Guild Wars 2

Hard mode dungeons would probably be easier to implement, and more fun. No wps, no repairing, no leash mechanic on mobs. 3x the gold and tokens on completion. Boom!

Agreed. GW2 simply isn’t designed for harsh penalties, the core of this game is low risk, low reward.

Danikat.8537:

Making the drop rate constant would be much simpler, and the easiest would be each enemy having a 100% chance to drop one specific item, because then you don’t need to bother with loot tables and RNG, just enemy dies > item appears.

But then your economy is going to be a mess, or non-existent because supply would massively outstrip demand.

And Tyria would be a beautiful place.

But seriously, it would be great if specific mobs had a 10 – 25% chance to drop a particular, desirable item (Lodestones and cores, for example).

As usual, the problem is the god-kittened economy. Too much of the game is built around it. Always bugs me how whenever someone has an idea, we have to put it past the ‘B-but think of the economy!’ test.

Belzebu.3912:

Jahroots.6791:

Yeah, I remember when it was 3g – 100 gems. Those were some good days.

Back then get 3g was harder (imo) to get than 10g is now.

Nope. For the average player, maybe. But GW2LFG was goin’ strong. CoF P1 farming, along with some of the other paths was pretty profitable for players willing to put in a little extra effort. I was actually able to buy gems with gold more often than I can now. Typically bought lots more at a time too. Most of what I achieved during my year in this game was through dungeon running.

Makes me a little sad for new players who want to earn everything in-game. That approach is much less feasible now.

This system has a number of potential problems. I’d rather have no gem→gold conversion only and simply offer some items as gem only (select armours and all of the minis and other purely cosmetic items) while others could be bought for gold or gems. That’d doubly serve as a gold sink and ensure that basic necessities are available to all players.

Yeah, I remember when it was 3g – 100 gems. Those were some good days.

By the time the gold → gem cost becomes truly unmanageable I suspect GW2 will have gone completely f2p, and the playerbase will have changed drastically.

Dual.8953:

People want the EotM farm gone because it’s not what EotM was supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a less serious WvW where players can do what they like in WvW without the pressure of failure. A bastion for open world PvPers to experiment, hone their skills or have mock battles in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Then someone found out you could do a loot train and all that ideal was thrown out the window. The place that was a resort for open world pvpers, was turned into just another mindless farm route where PvP is even discouraged.

Is that ANet’s official position, or is this something you inferred from the release notes that came out with the EotM update.

That phrase ‘supposed to be (x)’ gets tossed around a lot regarding content, but usually without any evidence. I’m not trying to be a kitten about this, just genuinely curious.

And Re: the topic at hand, GW2 seems to be trying to maximize profits (consistent monetization) with minimal effort (sparse content and updates). Standard practice for any business, but it sucks for us as consumers.

Man, this is really getting old.

Why don’t you guys take up another cause? Protest AR in Fractals or something. That actually does lock people out of content entirely.

^

It’s unfortunate but pretty common, apparently. This was an issue in the first guild I joined. The second in command and his camp had an issue with the guild’s founder, so the former simply booted him. He’d lost hundreds of his own gold in the process.

Hodor!

As a side note, I would have liked to be able to use more special characters when naming my toons (I play NA).

Really hate to be negative about it, but there’s nothing here I find even remotely interesting.

All of the story parts of this game – Living, Personal and Dungeon – have been largely bland, tedious and unrewarding.

Hoping this is somehow linked to a new area at very least.

I actually find that PUGs have gotten better. Or maybe I’ve gotten better and am actually kind of carrying and/or teaching them.

Most people in the easier paths are either mute or friendly – AC, TA, SE and CoF. There’s a few phases that challenge unfocused and inexperienced players but most have a solid understanding of the basic mechanics, so we’re able to breeze through ’em.

In CoE there’s always a 50/50 chance of a full wipe or ragequit though. The good groups are really good, and the bad ones suck horribly. There’s not really a middle ground. CM does seem to attract a higher rate of newbies. Arah is absolutely dreadful. Even when you’re lucky enough to find a legitimate group (most listings are sellers), there’s always one or two totally inexperienced players who are too embarrassed to admit this, screw up, and get kicked immediately. This sometimes changes the mood of the party for the worse afterward, lots of bickering and misplaced blame.

I think PUGs are a stage a lot of the dungeon community views as necessary for learning, but you have to ‘graduate’ from it eventually when you’ve built up a friends list of competent players, or organize guild runs.

1)The cosmetic system is a blast. Costly and not optimized, imo, but highly enjoyable. I like to switch things up on my main characters every couple weeks.

2)Running dungeons and occasionally the K-train. Recently been taking a stab at proper WvW as well. These activities are consistent, relatively simple, and fun.

3)Mostly though, I’m holding out hope for some solid content or feature releases. Gear and Trait templates being highest on my ‘wishlist’. One new map with some farmable DEs and a three or four path dungeon would do nicely as well.

Is it really adding to your overall experience?
Yes. I like the option of having little situational buffs that complement different builds.

Does it make things too easy?
No. Omnomberry bars have yet to flood my inventory with precursors, and even the most powerful slayer potions don’t turn me into an unstoppable juggernaut in dungeons. It’s a very slight advantage at best. Which foods do you find make content incredibly easy? Clearly, I’ve been using the wrong buffs. Lol.

Do I always use it? Why?
For most dungeons and exploring, absolutely. I run dungeons daily and the slayer potions are dirt cheap. I usually buy a stack at a time, and they last pretty long.

Do I craft my own for fun? Or just buy it off the TP?
TP only. Crafting is tedious.

Do I offer it to other people when I see them without it? Why?
I sometimes used to do this as a newbie, particularly when the group was struggling to complete a dungeon path. Recently I find that most of the community has improved significantly, so it’s rarely needed. Often, I’m the only player using any food buffs at all.

Interesting points overall, but I’ve never thought of consumables as anything but a positive addition to the game. At worst, I remember being bummed at the cost of some of the nicer ones.

About 30 tickets burned, finally figured out the mechanics and consistently make it to Phase 2 now, so that’s a plus.

The lag in Crown Pavilion really makes this fight more of a pain than it needs to be though. Would’ve probably beat this by now if it were instanced.

Pretty cool. They shoulda stacked on him though.

Definitely The Blazing Light, because it’s earned solo and simply sounds better.

However, I typically rank titles not by the effort that goes into them, but by the aesthetics of the wording and how well they fit with a character’s theme. Chosen, Slayer and Mercenary are the sort of titles I prefer.

Emissary of the Mad King is probably my favourite title of all though. Sucks that I wasn’t around for that.

If you’re a PvE player, go Ele. They’re a blast in dungeons (pun….partially intended) and quite mobile, making them good for exploration. The glassiness can help improve your skills, and after a while you hardly even notice it.

Necro is generally an uninspiring class that’s probably better suited for PvP and WvW. Easy to spread devastating conditions against enemy zergs, and ‘fearing’ people off cliffs in Edge of the Mists is pretty fun. High survivability indeed, but even with a full DPS build it never really feels like you’re doing much.

Lol. I’ll have the blue pill, please and thank you.

Zalyn.9534:

6) games shouldn’t be vehicles of social change
Empirically denied - media change us as much as we change media, and gaming in particular drives computer technology, social practices, and cognitive evolution in people. Every time a design choice is made in a game, it has social impacts. ArenaNet and Bioware are two specific examples of game companies who recognize this and enact it through their products

This is probably the main reason why some of us have an issue with views like yours: we do not want our games to become politicized.

And another point I should make clear is that while I find the examples shown unappealing, I don’t object to their inclusion at all. I simply disagree with the view that in order to have gender equality in games we need to dress male and female characters identically.

Time is far, far more precious than money.

For what it’s worth I’ve been playing for more than a year and still not completed map exploration. Not even remotely interested in Legendary weapons.

RedStar.4218:

A bare chest on a man isn’t the same as exposed breasts. And neither is exposed buttocks. You simply cannot compare them. Bare chests are a sexual symbol.
Type “sexy guy” in goggle search chests, chests, chests.
Except that for some reason, in certain countries, men without a shirt on are just chilling and women without a top are being kittens.

Personally, I don’t give a kitten about either.

Agreed. The issue here is that women seem to object to sexualization far more than men do.

Yes, I get that, But why is sexualizing women’s bodies more than men’s inherently bad?

Maybe things are different down here in the tropics, but most of the women I see love their bodies and aren’t inhibited about showing them off. I truly have a hard time understanding why having ‘gendered’ standards of attractiveness upset some people.

Also, pardon me if this comes across as insensitive, but the ‘men aren’t treated the same way, it’s not fair’ arguments just sound petty and contrived to me. Where should designers draw the line as far as equality is concerned? What about the people who actually like the differences in armour design?

To be fair, most of the female armours are significantly more revealing than the equivalent sets on male characters. I just don’t see why this is such a bad thing. The designs tend to be influenced by both fantasy tropes and contemporary fashion.

The first point he makes is valid though. We can’t pick and choose which aspects of the game we want to be ‘realistic’ while ignoring others.

Which is why I believe the designers simply used the prevailing standards of fantasy armour as a guide: Heavy armours generally covering more skin than light.

Chadramar.8156:

So a half-naked man (un)dressed to look “sexy” is ridiculous, while half-naked women (un)dressed to look “sexy” are par on course. That is exactly the problem. We’re pretty much brainwashed from birth to not only accept but demand ridiculous, objectifying and even degrading images from women.

If you don’t like seeing a dude made up like that, it should be a wake-up call of how the hetero male gaze that we’re supposed to think of as the natural default treats women. What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander. If it isn’t, something’s messed up.

By all means, people should be able to have and enjoy their skimpy “armor” — for both genders. An outfit that looks like flamboyantly decorated lingerie on the girls should be a flamboyantly decorated banana hammock on the boys.

I’d argue that most women (and probably a few gay men as well) also think those Final Fantasy outfits look pretty ridiculous.

‘Sexy’ simply does not work the same way for both genders. Yes – as a society we are far more comfortable with feminine expressions of sexuality – but you cannot force males to be equally sexualised. Our bodies are different and perceived differently. Would you also propose that female characters’ nipples should be displayed?Y’know…for equality, of course.

I can appreciate why you want to instigate change in society’s perception and attitude towards this issue. However for the time being, accept that it will take time for this to occur (if it ever does).

RoyalPredator.9163:

Ouh, I like this, just don’t have the feel of spending 700 gem on a roleplay/chill outfit…
Gift me, anyone?

One day the town clothings may will have a good standing… one day

It’s more than that, you can wear it in combat if you want. Goes great with the Dragon Jade weapons, and won’t break immersion too much for light and medium armour classes.

Also, you can equip it on all of your characters for no additional cost at all. Pretty amazing deal right there.

Yup, this is very much needed. Would add a LOT to the game.

Wicked Rin.1972:

-
-People that don’t answer questions when they’re being asked directly.

Oh god yes, so much this. Happens surprisingly often. Lots of people seem to be idly chatting with their guildies and friends during runs, and ever so often they accidentally say something in party chat then go ‘oops’.

A lot of these minor annoyances listed here are things we need to spread throughout the community though. I recently switched to a Scepter/x Ele build just for the hell of it, not knowing that I was expected to stack might.

Most people have a good grasp of banner co-ordination, not using knockbacks unnecessarily and so on, but little things like how combo fields work need to be explained to the average player.

Am I the only one that doesn’t even think that it looks good? That’s the least appealing of the god-themed back items, imo.

The only truly prestigious items in this game are HoM rewards. Very, very few players have them and the cost and effort required for them is pretty high. Pretty much everything else is either rare, expensive, a pain in the kitten to get or some combination of the former.

Item prestige and rarity does very little for me. If anything, too many cosmetics are inaccessible for the large majority of players. It bums me out far more to see level 80s in basic gear than someone wearing nice kit who happens to use the same sword and gloves that I do. There’s more than enough options available to create a unique look for your character, if you put a bit of thought and effort into it.

Yeah, the cost of makeover and hairstyle kits is a bit prohibitive. I sometimes feel like the gem<=>gold conversion, and the resulting economic meta game could have been avoided if some items could be obtained with either gold or gems, and others with gems only. I’d much rather if cosmetic services like these existed primarily as a gold sink.

Veckna.9621:

Calling such tactics superior implies they’re more efficient and easier to apply than the ones the pugs usually use. Running with pugs is all about simplicity, the simpler you can make it for them and spoon feed them the way with the less margin for error, the better. Therefore I would not suggest anything unless it was beneficial for the group.
Quick example would be AC p3’s final boss, most pugs pull it to one side or another of a pillar which usually takes considerable time for the boss to get to it and the NPCs tend to draw it’s aggro before it reaches the desired spot costing your entire group precious time, you offer them a different spot to stack on and you’re almost immediately spammed with “No, no, no… This is the ONLY spot, always done it like this.”.
And that’s the sort of attitude that annoys me.

Ah, I stand corrected then.

Faowri.4159:

So uh, bring on the skimp! I’ll be here in the corner eagerly awaiting some male battle lingerie, sculpted bare midriffs, hotpants, tasteful thongs and whatever else they’re bold enough to give us. Final Fantasy can do it, so you can too, Anet!

O_o

Dear, sweet, merciful Dwayna. I…used to think I was a fairly progressive dude, but if that is gender equality then…. No. Just no.

But seriously. I don’t even object to those armour styles, I simply would not wear ‘em on either male or female characters because it’s just too far over the top for my tastes. I don’t think we need this kind of forced ‘equality’ though. It’s perfectly fine for males and females to be attractive in different ways. Vive la difference!

That’d be pretty cool, as long as they add some mobs. Gotta be ninjas though. xD

Festival’s running until July 1st actually, so you have some time to enjoy it yet. Personally, I think most people will grow bored of it some time before then.

Aspect Arena is pretty fun though, maybe that should be made permanent.

Demented Sheep.1642:

And god forbid you get made uncomfortable. It only women who should there to be ‘make your own kitten material’.
If your going to do skimpy at least make it so for both although at this point I would say some more armour that actually armour or covering on girls and skimpy on guys is due.
Personalty I want more elegant stuff and while I like the trench coats more that aren’t for medium without making them underboob or having fishnet slits down the kitten would be nice. The only one I want ‘skimpy’ medium armour for is my charr.
I wish they hadn’t put a boob window on the latest gem store one.

I’m not uncomfortable with male characters who expose their skin, fur or leaves. However, in contemporary fashion ‘revealing’ just does not work the same way for males.

Here’s an example that I hope doesn’t get me infracted, lol

Veckna.9621:

I’m not very easily annoyed but here’s a few things that grind my gears when I have to pug:

1. People that cannot break free from their usual pug tactics whenever presented with a superior approach to a fight/phase of a dungeon and are just stubborn;

It’s actually people who want to force advanced tactics on the group during PUGs who annoy me. The group often isn’t properly equipped, skilled enough or even interested, and it usually ends up taking more time than it’s worth.

What I’ve always wanted to see in a general sense is more culturally themed gear. North African or Arabic themed Elonian sets, Samurai styled armour and so on.

Roe.3679:

Historically many different armies and warriors fought hardly clothed if not entirely nude. They go more hand in hand than skimpy and female.

Anyway I think this is a little subjective in terms of a player’s main class. If you play medium or heavy, you probably want more skimpy options for variety. If you play light classes, you may want more less-skimpy options.

Oh, no. I do understand that. That’s not what I was hinting at at all.

Skimpy is just a very….‘feminine’ sounding word. I’ve never heard it used to describe a male at all.

Finally, mesmer remake. Canthan style.

Dragon Jade/Ceremonial weapon skins, Whispers, Vigil, Devout and Seer armour.

Did the same with mah Necro as well. Quite pleased with the results.

Used Godskull weapons and a mix of Temple, Tactical, Whispers and Cabalist armour.

Waited months for the Sovereign weapons to be available again, and gave my Guardian a complete do-over. Rasta!

I dunno, I just like good-looking armour. It’s all subjective of course, but I do prefer my female characters to wear armour that’s at least a bit revealing. Really I think the issue is that we need more armour options, and ideally…a few in-game rather than gem store options.

Now that outfits are wearable in combat that argument about armour type being a ‘visual cue’ or whatever can be tossed out, and I think we should be able to transmute the skins of any class of armour for any profession cosmetically.

Skimpy and male just ….do not sound right together. shudders

Would be cool to go shirtless, or at least hide the chest armour.

Morte de Angelis.7986:

I don’t personally think the “problem” (if people find it a problem) is the number of skimpy vs non-skimpy armour sets. Is the number of people that choose them.

Do that number of guys really get turned on by looking at a semi-naked chick in a video game? =S

With medium armour on females, I think most people just go with ‘not a trench coat’, as those are sort of boring to look at. There’s also generally a level of dissatisfaction with medium armour in this game. IMO, The very best looking sets are heavily restricted (Heritage and Norn T3)

We could do with a small feature patch for build (equipment and trait) templates. These have been sorely lacking for a long time.

Lol, I do it in-game and on the forums. Ironically the only time ‘kitten’ shows up unintentionally in my posts is because of the overzealous swear filter that finds cusses everywhere.

The lack of useful loot is the primary reason I just did the meta achievement ankitten ow done with it.

Beyond that, I just don’t think this kind of content works with 100+ groups. The lag generated by so many characters on screen, and all of the particle effects of their attacks is just way too much to handle. I suspect a lot of the ‘AFKers’ at zerg events are really just doing the best they can at <10 fps.

This event could have been spectacular as a 30 or 40 man instanced raid, though.