Guild Wars 2

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.

Surely they have someone else doing that now?

I’m really starting to get the eerie feeling that this game is going to shrink to very small niche when the next AAA game comes out ><

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….

Vayne.8563:

Your hate of repetition, has nothing to do with the definition of the word farming.

Farming is repetition. You can’t farm without repetition. What are you trying to prove? It’s like you’re grasping, or just arguing for the sake of arguing.

You like GW2. It’s the best game for you. Others don’t, and you arguing technical nuances not only misses the point, it’s not going to convert anyone. Changing how you precisely define something doesn’t make it suck any less.

This is starting to sound very silly.

They oughta just delete the Leader Boards…

Sutcliffe.5491:

Chuo.4238:

Vayne.8563:

It’s farming, without actually attempting to accumulate materials.

Sorry, mate, but I actually did laugh out loud at this one. Have you ever debated what the definition of “is” is?

I think you just like to argue, is all.
:P

What vayne means is that of the intention he has while attempting those dynamic events. He does these dynamic activities because he enjoys it..not to actually get the materials from the events. Hence other people feel that it is farming, but he doesn’t feel so.

Of course not everyone gets it…

Oh I get it. I also think he just tries too hard to justify too much, and winds up saying the occasional silly thing (as a few folks have pointed out here).

If ArenaNet aren’t paying him, they should be.

Vayne, send ’em a bill

Vayne.8563:

It’s farming, without actually attempting to accumulate materials.

Sorry, mate, but I actually did laugh out loud at this one. Have you ever debated what the definition of “is” is?

I think you just like to argue, is all.
:P

Clearly they didn’t make the grind long enough.

Wait…for…it…

Not trolling – honest question. I don’t get this…

For those that like the game,

I can appreciate that you like the game, and I have no issue with that. I can even appreciate that you want to come here and tell ArenaNet what you like about it, because that might encourage them to do more of the things you like.

But for those so vociferously defending the game and ArenaNet, I have to wonder, what are you getting out of such a vocal defense? A short disagreement I can see, but why spend so much effort trying to defend the game from those who want to tell ArenaNet what they don’t like about it? Are they paying you? Why would anyone spend so much effort defending some company’s product, if they weren’t getting paid for it?

Seriously. Not trolling. I do honestly wonder, and am happy to read what you have to say.

Vayne.8563:

MikaHR.1978:

Galen Grey.4709:

Hrithmus.2583:

353 replies and 7373 Views on this post and not one Dev Reply yet. Man they must be scared?

Because they know its pointless. Whatever they would say themselves has been said many times over by regular players. Did any of that chance a single opinion of either side?

A post by the devs would be counter productive. All it would do is cause more rage in the end.

Yes, everyone knows that they dont have anything to say that would calm it down, and they certainly cant say the truth so they just ignore it and hope it goes away

They have said the truth. The truth is that exotics didn’t take long enough to get. Do you know how many people hit level cap in this game and left because there was nothing for them to do? The forums were full of such posts.

It’s not like 3 guys in a room made all of them.

The problem is, many folks thought that getting the highest tier gear (exotics, at the time) was the point. That the game was about playing builds, and not about having to get some gear. I even thought Exotics were kind of unnecessary, but they weren’t that hard to get so whatever.

So when Ascended was announced…well, you saw what happened. People (reasonably so, imho) felt that they’d been deceived about the nature of the game.

It doesn’t matter if they lied or not. It looked like it. And once you get a reputation for that, it’s near impossible to completely come back from it, because people don’t trust you. And this is something anyone could have seen coming – and I’m astounded that either they didn’t, or expected a different response.

Really, really bad move from ArenaNet’s perspective. All this negativity should have come as no surprise whatsoever. The company did it to itself.

Hrithmus.2583:

353 replies and 7373 Views on this post and not one Dev Reply yet. Man they must be scared?

It’s typical for them. There’s an 11000+ post thread about Ascended gear that got started back in November. Their only response was to close it.

They don’t do customer feedback.

Sligh.2789:

^That would require a continuity manager, something that has been lost to Anet since before launch.

Since loooooooong before launch.

I miss the frog, and chatting with its owner in LA. That’s as much part of Guild Wars lore as Armbraces are.

I really wish people would get past wittering over whether or not Guild Wars is an MMO. Whether or not Guild Wars is an MMO is completely, absolutely beside the point. It does not matter.

Can we get back to arguing over the quote that the OP posted, please?

To get back on topic…

All I can say is that, had they not introduced Ascended gear, I’d probably still be playing. Heck, so would my old guildies from Guild Wars. But since November, all of us have, finally, at some point, got frustrated with grind, gear, RNG and where this game is going and lost interest.

I think that grind, in general, as described by Mike O’Brien and as implemented in Guild Wars (cosmetic only), is something we didn’t mind so much. You could do it or not do it. Same with RNG, because Legendaries were (at the time) just gaudy-looking versions of exotic weapons. But Ascended killed it. For all of us. From almost all of them I hear: “I don’t play GW2 any more because of Ascended gear.” I’m willing to bet that there are many, many, many people who’ve stopped playing because of it.

I tried to come back in July…was giving the game another chance…thought maybe that Ascended was quietly being shelved and there wouldn’t be any more past the accessories and backpacks…and WHAM-O: new Ascended weapons announced, with armor to come.

No thanks. I’ve got better things to do. For the record, ArenaNet. I don’t play any more because of Ascended gear. Add that to your pile of statistics.

TooBz.3065:

No. Ascended gear is boring to get. If they bore me I will complain. Don’t care if I never have to do it again.

I hate peas, if you make me eat peas I’ll fuss. Even if you say it’s unlikely I’ll have to eat them again.

I hate peas, too. But I’ll eat them if I have to. Eating peas is actually more fun than grinding out Ascended gear in Guild Wars 2. Which is something I’m just not going to do.

ophidic.1279:

People that keep falling back on that no grind statement are like people that take the bible literally. Annoying.

So by “we don’t make grindy games,” what would you say he really meant, if not the obvious literal meaning?

If this Ascended gear crafting isn’t grind, then I don’t know what is. They’ve had their chance. There’s no kittening way that they can say “we don’t make grindy games” any more.

Yea I’m not doing that.

Such a waste of great potential. Time to go play something else.

TooBz.3065:

If you hold someone’s feet to the fire for everything they say, the next thing you know they don’t say anything.

One thing I think is missing from all these critiques of what they said is that people’s viewpoint change. I think ANet originally planned to have exotics be the top level gear and they changed their minds to be more responsive to the desires of the community.

Now, IMO, the smart thing to do was to come out and say something like – we planned X, you’ve asked for Y, so we are providing Y. Instead of saying things Y was planned for the start or Y isn’t Y because legendaries are still BiS.

But just because they aren’t the best at communicating, doesn’t mean we should say they lied. They changed their minds. If you want them to keep talking to us (or start again) then we need to collectively relax. Not everything they believe now is the same as what they believed then. It doesn’t mean they lied.

It’s a two-way street, though. And at this point, I think someone from ArenaNet actually needs to open that dialogue, and come across as trying to shoot straight and be upfront. ArenaNet’s got an awful lot of egg on it’s face – I think some communication in good faith would go a very long way with the more reasonable folks around here…

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Gehenna.3625:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

So… you are quitting over something that hasn’t happened yet… makes sense to me!

If you’re in a bus that is slowly headed for a ravine, would you get off the bus or stay in because falling into the ravine hasn’t happened yet?

Ok so what ravine… again NO ONE on these forums has been able to point out a single bit of content (other than fractals) that requires you to use Ascended… ALL content can be completed with exotics and even rares… so please tell me again how Ascended affects every day game play?

It doesn’t. We’re just griping for the sake of it.

And if you won’t buy that, try reading some of the posts around here and you might just work it out.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Chuo.4238:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Morrigan.2809:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Morrigan.2809:

ok I will spell it out for you since you do not seem to understand.

There is no part of the game that you cannot complete without exotics and in many cases rares.

The original premise was, lets have Ascended because fractals- stash the progression crowd in there.
This could easily have been done by adding infusions to exotics but the progression crowd would not have been pleased.
So we got a gear tier.

The initial stat boost was small and because of Fractals it could largely be ignored by people like me, who do not play Fractals because it is more boring that watching paint dry.

Fast forward a year and we have more and more trinkets and today weapons, soon armor and the stat increase becomes much larger.
PvE content does not support this, neither does WvWvW.
If you play WvWvW you are going to have to pvE to stay competitive.
In pvE they will have to add harder and harder content to support bigger and bigger gear numbers- that leads to a power-creep and content that you are locked out of until you get the gear.
None of this is in any shape or form what they marketed GW2 as for many, many years.
Player skill and level playing field is what they marketed the game kitten basically you are saying you do not understand the issues with Ascended at all.

So you are suggesting that the game should not evolve and add more difficult content? If that’s the case then an MMO would run itself into the ground…

Gear Treadmill- multiple tiers of gear added every 3-6 months in an MMO

This is ONE tier mate… that’s it. The stat difference is negligible… Seriously… look at the stats. If someone is really good at WvW then the stat difference between them in exotics and the casual WvWer who spends most of their time in PVE will be moot… you should be able to stomp a mudhole in them anyways. If the stat difference were GAMEBREAKING then you argument would be valid…

psst btw… not sure if you watched the whole livestream or read the info on Dulfy but ummmmm you can get alot of the mats in WvW… just sayin…

I am suggesting that evolution does not equal bigger numbers.

I have no problem with more difficult content- I am against fake difficulty because of bigger damage output.

A treadmill is running along to stay in the same place. That is what it is- call it a hamster wheel if you want.

When the game game out BIS was exotics, now it is ascended, who said they will not bring out another tier when this one is used up by the locusts who claim they want progression?

If they do it would have to exceed Legendary and they won’t do that… look at the stats… there is no other room for a tier in between…

They’ll just bump up Legendary stats again, just like they are doing today.

You do realize that you and many others are QQing over something that may or may not even happen right?

Yep, and until I know that the gear I grind out isn’t going to someday be obsoleted, I’m not even going to bother. Think it through, mate.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Chuo.4238:

MikaHR.1978:

Namu.5712:

Chuo.4238:

Mastruq.2463:

You folks need to google what a treadmill is. Until they set precedence for repeatedly replacing the current-best tier there is no treadmill. Keyword here being repeatedly.

I can see ascended being outdone in 2016 after ascended armor finished the Ascended tier in 2014/15. And at that point someone could call it a (really slow) treadmill.

But for now, this one tread does not constitue a mill, and one tread (exotic -> ascended) is all we’ve had and will have for the forseeable future.

P.S. I’d quit if this turns treadmill – it just isnt one for now unless you want to go to extreme logic leaps to justify your conviction, or just like to complain.

Maybe it’s a treadmill, maybe it isn’t. To be honest, it doesn’t matter into what pigeon hole you want to put Ascended.

It most definitely is a timegated grind for gear that has higher stats. And I loved Guild Wars because Guild Wars didn’t have that.

And that’s what’s kitten ing people off. They bought this game expecting to not have to grind tier gear, and yet here it is.

Nobody that I’ve seen, prior to the announcement of Ascended gear last November, got on these forums, Reddit, or anywhere else and asked, “ArenaNet, can we please have tiers of gear to grind for in Guild Wars 2?”

Rather, people were glad to finally have a game without that garbage.

…and suddenly, without warning, tier gear grind got thrown into a game that didn’t have it when we bought it.

No people got on here and complained that there was nothing to do post 80 lol.

Will that same people continue complaining tomorrow when today they get their ascended weapons?

Will that same people continue complaining when they get their full ascended set before the end of the year?

Will those who got their legendaries now complain that their legendary was updated in stats so they AGAIN dont have anything to do?

I, for one, am not getting an Ascended set. I’m not even going to play any more, starting with this patch. Unless ArenaNet unequivocally come out and say that there will never be any more gear tiers. Ever.

Otherwise, this game is not for me.

So I really don’t see your point.

So… you are quitting over something that hasn’t happened yet… makes sense to me!

It’s happening in a few hours, mate. Pay attention.

MikaHR.1978:

Namu.5712:

Chuo.4238:

Mastruq.2463:

You folks need to google what a treadmill is. Until they set precedence for repeatedly replacing the current-best tier there is no treadmill. Keyword here being repeatedly.

I can see ascended being outdone in 2016 after ascended armor finished the Ascended tier in 2014/15. And at that point someone could call it a (really slow) treadmill.

But for now, this one tread does not constitue a mill, and one tread (exotic -> ascended) is all we’ve had and will have for the forseeable future.

P.S. I’d quit if this turns treadmill – it just isnt one for now unless you want to go to extreme logic leaps to justify your conviction, or just like to complain.

Maybe it’s a treadmill, maybe it isn’t. To be honest, it doesn’t matter into what pigeon hole you want to put Ascended.

It most definitely is a timegated grind for gear that has higher stats. And I loved Guild Wars because Guild Wars didn’t have that.

And that’s what’s kitten ing people off. They bought this game expecting to not have to grind tier gear, and yet here it is.

Nobody that I’ve seen, prior to the announcement of Ascended gear last November, got on these forums, Reddit, or anywhere else and asked, “ArenaNet, can we please have tiers of gear to grind for in Guild Wars 2?”

Rather, people were glad to finally have a game without that garbage.

…and suddenly, without warning, tier gear grind got thrown into a game that didn’t have it when we bought it.

No people got on here and complained that there was nothing to do post 80 lol.

Will that same people continue complaining tomorrow when today they get their ascended weapons?

Will that same people continue complaining when they get their full ascended set before the end of the year?

Will those who got their legendaries now complain that their legendary was updated in stats so they AGAIN dont have anything to do?

I, for one, am not getting an Ascended set. I’m not even going to play any more, starting with this patch. Unless ArenaNet unequivocally come out and say that there will never be any more gear tiers. Ever.

Otherwise, this game is not for me.

So I really don’t see your point.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Morrigan.2809:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Morrigan.2809:

ok I will spell it out for you since you do not seem to understand.

There is no part of the game that you cannot complete without exotics and in many cases rares.

The original premise was, lets have Ascended because fractals- stash the progression crowd in there.
This could easily have been done by adding infusions to exotics but the progression crowd would not have been pleased.
So we got a gear tier.

The initial stat boost was small and because of Fractals it could largely be ignored by people like me, who do not play Fractals because it is more boring that watching paint dry.

Fast forward a year and we have more and more trinkets and today weapons, soon armor and the stat increase becomes much larger.
PvE content does not support this, neither does WvWvW.
If you play WvWvW you are going to have to pvE to stay competitive.
In pvE they will have to add harder and harder content to support bigger and bigger gear numbers- that leads to a power-creep and content that you are locked out of until you get the gear.
None of this is in any shape or form what they marketed GW2 as for many, many years.
Player skill and level playing field is what they marketed the game kitten basically you are saying you do not understand the issues with Ascended at all.

So you are suggesting that the game should not evolve and add more difficult content? If that’s the case then an MMO would run itself into the ground…

Gear Treadmill- multiple tiers of gear added every 3-6 months in an MMO

This is ONE tier mate… that’s it. The stat difference is negligible… Seriously… look at the stats. If someone is really good at WvW then the stat difference between them in exotics and the casual WvWer who spends most of their time in PVE will be moot… you should be able to stomp a mudhole in them anyways. If the stat difference were GAMEBREAKING then you argument would be valid…

psst btw… not sure if you watched the whole livestream or read the info on Dulfy but ummmmm you can get alot of the mats in WvW… just sayin…

I am suggesting that evolution does not equal bigger numbers.

I have no problem with more difficult content- I am against fake difficulty because of bigger damage output.

A treadmill is running along to stay in the same place. That is what it is- call it a hamster wheel if you want.

When the game game out BIS was exotics, now it is ascended, who said they will not bring out another tier when this one is used up by the locusts who claim they want progression?

If they do it would have to exceed Legendary and they won’t do that… look at the stats… there is no other room for a tier in between…

They’ll just bump up Legendary stats again, just like they are doing today.

I love that quote by Mike O’Brien -I can’t wait for ArenaNet to release the game he’s talking about!

Mastruq.2463:

You folks need to google what a treadmill is. Until they set precedence for repeatedly replacing the current-best tier there is no treadmill. Keyword here being repeatedly.

I can see ascended being outdone in 2016 after ascended armor finished the Ascended tier in 2014/15. And at that point someone could call it a (really slow) treadmill.

But for now, this one tread does not constitue a mill, and one tread (exotic -> ascended) is all we’ve had and will have for the forseeable future.

P.S. I’d quit if this turns treadmill – it just isnt one for now unless you want to go to extreme logic leaps to justify your conviction, or just like to complain.

Maybe it’s a treadmill, maybe it isn’t. To be honest, it doesn’t matter into what pigeon hole you want to put Ascended.

It most definitely is a timegated grind for gear that has higher stats. And I loved Guild Wars because Guild Wars didn’t have that.

And that’s what’s kitten ing people off. They bought this game expecting to not have to grind tier gear, and yet here it is.

Nobody that I’ve seen, prior to the announcement of Ascended gear last November, got on these forums, Reddit, or anywhere else and asked, “ArenaNet, can we please have tiers of gear to grind for in Guild Wars 2?”

Rather, people were glad to finally have a game without that garbage.

…and suddenly, without warning, tier gear grind got thrown into a game that didn’t have it when we bought it.

colesy.8490:

The rest of you aren’t even maximising your builds, or even running good builds in the first place so you still have room to increase your efficiency easily whereas I don’t.

Because doing that isn’t fun. Why in the kitten would I want to get caught up in that garbage? If I need to maximise my build in order to do some content, then screw it.

Come on, there’s nothing to be that competitive about in Guild Wars 2 (and thank goodness for that – yes, you heard me, I actually like some things about GW2). If you were a real, uber-elitist gamer you’d be playing something else where that kind of crap really does matter.

Vayne.8563:

And now that the game has the stickiness that they were missing at launch (even I felt it), maybe it’ll turn out there won’t be more tiers of gear, because they won’t be necessary.

But to assume they’ll be more than this, just because this exists is just an unwarranted assumption.

It’s this doubt that’s killing the whole thing. If ArenaNet announced that Ascended would be the final tier – no more to come, ever, then I’d grumble but I’d log on and start playing again, get my gear, and get on with it.

But there’s absolutely no way that I’m even going to bother trying with that doubt still out there. I’m not going to spend all that time grinding out a set of gear for it to eventually be obsoleted by some new tier. No thanks.

So because of this very uncertainty, I don’t play any more. I understand that there are times when it’s best to keep your options open, but in this case, keeping this tier gear option open is keeping me from getting interested in all the other content that they’re working on.

What is Guild Wars 2? What does it really stand for within this genre of gaming? So far, it seems to try and sit on every possible fence.

lordkrall.7241:

Gehenna.3625:

From Anet, already announced last year.

http://www.gamefront.com/guild-wars-2-level-cap-raise-confirmed-for-future/

That isn’t really a confirmation though.
All he says is that they are EXPECTING to raise the level cap in the future.

Which tells me that they plan to do it unless the world ends or NCSoft randomly shuts them down like they did City of Heroes. In which case they can say, at least, that they technically didn’t lie.

:P

colesy.8490:

I’d like ascended haters to answer me this point I raised in another thread.

Situation:

Two players in Ascalonian Catacombs with identical gear. One player has a sigil of night on, the other has no sigil.

Why is it fine in this case, but the slight change in stats from exotic to ascended weapons is the end of the world?

Secondly, you can get ascended trinkets easily, so it’s literally just the weapon which takes a lot of effort and resources to get.

So why even have Ascended in the game? It’s a pointless grind that buries everything that was great about Guild Wars. That’s why.

There’s absolutely no reason for it, except to sell gems and satisfy locusts. Which, essentially, kills the entire spirit of the game. It’s principle.

lordkrall.7241:

Zplus.4217:

They also explicitly said about no grind, and here we have gear grind, gold grind and material grind.

Get real.

Incorrect. They said no MANDATORY grind in order to enjoy the game.
There is currently not a single thing you NEED to grind in order to do content in the game.

Technically, sure.

But seriously? It’s in the game. Let’s be real.

Vayne.8563:

I think there’s a danger in categorizing everyone in a company as THE company. I think there are probably people who care very much about the game and others who care very much about the profits.

No doubt there are. But at some point the internal debates stop and decisions are made. When those decisions are made public, they qualify as having been made by “the Company”.

I’m not saying any particular individuals are in one camp or another. I’m saying that when the Company does something, it’s as a collective, regardless of who might have disagreed with that decision. So when I say “ArenaNet”, I’m referring to their corporate policy, not anything specific about any particular individuals.

Vayne.8563:

I think most of Anet is completely out of touch. I don’t think they have a clue about what people mean, because people really don’t communicate well.

I’m not so sure. I think enough people have put their thoughts here, and enough of those have been sufficiently eloquent, that they can’t help but get the point.

Lately I strongly suspect that they’re working some profitability equation that largely ignores the players that are going to quit or stop spending in the gemstore. I am thinking that if a small percentage of players are spending big bucks, and a moderate percentage are spending a little here and there, then that’s just fine with them, and fun is a very distant secondary or tertiary priority.

I truly don’t think they’re trying to make a really good, fun game any more. I think they’re trying to make one that’s just good enough to keep profits above a certain point. There’s no art to this any more.

Short answer is: as long as the credit cards are in use, all they’re going to do is try to make content that appeals to people who must have everything. Which, to me, has completely killed the spirit of Guild Wars. I’m not opposed to microtransactions, per se, and I certainly support a business trying to make a profit, but when that’s all the game is about, then I lose interest.

So as long as this is what the game is about, I’ll spend no more money on it. Which is a shame, because I’d cheerfully have put 15 bucks a month (or more!) into the gem store if the game was fun. But it isn’t. It’s not engaging. It’s just a grind. It’s just keeping up with the Joneses.

Trust me when I say: I’d be the most delighted person on these forums if ArenaNet came out and said, “we’ve made enough money that the pressure is off, now we’re going to focus on making GW2 the game it should have been.”

Mikau.6920:

wildfang.9670:

Mikau.6920:

Now is just wait and see what will happen in the game… I hope this don’t obrigate us to get ascended weapons or at least isn’t insane to get as ascended trinkets… (heavy laurels, live in fractals or the guild thingy)

Sadly, I was building both my Warrior and my Necro (Guard is my main)…

We’ll call this game Word of Guild Wars? (Wait to see)

….well hate to break it to you it’s much worse.

according to the live stream it will take 2 weeks to get 1 ascended weapon a warrior and necro will likely need 3/4 so that’s two months PER acc.

lets point the finger at the upcoming hellish update ascended armor now
six pieces most likely similar process so another 2 weeks per piece that’s 3 months of grindin per acc.

now lets add the inevitable future dungeons will become much eaiser since ascended weapons / armor will be roughly 20% (that is no typo) better since it has a higher weapon strength plus stats. now lets recall the starting dungeon ac designed for lvl 35s and how anet had to buff it.

now imagine if they do that with ascended in mind point being gw2 is poorly designed currently for a vertical progression in pve so guess what here comes the elitist and very possible buffs keep in mind part of this is sort of hypothetical but the numbers I supplied was quite real.

also keep in mind how serious wvw guilds are with armor and weapons I highly doubt ascended doesn’t show real improvement if you can get enough of them.

it’s major issue is because of the insane time requirement it kills alts out right 1 char = at least 5 months to bring them up to the top tier and unlike trinkets who have little influence other then a few measly points in power per say weapons weapon strength will greatly enhance it’s over all effectiveness.

the only place I think is safe from this update is spvp and thank god for that I guess.

this wouldn’t be a problem if the amror was sellable or easily accessed hell was exotic really that bad. because htats what it is at the end of the day all this work to break even or get a edge on opposing players god help you if you have a life.

I was pretty happy that I FINALLY was finishing all builds that I want in my guardian and finally could begin to build my alts. That just REALLY demotivate me… Now I need came back to my Guardian and take several months to build him to full again… (not counting on all builds, becouse that will take forever)

No you don’t. Play something else. If enough people refuse to Grind, maybe they’ll wake up. I’m certainly not going to participate.

darkace.8925:

cesmode.4257:

Smith.1826:

This talk of “treadmills” is getting to the point where it’s like trying to define “grind”…or even “fun”.

Grind and fun have already been defined by arenanet.
Grind is doing one thing over and over again.

GW2 has lots.

Lies! They told us, explicitly, that they wouldn’t resort to gear grinding.

“Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.”

-Mike Obrien, President of Arenanet

This quote by Mike O’Brien should be plastered all over these forums. This…THIS is why so many feel betrayed, let down, and like all those exciting years waiting for GW 2 have been such a wasteful, crushing disappointment. Somebody stole our game, and drive a train over our community.

I say keep quoting him.

Pretty much, I don’t want to mince words or argue technicalities.

Grinding time-gated gear is, for me:

1) Not fun, it’s preparing to have fun
2) Discouraging for alts
3) Not something that this game actually needs
4) Not something I’m going to get around by buying with ingame or real funds.
5) Not something I can thing of one, single, positive thing about.
6) Most definitely the reason why I’m abandoning Guild Wars 2.

I wish there were a much larger portion of the playerbase like me – then ArenaNet might listen instead of throwing away such great innovative potential in a game. If such a large portion does exist, then it’s clear that ArenaNet are chasing profits to the exclusion of actually having happy customers.

I don’t know which it is, and anymore, I don’t care. This game is getting worse, not better, and has turned out to be a very long-anticipated, colossal disappointment. There really isn’t anything awesome about it that I can see. Pretty mediocre on average, with some really good features, and some truly terrible ones.

I don’t really care what system they use. I just want to get on with my game and not have to grind out gear for better stats. That is so shallow.

Namu.5712:

What makes you think people aren’t going to farm the hell out of teq when he is THE ONLY BOSS in the game that drops specially skinned ascended weapons, a minature and other ascended specific mats?

You haven’t been playing GW2 very long if you think this encounter will be dead after a week lol.

Absolutely agree. Yet another “dragon timer” to watch. This is going to be all most people do for a long time to come.

I also predict that ArenaNet haven’t thought through the drop rates, and people will find that they can get more than one chest per day. So they’ll really go crazy farming until the chests get nerfed, at which point the chances of a casual player getting a decent drop are going to be the same abysmal chances that exist anywhere in GW2.

I really wish there was something better to do that camp dragon spawns and farm champions and repeat the same content over and over and over in the hopes of a nice drop, because there’s nothing very interesting to do otherwise.

Oh wait, there is. It’s just not in GW2.

MikaHR.1978:

sAdam.5876:

I on the other hand don’t mind changes. Hell if somebody play more than me, he deserves to have better stats than me. It’s not USSR where everybody is equal. If it’s in form of ascended gear I’m fine with that. Those things will be account bind so no pay to win also (some of ingredients will be buy-able but not all of the).

So legendaries are P2W.

Yes

HappyPrimes.3904:

I"ll freely admit to being pretty critical of Anet on a lot of their design decisions and actions, but I for one welcome ascended gear. The bottom line is that exotics are far too easy to acquire, they’re essentially meaningless. Time gating Ascended gear may be annoying and in my onion not the best way to handle it, but at least ascended gear gives me a goal to work towards. People can panic and lose their kitten minds over whatever they think is a treadmill all they want, I’m a GW1 player, ascended gear is fine. A little vertical progression where its needed isn’t going to kill anyone, emphasis on little. The gap between exotics and ascended is smaller than the gap between rare and exotic.

I see where you’re coming from. I’d just rather have something more interesting and fun to do than grind gear. I can get gear grind, and done better, in many other MMO’s.

Smith.1826:

The concern is players becoming disinterested once they acquire said items.
The answer to that is to create interesting content.

The other concern is players gaining an ‘advantage’ ‘too early’.
The answer to that is to not create the advantage.

I’ve been asking for interesting content and a level playing field ever since it became obvious that they took everything I loved about Guild Wars and threw it in the bin.

I’m having a really difficult time understanding why they’re so obsessed with making this gear grind, time-gating, and a very rickety Living Story and refusing to implement more interesting content, and all those quality and polish things that players have been asking for over the past year.

Annoying things will keep people playing only so long. Fun things will keep them around for years. Did they forget everything they learned from Guild Wars? Or did they just not learn anything?

I have my theories, and they’re not pretty, but still…

zenleto.6179:

Chuo.4238:

All I can say at this point that we’ve been arguing amongst ourselves over months and multiple threads and issues, and ArenaNet have remained silent.

They’ve an agenda that we’ll not change. We waste our time and energy here; particular opinions are of no import.

Why the hell would anyone from Anet want to join in on any of the crap on these forums?

Though we don’t know who people are in an unofficial capacity…

lol true, I’ve been suspicious of one in particular for a while now

All I can say at this point that we’ve been arguing amongst ourselves over months and multiple threads and issues, and ArenaNet have remained silent.

They’ve an agenda that we’ll not change. We waste our time and energy here; particular opinions are of no import.

Yargesh.4965:

My point was that you personally have zero say in what happens to a game, accept it or not.

It’s taken me a year, probably just because I let hope override intelligence, but I’ve come to realize that. GW2 is not the game for me, and never will be. It was never about actually making a good game. It was about making one that’s just good enough to support a zerg/farming/buy-your-gear monetization scheme.

So I think you are right – and I’ve been deluding myself all these months.

fellyn.5083:

Raine.1394:

fellyn.5083:

Raine.1394:

My prediction is that they will make the world events giant failure fests as they have done elsewhere in the game where they have tried to make the game more “interesting”. To Anet challenge is simply instagibs from the particle blur. This will largely empty the world events just as it has Orr and we can then focus on whatever temporary LS content they have cooked up. The greater living world will become more and more lifeless and localized temporary content will be standing room only. I’m looking at you SAB. Have fun guys.

A big complaint from quite a few people that we’ve seen over and over on these forums is that events can’t fail. Literally impossible once numbers reach a certain point. Just zerg it with numbers.

What anet has done is created an event where yeah, numbers matter to an extent, but the event can still fail if the numbers aren’t coordinated.

I think it’s great.

Watch what happens. I’ve been watching since march/april and what will happen is that people will begin abandoning the events as they have events in the Cursed Shore. It’s just one more part of the game that will become a ghost town. We can’t really afford more ghost towns at this point—it really needs to turn around. Humans are not built for continuous failure; it’s not what we are about. However, it is what Anet is about and the results are already coming in.

People stopped doing Cursed Shore events because they stopped being worth the time it took to do them.

We don’t know at this point if the new Tequalty will be worth it or not so what you’re saying is just speculation and not fact.

With the Ascended carrot, however rare, people will still do it religiously.

So we’re back to engame = camping the same worldbosses over and over, watching the dragon timer websites, and moving between the same handful of waypoints.

For a game that hates farmers, this game sure is geared towards farming.

It looks like they probably did a pretty nice job with this revamp of Tequatl.

The sense I’m getting from reading all of the above, though, is that for many, it’s too little, too late, and while very nice, not anywhere near the top of the list of big issues that players have with GW2.

I’m wondering if this is just another thing that’s feeding the impression that ArenaNet aren’t really listening…

I can’t help but think…if time was spent working on the things that people have been asking for…revamping dungeons, improving the stories, improving and designing new sPvP maps, and working on all those little quality of life things (UI and sound improvements, for example, and so many other things that have been mentioned here)…

…instead of focusing on making grinds for gear that nobody even asked for…

ANet wouldn’t have made themselves such a big target.

Onshidesigns.1069:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Castaliea.3156:

Onshidesigns.1069:

GW2 needs more time before people can say which is better. Anet is still fixing mistakes from bad decisions. This is their first attempt at making real mmo.

I’m sure Anet has a huge amount of permeant content that will be released this year. As they fix the problems with the open world.

The comparison was between both game’s first years. Your defense is invalid.

the current defenders of gw2 will never fully open their eyes and see what is really happening to this game so its not really worth proving anything to them

You can not compare a CO-OP game to a real open world MMO.

Sure you can. Heck, you can even compare a board game to an MMO. It depends on what you’re comparing.

At any rate, I don’t think that the exact technical definition of Guild Wars really matters. Insisting that it does is just a way to steer people away from the heart of the discussion.

They couldn’t make an authenticator app work. I doubt we’ll see this anytime soon.

IndigoSundown.5419:

TooBz.3065:

Honest question, why is it that it’s okay that some people can’t live with cosmetic only progression, but it’s not okay that some people can’t live with gear progression?

Maybe ANet figures that the progression demographic will follow through on their threats to quit and the no progression demographic won’t. After all, they can go to other games that feature gear progression. Where can we go?

I’m starting to think that if I began a studio that made a good game that was everything GW2 promised to be…and most certainly skill-based and not gear-based…

…there’d be a lot of people who’d buy it.

hmmm….