Guild Wars 2

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If it feels wrong, if it feels like it is way too easy/profitable/almost cheat worthy, it is probably an exploit. Allowing everyone to know of every exploit or loophole would only lead to masses of players attacking it assuming “hey, I can do this because everyone is so should be ok”.

Imagine for a second that Microsoft said “Today we have X exploit, also there are 973,386,347 other exploits people aren’t aware of. Let us list them, and their possible outcomes for you all.” Why that would be a hackers dream. Instead think of the updates you get constantly. Those are patches, which you can liken to GW2 patches. Yes some are content, and some are simply bugs, but also in there whether written or not are probably exploits. Blatantly admitting to flaws in a system to the crowd only allows for people to try and circumvent any mechanics that could detect them doing it. It furthers the exploit by adding a sense of “Oh you CAN’T do this!” And a savvy gamer will come back with, “Watch me!” They admit the problem after it has been fixed, hence the updates. It is much better to work on exploitable things in the dark and find fixes than to let everyone know they are there. It makes no sense to tell everyone all the holes, just so that everyone can teeter on the edge to see how close they can get without falling in. Give MMO’s some credit, they weren’t born yesterday. Well at least not this one.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

Pukknub,

You’re right. Real world examples do fail pretty fast. So let me give you two scenarios, and you can tell me which you would prefer.

Player Judy:

- Guild Wars 2 is her first MMO
- She plays a few hours a week

Scenario A:

Judy is exploring a dark corner of a house and finds a bottle called “Elixir.” She picks it up and presses “2” and takes a drink. The bottle doesn’t disappear. She does it again, and it keeps going. Judy decides she’s scored and found a cool secret bottle, and proceeds to press the button 300 times.

Eventually, she starts wondering if this isn’t working as intended. She logs onto the forums and looks for a topic regarding this. Because explaining the exploit could result in being banned, she doesn’t feel confident in asking if this bottle is working as intended. Yet, because she can’t find any additional information, she’s also not sure if it’s even an issue.

She logs back in and finds out her account has been terminated due to using an exploit. Sad and frustrated, she uninstalls the game and moves on.

Scenario B:

Judy logs into Guild Wars 2 and is prompted with a message that states:

“Exploit Warning!

It has been recently discovered that there is a bottle called “Elixir” in the town of Ratville that does not work as intended. This will be fixed in an upcoming update, but any players using this bottle will risk having their account terminated."

Judy reads, and says, “Whew, ok cool…avoid that!”

See the difference? In Scenario B, Judy is an informed player. In addition all other players are also informed meaning that anyone, including Judy taking advantage of the exploit risks being banned.

It also means that Judy isn’t required to search the forums for information, because the information is pushed right to her. No guessing, no wondering, no fear, no mistakes, just informed players, making informed choices.

This makes me think of:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/banned-for-335-hours/first#post1769018

I checked my personal website, it had a B. That is interesting lol.

Vayne.8563:

TwoBit.5903:

Game development requires many different specializations, so it’s not unheard of to shuffle or even lay off personnel once the is little or no use for their specialization. It all depends on which direction management wants to take development, not necessarily the health of the game. Unless knowledge of at least the kinds of employees laid off is provided, information of layoffs may as well be pulled out of thin air.

Speaking which, what happened to certain designers at GW2? We don’t really hear from designers like Eric Flannum anymore. Speaking of which two of the three founding members of ArenaNet aren’t here anymore. I’m not trying to insinuate anything (well, I am actually and insinuate is all I can really do), but maybe there have been major layoffs at ArenaNet as well.

One of the company founders left off early in the game’s history. The other one went to produce a Zombie MMO. I’m sure, like in any creative project, there must have been either creative or personal differences. I can’t see walking out on a game as late as Jeff Strand did without him being unhappy. Though, actually, before he left Anet, he worked for NCsoft first. From what he said in statements, he was tired of being an excecutive and wanted to be on the front line again. I’m guessing there’s more to it than that, but it’s just a guess.

Eric Flannum is still working for Anet. He just isn’t fronting the media anymore. This is probably because Colin is so popular with a certain segment.

In a lot of games, concept artists leave toward the end of production (but less so in MMOs since there will likely be expansions) though Anet did lose it’s head concept artist…but he was hired away by another company.

The difference is, when a company lays off 30% of it’s staff or 50% of it’s staff, that’s when you know there are problems. When a company loses a few individuals, that’s not publicized as much because it’s part of doing business. Happens all the time.

SWToR laid off a big percentage of it’s staff and when you do that, you really can’t hide it. It becomes news. Same thing with what happened with Big Huge Games (Curt Shillings company, the guys who made Kingdoms of Amular). Their death was pretty public (and a bloody mess). One of the highest guys in Funcomm, pretty sure it was the CEO, resigned the day TSW launched. That raised some eyebrows, but a short time later they lost a third of their staff due to disappointing sales figures.

You hear about stuff like this. If Anet had to lay off more than ten percent of their staff, it would be news and it would be reported in the business papers. The closest thing we saw was NCSOFT West restructuring at one point, but it didn’t come with a huge loss of jobs.

I follow the business end because it interests me. I’ve been following MMO business news for many years now.

Actually one of the reasons I believe Guild Wars 2 was delayed is because when Jeff Strand left to make his zombie MMO, he took a few keys staff members over with him.

Heres only interesting thing I can find so far on Jeff lol

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/guild-wars-cocreator-leaves-ncsoft-6215166?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Strain

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Alcohol
Alcohol is a type of consumable that causes intoxication and counts towards progress for the Thirst Slayer achievement. The cost of alcohol is based on the number of points it provides towards Thirst Slayer. With a few exceptions, one point costs 8 or 7 . Therefore, the cost to max Thirst Slayer is 80g or 700,000karma .

Most employees in MMO’s do play the game regularly in off time, and sometimes while working. Their off-time experience can lead to finding bugs or issues that they can bring in to work the next day. If you check out NCsoft, most of the CM’s also have several characters in game that they PVP/PVE with in AION. I’m sure the same can be said for GW2. Also I think I remember a few devs saying they have favorite classes they play.

I’m not sure if this is solely a suggestion thread, but it does pertain just to living world. I’ll start by saying this isn’t my idea, this has been mentioned in several other threads. But I haven’t seen a thread dedicated to the idea. (Correct me if I missed one and this is a repeat.) I am adding on anything I believe would better the general idea.

I think the living story ends should allow players to receive one weapon ticket for trade to get a skin. Now it is called flame and frost, so I’m hoping there may be a frost style weapon to counter the fused ones. The ticket should be account bound, and 1 per account. So technically you would finish both/all the stories and receive one fused and one frost ticket. This would allow the weapon skins to remain somewhat rare as only one character could wield it. I believe the point of these skins being so rare is to allow them to not become an every day skin. Much like dungeon skins have become the norm for many players. Both tickets would still be available inside the BL chests for those who are lucky enough to get them that way. This idea allows for 2 possible ways of getting them, while keeping them rare.

After the one skin both fused and frost, players could then; if they wish, purchase keys to try and get more.

So hopefully this thread can be seen by devs and the people who wanted this idea can be heard. I understand the frustration some people have about the BL randomness of getting skins, but please keep in mind that is not the purpose of this discussion.

So how many people would like to see this idea implemented, and does anyone have anything to add to this?

Thank you for your time.

Assyrian.4827:

I think GW2 is Safe for now but after new MMOs hit the market there is no doubt it will lose a lot of players people want to try something new and gw2 will be something from the past.
So how to stop players from leaving:

1- Improve the game mechanics (just do one of the dragon events and you will see exactly what’s wrong it is only zerg dps/rez ) lack of combat depth is there and nobody can say it not.

2- Add more skills (I wish if someone from Arena Net will give us any info about this they never talk about this).
GW2 is becoming more like Farmville go collect your eggs(daily), milk your cow (dragon chest)…………………………………… no challenge.

I don’t think the main idea is to stop people from leaving. Arenanet has said they realize people want variety and should go enjoy other games, come back and play this as well. I think the true focus would be “how do we get them to come back after the initial appeal of those other games dies down?” And furthermore, a focus I’m sure they are intent on is how do we simply keep people playing in general, to make this “one” of the MMO’s they play regularly.

They do make things simpler. You can start out with a cheapy, I much rather prefer skill one clicking with my thumb than clicking it on screen or pressing 1. I use the death adder, only 2 extra buttons but a lot easier for me to maneuver since I tend to get carpel tunnel easily.

Nappychappy.7046:

Geotherma.2395:

Maestro.5376:

Geotherma.2395:

Here’s what it looked like to me today.

Yeah, it still doesn’t look the same as the screenshot on the Wiki. I dunno if this is just something they did to the dyes themselves or what.

It could have been, someone mentioned it says Photoshopped? I haven’t seen, but like I said in my previous post most pics don’t look the same as what I see on my screen. So I end up enhancing all my pictures to make them not look so dull/dark. So they may have done the same.

Metadata:
Software used-Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0

In that thread, months ago, people were complaining about the dullness compared to a vendor, or NPC who had it equipped. Comparing vendor to player it was very different.

The other point you make, about settings. I also play on max settings, but most armor that has any reflective properties work as intended. I will add that armor has a lot of glitches, or maybe it’s just rushed. Could be a file issue, still, I do really like the shine of items that offer it.

It was weird but when I used medium shader I could see clearly reflections of the background on my shield. On high it was just shiny, no reflection. I have GTX 650 on quality setting. I did see the same reflections after I changed the setting on the NPC, but the NPC in the picture looks a bit more blue toned. Below is the pic I took with fraps not in game screen shot. And with shaders on medium. I might check out my settings to see if I could improve by manually adjusting aspects. Unfortunately I wasn’t around right at launch, but I can imagine people notice stuff like that. I think GW2 (for me) is about an 8 as far as graphics. Definitely love the cinematics, and the style is all new to me.

Know whats wierd, and maybe I’m just being a noob.. but, when you have shaders on medium you can see reflections, or I can on my shield. On high I can’t lol.

Maestro.5376:

Geotherma.2395:

Here’s what it looked like to me today.

Yeah, it still doesn’t look the same as the screenshot on the Wiki. I dunno if this is just something they did to the dyes themselves or what.

It could have been, someone mentioned it says Photoshopped? I haven’t seen, but like I said in my previous post most pics don’t look the same as what I see on my screen. So I end up enhancing all my pictures to make them not look so dull/dark. So they may have done the same.

Metadata:
Software used-Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0

MossyStump.9461:

Much better, thank you

“May I use your art or images for items, such as clothing, toys, or other game-related goods?
Our art assets-be they concept art, in-game screenshots, verbal content, or renders-are all copyrighted materials. Their use is strictly prohibited unless approved in advance and in writing by ArenaNet. Specific questions concerning the appropriate use of our content should be directed to community@arena.net.”

Worst comes to worst, I’ll do this – Though, I’m not sure if it’s an issue because it would be for personal use? I’m not entirely sure if it’s considered “Goods” in that context

The problem is once you use someones IP (Intellectual Property) (or copyright) it instantly maintains the value of that person. So what you make does have value, the laws state you can’t sell it, but Arenanet would like to know about it. Because after all you wouldn’t want someone taking your 3d work and putting your name on it assuming your famous someday, and then debating on making profit from it. I’m definitely not saying that’s what your doing, just showing how they see it. When you create something that others value, you really want to protect that. Because you have given it value, and that value will fluctuate based on how people receive it.

Bioshockwave.5074:

Great game, it’s just that the rewards sucks.

That’s perspective. Depends what rewards you see as “rewarding”. Some people feel rewarded just by logging in :P

Behellagh.1468:

Geotherma.2395:

Complex and Guild Wars 2 don’t belong in the same sentence. If a 6 year old can figure out basic combat, I’m sure that 50 year old wii bowling person can. You know they have tournaments in wii bowling for people 50-80+ years old? We have a 50 something year old in our guild, they play regularly. This game appeals to many types, hence why it is doing so well. And I still know military veterans who I served with in iraq who are in their late 40’s and 50’s who play several video games, some of which are MMO’s and not just FPS games. This whole blanketing everyone with the hardcore/casual term is getting old, as is the assumption of who likes the game and who doesn’t.

Hey, I resemble that comment. Plus I’ve been playing PC games since the days of boot floppy copy protection and Hercules monochrome graphics. Before that I played Atari 800 games when “Electronic Arts” had a cool hip poster of their developers.

It is scary that sci fi movies back then are fact, or about to be fact now… Makes ya wonder what people will come up with now for movies. While your sitting there watching the next sci fi thriller, people might start thinking “This might actually happen someday..”. What a crazy world, floppys to blu rays, 8 ton computers to micro processors.

Sorry that one was vague, this is closer : https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-content-terms-of-use/

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-user-agreement/

clay.7849:

Geotherma.2395:

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

clay.7849:

^^

Nappyychappy hit the nail on the head, IMO.

The definition of “casual player” doesn’t lend itself to the kind of dedication and “stickiness” you need to make a game like an MMO live for a long time.

Based on what evidence. It’s funny because I could actually make an argument for the opposite. I’m old enough where I don’t really want to bounce back and forth between multiple games. I’d rather go further in a single game.

The older you are, the less you tend to “bounce around”. That’s a young person’s game. It’s an attention span thing too.

The younger generation grew up with youtube and the internet, but the older generation really hasn’t. It’s the younger generation that tends to game hop. I’m quite happy to buy one game and stick with it, because I don’t want to keep going out and buying more games. And this would be even more true of people who have less time to play. They’d play a game, get a tiny tiny bit done weekly and not run out of content. It’s not the older, more mature people who run out of content, I’m guessing. It’s the content locusts. The people who tend to be younger, and not have a family.

We have a wide range of people in my guild, from 17 up until people in their sixities. The people who are older don’t play MUCH fewer games and stay with the longer on the whole than the people in their teens and early twenties. So if the average age of a gamer now is over 30 (which apparently it is according to studies), there’s less reason for many of these people to run out and continually buy new games.

There’ll be exceptions of course, but I think older people will stay with something they like longer, on the whole and they’ll have a longer attention span.

Oh yea, there are so many “older” people playing video games. Keep in mind I’m in my thirties, so when you talk about the people that didn’t grow up with the internet, it is over the age of 40.

Everyone I know that is 50 and over think video games are for little kids.

So, if you think that your generation is some great target for video games, especially something as complex as MMO’s, compared to say, Wii bowling, then go ahead and think that is some untapped gold mine. I’ll be over here laughing.

But, the only thing you keep saying is that my opinion is wrong and your opinion is right. Guess what, they are both opinions. You don’t like mine, and I don’t like yours. Neither is right or wrong until we find out. Which, by the way, I would think the population of this game after Xmas 2013 is a good indicator of how well this game is doing, but again, that is just my opinion.

Complex and Guild Wars 2 don’t belong in the same sentence. If a 6 year old can figure out basic combat, I’m sure that 50 year old wii bowling person can. You know they have tournaments in wii bowling for people 50-80+ years old? We have a 50 something year old in our guild, they play regularly. This game appeals to many types, hence why it is doing so well. And I still know military veterans who I served with in iraq who are in their late 40’s and 50’s who play several video games, some of which are MMO’s and not just FPS games. This whole blanketing everyone with the hardcore/casual term is getting old, as is the assumption of who likes the game and who doesn’t.

So, the level of complexity between Wii bowling and GW2 is the same? kitten, get me a 50 year old that has never played the game before and have them make an omnomberry bar. That should keep them busy for a few hours. You can’t honestly think that MMO’s are as easy to play as Wii bowling.

29% of people 50 years and older play video games. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game)

Less than 5% of people playing MMO’s in this study were over 50 years old. (http://petsymposium.org/2011/papers/hotpets11-final7Likarish.pdf)

Yea, so, there aren’t a lot of 50 year olds playing MMO’s. It may increase, but I doubt it will increase much to make much of a difference.

You seem to dislike the idea of demographics at all – which is pretty much defining what kind of people like stuff. In this case, MMORPG style video games.

I know a 57 year old Master Sargent who lead convoys and raids using land nav technology and GPS to find targets to destroy and kill in the middle of Baghdad. To say someone can’t do something because of age is appalling to me. You clearly have no idea what people are capable of. At any age.

And the fact you believe everything you see on Wikipedia… really shows a lot about your mentality.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Effigy_Fragment
http://dulfy.net/2013/01/16/gw2-useful-and-fun-consumables-guide/

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

clay.7849:

^^

Nappyychappy hit the nail on the head, IMO.

The definition of “casual player” doesn’t lend itself to the kind of dedication and “stickiness” you need to make a game like an MMO live for a long time.

Based on what evidence. It’s funny because I could actually make an argument for the opposite. I’m old enough where I don’t really want to bounce back and forth between multiple games. I’d rather go further in a single game.

The older you are, the less you tend to “bounce around”. That’s a young person’s game. It’s an attention span thing too.

The younger generation grew up with youtube and the internet, but the older generation really hasn’t. It’s the younger generation that tends to game hop. I’m quite happy to buy one game and stick with it, because I don’t want to keep going out and buying more games. And this would be even more true of people who have less time to play. They’d play a game, get a tiny tiny bit done weekly and not run out of content. It’s not the older, more mature people who run out of content, I’m guessing. It’s the content locusts. The people who tend to be younger, and not have a family.

We have a wide range of people in my guild, from 17 up until people in their sixities. The people who are older don’t play MUCH fewer games and stay with the longer on the whole than the people in their teens and early twenties. So if the average age of a gamer now is over 30 (which apparently it is according to studies), there’s less reason for many of these people to run out and continually buy new games.

There’ll be exceptions of course, but I think older people will stay with something they like longer, on the whole and they’ll have a longer attention span.

Oh yea, there are so many “older” people playing video games. Keep in mind I’m in my thirties, so when you talk about the people that didn’t grow up with the internet, it is over the age of 40.

Everyone I know that is 50 and over think video games are for little kids.

So, if you think that your generation is some great target for video games, especially something as complex as MMO’s, compared to say, Wii bowling, then go ahead and think that is some untapped gold mine. I’ll be over here laughing.

But, the only thing you keep saying is that my opinion is wrong and your opinion is right. Guess what, they are both opinions. You don’t like mine, and I don’t like yours. Neither is right or wrong until we find out. Which, by the way, I would think the population of this game after Xmas 2013 is a good indicator of how well this game is doing, but again, that is just my opinion.

Complex and Guild Wars 2 don’t belong in the same sentence. If a 6 year old can figure out basic combat, I’m sure that 50 year old wii bowling person can. You know they have tournaments in wii bowling for people 50-80+ years old? We have a 50 something year old in our guild, they play regularly. This game appeals to many types, hence why it is doing so well. And I still know military veterans who I served with in iraq who are in their late 40’s and 50’s who play several video games, some of which are MMO’s and not just FPS games. This whole blanketing everyone with the hardcore/casual term is getting old, as is the assumption of who likes the game and who doesn’t.

Here’s what it looked like to me today.

Top is what I see in game, I compared in game to the pic. Bottom is the actual pic I took which does not look like whats on my screen.

Pictures I take in game always seem duller.. I have to use photoshop like programs to make them look like what i see in game or better.

clay.7849:

Xia.3485:

Geotherma.2395:

I can agree with the thought of games such as FFXI in mind. This is a game I used to love, it got a bit old however (for me) and I moved on. However it still holds many subs and just released yet another expansion. (8? 11?) Free to play games like Aion also hold both players who play often or don’t play often, both of which flood the cash store for “fun” things. However that game also offers advantages which by most peoples definition would be for hardcore gamers. But casual gamers use them as well. And that game is still around as well.

With Guild Wars 2 you buy and get what you pay for. You can at any time try other MMO’s, be 100% loyal to this, or leave and come back any time. Any type of player can put money into the pockets of the company. It matters more how cash shop items are sold, what is available, and the want and desire for them. And that applies to no single group. That applies to us all. I would simply say look at the fused weapon skins, to say only casual or hardcore players bought those chests based on their gameplay/style would just be silly.

Totally agree. In fact, you helped make my point. Also I’d like to point out it wasn’t I who brought the term hardcore or casual into conversation.

I think the best virtue of guild wars 2 is the ability to leave for a few months and return without having to grind to “catch up” to other players. The lack of effective gear treadmill is liberating. Even though some can argue that ascended gear began a treadmill none of the content appears balanced around gear (except for agony resistance, which is acquired where its used anyway).

I believe that if Arena Net wasn’t doing well financially, we’d see more gear and skins in the cash shop with talk of an expansion. Instead we are greeted with free content (the living story) and fun holiday events (Halloween, Christina and now this April Fools day game).

I don’t believe GW2 needs any of this:

… most hardcore gamers find this game to not include enough of what they want (gear treadmill, mounts, open world PvP, raids, etc.) Therefore, as more games become available that fill their desired niche they will leave.

Nor does it need the term hardcore pasted all over its forums.

Why did you edit my post to exclude “no gear treadmill?”

You are mis-representing my post. I don’t think that GW2 needs those things either, but GW2 doesn’t think that. They have said specifically that they don’t intent Ascended Gear to be the end of the gear treadmill. They said that they don’t intent level 80 to be the max level forever.

The purpose of the post was to show that ANet tries to give a little to everyone on both sides of the aisle, which doesn’t really appease anyone as most people are firmly on one side or the other. Ascended gear pretty much kitten off everyone.

Thanks for taking the time to not only purposefully exclude parts from my post, but to misrepresent it as well.

I disagree with this part bolded. There is really no proof of this, and people are generally believed to be open to change and change in behavior or moods. Which means anyone at any time can sway to either side. If anything I would say more people are swaying in the middle slightly to either side depending on the games content and theme. But thats an opinion, just like the above stated is. And as is true with that statement and mine, neither can be proven at this point.

Xia.3485:

Geotherma.2395:

I farm Orr and other events, as per my guild I’m a hardcore gamer who plays about 10 hours a day sometimes more. At the same time I have spent around $600 between March 1 and April 1 on the game. Only 50 gems of which did I transfer to gold. So it is purely speculation that a casual gamer would spend more/less on the game based on play style..

Nice post. I’d like to put mine in context however. I’m offering a counterpoint to Clay who believes GW2 will fail because it lacks features for “hardcore” players.

I do agree with him that players looking for competitive raiding / pvp will be disappointing in GW2 and most likely stop playing. I disagree with him that it will cause gw2 to fail. I also disagree with his assessment that his “casuals” won’t bring revenue to gw2.

Relevant snippets:

Nappyychappy hit the nail on the head, IMO.
The definition of “casual player” doesn’t lend itself to the kind of dedication and “stickiness” you need to make a game like an MMO live for a long time.

Nappychappy.7046:

My honest opinion is that casual is popular now, but slowly dying out. It is most definitely a way to make money quickly, but not a way to make a game last. Game developers will eventually exhaust the consumers with must have AAA games of the month. As amazing as this game is, it also takes a huge step backwards, and the more casuals that it caters to, the more advanced players it will eventually disappoint.

I can agree with the thought of games such as FFXI in mind. This is a game I used to love, it got a bit old however (for me) and I moved on. However it still holds many subs and just released yet another expansion. (8? 11?) Free to play games like Aion also hold both players who play often or don’t play often, both of which flood the cash store for “fun” things. However that game also offers advantages which by most peoples definition would be for hardcore gamers. But casual gamers use them as well. And that game is still around as well.

With Guild Wars 2 you buy and get what you pay for. You can at any time try other MMO’s, be 100% loyal to this, or leave and come back any time. Any type of player can put money into the pockets of the company. It matters more how cash shop items are sold, what is available, and the want and desire for them. And that applies to no single group. That applies to us all. I would simply say look at the fused weapon skins, to say only casual or hardcore players bought those chests based on their gameplay/style would just be silly.

Xia.3485:

clay.7849:

You can keep using conjecture to try and make your point, but it is still conjecture.

Also, player burnout has nothing to do with this conversation. I don’t know why you are so adamant about tell us about the evils of hardcore gameplay. Really, if you are so smart about how to sell things to people, you would know that a lot of unhealthy things sell really well. Cigarettes are a really good example. It has nothing to do with right or wrong.

The conversation is about money. What keeps servers running, MONEY. What keeps Arena Net running? MONEY. What makes money for Guild Wars 2? Box sales and the cash shop. Its pretty obvious who is more inclined to buy gold for GW2 via the cash shop; those with limited play time who don’t want to grind.

I put one little snippet about burnout and you go on a tantrum. And why are you talking about McDonald and cigarettes? And you call my post conjecture?

I farm Orr and other events, as per my guild I’m a hardcore gamer who plays about 10 hours a day sometimes more. At the same time I have spent around $600 between March 1 and April 1 on the game. Only 50 gems of which did I transfer to gold. So it is purely speculation that a casual gamer would spend more/less on the game based on play style. I love dropping event items around Tyria for others, those people now get to enjoy content that cost me gems. And the sole purpose of doing this is to help make the game (at least on my server) just a little more exciting for people.

My broad definition: A casual gamer is someone who can easily break away from the game, go play another, or do something irl.They do not fit into 1 concrete definition and neither do hardcore gamers. It is a broad statement usually used in attempt to completely separate one style of gaming to another, but is based on opinions not facts.

To label a person a “true” hardcore or casual player is only possible by the basic time idea, and the opinion of the actual player and no one else. Today to someone a hardcore player could mean someone who plays 50 hours a week, tomorrow it could mean you can get through all content in a few days because of strenuous work. In the end it doesn’t matter, the definitions are not true definitions. They are simply broad ideas used to separate one end of the spectrum with the other. But in no way would everyone fit on one end or the other, most (I assume) can fall anywhere in between. And in this case that makes every gamer neither hardcore or casual. On the opposite side of this, I know people who play only a few hours a week and buy gem cards regularly.

As far as the game itself, well that can more easily be described using those terms. And in that essence you can use skill, time, effort to place a definition on it. But gamers will never, ever, agree on what the exact definition of either is for other gamers. Because none of us want to be labeled in a way that someday in the future could be used in a derogatory way. So the entire discussion is moot. In fact, I’d remind most posters that the title was “is guild wars 2 doing well”. To actually answer this I would say: It seems to be doing well. Financially, population, fun factor wise? Email Arenanet and ask, because they are the only ones who can answer that with facts.

Dan.8709:

I was doing some runs on them just two hours ago… So definitely not gone.

On the world dropped event chests around tyria? And 2 hours ago isn’t now ^^ Also which server?

tolunart.2095:

Super Adventure Box? Still there.

The box is yes. Chests in open world seem to be gone.

rizzo.1079:

They were there last night after the daily reset, but maybe they change places every day?

I would understand changing places but 3-4 maps and no chests. And no one has seen them in map in the last hour.

On NSP I don’t see the event anymore or chests in game. Is this the REAL april fools, or did I miss something lol..

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/

“Improving the “looking for group” tool to make it easier to find other players to play with in the game.”

SadieDeAtreia.8912:

Vayne.8563:

SadieDeAtreia.8912:

…not entirely true.
Anet can perhaps get their priorities straight and add the LFG in-game before adding any more HKO content.

I think they have their priorities straight. What makes you think they don’t?

A fundamental tool like a group finder, in a MMO, not a matter of highest priority?
Not sure if serious or trolling.

There is a group finder in game, it is in the map, but there nonetheless. A high priority is game breaking fixes, bugs, content, changes, at the tail end of that is “polish”. LFG is one of those things. It exists but needs improvement.

3rd party website, no ban possible. Use 3rd party this kind of stuff is what happens. Arenanet doesn’t enforce the rules on there, or even monitor it. It is use at own risk.

Kurow.6973:

Korsbaek.9803:

for some reason i cant belive that several players even combinde have bought for 1125€ keys(if they bought 5 keys at a time) without getting a single token.
i bought 21 keys got 1 token a name change and alot of other stuff that i cant remember

so it is possible

It does not matter if you believe the truth or not.

Just because you refuse to believe the truth, doesn’t make the truth false…in fact, it makes you delusional, and ignorant.

This goes both ways. Refusing to believe someone elses version of truth doesn’t make someone ignorant, it makes them skeptical. I only know this because I am a PHD, a skydiver, and long time movie star in hit films like “The walking kind of slow dead”, “Once upon a dream that one time”, and more well known cult classic “Screams kind of hurt my ears”. Ignorance is bliss, but finger waiving is a serious sport, and I’d like you to take it more seriously.

daimasei.4091:

Don’t get your hopes high. As you may be aware already, Anet is focused mainly to useless non-required content and as you may have noticed, they have a big success with it so, why spend money and time solving all the problems in this game (7 months old bugs, skill/classes balance, lack of needed content/tools like the one you mentioned) when they can add a simple jumping puzzle and have the majority of players happy (at least until those players start complaining about the lack of challenge/reward)?

Yes, the entire team, every employee worked non stop on the april event. In fact I’d say it set them back several years, and now that every single team member has worked on creating this complex difficult to design addon, surely there will be no new content or fixes. Which furthers the belief that all new content addons will be discontinued in light of the amazing awesomeness of the SaB which is currently only for April. But again, shame on the entire arenenet team, possibly every person at ncsoft as well who had to stop what they were doing to work on this very very very involved project. Which might I add is completely useless and has definitely not made them any revenue to use towards future content, which again, will no longer be created now that they have SaB. Than you very much for your input, +1. Also might I add there is definitely no April flame and frost update because of this. Definitely, pretty, kinda sure, sorta, maybe.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I’d like to take this time to discuss something that might affect some here. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is something that anyone can have, from children to adults. One of the symptoms, that is evident from numerous posts, is the compulsion to have every new shiny that’s released in the Black Lion chests. A person will spend lots of money on BL keys for a chance at owning said new shiny. Even if this person fails to get what they want, rages at the game makers, and swear never to buy another key, they continue to do so with each new update. It’s an endless cycle that won’t stop, unless you first realize that you have this problem. Let’s not confuse those suffering from OCD to those with a gambling addiction. These are two separate problems, which can only compound when someone has both (but that would be a completely different thread).

People who suffer from OCD can lead normal GW2 lives. I can freely admit that I have a problem with wanting everything. From the new shinies in game, to getting every achievement unlocked and filled, I gotta have them all. The key here is to first recognize and understand the problem. If you feel compelled to try your hand in the fight against RNG, take a step back and ask yourself “Is this truly necessary to have fun in this game?”. Another good question to ask is “Should I really spend the money for this?” By actually thinking through this process, I was able to limit myself to only 15 BL keys. Did I get the Fused weapon I wanted? No. But thanks to reasoning, I’m able to prevent myself from falling into the uncontrollable buying spree that would see me opening chests until I got a drop. Reasoning also stops me from making complaints about the choices I made, as well as deflecting my failures on everything from bad RNG to market manipulators.

So if you’re in game, and you complain that you’re unable to stop buying BL keys or special chests that rely on chance, knowing full well that there’s no guarantee to get what you want, you may have OCD. And if you’re unable to control yourself, consider seeking help.

What if we just have large sums of money to spend and simply don’t care? And it in no way impacts our lives. I would call it OCBD, Obsessive Chest Buying Disorder. And I may or may not have it.

Nathiest.5413:

So you can’t solo it?

Can you solo any Super Boxes? (dungeons)?

I solod the easy mode one, wasn’t too bad.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

I think seasonal events should bring back refreshed fan favourites, will make looking forward to the particular events even better. If the content was added perma style there wouldnt be so much hype.

HOWEVER. Super adventure box has been the best of the bunch in terms of quality and difference in comparison to what other MMOs do. This means i think it should be a permanent addition rather than a month long one.
The scope to keep adding zones is really broad and something that would be really wasted if canned until next april.

The only problem is it detracts from the life of the world. It being an instance, players won’t see all those people wandering around tyria as much. Of course this could die down a bit over time, but in the meantime they would really need to push out those world events, flame and frost things, and other content to keep people doing a variety. Most important reason for this is so that the SaB doesn’t become another “Maw”.

Looking forward to this, now if I could just remember to do my dailys ><

I think it could be fun if it was always here, but might get old too. So hopefully they would just make it another way to get the same rewards people crave, without it getting more “different rewards” aside from skins.

Oda.2348:

I am not sure I agree 100%, but I have to admit that after playing around for a bit in the SAB last night my initial thought was:

“Wow, this is pretty amazing! But I wish they would have added more to the F&F Story instead of this…”

I understand that thinking this is flawed on a number of levels (potentially different dev teams, unknown F&F release schedule, etc.) but regardless, that was my initial perception and that is what will stick for most folks.

F&F has been underwhelming up to the last iteration. Even with the recent addition which had some actual content (great new characters, custscenes, and some actual story and lore) I was just “whelmed”.

I am hoping as F&F or other Living Story arcs continue, they provide as much if not more polished, full-featured content as the special/seasonal events.

That is coming, this is not related to that. F&F is end of april.

Get the fused weapon skin, I consider that my Legendary. And over all, it might be cheaper as well :P

Kain Francois.4328:

Geotherma.2395:

Kain Francois.4328:

After 131 chests, this is how I feel like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU

I FINALLY GOT MY TICKET!!!!!!!!!

Trick was to stop opening it on my Warrior and open it on my Ranger like my friend did. I am now superstitious enough to believe Rangers get better drops and chests have DR when opened on the same toon.

So was it worth it? HELL YEAH! (Though I do not advise anyone make the same mistake as me.)

As promised, my storage:

You need a maid, badly :P

I wish I could sell my black lion crap. Do they even do anything special?

What is a good way to get my money’s worth and, well… Use them? Which resources should I save them for?

Sickle= Omnoms + Truffles?
Axe= Ancient wood?
Pick= Orichalcum?

Any rich ori in the game?

You could use them on any character, they are just free gathering tools really. Sometimes I use them for omnom and ori and mithril and trees for bags etc. I have almost 2 bank rows of em lol..

I use the mystery tonics to mystic forge them into whatever I want, which i use for events and fun. I have so many bl things now tho… I wish I could do something with them all like give to guildies lol.. What use do i have for 105 Fine Trans stones >.>

killcannon.2576:

The instance itself is fun, the overarching theme behind it is bad. One thing that Halloween showed me is that you can have these types of events in the open world. The entire open world. Pulling people out of your world to go to one small place or instance has a detrimental effect overall to the gameworld. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of these same people who are saying that this is so great and yaya happy day are the same ones who were complaining when fractals came out and concentrated people in LA. The GW1 mindset of an instance for everything and everything in an instance needs to stay buried.

You have a huge glorious open world Anet, use it.

Event items are in open world as well.

A warning to everyone, the mini bundle “I think” is actually only 3 minis lol. Don’t make the mistake of buying more than 1 bundle. If I’m wrong someone please correct me.

Kain Francois.4328:

After 131 chests, this is how I feel like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU

I FINALLY GOT MY TICKET!!!!!!!!!

Trick was to stop opening it on my Warrior and open it on my Ranger like my friend did. I am now superstitious enough to believe Rangers get better drops and chests have DR when opened on the same toon.

So was it worth it? HELL YEAH! (Though I do not advise anyone make the same mistake as me.)

As promised, my storage:

You need a maid, badly :P

Lmao
15foolishkittens

Creeper.9360:

It’s a serious game for serious people.

ArenaNet has always done these kinds of light hearted stuff.

Lies, example A: Commandos, best class in game nerfed and renamed engineer. Just sayen. :P

Heijincks.9267:

I don’t think having one extremely localized instance of 8-bit fun breaks the immersion in this game. Regarding the character selection screen, how long do most people stay in it anyway?

If you have a computer from the early 2000’s probably a good 10 minutes :P

Paulytnz.7619:

Warlander.1384:

Chessrook.8643:

250 years of time is no small amount in the realm of technological and scientific advancement. Throwing magic in the mix can just speed things up.

Props to ANet for not making another fantasy world that stagnates for millenia.

Oh really, so the asurans magiclly invented retro 8 bit arcade game items, ok cool, well maybe soon they can also invent a magic burger king where i can get a burger and win a chance at a paper crown.

Cause thats the world thats starting to get made, its already hard enough taking anything seriously when i saw a 8 foot tall charr warrior with a bouncing quaggan back pack on, an anoying sounding 8bit digital pet is even worse.

Hate to tell you this but cheese burgers, french fries, pizzas and all sorts of other modern food have been in this game since day 1….

No paper party hats yet as far as I am aware but thats a different mmo game called Runescape….

The day they add tinfoil hats to gem store is the day the BLTC will crash overload. :P