Guild Wars 2

No – Ele’s have 4 attunements – that is the equivalent of 4 separate weapons already. Engineers have the kits and those are like separate weapons also. The other professions only have 2 sets of weapons – so in effect Ele’s and Engineers already have more weapons than the other classes. It would make both of these professions OP. If they did that then they should add an extra weapon to the others also. Who is to say once you went back into to combat you couldn’t use that (those weapons)?

I saw this on another forum and will quote it here – reasoning why an extra set is not needed — example using another profession
“A guardian is cutting his way through a large number of weak mobs rocking Hammer and Staff due to their AoE. He then comes upon a boss. Does he

a ) Go in with hammer and get steamrolled due to lack of armor/mobility
b ) Attempt to magic the boss away with the staff, realize its not working then get steamrolled
c ) Hit H, change his weapons out for e.g. mace/shield and scepter/focus and beat on that sorry boss with appropriate weapons.

All classes have the problem you described. The guardian may moan about this too, and want a weapon-set set swap button (only for out of combat mind you), but that will just end up ridiculous as the warrior will get annoyed that the guardian has access to most of his viable weapon-sets without hitting H, yet the warrior can’t access even half, and demand a weapon-set swap button. In the end, weapons are supposed to stay equipped unless there is a very good reason to change them out, that is why A.Net has made it (a tiny tiny bit) tedious to do."

In GW1, you could only use one Attunement at a time (if you picked lightning – you are stuck with it in combat and in Instance). In GW2, you are not.

I love the way, people who want this, dismiss and belittle the people who disagree with them. Very immature.

Xillllix assumes GW2 will be P2W now, nice!!

Flash.6912:

GW2 is #1 super casual MMO out there. Players can come back anytime since the best items (legendaries) you can buy is on TP, no need to grind anything!

Not the best – they is so little difference between Exotics and Legendaries -those are for cosmetics only.

Aguri.2896:

I didn’t know those were real dances… I agree with Tengu doing the chicken dance. I remember discussing this with some friends a while back… silly dances ftw.

Nope – they will be more serious. Tengu will do some type of Japanese opera style, my guess. I would assume Suzume Odori (Sendai Sparrow Dance) or something like that.

A R W E N.6895:

Sartharina.3542:

There’s plenty of “Endgame” content:
1. Working for legendaries.
2. Making a name for yourself on your server through WvW and PvP (And now the game in general, with Megaservers)
3. Becoming a leader of PvE events or in WvW.
4. Keeping up with Living Story.
5. Making and running a guild.

The question was : where is High level end game rewarding content

If you want RAIDs – Tequatl, 3-headed WURM – that is server RAIND – Nothing as dumb as what WoW, Rift , etc. offer. If you are expecting that it will be a cold day in hell before that type of content is offered.

You are basically in the WRONG GAME.

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

What you guys think about getting rid of cd on weapon swap ? I think fights specially spvp/www will become much better , players will have better access to their skills and they can rotate it to counter enemy . Another thing is elite skill . Let`s be serious 99% of these skills are crap with very long cd . Let players pick up 4th utility skill , there would be much much much more builds and better fights on pve,pvp and www .

No – sorry don’t like it.

Well, if they make an app, why wouldn’t they let a 3rd party app work? You know they don’t allow that – against EULA rules. I think they realized they couldn’t violate their own rules.

Omar Aschi Popp.7496:

Azrael.4960:

er, is making a game more challenging a bad thing? Is encouraging people to play other content a bad thing?
If all you do is train farm in the hopes of getting that shiny, that’s addiction.

I laughed at the last part.

But no you’re not wrong, playing new content is good, but when you get the feeling it’s specifically gearing towards, sayyy Gemstore, it makes you kinda bitter.

But it is not – y’all think it is because they do tend to ‘Overwhelm’ us with ads for the TP – I ignore them like I ignore other commercials.

Just play ignore the rest…

tigirius.9014:

Sunshine.4680:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

If you want free loot with no effort, then interactive games like Guild Wars 2 are not for you. In fact, there is a classic MMO that should suit your purposes just fine: Progress Quest. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Quest)

How does asking for rewards that match the difficulty mean people just want something for nothing?

It doesn’t they just like to marginalize people who are actually making valid points but instead of directing their attacks at the points people make about historically how this system is flawed and destroyed whole gaming companies they’d rather attack the people call them lazy and tell them to go elsewhere.

Well guess what we’re not going anywhere. Either argue against our points or don’t post it’s simple, isn’t there some clause about not attacking other players? Well I personally feel that their statements that somehow people are lazy and want something for nothing is in fact an attack and they shouldn’t be allowed to post such arguments. If we eliminate the fluff maybe we can get some real suggestions going on how to improve the game.

I’ve also read recently an interview talking with economist who is in charge of the economy we have. He left out alot when he was explaining some things to the interviewers, like how there were loot bugs, DR bugs, the ability to login on multiple accounts for the same queen chest on the Island launch day that gave certain lucky people an enormous advantage with not one but multiple precursors to sell which adversely affected the economy because it created this games very own 1%. It allowed people an exploit which was never addressed. Since then the costs for anything that is functional or effective in combat or crafting has steadily increased on top of many items increasing in price over a few months of having that island event make these people very rich in game.

Other more recent articles have left out this history as well as the most recent of nerfs to open world nerfs to loot. Might I point out that one of the selling points of this game was that players could play how they wished and that no one should be forced to play only in certain ways. That means no one should have to WVW, Eotm, Train, or Run dungeons endlessly in order progress if they prefer the open world.

How can we expect honesty when we’re not getting the full picture of what’s really happening for the sake of the shareholders?*

We don’t need to know that information. Also, A.net does not have shareholders, NCSoft does. Since they are a Korean company they work under Korean laws not ours.

Besides, it is arrogant of players to think they are the same as shareholders.

I don’t train and I am progressing fine. Just because you think Trains are needed for progression, doesn’t mean it is the truth. The players that do trains are just lazy.

Hobbitz.5831:

Dear NC Soft,

You have your super bad kitten ultra hardcore MMO now in Wildstar. All the amazing super pro elites are playing it and loving it. Can Guild Wars 2 please go back to being a safe haven for us casual and gulp bad players again?

I’ll buy gems!!

Signed,
Me

LOL Wildstar hardcore – ROFL too funny.

Nothing wrong with GW2, just stop trying to make everything out as A.Net’s fault (they do have some duplicity but not as much as y’all seem to make it out to be).

Flash.6912:

Dusty Moon.4382:

LordEnki.9283:

Losing players seems to be the most logical answer I suppose. Even as upset as their fan-base is they just keep rolling out these greed patches. You can pay for the living story you missed with cash soon!

Only if you don’t log onto the first 2 weeks it is open (LS2) – the older LS1 story is free the first 2 weeks – please give ‘the A.Net greed’ cry a break. It is fair.

Would rather them lock things away forever?

We’d rather have perm contents that doesn’t cost a thing except “Expansion”. No one wanting for temp contents in the first place.

Well – people wanted a ‘LIVING WORLD’ and so A.Net tried something. To me, it was fine. Since you aren’t talking for anyone but yourself – your ‘NO ONE’ comment is false (since you weren’t talking for me unless you are saying I am a NO ONE (don’t tell) – demonstrative Yes or no answers are more than likely wrong.

Also in GW1 -Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall were separate games, separate books of a trilogy, but games since you could play any of them without the other (like reading the separate books in a trilogy). There were 2 expansions in GW1 – EotN and the Historians.

It was in GW1 but it would be hard to do that since the Island that was the Guildhall in GW1 is now part of Orr.

LordEnki.9283:

Losing players seems to be the most logical answer I suppose. Even as upset as their fan-base is they just keep rolling out these greed patches. You can pay for the living story you missed with cash soon!

Only if you don’t log onto the first 2 weeks it is open (LS2) – the older LS1 story is free the first 2 weeks – please give ‘the A.Net greed’ cry a break. It is fair.

Would rather them lock things away forever?

OP, your guild is screwed. Sorry, but that is your Guild’s fault, the way it is set up. GB’s should have tabs that only officers and GL’s can add to – this way the important items will be stored there, not in a common bank tab.

Also, How does your guild recruit…..

1. Do you invite only? Not spam in main cities for members – these guilds have these issues.

2. An application process?

3. An interview process?

None of these prevents stuff like that from happening but you get a better idea about the person rather than just a random invite.

I have never run a zerker build since the release of GW2. It reminds me of the arguments we had in GW1, where everyone insisted on 15%^50% (which barely gave you more DPS compared to 14%^50%) if you run with THEIR group. It is the same thing here. More squishiness but less defense – I prefer a little extra defense – that way I can dodge when needed to save myself and my group.

If you can’t dodge out of circles then nothing will help you. Too many people in game just stand and DPS, which is funny and sad to see.

They are trying to make the game harder (as so many saw this game as a kitten game). Now that they are making it harder, people are complaining that they can’t run the same builds? Of course not silly! Learn to evolve or perish like a dinosaurs.

If we do get into Maguuma Jungle more, in LS2, I hope we see more of the creatures from GW1 there. That will really be interesting…….

Jornophelanthas.1475:

ArenaNet could have solved the “Queensdale train” issue in two possible ways to bring effort and reward back in line:

1. Increase the difficulty of the champions.
2. Decrease the reward.

Option 1 was not desirable, because starter areas are not a suitable place to put greatly difficult encounters.
So they went with option 2; decreasing the rewards. (Although the demotion of champions to veterans also made the encounters easier.)

No to 1 (as you said) – because the champs in Queensdale were for new players to understand mechanics not 50 – lvl 80’s to zerg the champ into oblivion.

2. was done but did not stop the champ train. So, the made the champs veterans. If you want the champ train now all you need do is go to the EotM – that is where the mindless zergs are now. The thing is in EotM, all you need is 15 people who play WvW and are organized to smash the little champ train zerglings into the dust – because an organized group will always smash mindlessness.

GW1 was not a sub game so why would GW2 go that way. If you think you get more out of a sub game, you are sadly mistaken.

Rouven.7409:

Dusty, now you contradict yourself. Or maybe it’s because of the wording.

Let’s try it this way, in the past skills have been split or not to accommodate the PvP/WvW aspect of the game.

Now split skills to accommodate the idea of making weapon types more viable overall in PvE.

I think you are too fixated on the “balance” part. There is a split already and Anet has said that it’s intentional and because they value ALL PARTS of the game they will split skills even more.

The OP is just asking to see examples of them doing it with PvE in mind.

I am not confused. Splitting skills like that is a bandage – they did so many in GW1, it was ridiculous. I think ‘BALANCE’ is the most important part – between all the aspects of the game. The people who want just a PvE ONLY balance don’t get or want to get that it is the same using a sledgehammer to hammer a nail. Unintended consequences will happen and then they will whine some more.

Game is NOT DESIGNED for mounts – and definitely NO to fighting off of mounts.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Rouven.7409:

@ Dusty, I hear ya, but Anet also said this?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/It-s-time-to-balance-PvP-apart-from-PvE-WvW/page/2#post1801535

So you guys know, we already split some skills. And, what’s most pertinent to the current thread, we plan to do this even more.

When we first shipped, it was awesome to have a lot of the balance be the same between PvE/WvW/PvP. But, as you guys have really started to push the game types to their limits, classes and specs that work in one areas of the game are sometimes ineffectual in others.

Due to this, we’ll have to do more splitting of skills to better balance the various areas of the game.

TL:DR – We already do this, and we’ll be using it even more in order to balance the different areas of the game effectively.

Splitting a few skills is different that actually changing the basic mechanics of the game and having a PvE-centric balance update. It will only cause issues in WvW (which is a hybrid PvE/PvP) and in PvP also.

I am mostly a PvE player, although I have recently been very happy playing WvW. I feel what is being asked will only kitten the game even more.

A PvE-centric balancing update isn’t changing entire mechanics. It would be things like ’let’s increase the skill coefficient for dancing dagger to 0.75 so people use it’. Changing game mechanics isn’t balance, it’s a system overhaul.

It would be since, UNLIKE GW1 which had a split between PvE and PvP.

If you just balance for PvE there would be a huge affect in WvW (unintended) and also in PvP.

You would be changing mechanics, because you are stressing one over the other, which is not the intent of this game – A.Net values ALL PARTS of the game equally, even if you don’t.

Zok.4956:

Dusty Moon.4382:

We DON’T have to know everything they do and that is the point.

If so, what is the point of patchnotes anyway? Just to advertise new things we can buy with gems/money?

Greetings.

N,o but the major items: Skill changes, etc. is what we need to know. The small stuff we don’t need to know.

Rouven.7409:

@ Dusty, I hear ya, but Anet also said this?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/It-s-time-to-balance-PvP-apart-from-PvE-WvW/page/2#post1801535

So you guys know, we already split some skills. And, what’s most pertinent to the current thread, we plan to do this even more.

When we first shipped, it was awesome to have a lot of the balance be the same between PvE/WvW/PvP. But, as you guys have really started to push the game types to their limits, classes and specs that work in one areas of the game are sometimes ineffectual in others.

Due to this, we’ll have to do more splitting of skills to better balance the various areas of the game.

TL:DR – We already do this, and we’ll be using it even more in order to balance the different areas of the game effectively.

Splitting a few skills is different that actually changing the basic mechanics of the game and having a PvE-centric balance update. It will only cause issues in WvW (which is a hybrid PvE/PvP) and in PvP also.

I am mostly a PvE player, although I have recently been very happy playing WvW. I feel what is being asked will only kitten the game even more.

Rouven.7409:

Azrael.4960:

(…)When there are a couple thousand skills in the game (including the 2 campaigns plus expansion) it can easily snowball out of control when other skills become FOTM.

A few utilities were split for PVP but have since been reworked and the split removed. Anet does not want to go back into having PVE/PVP split skills.

I also looks like as if Anet does not want to have “a couple thousand skills” anymore?

In GW1, very few skills were used in both PvE and PvP and many more skills were useless. A.Net knew they wanted to avoid the same situation (so many games have too many skills and most of them are just wasted – Rift is that way).

Chadramar.8156:

You say “NO” to your own false assumption, but seem to have no problem with PvE suffering for the benefit of PvP. Hardly fair. And it is false because there is a simple solution: balance PvE and PvP separately. It is already implemented in some small ways, but not nearly enough.

As already stated, YOU CANNOT. It is NOT a false assumption. That PvE and PvP are separate is a false assumption. The game was designed this way. As talked about in this article – http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/09/flameseeker-chronicles-arenanet-talks-pve-vs-pve/

“Moving on to Guild Wars 2: What sort of factors were taken into consideration as you began planning both the PvP and PvE sides of the game?

Eric Flannum: We treat both the PvE and PvP aspects of the game as being equally important. When we first sat down to plan the game, we knew that we wanted robust PvP and PvE, and we also wanted to introduce a third type of content that spanned the two with what would eventually become WvW. It’s very important to know and recognize how all of your systems will interact with and affect each other.

For example, one of the first major decisions was eliminating the concept of dedicated PvP characters from the game, deciding instead on a system where you took the same character into each of the different game types (PvP,PvE,WvW) and your character changed to suit the game type as they needed to. So in PvP all characters can be set to the same power level and have access to the set of skills we designate for PvP while still being the same character you play in PvE.

We felt like this helped tie the different parts of the game together and place an importance on the player’s identity as a specific character, which is of course an important aspect of all RPGs. This decision has had a profound effect on Guild Wars 2, and it’s a decision that we could only have made by knowing that we value PvE, PvP, and WvW equally right from the start of development."

You cannot change this without redesigning the game – plain and simple – one affects the other.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Xae Isareth.1364:

They should not be linked. They need to be separate. Let me give you an example to display why.

Confusion: it’s a mechanic which forces the target to make a decision: attack and eat damage or not attack. NPCs don’t make decisions, they aren’t alive, so this mechanic is just moot in PvE and there’s no way you can balance ur under one umbrella: it’s either going to be the strongest DoT in the game because mobs always eat the damage or one of the weakest because mibs don’t attack enough. Pick your poison.

They are linked, you cannot balance one w/o affecting the other – A.Net has said that many times. GW1 was exactly the same. If you change one you change the other. Sure you can change a skill or two for PvP/PvE difference but the basic mechanics are the same

The only way you can have them not linked is if they are on separate servers with separate characters and that will never happen.

Then how do you balance confusion for PvE then? Currently it’s useless. How do you make it not the same thing as bleed?

Well, conditions are useless in PvE currently and confusion is a condition. It is an razor’s edge type of balancing. That is what A.Net is working on.

Xae Isareth.1364:

They should not be linked. They need to be separate. Let me give you an example to display why.

Confusion: it’s a mechanic which forces the target to make a decision: attack and eat damage or not attack. NPCs don’t make decisions, they aren’t alive, so this mechanic is just moot in PvE and there’s no way you can balance ur under one umbrella: it’s either going to be the strongest DoT in the game because mobs always eat the damage or one of the weakest because mibs don’t attack enough. Pick your poison.

They are linked, you cannot balance one w/o affecting the other – A.Net has said that many times. GW1 was exactly the same. If you change one you change the other. Sure you can change a skill or two for PvP/PvE difference but the basic mechanics are the same

The only way you can have them not linked is if they are on separate servers with separate characters and that will never happen.

You cannot balance just PvE in this game. PvE, WvW and PvP are linked. You cannot balance one without thinking of the other.

What you want is an OP PvE – NO

We DON’T have to know everything they do and that is the point. They want to fix what THEY think are exploits and problems. We don’t have to be in on every decision and every fix that shows and ‘entitled’ attitude. They said they would not tell us every fix they do to the game.

Lothirieth.3408:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Every TP I have seen there has been gambling by players. You cannot avoid that.

Every game has the same issue – it is not a unique problem to this game. If the drop rate was the same for all items, y’all would complain also. That is why there are Rare – ultra-rare – OMG rare :-) items.

I agree with the first bit. Flippers are in every game and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But the second bit I don’t completely agree with. Other games I’ve played have made it where you earn best in slot gear through completing raids or dungeons and not randomly farming gold to then buy stuff off the TP. In other games I was completely self sufficient. I could farm any mat I needed and raided for all my gear. It was rare I bought stuff off any auction house. This is so very not possible in GW2. I’d rather GW2 was more like Rift regarding a cash shop. Still have it where people can buy store currency with in game gold or real life money, so there’s still that exchange, but keep best in slot armor only obtainable through challenging gameplay. I think that would go farther towards satisfying more people. Flippers could still have their fun, people could go to the TP/AH if they didn’t feel like farming, and those who wish to be self sufficient could be.

AH no – RIFT you can BUY the best armor now. In GW2, there is such a small difference between Ascended and Exotic (Ascended if you play Fractals) that it depends on how good the player is. Your post shows you think you can buy the best, you can’t – A legendary is mainly a fluffy, blinky skin (there is not much difference between legendary and Ascended – you can’t BUY ascended, only craft it).

Not every notice. People are exaggerating again.

TSW is going to crash and burn soon as the company is running out of money. So that model is not very good.

SWTOR’s is what I call the ‘pay door’ – if you want to go beyond a certain level, you have to pay. That is a P2W type.

I like GW2 the way it is.

Nope to all of them – I think they will add a face and not another profession.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Devata.6589:

-snip-

So don’t “grind” the gold then. Just play the game and enjoy it. Set the cash shop item in the back of your mind. Its still working ‘from item to item’ as you put it, just in a different way. Yes, in a perfect world, we could earn everything in game, but that’s not how it works here.

So, per your example that RPer will never want to go to the zones where these mobs exist? They will never want to explore the new maps as part of their storylines, the growth of their characters? Maybe not, but I highly doubt it. I guess on this one we’ll agree to disagree because your ‘pay to win’ differs from the typical ‘pay to win’ definition.

We were discussing a MMO, so I kept the comparison to MMOs, yes. (It took quite a while for many post-WoW p2p mmos to finally suck it up and go without a monthly fee)

Although if you want to look at console games, those aren’t an expansion model. Each game is its own game, they don’t typically tie in together beyond using the same lore / story / universe. Regular rpg pc games do sometimes do ‘expansions’ depending on the game, but those companies also tend to make more than just one game and its associated expansions. They are also much smaller in scale and have to come out much more frequently in order to sustain their income, which is why it worked for GW1. It was much smaller in scale than GW2.

GW2’s cash shop is essentially the equivalent of WoW’s monthly fee, when it comes to income generation. The only difference is that your monthly fee is paid by someone else that is willing to spend money because you won’t.

It’s an argument I see a lot in political discussion…

That’s not the same thing. At least, it’s not the same thing I’m talking about here.

The expansion based model should be able to generate enough money

“Should be”
“Should be”
“Should be”

You keep saying that, but the bottom line is that you do not know. Hell, I do not know.

Obviously people smarter than us took a look at the options and decided differently. We don’t know if it would generate enough revenue, obviously they opted to go with a cash shop. We don’t know if it would have been an effective model, how many people purchased all of the available GW1 games? They have that data from which to make such decisions. You prefer it the old way, but the business decided that wasn’t the best model for them. Short of buying them out, there really isn’t anything you can do about it.

I don’t know if the Chinese part is for me?

I wasn’t asking if the Chinese stuff was for you. I think you’re missing what I’m saying. I was discussing revenue generated from the sales of the Chinese game, and the fact that it will eventually taper off. Anet needs a steady source of income, which box sales are not. Simply because of what they are, they cannot be a ‘steady, reliable’ source of income because eventually people are going to stop buying the boxes in any significant quantity. Anet requires a steady income source outside of box purchases, in order to fund development and pay thier bills. Other MMOs use monthly fees. ANet uses a cash shop. The main difference is that in p2p mmos, you have to pay each month, where with the cash shop, not everyone has to spend money. I’d bet the majority of players actually don’t.

It would because the game-play is still effected by it.

I think again you’re missing what I’m saying. If they gave us all the stuff we normally got in an expansion (armor, weapons, dungeons, etc) for free, if you spent 10$ in the cash shop, it wouldn’t be any different. Spending 60$ on an expansion affects game play too, if gives you more stuf… It’s the same difference.

Of course, there would be those that wouldn’t spend anything in the cash shop, and unlike GW1, would still get all that new content.

You don’t, I do because I have fun in working directly towards those items and don’t find it fun to grind gold for it.

I guess it’s just how you look at it. I have shop item goals and I never ‘grind gold’ during my play, but that’s just the difference between you and me.

From the general sounds of things (and not just from this thread of conversation), GW2 just is not your game Devata. You want to like it, but the cash shop completely shuts you off. Somehow that one thing makes the entire rest of the game not enjoyable for you, because you can’t collect everything right when you want to do it.

No, it is not the same as WoW’s monthly sub – Wow also has a CS. You can buy your lvls, etc – it is getting to be a P2W. If Blizzard could get all their money from subs they wouldn’t have put a CS in the game. The original idea for WoW’s sub was to pay for the rental of their servers until theirs came up.

Rouven.7409:

I think you would want to be careful not to create too many “niche” consumables. In a sense that the offsets might punish certain playstyles more than others.

I’m sure some people would like to play around with that and create new “metas” for their profession.

I light of the OP I would think that this would be a lot harder to balance though (granting random boons etc).

I totally agree that this would be too hard balance. Interesting idea though.

tigirius.9014:

Dusty Moon.4382:

tigirius.9014:

Completely agree with all three. But there are two other major issues with the TP. First they made it the center of the games experience. There is no farming to be had, you go out you manage to get a few items from the drops that do occur and you sell those for gold to buy what you do need, that’s not farming the items you need yourself, that’s farming gold to be able to buy these things. That’s a terrible system and it goes right along with your first item.

Second is too much RNG seriously why are bags from the laurel vendor a random item drop when you open them? If you’re going to spend laurels you should be able to buy a quantity of the exact T6 item you need for crafting, there should be no mystery, no gamblingto this. There’s also the issue of gambling in the farming of bags. You have an RNG roll to get a bag, that’s modified by DR, and an RNG roll to see what comes out of it, also modified by DR.

DR has gotten so bad that I’ve personally witnessed getting Unidentifiable Objects from boss bags this past week alone! I mean cmon you can’t even let the bags be free of DR? Bug or not it’s ridiculous and it’s NOT the first time we’ve seen this behavior, remember all of the boxes disappearing from champions and dungeons? Yeah that was DR too. And this is aside from the fact that DR has done exactly 0 to get rid of gold sellers.

I don’t think it is the center of the game experience. I mean this is not a P2W game with the TP. If you want to use it, fine, if you don’t, fine too. This is the point. Nothing in the TP is needed and everything you get there (except for the armor skins which are EXTRA).

What makes the TP front and center?

If you look at the Gold Sellers, they are stealing accounts – as many of the accounts do not have 0 achievement points (as they did before) – many have 400 or more (meaning stolen accounts). If people would not buy gold, they wouldn’t be in game but people do so it makes the rewards out way the risks.

What makes it front and center? Hmmm let’s see the double RNG gambling on T6 materials comes to mind, the fact that rares don’t always drop from open world or bosses, the fact that Unidentifiable Object has become the newest in a long line of continual bugs with DR comes to mind.

When you can’t farm adequately without spending an entire month or more on a single item ( Dontain, a game reviewer on youtube, I think spent like several months trying to get up enough of the materials he needed for his legendary) needed to fulfill a 250 item requirement for crafting, that’s a problem. When skins sell for 540 gold a piece that’s a problem. When runes/sigils sell for 12-15 gold a pop and are only available from the gambling style drops that’s a problem. Unless you’re looking from the point of view of one of those lucky accounts that never seems to fail at getting loot no matter what happens in a patch.

Every TP I have seen there has been gambling by players. You cannot avoid that.

Every game has the same issue – it is not a unique problem to this game. If the drop rate was the same for all items, y’all would complain also. That is why there are Rare – ultra-rare – OMG rare :-) items.

No – do not remove.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Devata.6589:

-snip-

My point was that cosmetic items in the shop aren’t game impacting. They are cosmetic, they don’t affect the game world. It’s ‘pay to look shiny.’ Yes, that impacts how you and I play because of our play styles. We can’t…say, go do a jumping puzzle and get that reward. We have to either use cash or earn gold, but in the earning gold scenario that’s not any different than buying the mini (if it were tradeable) because you either couldn’t or didn’t want to complete the content. In that respect it’s really no different than GW1.

Stats on the other hand are ‘pay to win’ and should never, ever be in the cash shop. You think it wouldn’t affect you, but when they start putting in harder content that you can’t do without those stats, because you can’t kill the mobs, then its blatantly obvious how it affects the game, and not just person A or person B. Sadly, I’m pretty sure the day is coming where ascended will be a necessity and not just a nicety.

I will point out that “most game companies” also charge a 15$ a month fee to access their game, on top of their expansion costs. That is their means of keeping a solid income flow. On top of all of that, those game companies also offer cash shops. Outside of GW1, I cannot think of any game that is not either p2p or p2w, which generates their cash flows. GW2 cash shop gives you the option to spend money to continue supporting the game, via items that are cosmetic niceties. They also give people that don’t have the cash the option to exchange gold for those items, which most other games (including GW1) do not do.

In regards to China, yeah they got a lot more box sales, but those are going to dwindle eventually, just like they did in NA/EU. It gives them a pile of cash ‘right now’ which they can stretch, but they still need a stable, reliable income on which to base future development forecasts. They have 300+ people that they have to pay salaries for, plus any number of temps or interns that earn an income that aren’t necessarily listed on the employment roster. Like all businesses, they have bills to pay for not just GW2, but also to maintain GW1. I honestly don’t think simply relying on box sales will cut it at this point. Sure, when they were half the size they are now, and able to push out a small game every 6 months to year, yeah I can see it. However, they are bigger operation now. Look at all the voice acting for GW2 as just 1 example. GW1 didn’t have anywhere near that much. You think some of the actors they hired to do voice work come cheaply? No, unless they are consistently selling a significant number of boxes every month, that income alone isn’t going to cut it.

I’m not advocating for no expansions. Not in the least. I like the LS, and I wouldn’t mind seeing a boxed expansion either. I think they are completely capable of doing both; however they seem to have the desire to want to give us more story without charging us over and over for it. I’m not going to look that gift horse in the mouth. If the story gets better, and we start getting things like new maps, new skills, new weapons, etc for free, I’ll gladly spend some money in the gem shop to support it. It wouldn’t be any different than spending money on an expansion at that point. Except that they didn’t shove it into a box and make me buy it for a very specific set price in order to play it. They just gave it to me. (Side tangent, can you imagine the screaming had they boxed LS1 and sold it as mini expansion rather than being free? Terrifying)

I thought the cash shop n GW1 came in around NF time, although maybe it was GWEN. It’s been too long at this point. I could have sworn we could purchase costumes and such before then though. Maybe not.

Yes, sometimes it feels like they focus on the cash shop, but as long as it stays cosmetic and I have the option to work towards it via gold, then I have no issue with it. Would I like to see new weapon and armor skins in the game itself, rather than just in the shop? Yes, and I’ve said that many times. Outside of that my only real kitten with the cash shop is the rng involved for certain things – like the dye packs or the weapon skins. However, even those can be purchased via gold, since they are tradeable and do end up on the trading post. Honestly, I think if they just balanced it out a little more (1 new set earnable in game to 2 sets in the shop for example) there would be less issue.

CS in GW1 was there from the beginning but was less than what it was say starting with Factions. Buying skills for cash, etc was there (for PvP only but when you unlocked them it made it easier to do PvE also).

Remember, it is OVER 250 years from GW1. Also read the GW novels – they fill in much of the story. Since they are out there to read, A.Net probably felt they did not have to fill in the storyline.

Much can change in 250 years.

That is the point. Why should you have the stacks from a weapon is not active? I think if you switch away they should be gone and degrade for a certain amount per time until it is zero. If you switch back to it you get the stack back minus the degradation.

Ve Salu Sigtyr.4807:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Ve Salu Sigtyr.4807:

I had to re write this post a few times, I don’t know how to word how I feel about this game. I love it, I really do, or at least I love Tyria, Elona, Cantha etc.

I played GW1 from the get go, and I liked it, it was just something else. Got all the expansions, loved each and every one of them. Each one felt alive, a new continent and it was full of lore, and people.

GW2 just seems so pale in comparison, so devoid of meaning and strife. There is no depth to it. It seems like its just one big stall while the world circles the drain to closure. I would LITERALLY. FREIKEN LITERALLY CRY if July 1st came out, and on the map was a Mission Marker marking a mission for travel to Cantha.

I miss the story, I miss the PEOPLE. I miss the NPC FREIKEN PEOPLE.

I don’t feel pushed to the edge by the dragons, I feel like the dragons should feel pushed to the edge by the people that use them as a source of income. Minion of Zhaitan? You mean heavy loot bag. Cmere you get in mah pocket and be worth money later.

The risen have NOTHING on the Afflicted. The dragons PALE in comparison to Shiro or god forbid something like Kanaxai. Our enemies and our allies are all paper doll flat and we live in a world of grays.

The world itself is WONDEROUS. ITs beautiful. It’s vibrant and dank in all the right places and right times. But It is empty. I still play GW1, I still face off against real enemies.

A few guys in an apartment did it better and bringing in so many outside forces killed their game. I will continue to support it for my love of Tyria, but I’ll long be awaiting the day Tyria is truly in danger.

Oh yeah and give me my kittening Underworld and FoW back you kittens.

The Gods are gone from the world. Why would there be FoW and UW, when the Gods are not represented in the world? Also, the Temple of the Ages is a ruin in the middle of the swamp in Queensdale.

I feel GW2 is more alive than GW1. Why? The instancing – GW1 cities were just a glorified lobby (like Battle.net for D2 and D3). That to me does not feel alive any more. I have evolved and moved on.

I still play GW1, more for the remembrance factor but that is all.

I get the lore and I understand. But I miss it. I miss the depth of culture and religion present in the world. I loved the idea of a GW sequel and I was happy to hear about GW2, but it seems like the buried the old and built a new Tyria on top of it without looking back.

And on the subject of lore, shouldn’t skills like Hounds of Balthazar, Reaper of Grenth, Prayer to Kormir, Prayer to Lysaa, Prayer to Dwayna etc have no effect in a world without Gods?? Lore is tentative at best, what has left may return. What was corrupted can be cleansed. I would join an army to march on a corrupted God and to bring them back to Tyria, to make a meaningful change that isn’t done simply so I can trade in some purple drank for Obsidian Shards. I would happily traverse the underworld and resurrect Grenth or Dhuum if it meant I got to see someone get Dhuumed for hacking now and then. GOD would I pay money to see someone get Dhuumed.

I agree though on some points, the gw2 community is MASSIVE, but I want us to be given a challenge, things are stale, easy, complacent. I want to see the might of creatures that change the world. The dragons are currently just a source of income, I only ever felt challenged by Teq the first day of his rework, that was a step in the right direction.

You have 4 other Races now not just the Human-centric one.

I think LS2 might give us a challenge.

Did you ever thing they were planning to go into China when the released GW2? Maybe it took that long to translate the game properly and they didn’t want to release an expansion before the China release.

Y’all have not responded based on the rules of the forum – y’all are just whining a lot. This will end up in the trashcan since there is already a thread on mega servers.

People (READ GUILDS) would have complained that a server merge would force them onto a server that they did not want to play with (server ID is only worth anything in WvW and PvP) anything else it doesn’t matter.

Shen Slayer.3058:

And the trait system in GW2 is terrible, who at Anet thought that was a good idea. They should just release the skills and let us create our own build like GW1, instead of playing the templates that they wants us to only play.

You can create as many builds as there were VIABLE builds (I don’t mean builds like for HoH, AB, JQ,, etc that were arena specific) in GW1 (and there aren’t that many). Too many people use the cookie cutter attitude and say that is all there is, but there are more than that. What templates are they forcing down your throat? NONE – what you are saying is a player defined attitude, not the game. The same thing happened in GW1, there were only specific builds that people played and on the forums, people were complaining that there was not enough diversity.

They will never just give skills again, like in GW1, as it was too imbalanced and so many were just utter garbage.

Ve Salu Sigtyr.4807:

I had to re write this post a few times, I don’t know how to word how I feel about this game. I love it, I really do, or at least I love Tyria, Elona, Cantha etc.

I played GW1 from the get go, and I liked it, it was just something else. Got all the expansions, loved each and every one of them. Each one felt alive, a new continent and it was full of lore, and people.

GW2 just seems so pale in comparison, so devoid of meaning and strife. There is no depth to it. It seems like its just one big stall while the world circles the drain to closure. I would LITERALLY. FREIKEN LITERALLY CRY if July 1st came out, and on the map was a Mission Marker marking a mission for travel to Cantha.

I miss the story, I miss the PEOPLE. I miss the NPC FREIKEN PEOPLE.

I don’t feel pushed to the edge by the dragons, I feel like the dragons should feel pushed to the edge by the people that use them as a source of income. Minion of Zhaitan? You mean heavy loot bag. Cmere you get in mah pocket and be worth money later.

The risen have NOTHING on the Afflicted. The dragons PALE in comparison to Shiro or god forbid something like Kanaxai. Our enemies and our allies are all paper doll flat and we live in a world of grays.

The world itself is WONDEROUS. ITs beautiful. It’s vibrant and dank in all the right places and right times. But It is empty. I still play GW1, I still face off against real enemies.

A few guys in an apartment did it better and bringing in so many outside forces killed their game. I will continue to support it for my love of Tyria, but I’ll long be awaiting the day Tyria is truly in danger.

Oh yeah and give me my kittening Underworld and FoW back you kittens.

The Gods are gone from the world. Why would there be FoW and UW, when the Gods are not represented in the world? Also, the Temple of the Ages is a ruin in the middle of the swamp in Queensdale.

I feel GW2 is more alive than GW1. Why? The instancing – GW1 cities were just a glorified lobby (like Battle.net for D2 and D3). That to me does not feel alive any more. I have evolved and moved on.

I still play GW1, more for the remembrance factor but that is all.

Xenon.4537:

-#3 – Actually I think at least 3 of the PvP maps were added post-release. Skyhammer was one, albeit not so popular. Spiritwatch was another, and iirc Temple of the Silent Storm was one of the first ones added. Then there’s that new deathmatch arena, but we shall see how that goes…

The rest I agree with, would be nice.

And #7 – Real, actual GvG

You can GvG – ever go into the arena in Obsidian Sanctum? Off of TC, there are always guilds scrimmaging in that arena. You can also set up a private PvP arena and GvG in that. What else do you want? What you want is the GW1 version of GvG, but I don’t think that will happen. Since all guild halls were instanced on the same piece of map and that part of the map is taken over by Orr, not sure where the GvG would be held.

If you don’t like GW2, then don’t play – jeez. What are y’all, some type of martyrs?

They said, from the start, GW2 would be different from GW1. It is the fans that don’t want to change.

I am a fan of both.

GW1 was NOT an MMO (hence the first ‘M’ in MMO – MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE) – I mean the max you could have playing on one team was 12 – that is NOT massive. It is more static, now that I go back. I find GW1 very plastic and not very fluid at all. The instanced basis of GW1 is what makes it feel that way – the towns are just graphical lobbies, nothing more.

I prefer Elite Canthan from GW1 but then people would say, ‘See, they ARE planning to go back to Cantha!’. That would be a slippery slope.

Not a great or useful idea. That is what the account bank is for.

Harper.4173:

Prophet.6257:

Technically yes it is, but don’t expect too much cross over. The GW2 team seems to want to focus on their own stories and give little acknowledgment to the original game (besides some lip service and occasional references)

Personally, it doesn’t even feel like the same planet to me.

Unfortunately I’m coming to terms with the fact that it might be true.
I hope season 2 gives us more ties to GW1 lore. I hope we see more returning elements ( especially armor and weapons).

Here’s hoping.

LS2 will not, more than likely, give more ties to GW1 that are not in the game already. There are plenty in game, one just needs to look.

GW2 is not GW1. A.Net is not the same company it was when GW1 was put out. That is a realistic fact and one has to understand that.

Harper.4173:

Prophet.6257:

Technically yes it is, but don’t expect too much cross over. The GW2 team seems to want to focus on their own stories and give little acknowledgment to the original game (besides some lip service and occasional references)

Personally, it doesn’t even feel like the same planet to me.

Unfortunately I’m coming to terms with the fact that it might be true.
I hope season 2 gives us more ties to GW1 lore. I hope we see more returning elements ( especially armor and weapons).

Here’s hoping.

There are SO many ties to GW1 in GW2 already. I can see many people did not read the novels put out in the interim between the games, as that covers much of the lore and how GW2 got the way it is.

I have also found so many little clues around GW2, such as the clues about Cantha in the Priory office in Destiny’s Reach, etc. They are there if you want to look and take the time to read them all.

Behellagh.1468:

I’m going to be called a white knight but here goes.

In my experience, if you don’t like the food or service at a restaurant and after numerous complaints to the owners, nothing changes, you stop going there.

What you don’t do is set up across the street from them on a folding chair with a bullhorn telling the arriving customers that the service and food stink and would be so much better if the owners just listen to you. If the place is still in business and they still get an decent clientele of regulars, where is your proof that what the owners are doing is wrong? Seems to be working out for them. Parking lot is always full and people seem to be enjoying themselves as they leave after their meal, only to return again several times during the month or even week.

I know. You all wanted something different. Something closer to what you had with the first game. It’s been over a year and a half since it went live. It doesn’t look as if your comments and complaints are making any headway. So when do you give up and move on, or move back since Guild Wars is still running? When do you stop jousting windmills?

So accept what good you can find in the game now, and by some of the posts it seems very little, or look for something better. I never understood how people can stay in abusive relationships and I’m seeing some of the same signs here. We’ll give ArenaNet another chance to see if Living Story 2 is any better. Maybe it’ll be different this time.

Honestly I think there’s a calling for therapists who specialize in getting people to leave MMOs they no longer like but can’t leave for some reason.

Great post – it seems many game forums have similar types of people. So maybe it is a bigger problem than the game?