Guild Wars 2

Filaha.1678:

Kamui.4038:

Yup, my thoughts exactly. My personal and apparent impatience lies in the realm of this not being resolved and being forgotten

So worry about that when they’re done fixing the things that are far more important and are actually game-breaking. When the game actually works right for the 99% of players that aren’t upset over idles missing, then you can remind them that they’re missing.

This thread has 6500 views (over a thousand views per day on average considering it’s a 5 day old topic) and 100 posts. There was another thread before this one that had like 1000+ views within a few hours of it being posted. This doesn’t necessarily count people on other forums, sites, or the in game chat. I think you underestimate how many people are actually upset about this – even a little upset – just because they aren’t constantly talking about it. Thinking all these people that took the time to view and/or post in this thread and elsewhere are a measly “1%” is kind of a low blow.

This game, like most games, have always had bugs and never worked 100% of the time for everyone, so waiting for them to fix everything before this isn’t even going to happen. If I can prevent it: I’d rather this not fall through the cracks into obscurity like the running animation unfortunately seems to have. Not learning from history means you’re doomed to repeat it.

Yes, and if you dodge while casting you sit on a 3s cooldown or whatever it is.

Zaxares.5419:

I’m guessing that this hasn’t been fixed yet as of the latest patch then?

You are correct.

Paulytnz.7619:

Kamui.4038:

Paulytnz.7619:

Soon there will only be one race in Tyria – Human. Because having the other races will be too confusing for new players……

Human? Nonsense. Their Mary Sue race, the Sylvari, will be the only one.

I find your reply too confusing, please follow these hints to help me understand:

1 – Delete all your Sylvari chars.
2 – Start all new Human chars.
3 – Be ready for that update.
4 – Have fun! :-D

Too many choices and it’s confusing me. My post count isn’t high enough to unlock more than 2 choices.

Leah, I’m eager to see what changes you make to the story in this game. I got excited when checking through your twitter and listened to that Neil Gaimen speech and immediately thought “if this is the kind of person she sees as inspiration then maybe there is hope for GW2’s story.”

I find the current characters, dialogue, and story itself to be very one-dimensional, pedantic, limp-wristed, and not relatable at all. I get no sense of heroism or importance and it’s like I’m playing through some leftist high-school drama. It’s something that belongs on tumblr blogs quite frankly, not in a fantasy game about fighting dragons and so on.

Here’s hoping you get this ship back on course!

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Rogue.7856:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Highlord.7158:

So. Who thought these changes were a good idea, and why are they still employed?

I think they’re compelling as an idea. I think the execution . . . leaves a lot to be desired.

The whole idea of reusing already existing content and turning it into a reward isn’t a reward at all. It’s a punishment if anything, and it’s creating the very grind that they were trying to innovate out of their game from the beginning.

. . . what, exactly, are you on about?

Exactly what he said. Imagine walking into someone’s house and gift-wrapping their toaster and then giving it back to them and saying “happy birthday!”

Stop crying. You knew what you were getting into when you kept spending gold. Now you learned a valuable lesson, hopefully.

The bottom line is spot on.

Also the LS characters are pedantic and one-dimensional which is why they are not relatable and why they are so forgettable. Really the only event in the more recent LS that was good was when your character fights the dragon in the Grove, alone. That was good and finally put the hero in the spotlight rather than forcing you, the player, to be a bit player rather than the star of the show. Going off and exploring other characters is fine but they went too far with that concept.

Grind is code for work at something. When the grind is tedious and mundane it’s not good, but if it’s enticing and at least not too boring then there is nothing wrong with it.

People in reality (except ones that demand instant gratification) have no problem with a grind. It only becomes a “grind” when it’s slow, mundane, and pointless.

kokiman.2364:

Tiger Ashante.1792:

My minions are always dying now. Tonight i play my Necro for the first time since the patch and the minions die when i enter water, they die when exit water

They always did that iirc.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_necromancer_skills#Slot_skills

Two of them did (Flesh Golem and Flesh Wurm) but the rest didn’t.

Paulytnz.7619:

Soon there will only be one race in Tyria – Human. Because having the other races will be too confusing for new players……

Human? Nonsense. Their Mary Sue race, the Sylvari, will be the only one.

Nice job leaving your inventory so far away from the accept button. May as well just do the whole NPE or run a marathon.

Also the music sucks.

Athena.3579:

Filaha.1678:

tl;dr Idle animations are low priority and should rightfully be so.

I could see how something like this could easily fall through the cracks and never be fixed, so I’m glad people are discussing and bumping this topic. Game breaking bugs should absolutely come first, but, at the same time, I’m glad this is on the radar (front page).

Yup, my thoughts exactly. My personal and apparent impatience lies in the realm of this not being resolved and being forgotten “because it’s just idle animations.” Just look at the running animation. It’s been almost a year now and it still hasn’t been restored to it’s former glory but they haven’t come out and recognized that as the bug it is.

We know for certain something serious like Necro minions dying will get fixed. It’s a given and will happen. Things like this however could easily sit on the investigation list indefinitely. I’ve seen similar things happen in other games, including WoW.

AllNightPlayer.1286:

Bugging animations are harder to ignore. You see them EVERY time you play your character (I barely play my human female guardian. Bugged running animation and stupid hammerhead looks like it’s about to fall over her shoulder now). And skiping a whole race in this game is much more painful than ignoring two or three armor sets.

This is precisely what I’m facing. I look at my Ele for example and it’s not the same anymore. Can’t even be bothered to play.

Razgriz.9831:

Im planning on creating a new elementalist to play through with my friend who just got the game. Im looking into playing and ele that just seems like it would be fun without being totally optimal. If i decided to do a D/D ele with a focus on earth magic what traits/stats/utilities would benefit me the most? It doesn’t have to be the best.

I will read through everything in a little while and will take all of your input into account.

If I’m not mistaken, the current update doesn’t let you use Earth until level 24.

As for what stats, Earth is mostly a condition attunement but d/d has a powerful attack in Earthquake. Since it relies on conditions though, it’s wise to pair it with Fire and pick traits that buff the burning condition alongside traits that make your Earth’s bleeds more effective. Earth for bleeds, Fire for burning. Condition damage, Power, and Precision should be your focus.

Utilities, well, whatever you need really. If you have trouble surviving then use more Cantrips. I would definitely take Glyph of Storms now that Fire applies burning and Earth applies bleeds and blinds though.

Dave.1534:

If Queen Jennah suddenly waged war against the Charr to reclaim Ascalon, would you resist or fight for the cause?

(and of course discuss on ‘why’)

Personally I would. Ever since the searing happened in GW1 I yearned for revenge but never really got it :/

Absolutely I would fight.

Another patch, and it’s still bugged…

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Nkuvu.2570:

nexxe.7081:

Are you serious? OP must be trolling. Anyone have proof?

I wish I was trolling. Then there might be some comedy here (aside from the Bohemian Rhapsody attempt early in the thread (edit: And aside from dace’s incredible post that I can’t believe I forgot to mention. That was great.)).

I don’t currently know what level the goggles unlock, unfortunately. But I read about this gate on Reddit, and had to make a character for myself to see.

First: Which map is that?
Second: I think you can use them by level 7 which seems to be when they make certain others things visible/available to new players.
Third: I think this is something that isn’t supposed to be gated from vet players.

Why even gate bundles? What is the point of this? I remember picking up a shovel and hitting stuff with it and actually felt as if my character was part of the world it was in because I could interact with stuff in the world beyond NPCs. Now the character feels like its apart from it “until you reach level 7.” It doesn’t make sense. The artificial barrier is really not needed.

This goes for everything that is gated.

rabidsmiles.5926:

China has a way bigger potential playerbase (they do have one of the largest populations in the world) and as stated before we knew they wouldn’t upkeep a NA version of the game and a China version of the game (because let’s be real, they LOVE grindy games where you throw all of your money into them to be better than the average player). We all knew this was coming…it just hurts to see it cut away so harshly. I loved MP as a starting zone, I used to take all of my characters over there to level…now it’s like a half-digested Husk that isn’t even a champion.

We are not stupid, new players are not stupid. If you playtested in China and they didn’t understand the mechanics it’s because GW2 isn’t like all other games. They needed time to figure out the mechanics, not 5 mins to sit down with the game and then ask for a survey.

Well, if they are getting a lot of extra cash from there, then they should have more than enough profits to upkeep two different versions of the game. Just the thought that we may get outsourced to China makes me ill, so I think I’m gonna stop thinking about it for now.

gryph.8734:

Lodius.5392:

Of course metrics tell a story. Here is one.

Enjoyability of GW2 after 9/9

You mean that’s how much you enjoy GW2 after 9/9.

Oh yeah, every GW2-related forum on the internet, every map chat — all of this stuff is just teeming with people thrilled with GW2 post-9/9.

Come off it!

gryph.8734:

Brother Grimm.5176:

gryph.8734:

Brother Grimm.5176:

I tend to think an HONEST opinion from anyone at Anet on EXACTLY how any established player (of any age or mental ability) would react to these “changes” (the prior TRAIT changes from FP1 included) would be quite informative.

There is NO WAY any intelligent person could not see that 90% of existing players are going to look at all these leveling changes in a negative light (and it’s NOT just because they are “different”). Presenting the changes with the banner, “A Fresh Start”, is propaganda and hyperbole at it’s worst.

A simple, “We’re sorry, this was forced on us too.” reply would go a long way for me….

The irony of claiming that any intelligent person would automatically assume 90% of GW2 players will hate this, and then making a reference to “hyperbole at its worst” is lost on you, isn’kitten

Negative is not equal to hate…..I don’t “hate” ALL the changes but some of them are just BAD and overall, I would think anything that makes an existing player NOT want to start an ALT is not GOOD or POSITIVE…..agreed?

Show me ONE existing player that thinks ALL these changes are for the better….just one.

I’m neutral on most of them, as the “new player experience” doesn’t apply to me or most of my toons. I could most likely dig up quite a few players who are indifferent and have no intention of quitting in a huff. It doesn’t matter. Anet didn’t make these decisions in a vacuum, and time will tell if they are beneficial to what Anet wants to accomplish as a business. When the game stops being fun, I’ll stop playing. Until then, I won’t. And there are absolutely others who feel the same way I do. Most of them just don’t have the desire to form adversarial relationships in an internet forum.

Why voice your opinion on matters that don’t even apply to you? You are working with pure conjecture here. Let those that are affected voice theirs. It’s pretty much all they can do aside from just never logging in again, but that doesn’t send quite the same message because ANet has no exit survey asking why a player quit and so on.

Many games have a “noob island” where players can learn the ropes right the start. GW2 also had one with a little boss fight at the end of it. All of this update’s NPE problems could be rectified by simply placing everything in the noob island. Put your dodge trainer in there; your cow dancing in there; just leave the open world alone for many of the reasons OP already listed. It was already a good start, it was different, and it was free.

I’m reminded of Tera right now and their noob island (which is completely optional). You actually start at a HIGHER level than 1 (I think level 30) and are introduced to several skills right away. Why? So the player now has something to look forward to and so the player knows what he is even getting himself into. He’s going to want to earn all that cool stuff and he is going to work at it. Now I’m not proposing ANet does this but I’m giving an example of a game that went the other way and enticed the player with decent gear and several abilities so that they have a frame of reference; an impression. And you know what? It wasn’t confusing. An NPC guide followed you around, talked with you, helped you get through, and then even this game’s tutorial zone had its own little boss battle with several NPCs with you to give that feeling of importance. GW2 could easily have something like this – they have done it before in the personal story, namely the Tree’s vision of your Assault on Arah.

Instead of changing everything in the open world, confine the tutorial elements to the zone designed to be a tutorial… when I play a game I want to get in there and play it, not suffer through a tutorial for hours or dance for cows. Those that need the tutorial can have it, but it shouldn’t be forced on anyone. Tutorials are almost always optional. This is probably the first game I’ve ever seen where a tutorial extends so deep into the levelling process that it actually becomes the levelling process, but with all this extra baggage which just trigger’s a person’s claustrophobia.

The idea was fine, the execution wasn’t.

Lynne.8416:

I don’t recommend it for any “new” updates because quite a few people do not like change and will automatically give a negative critique on that basis alone. But I’d say on a quarterly basis they could have a week of in game pop up surveys (similar to what they did during beta) on specifics aspects of the game. ie first quarter is on TP and UI’s, second quarter on events like DE’s and world bosses and hearts..etc etc.

Change is not always good and we instinctively know that because it can cause chaos and suffering where there was no chaos and suffering. It also can destroy familiarity, and we like what is familiar to us, naturally. One only needs to have a grasp of politics or to understand culture to see how the force of change can negatively impact a civilization. When things are already down the tubes, then change is demanded for something to survive; when they aren’t down the tubes, then change is abhorred.

It is no different for anything else man does or makes, including games.

It’s not right to assume a lot of people dislike change for the sake of disliking change, or that they will automatically rate something negatively just because it’s different. Often there is good reason to dislike a change: the change may threaten something they love dearly.

You’ll notice that change that is good is praised, while change that is bad is condemned. There are more negative changes imposed upon us in life because some people are constantly trying to reconstruct and fix what isn’t broken. What they should be focusing on is actually building up what is there and making it better, rather than throwing out what works and experimenting with something completely new in its stead. Additions can be fine, but when you supplant what works with something that doesn’t, you get a chaotic situation, and people suffer because of it.

Most humans understand this intuitively to one degree or another and don’t really realize it until they are faced with a new situation that they loath to be in. To be forced into that situation by something external makes it all the much worse because you then feel powerless to stop it, and we are geared to avoid situations like that at all costs. It appears like most people just “don’t like change” but they only don’t like it when they don’t want to lose what they have. Remember, not all change improves upon something, and in some cases it can be the loss of everything.

I dread a lot of the changes in this update and I do so because it took away things that I loved, but I don’t dread all of the changes.

notebene.3190:

Kamui.4038:

AllNightPlayer.1286:

To fans of the “old” running animation (still think the “new” one is just a bug):
The animation is still in the game. Every human female NPC uses the “old” animation. And if your character is infight and their weapons are holstered, she also uses the normal, better looking animation. And two-handed weapons behave much better too.

Did some videos a while ago to show the difference. I admit they are not the best ones, but enough to see the difference.

new animation: front
new animation: hammer
new animation: greatsword

old animation: front
old animation: hammer
old animation: greatsword

I really miss those animations. I think I will report this in game, you should as well and maybe link those videos. Considering the animations are still in game, it is without a doubt a bug.

Which either means the animations we had now were in the game at one point, and they used one set over the other for launch, and the bug is that they inadvertently hooked the other animations up during a patch 10 months ago and don’t care to fix it, or, some one (or more) quietly complained about it, it was never mentioned or talked about, and they assigned someone to specifically spend time changing the animation, yet it was never a patch note or discussed with the community as to why it was changed.

I posted an idea months ago which I thought would be a neat money idea for them, though, it would also be work on their part, which might make it unattractive.

Why not make running the running animation (and now I see idle animations would fit nicely in here too) something you get to ‘pick’ for your character, just like your hair, body type, skin, face, etc? They could make ‘animation packs’ (running, walking, idle) to sell us in the store. Imagine a skipping Asuran? Maybe you want a limp?

A nice start would be letting those of us who would rather have the original running animation have it. You could change your running and walking animations using full make over kits, which would increase those sales.

The idle would be more tricky, as we have several. That might be something where you could ‘add’ new ones to the rotation, but I can’t think of a good way to turn them off, unless they add some sort of UI to the full make over kits to ‘pick 4’ or something?

I’d rather they just restore what was given to us at launch. What we paid for. What we chose when deciding which character to make. And so on. The animations of a race/sex choice are hugely important when deciding which one to pick. For example, I could have made a Norn but I chose human because I liked their animations better among other things.

Now my character is lifeless and as the poster above said: a tiny norn, which I definitely did not choose.

Just restore what was lost, and all will be well. More than anything I just want my characters to be as they were when I chose them because I feel robbed.

Please ArenaNet.

zenleto.6179:

Didn’t know it was a competition. Your name isn’t Phil, is it?

You’re the one accusing me of being a misanthrope when I’m being skeptical and a little bit facetious.

zenleto.6179:

Have you ever helped anybody?

Every time I can. In game and in real life. In fact I beat you to the punch in this thread.

narwhalsbend.7059:

While this may be a helpful guide for new players, experienced players do not need this and it adds to the clutter.

The worst part of this compass comes in that it never goes away. I am playing my 100% Map Completion character and it’s always there saying “Complete Nearby Events”.

Yeah I get it, complete nearby events, complete nearby events, complete nearby events, etc.

Just give us an option to disable it please.

Luckily it was added with the update. I shut the darn thing off almost immediately myself. I have 2 maps and can tell where my character is on said maps. Don’t need a compass holding my hand.

Straylight.7529:

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

Why did they remove the Golem Chess minigame in Metric proviance?
This better be a bug…
This kitten is broken…

Bundles were deemed too confusing for new players. The chess minigame is considered a bundle. Therefore it was removed.

Welcome to the year 2014, where game developers have to protect their customers from confusing thoughts. Afterall these thoughts could rouse feelings of severe discomfort. Would you like a stress ball with your copy of GW2?

My copy didn’t come with one and I could really use it right now…

Vayne.8563:

Kamui.4038:

Broom.2561:

Danikat.8537:

I disagree with a lot of the changes to starter zones and levelling but this one doesn’t bother me.

You can still buy and sell using the Black Lion Trader window and if you want to collect the items there’s a city a few feet from the traders. It’s a good idea to visit your starter city early on anyway.

Yeah about that… veterans know this. But only yesterday, when I was briefly in Caledon, we had to point a new player to where the city was. Because surprise surprise, they are now only told about that at level 10, and then only when they actually do the story arc.

Everything is so unnecessarily convoluted now. I can’t for the life of me fathom why these changes were made. The levelling experience flowed so well before… it all made sense.

It made sense to you. It actually made sense to me too. But I know people who it didn’t make sense to.

Yes. I’m sure you did.

gryph.8734:

Tachenon.5270:

gryph.8734:

So my challenge stands. If you think you and your buddies can design a better game and make a go of it financially, go right ahead.

Your ‘challenge’ is so old and tired and downright silly that you should get a 50 DKP minus for using it. Heck, 350! By using it, you demonstrate that you are bereft of any valid argument.

One need not be a chef de cuisine to know that if the crème brûlée smells like a litter box that hasn’t been cleaned in a week, there’s probably something wrong with it.

But if one has never made a good creme brulee and can not make one any better than that, you’ll get laughed right out of the kitchen for cussing out the chef.

What’s happening here is that the chef is trying to tell us that a litter box is a creme brulee. GW2 has entered Bizarro World: up is down, left is right, right is wrong, …

Broom.2561:

Danikat.8537:

I disagree with a lot of the changes to starter zones and levelling but this one doesn’t bother me.

You can still buy and sell using the Black Lion Trader window and if you want to collect the items there’s a city a few feet from the traders. It’s a good idea to visit your starter city early on anyway.

Yeah about that… veterans know this. But only yesterday, when I was briefly in Caledon, we had to point a new player to where the city was. Because surprise surprise, they are now only told about that at level 10, and then only when they actually do the story arc.

Everything is so unnecessarily convoluted now. I can’t for the life of me fathom why these changes were made. The levelling experience flowed so well before… it all made sense.

ProphetSword.5427:

I think people are upset because things changed to something they’re not used to. If these changes had been part of how things were done at launch and the game had always been this way from the beginning, nobody would have cared about any of it. It would just be part of the leveling process to eventually open things as you leveled.

Not quite. I would question why this much-touted downed state was not available to me right away, instead I just die, same with the much-touted underwater combat, and question why I am not trusted with these basic things when I see level 2 monsters in the water, but I can’t fight them for some reason. I would question why am I dancing for cows, and why is the compass sending me to a level 80 zone. I would question why the dyes I just used were locked up, when the dyes were also a big feature. I would eventually come to the conclusion that this game was P2W by how so much appears locked away even though I can see it right there in front of me, I just can’t touch it.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Gimli.9461:

- Why would you dumb down the content of the race that’s smart by lore?

You should have seen the Asura heartquests during the Beta. You had to do entire mathematical equations to complete them lol.

They still had one of those in the zone. Maybe this update just removed it, who knows. I haven’t bothered to log in even into my level 80s until they at least resolve my human female’s idle animations. I didn’t make a tiny Norn, I made a Human.

thehipone.6812:

I started a new asura yesterday to firsthand check out the leveling (am a vet, all classes 80, map complete, blah blah blah) and was just sad once I got out of the tutorial. Metrica, we hardly knew thee.

I bought and still play this game because of the world, the art and the races with their little quirks and types. Sure, loot is great, but theres Diablo 3 if I really need to scratch that itch. But D3 and many other generic fantasy RPG/mmo/whatever don’t have the “personality” that GW2 has (had?) IMO.

RC golem chess is no more than a 2 minute activity, but I still remembered the impression it left on me as a new player coming in from GW1 (and one who ran around in the cerebral or Vekk tonic form as often as possible). The golem chess represented part of the personality of the game and more importantly made me want to go out and see “what other cool asura stuff is in the zone?” "A nuclear reactor?!? " What does Rata Sum look like now? etc. It was a far bigger motivator to keep playing and exploring this game than a level popup ever will be.

It’s like everything is being normalized; homogenized. Sacrificing everything for an experiment.

Hi. I used to play L2 as well and I get what you want. Thief really is the closest but their abilities are not flashy at all, so Warrior is also a possibility. Maybe try Ranger as well because they can also melee and have some colourful attacks in melee. I think you will like Ranger, but if you hate pet classes then maybe try Warrior.

If you are open to casters then try either of the casters, especially Mesmer and Elementalist. I also like colourful attacks and dynamic animations and that is one of the reasons I like my Elementalist so much (female character).

I made this argument in another post earlier today. They could at least have in-game surveys rather than totally rely on faceless metrics for decision making. At least take the players into more consideration. We’re the ones already here and should be a priority.

zenleto.6179:

Shalloe.4867:

Kamui.4038:

Trading posts were hurting too many people’s feelings and were just too complicated to figure out. The word “trading” doesn’t tell you anything at all about the NPC’s function so ANet graciously removed this headache from a town that apparently makes its business by not existing.

oh no they are removing them from towns as well now?

No

Shaemoor is a town. Divinity’s Reach is a [capital] city. Yes they are removing them from towns.

Kamui.4038:

1/2

Now lets look at what the update has done within these few moments, from a theoretical new player’s point of view:

I picked a warrior this time around. It had a sword and one ability on the bar. The other abilities had a padlock on them and told me I need to reach so and so levels to use them. Alright, so I walk through the zone and fought the big boss, basically just pressing 1 and standing there until it keeled over. Exciting. I then woke up in the hallway of a house rather than near the beds for some reason – apparently the “Hero of Shaemoor” is not worth a hay mat to these people. Thanks for nothing, losers. I was greeted by a cutscene that told me to get some fresh air and exercise. After that cutscene I got to level 2, a leap ability unlocked for me, and I was greeted by a nagging winged diamond in the corner of the screen that reminds me of that thing from the Zelda game (you know what I’m talking about) and it with all these bells and whistles it praised me to high heaven for reaching level 2. Well thanks, I didn’t really earn it because all I did was press 1, but thanks I guess. It rewarded me with a slightly better sword than the one I already had. Great. Anyway I eventually get down to the farm and, what is this? I walked up to a cow and the game told me to entertain it for some reason. So I pressed the key and saw my character do a ridiculous dance that for some reason pleased the cow more than food would have, apparently. Why the heck am I dancing for cows? Shouldn’t I be feeding them, or milking them, or something like that? You know, something that makes sense? Anyway after stroking some corn stalks I made my way to the river north of the farm and wouldn’t you know it, a drake Broodmother appeared! Now unlike the Queen wurm, this Broodmother must have been peanuts because all I had to do was press 1 and stand there just like I did against those giant rocky hands that could lift a farm house yet die to a few sword swings from a dull sword that the reward thingy so graciously sharpened for me. My HP didn’t drop one bit, my life was never once threatened, and I just stood there… I didn’t even have to use the Leap ability I learned for hitting level 2 because the Broodmother spawned so close to me.

Anyway I eventually made it to a Moa farm and was greeted by level 5 bandits while I was level 3 still. They gave me a hard time but I steadied on. Around that area I saw the compass nagging me to LEARN TO DODGE. . . Well thank heavens! I thought dodging meant avoiding something, not moving into it, but thanks to GW2 my confusion was erased. Dodging now means “a stylish way to move around and into circles.” Good. I’m sure these circles on the ground are all going to benefit me later on in the future so I should surely roll into them from now on.

Eventually I hit level 5 and learned a third ability for this sword I had been using for about 15 minutes or so now. At this point, I don’t even know warriors even have some kind of unique ability to them or the ability to have more than one weapon in my hand. I see a shield in my inventory that I found but I can’t use it yet. Maybe that Guardian class who’s icon is a shield uses this weapon, and that they punch things with Shields. Regardless, I walked back towards the farm area where I danced for leering cows only to be greeted by the Queen wurm again! Ahh my old rival, time for a good battle! I leaped into action, pressed 1, and eventually it died. No poison, no stuns, no need to dodge into anything… nothing. I pressed 1 and occasionally 3 and it died. The queen has become a pawn.

I think people can see where I am going with all of this. There is nothing easier about any of this, in fact it’s actually more convoluted, more confusing, and not only is it more convoluted and confusing because so much of it doesn’t make a lick of sense, the game was treating me like a pea-brained imbecile every step of the way.

2/2

Story time.

When I first started WoW, I made a Rogue. Right away I had autoattack, Sinister Strike, and Stealth on my hotbar, and an Energy bar under my health bar. Stealth immediately showed me that that ability is central to the class because it was in a unique spot all its own above the regular hotbar. When I snuck up to an enemy and used Sinister Strike, I was greeted with combo points and reduced energy which went back up over time. When I hit level 2, I talked to an NPC called “Thief trainer” and learned this ability called Eviscerate. What did it do? It allowed me to use combo points while dealing damage – more points, more damage. Simple as that. It also taught me that this class seems to function on this combo point system and that that is also central to this class, perhaps even totally unique to it.

When I first started GW2, I picked the Thief class. I was greeted with two abilities – Dual Strike and Steal – and 2 other abilities were greyed out. I also saw 9 shapes above the ability bar. I tried Steal and I teleported to (sweet!) and stole a weapon from a centaur, then used it on him. I shot him with a rifle that threw him back and also had a recoil effect on me, and thought that this was all awesome and engaging. When I attacked enemies I saw that a yellow bar moved across the first greyed out ability. Okay, I am making progress here. That ability quickly unlocked itself and allowed me the use of another ability called Heartseeker. This ability, like WoW’s Eviscerate, showed me the main resource mechanics behind the class I was playing. Unlike WoW however, I had another bar above the health circle that told me to press V to dodge. Considering I already knew what the word “Dodge” meant like everyone else above the age of 5 years old, I didn’t need a tutorial showing me what that word means or what pressing V would do.

When I was confronted with the big boss at the end of the first map, I had a big fight where I hit him with 3 different abilities and even stole rocks from the Elementals that spawned around him (because stealing from him gave me nothing, so I improvised). After he was brought down, I awoke to a cutscene that told me to get fresh air and exercise. After the cutscene I gained a level and a new weapon, an offhand. This immediately told me that this class not only can hold two weapons, but the weapon also changed my number 3 ability! I picked the pistol because I already had a dagger and noticed that this not only changed that 3rd ability, but gave me two more. I then thought okay since this is a dual wielding class, what would happen if I switched the dagger and pistol around? What’s that, I have abilities but 4 are greyed out. I cannot wait to unlock those abilities next and see how they work since I already have a decent understanding of how the dagger works (I poke things with it), but since I already unlocked the dagger skills, I thought for the sake of consistency that I would finish that arrangement first, but shooting a pistol was awesome, my WoW Rogue never had something like that. Anyway I noticed a green shape on the map and over an NPC’s head when I exited the house I was in, so I talked to it and it showed and explained to me hearts and so on. Great, so these must be quests I thought. I then followed the big kitten arrow on the minimap and reached a farm and something popped up in the top right corner of the screen. “Help the farmer by doing so and so” it read. I fed cows, I kittened off wurms, and I watered the crops. Then a QUEEN wurm popped up! Naturally I walked up to it and attacked it using 4 abilities, I even stole from it! The thing stunned me a few times and threw poison around (which hurt), knocking some people to the ground which introduced me to ability to revive players! Eventually me and my fellow compatriots brought the wurm down and all was well.

1/2

Aeolus.3615:

GW2 is suposed to be a very very casual game

Then why do we have PVP and WvW? Where did they even state this was supposed to be a “very very casual game”? Quite the opposite actually: ANet wanted this to have an esport scene, which is anything but casual.

Trading posts were hurting too many people’s feelings and were just too complicated to figure out. The word “trading” doesn’t tell you anything at all about the NPC’s function so ANet graciously removed this headache from a town that apparently makes its business by not existing.

loseridoit.2756:

it discounts anet’s efforts to appease the community.

I’m sorry but I must have missed the memo. When did this community ask to have everything gated behind bars, to gut the downed stated and underwater combat to absurdity, and a whole slew of other dumbing down elements that were added? Like removing bundles (dancing for cows? really?) and removing nodes from the map. They didn’t have to go this far to make the game more accessible or rewarding (the rewarding is actually really artificial, not in line with the organic nature that GW2 was founded upon, not to mention rewards came from karma vendors — did ANet forget about these or something? Levelling up was its own reward – people really don’t need a gold star for hitting level 3… patronizing is what it all is and doesn’t feel RPGish at all). All they had to do was introduce a few more NPCs like the scout, and maybe some optional events or mini-events to teach players basic functionality (which should be confined to the tutorial zone, NOT the open world). That’s it, because anything more will be so overbearing it will strangulate the player or make them think this game was designed for adolescents which is a really nasty impression against the rest of us.

Don’t get me wrong, I admire that they try, but who in the world are they asking to make these kinds of decisions? Because it is not the current player and most likely not even a player of any games. It’s like they are trying to get remedial-level Facebook and phone gamers into GW2 who have never once touched a real game in their lives, but ANet… those kinds of people are not going to have the stamina or mindset to play an MMORPG… not anywhere NEAR those of us that have come and went so far.

dwillikers.2348:

@ MikeHR: Please. The Op isn’t suggesting anything specific. Where on earth did you get that the idea he/she was referring specifically to forum posts? Because they posted this on a forum? Surely you see that idiocy in that. Is there somewhere else they should express this without the bias of people like you assuming simply because you post your opinion on virtually the only place it can be viewed by Anet that it should be inherently disregarded simply because they voiced their opinion on the only means of expression Anet can see? Is there a democratic meeting that’s held monthly I wasn’t made aware of?

Irrelevant. I’m not here to debate. I’m here merely to express that I acknowledge the personal expression the OP has conveyed here. Whether I agree with his/her complaints or not I don’t see worth voicing right now. The point of my post is simply to point out that some here, whether their complaints are justified or not, serve to show that Anet has some pretty dedicated fans behind it. I’m simply looking at things outside the box here. For a company to have someone communicate their emotional investment in the game like this, is something to consider, regardless of how you feel about what their specifically trying to express.

Some will take what I’m pointing out into consideration. Those that won’t will disregard my and the OP’s post as, simply, different form their own, and therefore, unimportant.

Either way, I find it comforting people here are able to voice their disapproval with anet (which seems to be, like a newly buffed class, the new flavor of the month from the forums) in an actual way that involves more than just, Anet omgwtfbbq do you even lift, which I have seen (granted this is in.. simplified terms-ish) so frequently on the forums these past few days.

Spot on. Someone else that can think critically. Most of the naysayers that seem to think ANet can do no wrong are really just hiding under blankets and scared at the angry mob this update has brought upon itself. Well you can’t wish away us monsters that easily this time…

And yes, OP is not speaking about only the forums, obviously. “We” does not mean “those of us that post on the GW2 or other forums”, “we” means “we”: the players playing the game. ANet could make in game surveys if they wanted to take in information and make decisions based on that, for one. Even better: they could make a Public Test Server. It’s all within their power to do so.

Mistakes happen and ANet made a booboo with this update. The important part is that we learn from this so that we do not continue repeating it.

Either way, it’s a pretty affectionate way to refer to your character. Kind of like calling your wife or daughter “honey” — because she’s sweet. “Toon” may stem from those of us that grew up with cartoons which brings back fond memories of Saturday mornings, and also because your character is animated.

I know I’ve used to term “toon” in my MMOs like over 10 years ago. Somewhere around there anyway.

The Roger Rabbit reference brought up above also makes a lot of sense. I DID grow up in that era.

Vayne.8563:

Kamui.4038:

ANet needs to be more candid with their pre-update blog posts and so on. Less fluff and dressing it up with PR words and maybe they can prevent some of the outrage, because by just reading blog snippets that are dressed up with optimism, people are going to be elevated only to come crashing down even harder once they actually get in game and witness everything for themselves.

That’s what happened here.

As to the poster above (vayne): details are what make the picture a flop, or a legend. Just because someone focuses on details does not mean they are not taking the big picture into account. Often times they are, because one little bad smudge can ruin the whole picture, like a large wart on an otherwise beautiful face.

That too is what is happening here.

I’ve always been a guy short on the details and big on the big picture. I usually hired detail guys. I was quite successful at the stuff I turned my hand to, because big picture guys are rarer than detail guys. It’s just the way it is. You don’t have to believe it, but it’s true.

Saying that people often take the big picture into account is a massive assumption. Maybe, possibly you do. Maybe you think most people are like you. I’m pretty sure most people aren’t. I don’t only think most people don’t take the big picture into account, I think most people can’t…any more than I can suddenly be detail oriented. It’s not just something you do, it’s a mindset.

Making the assumption that people complaining are taking the big picture into view is demonstrably untrue in many cases.

Conjecture. Conjecture everywhere. Whether most people understand as I do is irrelevant: they and I are on the same page here, and if they can’t consciously see the big picture, I can, which ultimately means they do understand what is happening, they just may not phrase it in so many words all the time, but they feel it instinctively. A brilliant game of freedom and potential reduced to fenced cribs and safety helmets. That’s the future of the current path and what everyone unanimously sees happening to the game.

Maybe all the resistance will veer us off that course – who knows what ANet is thinking behind closed doors at this point – but if it doesn’t, there is no hope left. We all get that, and that is the big picture here.

I wish I could shower this game with praise, I really do, and I did do that when it launched as did millions of others, but I’m not blind enough to do that in its current state, nor am I unethical enough.

Expect a hotfix within a week and a new tutorial and lockout on Ele GM traits thanks to your naughtiness. :P

Vayne.8563:

The first 15 levels suck for an experienced player, or at least they’re more limited. You also get through them in under an hour, or I did anyway.

Racing through the first 15 levels of the game to get to parts that are just starting to become fun is bad game design. Level 1 was fine the way it was, which means the changes were ultimately not necessary.

The idea of doing something for new players is fine and benevolent; the execution of said benevolence however has turned out tyrannical, especially to the citizens that were already within GW2’s borders when it happened.

ANet needs to be more candid with their pre-update blog posts and so on. Less fluff and dressing it up with PR words and maybe they can prevent some of the outrage, because by just reading blog snippets that are dressed up with optimism, people are going to be elevated only to come crashing down even harder once they actually get in game and witness everything for themselves.

That’s what happened here.

As to the poster above (vayne): details are what make the picture a flop, or a legend. Just because someone focuses on details does not mean they are not taking the big picture into account. Often times they are, because one little bad smudge can ruin the whole picture, like a large wart on an otherwise beautiful face.

That too is what is happening here.

cranked.3812:

Welcome to the world wide interwebz. Full of keyboard commandos who sit in anonymity and blame everyone else for their shortcomings.

Also, rifle warrior is terrible. Doesn’t matter the situation.

That legitimizes these “keyboard commandos.” No shortcomings on their part. People want optimal performance in areas of the game that demand optimal performance – how anyone can find a problem with that kind of thinking is beyond me.

I won’t deny that there are people that just cry and complain and blame others for their failures, but when it’s legit, it’s legit.

Piecekeeper.4361:

Yes. Just about everything with guild wars (minus the bugs that are being worked on) is good.

Unless you count the community and the forums. They suck. Seriously, this is the most hateful of the game community I’ve ever been a part of.

Nonsense. I have seen gaming communities as early as 1999 and Guild Wars’ community is quite decent albeit pretty limp-wristed at times but that’s this generation. However, some of the rage you see on these forums – and I’m not talking about the occasional person crying about Thieves being too OP or a nitpicking feminist that keeps demanding more male armour skins for her female character – is by passionate players that don’t want to see GW2 go under. That is the truth. Just because someone appears angry or hateful doesn’t mean it’s not for a good reason or that they are simply being hateful for the sake of hating something.

Let me leave you with this different perspective which may help you understand why people are so aggravated over the 9/9 update: “Hate is the purest expression of love; we hate that which threatens what we love, and so we will not simply bash – we will destroy what we hate.” That’s a little extreme but its basically what is going on here. I have seen nothing but impassioned people angry and scared at the direction of the game and it’s because they love this game, otherwise they wouldn’t go to such lengths.

Perhaps some people will understand what it means to feel angry and hate certain changes, in game and in life, because not all change benefits us in the long run.

I love GW2. I came into this game at release and it was like meeting the perfect girl, only she has become something else now, seemingly influenced by something outside of my control. I stuck with her through ups and downs but it is becoming harder and harder to hold on. My grip is slipping. I still don’t want to lose her, and hope she will realize what is happening to her..

The graphics and combat (two of the things that were not touched after release), and of course some ‘quirks’ like the human female idle animations which this latest feature pack bugged out, unfortunately… but it’s being looked into at least. They haven’t fixed the running animation back to its former glory yet however, and that has been an issue for nearly a year now.

The little things make a big impact on the psyche of a player, believe it or not. People grow attached to this kind of stuff.