunky.2736:

I’ve stop playing completely due to the living grind cycle.

I started playing GW2 to get away from having to game on a schedule. No need to log in 2-4 times a week to raid or pvp. Was great until the addition of the living grind cycle. I played nearly everyday not because I had too but because I wanted too.

This is exactly what’s driven me away, too. I never felt behind in Guild Wars. In Guild Wars 2, I’ve missed so much of the Living Story, and am completely behind the gear grind, that I don’t even want to log in anymore. And I don’t.

I think this content has backfired on me. It was intended, I’m sure, to make people feel the need to log in. It’s had the very opposite effect on me. I can’t play the game how I want if I want – I have to be there or miss it forever. So I’m going to miss it all, now, and play something else.

Vayne.8563:

I know all about the backlash.

You appear to know all about everything. But as an EVE player, I believe this is the point where I start skipping your posts. You just want to argue, and it doesn’t matter if you know what you are talking about or not.

Back to the subject at hand…

Edit: forums are really buggy today. Lots of timeouts – took several tries to make this post.

Vayne.8563:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Never played WoW because it was so grindy and the lack of grind was what lured me to the GW franchise from the start. Unfortunately GW2 has turned in to just another run of the mill grind fest. There is nothing special anymore.
The WoW players have gotten their wish and GW2 is turning in to another clone with nothing to make it stand out except no monthly fee. I have no wish to make a legendary as they are all ugly as sin, and the requirements for ascended do not offset the benefits of having one. I play every day, but I really don’t know why, guess I am just glutton for punishment.

It’s funny how you can say this is just another WoW clone, having never played WoW. In fact, I think only a Guild Wars 1 player would call Guild Wars 2 a WoW clone.

In reality, there’s a ton of differences between Guild Wars 2 and your typical WoW clone, particularly in the inclusion of raids and having to have the right gear to get into those raids.

It’s a clone in the sense that ArenaNet introduced aspects of WoW that were the reasons I kept going back to Guild Wars.

And I can say that I _have_played WoW. For a couple years. Raided current content awhile, too. And eventually realized that sort of thing is kind of like having a job, and you spend more time “preparing to have fun”, if I may use that phrase.

And that’s exactly what Guild Wars 2 has become. Yes, GW2 and WoW do not approach it in exactly the same way. The philosophy is there, though.

Stooperdale.3560:

“6 days for a top tier weapon. Thats all it took me, a humble non hardcore player to get an ascended weapon”

I’m sorry but getting 500 dragonite and 500 empyreal in 6 days is most people’s idea of hardcore.

I understand that many people think that this game has less grind that other games. That’s fine. I’m sure it does.

The point I’ve been trying to make (and people appear to be trying really hard to miss) is that any grind for gear stats is poor game design. Any. Whatsoever.

I want a game that had some thought put into it. Not cookie-cutter give-em-something-mindless-to-do crap. There are better ways to make games, and it’s been done before. By ArenaNet! This is the crux of the disappointment you find all over these threads about tier gear. It did not exist in Guild Wars, and that’s one of the major reasons why those who loved Guild Wars loved it so much. It was smarter than your average MMO.

Guild Wars 2 has taken an evolutionary step backwards from Guild Wars in basic design philosophy. And it did this after promising not to!

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Chuo.4238:

Himei.5379:

superbeast.9873:

It’s just another broken promise of ‘innovation’ from Arena Net.

This game is grindier than the oldest effin’ Korean MMOs.

And the players are too kitten blind to see it.

Or players HAVE PLAYED those Korean MMOs and see this as nothing compared to those.

I guess what I’m seeing is that people think of gear grind as a relative thing. It’s better in some games, worse in other.

I appear to be in the tiny minority: I think that any gear grind is unacceptable.

I believe that interesting games are about content, skill, thinking, and teamwork; time spent there is quality, and of its own nature encourages more time spent.

Likewise, uninteresting games don’t engage the brain or imagination: they include gear, grind, poor storytelling, limited skills, limited encounters where teamwork makes a marginal, if any difference. Time spent there is driven by the need to acquire, is independent of skill and teamwork, and is often just mindlessly repetitive.

Which do you think best describes Guild Wars 2?

Have you played Silkroad? Beautifull game and the first 10 lvls were nice but after i had to grind to lvl 12 killing only mobs(not ordinary mobs but elite ones that had a random spawn). After that i had quests that filled my exp bar to 50% and the rest was grind again. So after playing that(i got to lvl 16) i just cant see the complains about grinding in this game. Your grind is only if you want the best(stat wise) items in the game to the same things other people are doing but faster. You’re not forced out of content(except high lvl fractals) if you don’t have an item.

I guess you missed where I said grind is a relative thing. Just because A is not as bad as B, it doesn’t mean that A is good.

Himei.5379:

superbeast.9873:

It’s just another broken promise of ‘innovation’ from Arena Net.

This game is grindier than the oldest effin’ Korean MMOs.

And the players are too kitten blind to see it.

Or players HAVE PLAYED those Korean MMOs and see this as nothing compared to those.

I guess what I’m seeing is that people think of gear grind as a relative thing. It’s better in some games, worse in other.

I appear to be in the tiny minority: I think that any gear grind is unacceptable.

I believe that interesting games are about content, skill, thinking, and teamwork; time spent there is quality, and of its own nature encourages more time spent.

Likewise, uninteresting games don’t engage the brain or imagination: they include gear, grind, poor storytelling, limited skills, limited encounters where teamwork makes a marginal, if any difference. Time spent there is driven by the need to acquire, is independent of skill and teamwork, and is often just mindlessly repetitive.

Which do you think best describes Guild Wars 2?

Laundry.5120:

GW1 strength was unquestionably it’s PVP, and that’s been sidelined in GW2 not only for PVE but PVE that’s poorly written, poorly delivered, while the real meat of the game, WvW has been tossed in the backburner for a year.

Well said. I’d like to add that I keep getting a cash shop waved in my face, as well, which is a further turnoff.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind there being a cash shop, and them selling nice, shiny things there. I do mind the game being designed so it’s deliberately annoying unless you either buy a certain item in the shop (infinite coin, for example), or you simply buy gold (awful RNG, big grind, or spend real money). It’s not racketeering, not even close, but it feels like a distant relative.

MagnumSteack.5179:

Oh my god, the amount of mats needed is ridiculously easy to get.

Doesn’t really matter. The whole principle behind adding tier gear is what’s driven me away. GW2 is not the special, innovated game they advertised. I want that game.

LyricDawnhagen.7803:

A simple Google search of the Dev Tracker finds the answer to this question. Here is the reason the game is called Guild Wars 2.

Martin Kerstein
Head of Global Community
This has been answered (Name is based on lore), so I close it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/GW2-Where-are-the-Guild-wars/1621260

Yes. And that’s all it’s got in common with Guild Wars, which is why it feels like a cheap knock-off, and not a sequel. Which is, I think, approximately the point of the thread.

Vayne.8563:

Chuo.4238:

Jaga.2084:

It was fun having a finished character. I got all exotic gear and could play what I want. Well, after I did my chores that are Dailies. I could even experiment with new builds, because gear wasn’t a time consuming factor. I leveled Crafting just for Guildies to make them stuff if they needed it. Now I log in and the list of chores grew bigger. Beside of dailies there is the gathering farm, dungeon farm and champion farm. And after that, I farm living story. And after all the stuff, I didn’t have fun doing, I already played to long. I’d rather pay a subscription fee and play what I want when I want, than being pushed in the daily grind that is Guild Wars 2. Most of my friends logged in just for the dailies until they left the game completely.

Yep. I’m with you. I’m totally sick of playing “keeping up with gear” on my character. I was so excited about GW2 because I (like an idiot, apparently) assumed that I wouldn’t have to deal with tiers of gear once I hit max level (like Guild Wars…duh).

So I got my toon all decked out, and skinned how I liked it….and now it’s all out of date.

Screw it. Way to ruin a great game, ArenaNet, by abandoning what made you special, and reverting back to the very thing that people hate in other MMO’s.

And yes, I’m going to keep complaining about it here, because even if ArenaNet doesn’t listen, you can bet that competitors are watching carefully.

Maybe one of them will finally break the mold.

Competitors aren’t watching carefully. That’s silly. If that happened, every MMO that came out in the last five years would have learned from forums. And I’m pretty sure that every competitor knows that the bulk of people who visit forums are there because they are dissatisfied, but it doesn’t show the opinion of the masses, over all.

There have been studies done about the number of people playing a game who actually post on the forum. It was years ago, but I’m pretty sure the number hasn’t increased drastically. About 15% of players post on forums. And since not all agree, why would you think any dev from any game is watching these forums closely?

Note: Do you know what devs will learn from this. Guild Wars 2 tried to have cosmetic only upgrades and failed to be able to do so. That’s the only less they’ll get here.

Don’t tell me I can’t hope. You don’t know if competitors are watching or not. I have no clue what your point to making that statement is. Cite some sources, or I’m inclined to think you don’t know what you’re talking about.

As for GW2 devs (or management, as applicable if you want to quibble), I have no confidence, based on experience, that they will learn from this. But, even on this, I can hope.

GW2 tried to have cosmetic upgrades, and failed? They didn’t even give it 2 months before jumping on the “tier gear” bandwagon.

Seriously dude. You just want to defend this game no matter what, and argue. They really ought to be paying you – you’re doing a better job than their current Community Manager.

No Walking.6349:

Since when do you NEED ascended items?

Lol. Ignorant posters are ignorant

Exactly. If you were in the know, you’d know that asking this question misses the point entirely. Go read some of those many, long threads about it, and conquer your ignorance!

Dyno.9467:

Chuo.4238:

Dyno.9467:

Godzzila.3752:

When there is no such thing as wars between guilds…
I mean you might aswell just called the game: Guilds 2

Cause its the follow up to Guild Wars 1…………2 pages for this? Seriously?

Except it kind of isn’t.

Kind of is, hence the title

That’s the point of the thread, mate. The title’s about the only substantial thing they have in common. Completely different philosophies, as it were.

Dyno.9467:

Godzzila.3752:

When there is no such thing as wars between guilds…
I mean you might aswell just called the game: Guilds 2

Cause its the follow up to Guild Wars 1…………2 pages for this? Seriously?

Except it kind of isn’t.

OP,

No idea, mate. Guild Wars 2 has absolutely nothing in common with Guild Wars, except in theory the lore. But they’ve kind of butchered that, as well – anything that’s happened since the game launched is pretty much rubbish writing.

Reminds me of the Fonz jumping sharks on waterskis…’

But I digress. And I agree with some of you. This game should not have had the words “Guild Wars” in the title.

Jaga.2084:

It was fun having a finished character. I got all exotic gear and could play what I want. Well, after I did my chores that are Dailies. I could even experiment with new builds, because gear wasn’t a time consuming factor. I leveled Crafting just for Guildies to make them stuff if they needed it. Now I log in and the list of chores grew bigger. Beside of dailies there is the gathering farm, dungeon farm and champion farm. And after that, I farm living story. And after all the stuff, I didn’t have fun doing, I already played to long. I’d rather pay a subscription fee and play what I want when I want, than being pushed in the daily grind that is Guild Wars 2. Most of my friends logged in just for the dailies until they left the game completely.

Yep. I’m with you. I’m totally sick of playing “keeping up with gear” on my character. I was so excited about GW2 because I (like an idiot, apparently) assumed that I wouldn’t have to deal with tiers of gear once I hit max level (like Guild Wars…duh).

So I got my toon all decked out, and skinned how I liked it….and now it’s all out of date.

Screw it. Way to ruin a great game, ArenaNet, by abandoning what made you special, and reverting back to the very thing that people hate in other MMO’s.

And yes, I’m going to keep complaining about it here, because even if ArenaNet doesn’t listen, you can bet that competitors are watching carefully.

Maybe one of them will finally break the mold.

Launch day. And for a few weeks after. Never since.

Treeline.3865:

Vol.5241:

Here’s your ‘communication’

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/RIP-conjure-builds

It’s more of a generel thing. How would you rate the communication of this one, after they found the bug? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Tournament-chests-and-transferring-between-server-regions/page/3#post2779569 Been there since start, no fix, still no eta, no updates as of the last 8 months.

Definitely a communication problem, but in this case, I think the lack of communication is symptomatic of a larger, overall, management and organizational problem. I’m not sure that they know how to prioritize or learn from mistakes as an organization. As individual sections, yes, but as a whole, not so much. Moreover, it’s really obvious that much of the time, the left and right hands are each unaware of what the other is doing.

TooBz.3065:

To me this should all be very simple. If you aren’t having fun in the game, it’s time to stop playing.

This isn’t an about face or anything like that. But the developers did give us a place to provide feedback on ascended gear, apparently didn’t read it, and have now (apparently) deleted it.

I would assume that the ONLY impact we can have on the game is either with the play / don’t play dichotomy. So, in some respects, if you aren’t upset enough to quit the game, Arena Net doesn’t care.

That’s were I’m at. I don’t play. I log on occasionally to check ingame mail. I’m certainly not even looking at the gem store. I’m hoping all those others who feel like I do also stop playing, and voice their opinions to ArenaNet.

I also hope that ArenaNet doesn’t completely misinterpret the whole thing and add more gear grind. But you never know. They don’t seem to be in touch, at all.

To their credit, the forums are kind of fun.

:/

Erasculio.2914:

I’m not sure it’s NCSoft’s fault. That site with company reviews, Glassdoor, has an interesting and relatively recent entry about ArenaNet here. It’s a mostly positive review, but I like the cons:

Cons – Poor pay. Poor leadership. Many, many mangers, all with differing visions/opinions. Losing company culture to big business.

“Losing company culture to big business” is something I read as “selling out their core principles after finding out there are easier ways to make money”. Which IMO is exactly what has happened.

This is of particular interest to me…I’ve suspected leadership/management problems at ArenaNet since GW2 launched, because you often appear to see competing priorities (weak central management), content released repeatedly with the same sorts of bugs (lack of effective procedures), minimal communication (lack of confidence and/or clear direction).

There’s clearly no lack of programming talent, but, from an external perspective, AN doesn’t really appear to be well organized on any level. Which is where you ultimately wind up with the feeling that the potential of this game isn’t really being seen and taken advantage of.

Tiger.7506:

All game forums are full of negativity, because the people having fun ( 90% ) are playing.

I’m having fun posting!

Vayne.8563:

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

MikaHR.1978:

Vayne.8563:

MikaHR.1978:

Vayne.8563:

morrolan.9608:

Vayne.8563:

On one hand, the world is busier than I’ve seen it in a long time. Obviously this has worked for them. It has done what Anet wanted it to do.

Thats the removal of culling.

No it’s not. I played the game after the removal of culling just as many hours a day as usual and the world wasn’t as busy as it was after this update.

Its called “streamlining players to farm spots”.

Try some non farm spots once in a while. But then, ascended wont craft itself. amiright?

Nope. you’re not right. I’m not talking about farm spots. I’m talking about leveling my alts in various zones around the world. I’m talking about being in Sparkfly fen today, when nothing else was going on and having half a dozen people join me to fight a champion risen megalodon. I’m talking about entering a couple of the mini dungeons, that weren’t getting much traffic. I’m talking about people running dungeons again. I’m talking about just playing the game.

As you might be aware, I don’t farm and don’t usually hang around farming spots.

I like when you dismiss your own argument.

I’m not dismissing anything. I’m saying that Anet has brought people back to the world with this new update, no matter what you think about it.

They can still funnel people into specific areas at will. What do you think zone wide invasions are about, and why do you think they kept them in the game as permanent content?

Anet has a plan. They may not have shared that plan with us, but in my experience, this company has reasons for what it does.

Just because you don’t understand those reasons doesn’t negate that they have them.

Doesn’t mean they’re player-friendly reasons, either.

What does play-friendly mean? Take the introduction of vertical progression. To you that’s not player friendly…to other people it is. The wallet was player friendly but some players complained about it.

I honestly don’t believe there’s anything that’s player friendly with a capital P.

I think I could say absolutely anything, and you’d dissect, quibble, and argue for the sake of it.

What do YOU think I meant, Vayne? Come on.

You’re wrong. I don’t argue about everything. There are many things that are done for the benefit of players that players don’t think are player friendly. Grind is one of those things.

And MMO with absolutely no grind is an MMO that won’t get played. The grind is what keeps people playing. Is it in player’s benefits not to grind? Well, sure. And not so sure.

What I’m saying is that you’re casting something here in black and white. We don’t know if their agenda is player friendly. If it’s good for the game, very often, it’s good for players who like the game.

I’m sure I know what you meant, but due to the way you phrased it, it has a lot of potential interpretations. It’s painting the possibility of this darker side of Anet, sitting there making decisions against their players.

And it’s all 100% speculation unless you work for the company.

Then you’ll note that I was merely adding a possibility to a list of possibilities. I’m not going to hire a lawyer so that my every statement covers all possible interpretations. I’m happy to discuss things, but there comes a point where the quibbling is short-circuiting the discussion.

And we’re not in court here, or writing a technical manual. I’m just throwing out thoughts, and (hopefully) inspiring them for the sake of discussion. I find discussions enjoyable, and I certainly don’t insist that everyone agree with me (that’d be a boring discussion, indeed).And I’m not going to define anything in watertight, Webster’s terms. Ease off with the lawyering, and just chat about the topic at hand, mate.

I think we’re all intelligent enough to understand that we don’t, and won’t, know everything. If we did, there’d be no point in talking about it.

Edit. I think the forums are broken. Getting a lot of errors and having to redo things.

Vayne.8563:

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

MikaHR.1978:

Vayne.8563:

MikaHR.1978:

Vayne.8563:

morrolan.9608:

Vayne.8563:

On one hand, the world is busier than I’ve seen it in a long time. Obviously this has worked for them. It has done what Anet wanted it to do.

Thats the removal of culling.

No it’s not. I played the game after the removal of culling just as many hours a day as usual and the world wasn’t as busy as it was after this update.

Its called “streamlining players to farm spots”.

Try some non farm spots once in a while. But then, ascended wont craft itself. amiright?

Nope. you’re not right. I’m not talking about farm spots. I’m talking about leveling my alts in various zones around the world. I’m talking about being in Sparkfly fen today, when nothing else was going on and having half a dozen people join me to fight a champion risen megalodon. I’m talking about entering a couple of the mini dungeons, that weren’t getting much traffic. I’m talking about people running dungeons again. I’m talking about just playing the game.

As you might be aware, I don’t farm and don’t usually hang around farming spots.

I like when you dismiss your own argument.

I’m not dismissing anything. I’m saying that Anet has brought people back to the world with this new update, no matter what you think about it.

They can still funnel people into specific areas at will. What do you think zone wide invasions are about, and why do you think they kept them in the game as permanent content?

Anet has a plan. They may not have shared that plan with us, but in my experience, this company has reasons for what it does.

Just because you don’t understand those reasons doesn’t negate that they have them.

Doesn’t mean they’re player-friendly reasons, either.

What does play-friendly mean? Take the introduction of vertical progression. To you that’s not player friendly…to other people it is. The wallet was player friendly but some players complained about it.

I honestly don’t believe there’s anything that’s player friendly with a capital P.

I think I could say absolutely anything, and you’d dissect, quibble, and argue for the sake of it.

What do YOU think I meant, Vayne? Come on.

Yep me, too. I’ve learned that if you want to tell ArenaNet something about Guild Wars 2, you can’t do it on the official Guild Wars 2 forums.

Well, OK, if it’s extremely positive, they might comment. Not as many of those sorts of threads out there, though. Can’t imagine why.

OP,

I applaud your enthusiasm, but mate, I’m under no delusion whatsoever that anyone at ArenaNet cares about this. They keep their thoughts close, and only ever comment on very, very positive, sunshiney threads.

Vayne.8563:

MikaHR.1978:

Vayne.8563:

MikaHR.1978:

Vayne.8563:

morrolan.9608:

Vayne.8563:

On one hand, the world is busier than I’ve seen it in a long time. Obviously this has worked for them. It has done what Anet wanted it to do.

Thats the removal of culling.

No it’s not. I played the game after the removal of culling just as many hours a day as usual and the world wasn’t as busy as it was after this update.

Its called “streamlining players to farm spots”.

Try some non farm spots once in a while. But then, ascended wont craft itself. amiright?

Nope. you’re not right. I’m not talking about farm spots. I’m talking about leveling my alts in various zones around the world. I’m talking about being in Sparkfly fen today, when nothing else was going on and having half a dozen people join me to fight a champion risen megalodon. I’m talking about entering a couple of the mini dungeons, that weren’t getting much traffic. I’m talking about people running dungeons again. I’m talking about just playing the game.

As you might be aware, I don’t farm and don’t usually hang around farming spots.

I like when you dismiss your own argument.

I’m not dismissing anything. I’m saying that Anet has brought people back to the world with this new update, no matter what you think about it.

They can still funnel people into specific areas at will. What do you think zone wide invasions are about, and why do you think they kept them in the game as permanent content?

Anet has a plan. They may not have shared that plan with us, but in my experience, this company has reasons for what it does.

Just because you don’t understand those reasons doesn’t negate that they have them.

Doesn’t mean they’re player-friendly reasons, either.

Vayne.8563:

What he basically said was he hopes this is the last tier and he certainly things that it will be, but he can’t tell that 7 years in the future it might not change, or that someone else couldn’t buy the company and it would change.

I wonder if there’s a quiet implication that NCSoft is behind Ascended in the first place…

No way to know, and not putting forth a conspiracy theory. Just wondering.

Vayne.8563:

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

While I have no problem with how the ascended weapons are laid out personally, I think it does go against the grain of the game that Anet has been telling us about. I’m not necessarily surprised by this, but I can definitely see why people are annoyed/disturbed/angry.

On one hand, the world is busier than I’ve seen it in a long time. Obviously this has worked for them. It has done what Anet wanted it to do.

But the obvious question is what does Anet do the next time that the world starts to die down?

I wonder this, too. I think the locusts are going to head for the next AAA MMO releases, as they always do, and the game will be left with those who really like it. Unfortunately, I think ArenaNet have alienated many of their Guild Wars playerbase…so yea…how many will remain?

Moreover, what sort of gamers will remain? What kind of game will these gamers like? Will ArenaNet work towards that sort of player? Or try to continue on the current path and win back the locusts?

Most of what I’ve read about the future of GW2 appears to have been left deliberately nebulous…maybe there’ll be more tier gear. Maybe there will be a higher level cap. Maybe not. I think the not knowing is upsetting people, too.

This strikes me as a very interesting discussion. You might start a new topic on that, if you feel inclined. I’ll chime in.

I’ll pass on the new topic…but if anyone else feels like creating it go ahead. I’m spending less time on the forums. I don’t really like what it’s doing to my naturally tolerant temperament. lol

Of course it’d be right when we might have had a good discussion! Well, good on you. I should spend less time here, too. GW2 makes me more unhappy than happy.

I dislike Ascended. Therefore I will express that opinion here. There’s nothing you can do to change that. I’ll entertain thoughtful disagreement, though.

Vayne.8563:

While I have no problem with how the ascended weapons are laid out personally, I think it does go against the grain of the game that Anet has been telling us about. I’m not necessarily surprised by this, but I can definitely see why people are annoyed/disturbed/angry.

On one hand, the world is busier than I’ve seen it in a long time. Obviously this has worked for them. It has done what Anet wanted it to do.

But the obvious question is what does Anet do the next time that the world starts to die down?

I wonder this, too. I think the locusts are going to head for the next AAA MMO releases, as they always do, and the game will be left with those who really like it. Unfortunately, I think ArenaNet have alienated many of their Guild Wars playerbase…so yea…how many will remain?

Moreover, what sort of gamers will remain? What kind of game will these gamers like? Will ArenaNet work towards that sort of player? Or try to continue on the current path and win back the locusts?

Most of what I’ve read about the future of GW2 appears to have been left deliberately nebulous…maybe there’ll be more tier gear. Maybe there will be a higher level cap. Maybe not. I think the not knowing is upsetting people, too.

This strikes me as a very interesting discussion. You might start a new topic on that, if you feel inclined. I’ll chime in.

Tiger.7506:

Chuo.4238:

Tiger.7506:

BlueDragon.7054:

Lol, more than 13 k views and more than 600 replies. I hope Anet makes more ways to get ascended weapons, crafting is the most boring thing in the game, at least for me. I wish when they release ascended armor it won´t be like weapons. It would be nice if they release some “hard” content and make the armors available through that content and not another grind.

300 replies favorable to ascendend.
I love ascendend.
The people that are happy are busy playing and not complaining on the forums.
Please stop flooding forum with complains!

Why does it bother you so much that people have a different opinion of Ascended gear than you do? If it upsets you, perhaps you should be busy playing the game, and not complaining on the forums

Becouse complains flood the forum !
I m in forum to be informed about the game . Only for knowledge. But i see only complains.

Unfortunately, ArenaNet don’t use these forums to inform people about the game. You’ll have to check various social networking sites, Reddit, and gaming/MMO news sites.

Tiger.7506:

BlueDragon.7054:

Lol, more than 13 k views and more than 600 replies. I hope Anet makes more ways to get ascended weapons, crafting is the most boring thing in the game, at least for me. I wish when they release ascended armor it won´t be like weapons. It would be nice if they release some “hard” content and make the armors available through that content and not another grind.

300 replies favorable to ascendend.
I love ascendend.
The people that are happy are busy playing and not complaining on the forums.
Please stop flooding forum with complains!

Why does it bother you so much that people have a different opinion of Ascended gear than you do? If it upsets you, perhaps you should be busy playing the game, and not complaining on the forums

OP,

There are trolls on these forums, yes.

But there are also people who care about the state of the game, and want to express their thoughts to ArenaNet about it.

Those thoughts are not directed at you. So don’t worry about it. If the forums bother you, you do not have to read them.

Tiger.7506:

which part of the game you can not play with exotic?

Trust me on this: you will not convince someone who does not like tier gear to like it by saying “but you can play the game without it”. If you’re still using that argument, you haven’t really payed attention to why people don’t like it. It has nothing to do with effort or entitlement. Nothing whatsoever. And these people are not “whining”. It’s actually a really good philosophical discussion, if you care to partake, instead of be upset that someone has a different opinion than you.

Anyone else wondering if the extant game is the one they actually intended to make? I’m sort of getting the feeling that it isn’t…

boxtrot.8145:

The only solution to all this whining would be not to add any gear at all, but wouldn’t that have been a bore.

Strongly disagree. Grinding gear is a bore. There are ways to make a better game than gear grind. It’s been done before, and by ArenaNet.

stof.9341:

Chuo.4238:

Speculation on this will likely get this thread locked. I’d suggest taking it to Reddit or somewhere like that. I’ll look for you there

Sure, but well, Reddit already ran enough around the topic anyway, not much more to discuss really

Yea, I just hate giving the mods an excuse to bury a thread..

stof.9341:

Chuo.4238:

Agree completely. Had all this Ascended gear just been shiny skins, with the same stats as any other gear (or arguably, an infusion slot for Agony, and otherwise the same stats), I’d be happy as a clam and playing GW2 (mostly) contentedly.

Shiny skins, infusion slots, utility like easy sigil/stat change. There was plenty of opportunities to make Ascended very desirable without making it better statistically than exotics.

xephire.8324:

According to Robert he wanted to make a permanent dungeon that withstood time instead of temporary dungeons.I think he must have offended the higher ups for not realizing his dream and following their plan so he got the boot.

He never said he was fired for that. We don’t know why he was fired in fact.

Although I suspect it’s because he wasn’t that good at his work in the end. Most of the content we know he designed wasn’t that great you know.

Speculation on this will likely get this thread locked. I’d suggest taking it to Reddit or somewhere like that. I’ll look for you there

Zackie.8923:

xephire.8324:

Chuo.4238:

I just wish they’d design content that didn’t have anything to do with tier gear. I’d rather have a new dungeon. Or even have them fix one of the existing ones. Or even spend more time making the LS actually good….

They fired their dungeon designer ,don’t expect any new dungeons soon.

what really? firing their dungeon designer for?

That’s something I’d love to know, but I doubt I’ll find out. Probably best to not speculate here. Do it on Reddit.

Diamandis.7483:

Yeah this entire pink tier of gear since first being introduced /sneaked into the game, as a last minute decision has spoiled the game for me overall.

I have zero plans and I mean ZERO to even bother crafting any of this ugly junk, still reeling from the fact not only is it more grind then ever but all of my exotics I worked for are 2nd best in DEVS eyes.

If I am still even playing this game within the next year which I doubt I will be I would not bet against them hinting at more legendary type items we all get to forge, why even bother with this just seems like a extra grind for us all till they feel like adding in more tiers.

It’s like when will the new content come out that makes use of this new tier anyways!? new content that was tougher to accomplish with exotics already in the game would have been more welcome then this tripe.

There is definitely a complete lack of imagination and creativity if your content devolves into keeping people playing by giving them gear/daily grinds.

The LS doesn’t even come close to making up for this. It would have to be, very, very, very special for that to happen. And I’m not seeing anything that great.

Edit: apparently I can’t spell ‘people’ on the first try…

stof.9341:

Vayne.8563:

Every game with progression requires some sort of “working toward a goal”.

As long as that goal wasn’t more stats, it would have been fine.

Agree completely. Had all this Ascended gear just been shiny skins, with the same stats as any other gear (or arguably, an infusion slot for Agony, and otherwise the same stats), I’d be happy as a clam and playing GW2 (mostly) contentedly.

Vayne.8563:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Vayne.8563:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

haviz.1340:

Serophous.9085:

Hm, i just need emp crystals apparently, and time. So im on track.

How you say?

IM JUST PLAYING THE GAME

The cool thing to do now is salvage everything you get, go to different zones (you wont just get 80 loot all the time) . Even in wvw killing lower players gives me lower end loot. Or i get badges, which then i buy prints and sell on tp, then buy lower loot to salvage.

I’m playing a game – fractals. I get ~100 bloodstones, 49 empyreal fragments, 0 dragonite ores and 1-2g for 1-2 hours of work.

Highlighted the parts of your post which summarise the flaw in your argument, and is a fundamental flaw within the gaming community.

I think its time many people re-evaluate their reasoning for playing MMORPGS.

I worked on my golf swing today. I worked on my tan.

The usage of the word work, in this case, isn’t necessarily used to denote employment or something unpleasant.

Ok mr semantics, ill bite. Pointing out the fact he used play and work in the same argument was merely an attempt at showing the OPs logical fallacy, the difference between the ideas of work and play are especially related to this topic.

Play is fundamental within the sense of timelessness. Play is centered around being in the moment and enjoying it, not caring about future worries or past anxieties. Work is undesirable effort that is put into a common goal or purpose, heavily relying on the future. The difference between my understanding and that of the average MMO player is the fact that work is unavoidable in most cases of achievement or success, its all about how you view that ‘work’ in relativity to your ‘play’.

For example;

To use your analogy;

I worked on my golf swing today = I put alot of effort into my swing today, knowing my game will improve because of it, the ends justify the means to me or I simply wouldn’t bother.
I worked on my tan = I put alot of effort into my tan, knowing I will feel more confident and attractive with it, the end justifys the means to me or I simply wouldn’t bother.

This is key and this is what alot of gamers dont consider, the acceptance of this will not only free you from any forced grind or sense of duty, but also allow you to begin looking at making your ‘Work’ as much like ‘Play’ as possible.

You don’t put effort into working on a tan. You lie there…the sun puts in the effort. Hardly work in the traditional sense.

Every game with progression requires some sort of “working toward a goal”. You claim that work isn’t enjoyable, but you know, that’s only your perception. To some people working toward a goal can be very enjoyable. People work on hobbies all the time. I work on my stamp collection. It’s not really work.

And from the posters response, even he didn’t intend it that way.

I truly appreciate the value you put on correct use of language. I kind of feel, however, that you’re tending to quibble over semantics at the expense of the point. I think I’d rather see more pertinent arguments supporting the actual content, rather than critiques of language, as it were.