Guild Wars 2

Same problem here on my new Sylvari Ranger (chose the Hound for starter), only ran into the Pink Moa and a Jungle Spider…no drakes or other creatures in Caledon Forest.

Substance E.4852:

Kuldebar.1897:

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

NO!

The /level scrolls should NEVER have been introduced into the game…it’s a rookie mistake in MMO’s. DAoC found that out over a decade ago. Don’t cut your content off at the knees and don’t starve beginner zones of their players.

Yes, less of an issue in GW2 because of downleveling but bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

Spoiler warning:
GW2 doesn’t have a sub fee and “bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME” doesn’t mean Anet makes less money.

No one is asking for newbies to be able to rocket to 80 in a day. We are asking for the option to do it as players who’ve already completed multiple characters and who don’t want to deal with the asinine trait system or skill lockouts.

You seem to think that Gem Store purchases are made by people who don’t actually log in and play. There is also the value of having players active on the server…no one likes dead MMO’s for very long.

Free leveling is counter productive.

Regardless of marketing lip-service, Devs design the games, not the players. Successful Devs have to be able to glean the most correct conclusions from asymmetrical data streams.

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

NO!

The /level scrolls should NEVER have been introduced into the game…it’s a rookie mistake in MMO’s. DAoC found that out over a decade ago. Don’t cut your content off at the knees and don’t starve beginner zones of their players.

Yes, less of an issue in GW2 because of downleveling but bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

After playing three new characters over the last couple of days, there’s a lot to like about the NPE.

It does help settle a new player into the game’s features and “rules”. The rewards for leveling are fun and actually useful to new characters. I actually look forward to leveling.

But, the weapon related locks seem to be rather jarring bumps in the road of a fairly smooth and fast progression of the first 15 levels.

Example:

Makes no sense to me that I can use a Greatsword and a Mace and Shield at level 7, BUT I can’t actively swap from one set to another…I have to manually go into my inventory and equip the weapons until I get weapon swap at level 15. O.o

Something is off with not being able to swap weapons when you gain the ability for off-hands.

The grating elements immediately noticeable to me, revolved around the locked content of weapon swap, off-hand, profession abilities and skill challenges.

Additionally, the access to Profession Skills is a kinda a big deal for some Professions; it might bear some fine-tuning.

Example:

Why block Skill Point Acquisition?

The answer lies in how the TRAIT System has been changed since April. We can’t act like the September changes to the game have happened in a vacuum.

My bigger concern is how Traits have been removed from the normal leveling process.

I think the core Traits should be put back as they were prior to April and a new line of “Elite Traits" can be seeded out into the game world tied to various types of challenges.

Throwing the whole lot into the content gated system was a HUGE mistake because it tends to lock players into a regimented agenda. Too much gating destroys the player’s sense of freedom and replaces it with To Do Lists and robotic game-play routines.

I love it. I don’t like the current nested deign, the right-side tabs work out a lot better.

Wasbunny.6531:

Before too much criticism/analysis is made about the new leveling system it’s really worth it to actually try it out first.

I created a new baby Mesmer after the patch and leveled it to level 16 at a lazy pace in a few hours. Overall so far it’s seemed a lot smoother and even kind of addictive to level now (without boosts of any kind). At each level getting a little fanfare, some shinies & new unlocks or words of advice does make the process seem more rewarding.

My first ever character in GW2 was a Mesmer so I remember how it was to enter knowing absolutely nothing about the game, let alone the profession. For instance I remember not fully understanding or even using my shatter skills until maybe around level 40-50. I’ll admit it’s a little weird unlocking one at a time but that does allow you to get familiar with each one in turn before moving on to the next.

I do miss the unlocking of weapon skills by using them, but I also remember how much of a pain it was to unlock all the weapon skills of an Elementalist for instance. You end up hanging out in the same attunement for what seems like an eternity just to unlock all the skills, so being able to switch attunements doesn’t even really matter at that stage. And then you have to unlock all the underwater skills….

So far overall I’ve seen an improvement (this is my 10th character) with my leveling experience. I absolutely don’t support the dumbing down of the little touches (feeding cows, watering plants etc.) as they were some of the reasons that really drew me to GW2 in the first place.

So before being too critical of the system check it out first…then be critical.

This is generally how I think about the changes as well.

Weapon related locks seem like jarring bumps in the road of a fairly smooth progression. Something is off with not being able to swap weapons when you gain the ability for off-hands. Additionally, the access to Profession Skills is a kinda a big deal for some Professions; it might bear some fine-tuning.

My bigger concern is how Traits have been removed from the normal leveling process.

I think the core Traits should be put back as they were and a new line of “Elite” Traits can be seeded out into the game world tied to various types of challenges..

Throwing the whole lot into the content gated system was a HUGE mistake which makes the NPE even more annoying as a whole.

There’s a lot to like about the NPE, the grating elements immediately noticeable revolve around the locked content of weapon swap, off-hand, profession abilities and skill challenges.

Makes no sense to me that I can use a Greatsword and a Mace and Shield at level 7, BUT I can’t actively swap from one set to another…I have manually go in my inventory and equip the weapons until level 15… wtf?

The TRAITS being tied to stuff I usually don’t do naturally on my characters is the other side of the problem. If ANET had introduced new “elite” Traits into a system of content challenges, that would have been awesome. But walling off core traits behind paywalls (Skill Points/Gold) and ill-suited challenges undermines the freedom of a player to revel in their character’s progression.

loseridoit.2756:

I am writing most people do not write clear ideas of things they want. Technically, anet did add a new dungeon on stuff that people really wanted. People still complain. At the end of the day, what do you really want?

That’s why developers can’t be prone to tone deafness, the art is in divining what your players want. That’s what the continuing success as a game designer relies upon over the long term; obviously you have to have the technical skills, but the human aspect of it is just as important. It’s not pure cold logic…it’s warm art.

You seem to recognize how the matter of interpretation is integral to the situation; that’s exactly what’s driving some of the bigger controversies in GW2. This was the case with Ascended, the Traits in April and now this…NPE.

Things were left open for interpretation and the Devs missed the mark.

ANet can salvage the system if they revert some of the locked skills/abilities, examples:

• Weapon Swap

• Off-Hand

• Skill Challenge

Additionally, when you consider the Trait changes made in April (which I hate), the problems are compounded. The system was already fairly lean, doling it out for 80 levels via gating and level locking really waters down the player experience.

I have been critical of the changes but mostly with what I feel to be the unnecessary gating of basic skills/abilities like weapon swapping, off-hand weapon, and Profession Skill Buttons…these things unevenly impact certain Professions more than others but are also just freaking irritating to many players.

I’m playing three new alts I rolled yesterday: mesmer, guardian and engineer. The leveling experience has been enjoyable with the exception of the comment I made above.

The whole Trait System still remains a big concern because I find it has completely skewed the leveling enjoyment to a large degree because acquisition has been delayed for 30 levels. The unlocking of traits is both expensive and generally ill-suited for players who don’t like to be led around by the nose or forced to do “required” tasks which often lie outside their usual play-style.

loseridoit.2756:

People complained about not playing the world. they added living story

Not entirely sure what you mean by “playing the world” but since large scale raids generally don’t happen in GW2, people rightfully expressed something to feel that void.

ANet decided on the LS Framework because that best fit their production and development capabilities for incremental release of modular events.

loseridoit.2756:

People complained about capturing skills around the map. they added the trait system.

“People” did express their desire for a skill capture system like the one in the original Guild Wars…meaning NEW “Elite” Traits not the existing Traits. When ANet gated all the existing TRAITs into the system, this was counter to what many players wanted or expected because it was fundamentally different than the original Guild Wars implementation and it also negatively impacted player progression and gameplay freedom.

loseridoit.2756:

People complained about AC. they revamp the dungeon.

The dungeons were horrible at launch, often exploit/glitch ridden ventures that grated on the nerves and were being avoided by masses of players. 15 years of MMO gaming, GW2 dungeons have been the worst in my experience in regards to actual “fun”.

loseridoit.2756:

People complain about not enough dungeons. they added a path to atherblade path

Players generally want more hard (meaning real) content like dungeons and new lands and gear, so nothing unexpected about this desire, the problem is that ANet is not generally releasing this type of content, they are seemingly more vested in rearranging the “furniture” than the adding of new rooms to the house.

loseridoit.2756:

People complain about WvWvW. They added EOTM.

And ANet has still fallen short because WvW has been woefully undeveloped compared to other parts of the game, adding EOTM didn’t address the core of existing WvW issues.

From the review:

A mixed pack, then—one with some genuine improvements, but hampered by potentially off-putting systems.

Can’t disagree, that’s pretty much what I stated in my own “review” I posted here and on Reddit.

Just stop.

I never came to the forum’s to complain until Ascended Tier was announced within three months of Game Launch, every post I’d made before that time had the meter pegged on Full Fan Boy.

The Ascended gear Debacle signaled to me a fundamental change was in the works for GW2…a departure from a core design philosophy.

No matter what your opinion of the Ascended Tier introduction, you can’t say it was welcomed by everybody and deny that ANet screwed up in so many basic ways in regards to its inception into the game.

I have not been disabused of this opinion, in fact many of the game system changes have continued to gate and lock content further. Play it your way, is a laughable concept.

So, yes, the squeaky wheels still come to the forums, at least those who have not totally left the game they had held so much hope and, dare I say it, love?

I stopped playing for 8 months, came back and experienced the April Trait Changes…I hate the changes. ANet should have ADDED new Traits tied to certain goal oriented content instead of redistributing the Core Traits under a “new” system.

But, ANet has been pulling the rug out from under the Player’s feet since they announced the Ascended Tier, so no surprise really.

My opinion:

First off, full disclosure, I found the Trait System Changes of April awful because you can no longer get core Traits by simply playing the game in whatever way you choose and buy Trait Books for a reasonable price as needed.

Now coupled with the September Skill Lock System Changes, we have a perfect storm of issues that serve to strip gameplay value away from the player experience and dole it out in a miserly fashion.

Curiously, if the Trait Changes had never occurred, I could almost like the new Skill Unlock System except for particular “features” of the new system:

• Disabled Skill Point Challenges

• Disabled Weapon Swap

• Down State Gating

• Profession Skill Gating

One of my two new alts was a Guardian. The game gives you a Mace as your starter weapon, I got to Divinity’s Reach as soon possible and purchased a vendor Greatsword, I found the whole idea of doing the first few Hearts in the starter area with only a Mace unpalatable. I also found the Greatsword to be very efficient, especially after I sigiled and runed my gear up.

My other alt was a Mesmer, I chose to go Greatsword early on as well, for the Sigil-boost.

GW2 was already somewhat Spartan-like when it came to progression.

After all, we only get a total 14 “buttons” to master. So it seemed strange to me that ANet would choose to slowly, incrementally ration out those buttons to the player over 40 levels.

Taking an already bareboned system and spreading it out over half the game makes one wonder why ANet didn’t just add to the game instead of taking away and redistributing things. The Trait System could have been left entirely intact and the April Patch could have added new Traits with goal oriented content…but alas, no.

And, now we have September’s changes:

Some Professions get whacked a bit more roughly with the changes, the Mesmer, the Ellie and reportedly, the Engie. Also, the Ranger is unable to access the already rudimentary Pet Commands…making the NPE for a Ranger somewhat off-putting to new players.

What I mostly like:

The leveling rewards are nice, I like them, some of the gear would be useful if I was truly a poor newb player who doesn’t have 20 gold in the bank.

Love the Trading Post, had to relearn it, but it’s growing on me…the filtering options were much much and a longtime needed.

Personal Story Changes…regimenting them could take away some of the pain that new players had with them, I suppose so this could be a positive change for the Truly New.

There’s a lot to appreciate about September’s Feature Pack; I think that some aspects of the leveling changes could help retain new players.

Veterans from other MMO’s may find the rationing out of “basic” abilities annoying, one might ask how likely is it that the new player to GW2 will be a true bonafide MMO virgin?

I am having great issue with the above noted Skill/Ability gating along the Trait Changes of April.

Together, the changes have made the Player Experience a lot drier and taken away the depth to what I’d argue was an already lean system.

Spiderbite.8049:

the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.

If the game isn’t retaining players, there won’t be any new players because no one plays an empty MMO for very long.

Choosing newer players over current/longtime players…

If this kind of decision making is going (which I highly doubt) then it will only end in disaster, because when you roll an alt, you are a “new” player. Such a thing is self defeating.

Tharomir.6985:

What I don’t understand is why they refuse to listen to their customers. It is like they have decided that they know best and we have no idea what we’re talking about.

Presumably they rely on Metrics, Surveys and Testers.

I really think something is awry with this approach, one thing to remember is the old adage of “garbage in garbage out”…if your diagnostics are wrong, you can’t possibly work out a solution.

I’d humbly suggest an old fashioned approach:

DEVS, PLAY THE KITTENING GAME

…and then ask: “Am I having fun?”

This isn’t science, it is not formula, it’s an art form.

And by play, I mean as a player would, from level one, no DEV shortcuts.

If no Devs on the dev team has no time to do this, well there’s a BIG PROBLEM right there.

You may as well be a Chef who doesn’t taste his own cooking and solely relies on food critic reviews

Now, if this approach doesn’t work to sort out problems, then I suggest the person doing the actual playing isn’t the best person for the job. Maybe they are in the wrong profession because they aren’t gamers.

A college degree in game programming/development does not a gamer make. (Thank Goodness!)

zenleto.6179:

Doesn’t look like people are really giving it a go.

No, once again ANet is doing a horrible job at communicating information when they start making changes to core game systems. Not that this would make all the ire go away, because the Skill Unlocks are still very much hard locks and make for some very dull play-styles from 1-80.

Step 1.

Make progression boring and frustrating via the April Trait Patch and the September Skill Level Locks

Step 2.

Increase Experience Gains to make the boring/frustrating parts go by faster

Vayne.8563:

I like it.

The one thing this game really lacked while leveling was a feeling of progression. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve leveled without even noticing, or went to spend a trait point (in the original system) and found I had three to spend, because I hadn’t noticed. The drops mostly couldn’t be used. I was level 20 wearing some level 1 stuff still. It wasn’t the best way to introduce people to the game.

Now, tutorials pop up when you level. Rewards come when you level. Hell in the old system, you didn’t even learn your stats went up unless you looked for it. Otherwise it was just a level.

And due to the increased speed of the 1-15, I’d say this is a fair trade off.

Extra Credits: The Skinner Box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWtvrPTbQ_c

The closest thing to admitting anything wrong is when ANet Devs say “they have to improve how the players understand the game systems”.

In other words: player ignorance is the only problem GW2 has; can’t be anything the Devs implemented.

Does anyone like the new leveling changes?

Reportedly, some young guy in China.

Slot 1 is unlocked at lvl 1
Slot 2 is unlocked at lvl 2
Slot 3 is unlocked at lvl 4
slot 4 is unlocked at lvl 7
slot 5 is unlocked at lvl 10
slot 6 is unlocked at lvl 1 (heal skill)
slot 7 is unlocked at lvl 13
slot 8 is unlocked at lvl 24
slot 9 is unlocked at lvl 35
slot 10 is unlocked at lvl 40 (elite skill)

Isn’t this going to cut WvW participation off at the knees?
Meaning: the influx and involvement of newer players?

Yes, I know it bugs some people to no end that fresh green players join WvW pre-level 80…guess what? It just got exponentially worse.

This may be the chilling effect that stops the bloodflow to WvW…stagnation not a good thing.

Growing pains and learning curves are a lot more healthy for a game than restrictive compartmental game systems.

Isn’t this going to cut WvW participation off at the knees?

Meaning: the influx and involvement of newer players?

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Well, this combined with the trait changes means that I won’t be making an alt any time soon. Sure, the game will be more appealing to hyper-casuals now (maybe?), but no gamer is going to take it seriously now.

That’s the part that doesn’t make any sense to me though.

A casual player wants to log on and do stuff and progress…the new progression map completely destroys that dynamic. The carrot becomes ever more elusive, thus the truly “casual” gamer will have less of a reason to stick with GW2.

Repede.6752:

I started Guild Wars 2 a couple of days ago, and have been really enjoying playing as Elementalist. I believe a new patch was released today and I no longer have access to all attunements – I had unlocked 5 abilities for all and I am now left with only fire and water. (I’m level 10)

As a new player, it is incredibly frustrating for such changes to be made which take away abilities that my character once had. I have been looking everywhere and cannot find out when I will regain these abilities – is anyone able to confirm this?

Existing characters weren’t grandfathered in?

Here the progression map reported by nexxe.7081:

Slot 1 is unlocked at lvl 1
Slot 2 is unlocked at lvl 2
Slot 3 is unlocked at lvl 4
slot 4 is unlocked at lvl 7
slot 5 is unlocked at lvl 10
slot 6 is unlocked at lvl 1 (heal skill)
slot 7 is unlocked at lvl 13
slot 8 is unlocked at lvl 24
slot 9 is unlocked at lvl 35
slot 10 is unlocked at lvl 40 (elite skill)
Personal Story unlocks at lvl 10.

I really abhor using the /level scrolls….but this development may overcome that fact. I just want to level my alts and play and progress by playing the game.

I don’t want arbitrary barriers or gates or slews of level caps, I just want to log in and have fun…not an agenda.

I don’t want to play an agenda.

Yesterday, I deleted all my alts, leaving only my level 80 Necromancer on my account. None of my alts (had one for every profession) was over level 45, the lowest was 21.

I was hoping to start fresh with one new character in the game, I must admit the reports of further idiotification of the game system may have ruined my plans.

I was hoping leveling from 1 to 80 would be more rewarding (aka fun) now than it was post-April.

I will still give it a try, but ANet appears to be tone deaf judging on the trend they are pursuing. Treating players like numbers and judging them on “surveys” …their data pool is poisoned.

I like the upcoming patch, I won’t “dislike” it just because it doesn’t address the plethora of all the other things I think need fixing. The trading post changes have been long desired, so that alone is a celebratory event.

eyestrain.3056:

I have 0 motivation to start a new character even though i had been thinking I wanted one, because I like to enjoy the slow buildup to the max level and with this system in place I can’t really play the class until I pay for everything. I have so many tomes of knowledge I can instantly get the character to 80, gear it, etc. with gold. But where is the fun in that? Better than my character being only half functional, but still no enjoyment in what I bought this game for and used to enjoy the most.

Getting a chest and an on screen pop up every few levels isnt going to change that.

Yeah, I was baffled when I first saw that GW2 had those instant level to 20 scrolls…it just has never been a good idea for games that have leveled zones. DAoC discovered that over a decade ago when it allowed people to /level their alts to level 20.

Like you, I enjoyed the previous leveling process of progression, it was gradual but rewarding and still allowed the player to start experimenting. This has largely been taken away by the new trait system and the hurdles tied to trait acquisition are woefully out of sync with my idea of fun.

Devata.6589:

Well if they would released expansions (in stead of just adding stuff to the cash-shop like you suggest) that should be able to solve your problems. The content you want (in stead of the small additions) are in the expansions and the money is made by selling them.

I was never truly distressed about the available content as many players were within the first six months after game release because I tend to roll many alts and play though the game in a more gradual manner. I have only leveled two 80’s since launch, I’d probably have a couple of more by now but I stopped logging in after the April changes.

I’ll take free “content” over paid expansions any day of the week from the standpoint of the wallet, but the issue I am seeing is that ANet seems to be strangely focused on making the game less enjoyable for me.

The Living World idea has only served to divide up the persistent world into confusing story fragments that frankly become more of an annoying blur then compelling gameplay. In this respect, I’d prefer that content expansions were more stand alone affairs and not intermingled pockets of locked/unlocked content infesting my play-throughs.

The business model is fine but still relies heavily upon retaining players and keeping the game viably populated and thus financially sustainable.

ANet needs to stop fracking with things that aren’t actually broken (look to April’s Trait System as a good example)

Adding cool and aesthetically appealing things to the in-game store would be a lot better for the health of the game then adding more content hurdles and further compartmentalization of playerbase.

ANet should not “stay the course” if it’s headed in the wrong direction. And while I applaud the much needed and LONG desired trading post improvements; such positives are quickly undermined by fundamentally deplorable game progression changes that are ruining the game’s already beleaguered replayability.

The trait changes destroyed much of the appeal for rolling new characters and created a desert out of the leveling experience of the game.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

the enjoyment of doing the content is meant to be its own reward, if you did all that 11 times just to get an extra reward.. you’ll never be satisfied with this game.

If the content is fun and engaging, of course.

But just take a look at the Trait System Changes made in April and see how that “enhanced” the enjoyment factor for players. It certainly didn’t do any wonders for my leveling of new characters.

“Mandatory fun” is rarely all that fun; mediocre rewards are par for the course when such things are on the menu.

ANet “staying the course” in the icy waters.

Never-mind the chilling effect, presumably that’s what helps with player retention according to the DEV’s; I must be defective because it only makes me steer clear.

Some serious tone deafness with developer direction on this whole topic. I’d have no issue with NEWLY INTRODUCED Traits being tied to certain achievements, etc.

BUT the core TRAITS should have remained as they were because player progression was never a problem…in fact it was one of the nice things about leveling up GW2.

Where is this stupid idea of new players being overwhelmed coming from? Stop dumbing down the game by stingily doling out the very things that make it worth playing for players who like to be engaged.

That gamers “new to GW2” were being “overwhelmed” and quitting sounds like a a faulty conclusion based on shaky metrics.

In the end, I can only speak for myself as a gamer for over two decades: the trait changes broke GW2 for me; I don’t find the changes enticing or compelling…they are off putting and restrictive.

ANet took a rewarding and pleasant leveling system and stripped it down to a bareboned joyless ride.

I really dislike the current direction ANet is heading with the “simplification” mantra, it is homogenizing the game by making it even more bland and far less engaging. The original trait and character progression was much closer to perfection than the “improved” system from the standpoint of the player. The game at release once had a more open feel to it; (albeit still on rails) but by gating content and adding in “mandatory” goal posts the experience has become further restrictive and the illusion of freedom shattered.

The homogenization trend continues; not that the personality feature was all that impressive but it did indicate an earlier and seemingly wistful dev ambition of making the game more personal and engaging. The good old days of making a game that was open, inviting and free form, as laid out so temptingly in the “Manifesto”.

The Trait System has been stripped to the bone and replaced with yet another content gate, just as the Ascended Tier was implemented to do. Character progression has become a fairly parched experience in an already “dry” game.

No trail blazing in GW2, all the trails are brightly marked and fenced in, no rambling allowed.

Rouven.7409:

Kuldebar.1897:

(…)

• Committed guild membership is by design unrewarding and wholly fungible.
  (…)

I don’t understand this part, could you elaborate please what you mean?

Edit: Corrected formatting to display the “quoted” part

Here’s a write-up that explains the GW2 Guild issue:

I’ve been in 11 guilds since I started playing Guild Wars 2. Eleven. That’s a personal MMO record. World of Warcraft comes in second place with six, but that’s only because I’ve played off and on for eight years now. Guild Wars 2, by contrast, has graced my hard drive for a mere three months. By and large, I’ve found that its guilds seem to lack the cohesion of guilds in other MMOs, which may prove disastrous for the experience of all players.

My typical experience with guilds in Guild Wars 2 goes something like this: I join up, seduced by the promise of dozens of active, social members and frequent expeditions into dungeons and PvP, only to find myself dumped into a guild chat channel where no one responds to simple chat or to my offers to help — aside, that is, from a hopeful guild leader. This status quo maintains itself for perhaps a week, but eventually I’ll open up my guild tab to find most online players representing another guild or even cavorting about on a different server. The good news is that I think I’ve now found a decent guild; the sad news is that my standard for “a decent guild” has declined to where all I require is that people chat and acknowledge each other’s existence.

-Massivity: The Two Big Social Flaws of Guild Wars 2 by Leif Johnson

Behellagh.1468:

And that is really the only vertical progression they’ve done in nearly two years and how long did it really take to role it out completely for armor and weapons? It certainly not WoW’s expansion route where the first items drop from an expansion is better than the set you spent months doing raids to get.

In regards to that, I don’t make much of a distinction between character progression tied to gear and character progression tied to specific content; both are a form of gating/throttling which serves to put the game experience on rails.

If I have to get “X” gear to raise my stats it’s much the same as having to do “X” task to get a particular ability. The problem for me is that such restrictions decide how the player plays the game in a rather narrow way. Yes, ANet has allowed for gold purchase of traits, but the cost is rather high for something that used to be unlocked by simply playing the game as one wished.

I don’t buy that ANet was simply giving former GW players the “GW2 version of hunting elite skills” , unless we think making every trait in the game an “elite” somehow correlates. But, I also never bought the argument/logic that Ascended Gear was introduced to “fill a gap” between Exotic and Legendary.

As I stated earlier, it was the free form/open concept that interested me in GW2, but that has largely been dispensed with significant changes to the game.

Behellagh.1468:

Thank you.

But I believe the root cause is the reward system of the game creates a positive feedback loop that in turn drives players to unconventional, unique play styles…

It’s a symbiotic relationship, a feedback loop, for sure.

My issue and my problem with the path ANet took shortly after game release was when they wholeheartedly embraced vertical progression.

No getting over that for me and nearly every major change since Ascended Gear has simply added more of the same to the game and removed some things I considered strengths; reasons for coming back and playing.

The Trait System changes being the obvious example of a change that “fixed” something that wasn’t even remotely broken and replaced it with “dead blighted space”.

I think when players attempt to make content less “painful” by subscribing to a chain-gang method of playing, that’s probably a sign the content isn’t all that enjoyable or fun.

It’s a contortion, turning player motivations into pretzel machines of activity.

Zergborg mentality for the PvE world; at least in WvW/PvP, the superior numbers make some measure of tactical sense.

Despite the trait system mutilation, the strongest part of the game left for me is solo gameplay although leveling alts is not nearly as enjoyable as they used to be.

I’d like to be able to rearrange the order of my skills on my skill bars.

That was beautiful, Behellagh.1468.

Thanks for going into detail, I wasn’t entirely sure on your points in the earlier post.

I think the whole of GW2 game development is being wagged by the “degenerate” play-style; it’s manifesting in almost everything in the game now.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, okay, then. I would hope one would be rewarded whether one chose to go through content at breakneck speed or just ambling. It’s always great when the Devs allow one to have a choice! =)

It’s not about rewards so much as the journey to acquire them and the overall subjective value for players. The slow and ambling players will often find themselves caught up in frenetic whirlwinds of activity for group required content.

As more and more of the game becomes oriented on knocking out checklists of required activities, it becomes more about whacking the moles and less about enjoying the thrill of the hunt.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I just didn’t understand the statement about only being rewarded for rushing through content. /shrug

Well not understanding is understandable, because I never said:

only being rewarded for rushing through content

I just mentioned that such behavior is often rewarded, just take a look at the various trains set up and the way dungeon runs are carried out.

A new profession for GW2 is certainly no magic bullet; it would just be a flash in the pan, knee jerk content infusion that would utterly fail to address larger flaws in the game.

Bringing Back Gw2 ATTRIBUTES!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCpyhn2tRv8

We can only hope for something along this line.

Slither Shade.4782:

true it is not our job … and I don’t think they have listened to anything anyone has said since launch… and of the 6 people I knew in real life who got this game I am the last one still here

And to me, that’s the crucial point.

From where I am sitting, my experience has been the same. The game has a retention problem. I came back after 8 months away and was flabbergasted at some of the changes…changes to things that weren’t actually broken.

Not everything ANet does is wrong, but they have a tendency to dramatically rewrite the game with some of their changes. Pulling the rug out from under the player base seems to have become an art form.

I use the trait changes as an example, because once again, ANet has taken an accessible and open system and turned it into an obstacle course filled with level/gold/content requirements. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if the game wasn’t already lacking in character progression depth.

Leveling a new character has now become a lot more formulaic and regimented. This is counter to the “freedom of play” ideals promoted in the game’s development.

If the game can’t draw people in and keep them for a reasonable time, it won’t last. Enough people have to play and enough people have to spend money in the Gem Store.

After 8 months away, I fully expected to stay and play for more than 4 days, but upon rolling a new character after playing my level 80 (and other chars for a bit) – I found the leveling experience to be unrewarding. From level 1 through 30, no customizing of builds…WTH were they thinking? Before, part of the “fun” was choosing a leveling build as you accrued trait points. This gave you a modicum of control and allowed you to specialize a little to fit your play style as you leveled.

As I said before, this would not have been a bad thing except the game already has re-playability issues. Much of the fun of playing alts has evaporated with the traits rationing. I applaud many of the feature pack changes, but removing progression milestones from so much of the leveling process was a horrible thing to do.

Simply put, with every change ANet makes to the game, the less likely they will be able to revert and "save’ the game.

What I have noticed since game release is this tendency to add really some universally good changes that are saddled with some horrible elements.

An obvious example is how the so called “gap” between Exotic and Legendary gear was handled…

But more recently the Trait system overhaul: great positive changes were made but ANet decided to lump in gate-keeper content and drastically reduce player’s sense of progression by spreading out the trait point gains.

This has effectively killed the game for me when it comes to playing a new character…the tedium and dryness of leveling is intolerable. Having to wait until level cap in order to have a rewarding build undermines the glorious flexibility we had before the change.

ANet is destroying the game by countering every thing that made the game appealing to free-form players who took to heart the “play it your way” ideal.

The more ANet keeps forcing players to jump through select hoops, the worse things will become.

It was far better when a player could choose from a thousand different roads in order to reach a goal, ANet is actively working to limit players choices down to but one or two paths.

It’s guided devolution, ANet is slowly, and apparently intentionally, degrading the strong points that attracted players to GW2 in the first place.