Guild Wars 2

I know that being green gives you an advantage because you are in the top server for your tier. For awhile, it seemed to me that didn’t matter so much. On my server, mostly red, I could join an EotM match and it would be fun, fast, and profitable. It seemed that way too when I was blue and green. This seemed to be the status quo for awhile.

Lately tho, this not the case. OG zergs are huge and split over the map. They actively hunt our zergs not allowing us to stray too far from the safe WP. I know that this is “war”, and that nothing needs to be fair in “war”. I also realize that being green is fun and there would be little complaining from a player in the green tier. There has been a few times that our server was green recently and i can honestly say that our zerg was not hunting and we would go out of our way and let another zerg flip something and then come back after they have left.

For the last couple of weeks it has been miserable in EotM. OG zergs steamroll everything, FR defending their keeps (seriously – what’s the point of logging in for hours just to stay in one place waiting??) Our commanders usually quit after a point and then we drop to Outnumbered very quickly. New players coming in, quickly leave after seeing no tag and a mostly green map. Players give up and leaving for something else should be at least a moderate sign that something is broken.

Maybe it’s just dumb luck. Maybe it’s the norm for everyone else. I tend to log in at very specific times, usually towards the end of a match and the beginning of the next. From chat, it seems that I am far from the only one noticing the one-sided dominance of OG. If other EotM matches are not like this, I would like to know how I don’t get assigned to those and why for the past few weeks I’m assigned to this mess.

I don’t play normal WvW because hardly anyone else does on our server. I went to EB to check it out – we we’re winning. Once in EB, I saw that we were not Outnumbered – that’s reassuring. I found our massive zerg of five players and watched as they PvD. They tried to build a ram, but not enough supply, so thankfully one had a golem to speed things up. I left after that.

WvW is one of my favorite game modes, but lately it sucks if your are not green. That alone should show that things are broken. It may not be for everyone, but for me and a lot of players, both red and blue who log in at specific times this is the case. Please ANET look into this problem and address it.

So, what I am hearing mostly is that:
1. No, LS2 doesn’t have much of a chance to live up to the expectations.
2. People feel that it will just be a rehash of the same mechanics and plot outline as LS2 but with different characters.
3. This will not be an expansion and doubt remains that there will ever be a satisfying equivalent of one.
4. More GW1 lore ignored and more new lore added that doesn’t really mesh well
5. More gem-store stuff is definite

So what are your expectations of this patch in regards to content/lore?

What could ANET add/do for LS2 if it continues in the same format that would make it more successful in your eyes??

Dondagora.9645:

Blacklion Company crushing all other businesses

Blacklion Co. = Walmart!

I’ve seen lots (and I mean lots) of predictions, almost expectations that Living Story season 2 will be. To me, many of these are only assumptions because nothing definite has been said. That being said I think we call expect a dragon named Mordremoth will be a major player – at least behind the scenes. It is also pretty much a given that it will be east of Maguuma (Metrica, & Brisban) with Marjory’s sister Belinda heading out that way in the epilogue.

In map chats, forums, guild chats, teamspeak I have heard a lot of expectation that I have not heard are definite plans of Anet for this Living Story. To my knowledge some have been mentioned that they are working on them, but have not been confirmed to be a part of this LS.

These are some of the assumptions I have heard/seen that are almost supposed to be a given:

1. This LS will be more like a true expansion at least when it’s complete.
2. There will be new maps (seems pretty obvious) but expectations are from 1 new map to alot like slightly less than what we have now. I think those players are expecting the expansion sort of thing.
3. There will be a new race.
4. There will be a new profession(s)

There’s also massive lore speculation which I think some of which are awesome, but again just that: speculation. Here’s some of what I’ve encountered.

1. Return of the Mursaat.
2. Return of the White Mantle
3. Return of Livia and or M.O.X.
4. Another Grove
5. Return of Rotwing
6. The origin of the Sylvari (the cave their first seed pods where discovered)
7. Sure there are more. . .

So what are some of your expectations? Do you think more grand or more realistic? Whatever those may be do you think LS 2 will live up those expectations, surpass them or flop? What are your ideas???

So I need to hurry and get my achievements. So this is the result of eliminating mindless zergs and going for coordinated gameplay that so many people asked for? Ironic isn’t it

There is nothing more disappointing in any game than investing time and killing some baddies and get nothing out of it. Yes maybe the gameplay and experience can be fun, but that hasn’t changed since launch. So any fun in that is long gone. What keeps things fun is the drops. When those get predictable they get less exciting and again less fun.

I remember playing diablo 1 back in the day and always being excited to see loot with different mixes of prefixes and suffixes. Sure most of it was junk, but it kept me playing. Oh and that occasional tink when a ring dropped and you had to spend an hour looking for that tiny piece of trash.

My point is that gameplay gets repetitive and predictable but it’s the random and unpredictable loot that keeps us going. Sure maybe most of it is trash, but when you get something super cool it recharges your batteries so to speak and keeps you going.

I’ve noticed in GW2 an overall lack of cool loot. Sure it exists as rare skins or T6 mats but it seems to occur much less often these days, making most of what we get junk, blues or greens. How I’d love to see an increase in the chance for a random cool piece of loot.

Sure we can buy things we need off of TP, but that needs gold and one method of acquiring gold was nerfed. That left us with one less viable option to make gold from an already small pool of legitimate ways of making gold. Sure making gold is fun, but what’s going to keep me going when killing mobs is the variety of loot and occasional special piece that makes you want to keep going.

Do you plan to keep doing the Crown Pavilion after you have acquired your achievements?

I ask because I still need 2 and can’t find one with an active blitz or enough people to start one. Either I’m really unlucky or people are staying out of CP when they’ve gotten all their achievements.

If so, good for you! Sucks for me!

So I would venture to say they are not wanting trains. After playing through the boss blitz in the Crown Pavillion, this became quite apparent after I realized they nerfed drops from mobs. After the dismal rewards from the successful completion of that event, I find very little at this moment to continue with the Crown Pavilion.

The only reason I can think for these changes is due to the complaints made by other players. I remember last year tons of complaints made by the players in gauntlet. QD train got lots of complaints too. Maybe anet is trying to fix the squeaky wheel?

I think the common denominater here for most players is fun (duh), but we find that fun through rewards, most often loot. I watched the Boss blitz fall apart. I was trying to break us up in teams, but most wanted that zerg mentality. We all want the loot, but I don’t know if we can get coordinated enough to not zerg. It’s sad and frustrating to spend all this time and get mostly greens and bloodstone dust.

Am I in the minority here? Or do you mostly find your fun through loot rewards too and have been finding them sorely lacking?

I’m confused.

Champs are buffed to drop boxes/bags
Champs drop rare skins. Cool looking BTW!
Three major trains are established.
One is nerfed (understandable) due to players letting events fail
Two remain for awhile
Then champ drops are nerfed (especially those coins)
FG chain is partially nerfed (Trio)
QD nerfed too the ground (possibly to the center of the earth one might say)

I’m not much affected. I participated a bit in the chains, but I would get bored too quick and got sick of the drama (especially in QD – /clap clap btw). So I can rightfully say I am not whining about these changes.

But What the Heck!. I’m confused, if you buff champ loot and then discourage trains. You encourage zergs/trains, but nerf the one most accessible. Was the intention all along to kill the occasional champ for loot and that ultra rare but ultra cool skin?? Should I participate in FG, Orr, EotM chains or are there nerfs incoming there too? Ban-hammers coming??

So what ANET is your vision about champs and farming them? What is your opinion of zerging and trains? Why encourage them through game design and then nerf?

I’m so confused??? 0_o

Anyone remember the drop down for choosing servers in GW1? Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like that again?

Don’t like the server? Choose another right there from the drop down. To ensure there’s always a low population server the list should always be filled with an extra empty space at the end that is automatically created after some threshold is reached in the server before it.

What’s more, it would make ferrying people across so much easier. You could just announce in guild chat, TS, RC or whatever you use, “We are in Sparkfly Fen US #4 tonight for Teq” As the map filled with others who were not after Teq also, leader could spam in map chat, “We are doing a all guild raid on Teq tonight, please if you are not part of (insert guild name) please use another server so we can get all of our members here. Thanks!”

Just a random idea. It worked well enough for GW1. I’m sure some would say it wouldn’t work because of cheats, excessive farming or bots or some such thing, but hey you never know, right? It seems they have enough technology already in place for cheat/bot detection and to make sure people can’t do some things twice already in one 24 period.

Finally, perhaps they could add some sort of preference options. You could select/customize where you’d like to be placed in the Megaserver. Want the selection process skewed towards RP’ers, Zergs or PvP’ers? Check the box. Want to skew towards high/low populated servers? Check the box. Want to be with guildies for guild event? Well, you get the idea.

Don’t forget about harvest nodes.

I’m really trying to like Megaservers, but I couldn’t agree more with gwaimui. I liked seeing people in low populated areas, but that’s about it. Guild events -while doable – are more complicated = less fun. Don’t know if temples are up during my window of play time, the games feels not as relaxed anymore either. That and now seeing the 200 players at world bosses takes away from fun too.

I think if they somehow make large guild events doable as before and if temple events were more predictible – I think that’d fix most of my major issues with Megaservers.

The guild one is really important!

Now that all maps have been Megaserverized, how do I know when those events will start? I need some for trait unlocks (Grenth/Lyssa and Promenade of Gods). Every time I show up the temples are open. So do I just twiddle my thumbs until the events recycle?
I’ve read the official release and they mentioned temples briefly, there’s not much on the wiki and every time I ask in map chat, I get no answer or people get confused and say to check a timer like Dulfy’s – but it’s not on there. So what to do?

Now that all maps have been Megaserverized, how do I know when those events will start? I need some for trait unlocks (Grenth/Lyssa and Promenade of Gods). Every time I show up the temples are open. So do I just twiddle my thumbs until the events recycle?

I’ve read the official release and they mentioned temples briefly, there’s not much on the wiki and every time I ask in map chat, I get no answer or people get confused and say to check a timer like Dulfy’s – but it’s not on there. So what to do?

So after playing for a bit with the new features. There are two features I feel that are now sorely needed.

1. Templates for our builds. Now that we can change our builds on the fly. It would be nice to save a few for certain circumstances like WvW, dungeons, normal PvE, PvP, etc. . .
I know it would be hard to template gear set-up, but at least traits and skills?

2. In game event timer. I sadly, do not have the timers memorized yet. Since they are all scheduled now for specific times I can’t imagine it would be too hard to have it display in the event section of our UI. It should be enabled by option so that those who don’t want it or have it memorized can not have it taking up valuable real-estate.

Just some thoughts, what features do you think the feature pack is missing?

Thanks a lot this has been most helpful. I have used GW2stuff for my timers for some time because of their overlay. Do you know of one by chance that uses the updated schedule with an in-game overlay?

Then I suppose I just need to learn the new timers. I had thought GW2Stuff’s timer had updated to the new schedule.

I am curious tho. Why would pre-events for Maw go outside of it’s new scheduled time only to occur again when it is scheduled? Did they break up the event chain?

Regarding the world bosses. Today I did Frozen Maw. When Brogun got to the totem and we few destroyed it. He said is line that he usually says right after the shaman is defeated and headed back. There were no shaman, no elite guard, no portals. Then off to Jungle wurm, similar experience. The event chain was broken. Then off to Ulgoth. The event window said he was rallying, etc. . . like normal, but no Ulgoth to be seen. A few other players showed up and we all agreed it seemed bugged. There was some doubt because we knew the event spawn had changed. I was able to do SB and Jormag tho. I submitted all these bugs so only time will tell

Using the timer tool lists many of these events like golem and shatterer and a few of the temples as over a 100 hours past due. Don’t know if it is a bug with the API or just a change from Megaservers since my timer is set to my server. Just have to adjust with time.

I’m a huge GW1 fan who has been playing the game since beta. As a casual player I’ve played nearly every day, mostly for no more than a hour. For the most part I’ve enjoyed the releases and remained a supporter despite misgivings from the community.

I was very excited about the feature patch even going kitten far to convince friends who have since left the game to give it another try. Upon logging in and combining all my dye and wardrobe inventories and consolidating all my wvw xp pts, I was looking forward to a new chapter.

Today, I am very sad to say I have lost a huge amount of interest in the game and I am not quite sure exactly how. Now mind you, this is not a complaint about how the game is designed or what I believe would be better. This is just one player’s experience. I could very well be in the minority.

Here are the things that have brought me to this point.

1. WvW. Now this is only specific to me and my server. I am mature enough to know that this hopefully temporary and by no means affects all players. But we have had mass exodus to the new tournament. Our server continues to drop simply because we have very few players, and it’s in a system of positive feedback. As more players are frustrated about losing, more leave. Now unlike the others I am dedicated to my server because of it’s origin but it is frustrating nevertheless. Hopefully it will change, only time will tell.

The reason for the exodus began back during season 1. We simply could not hold our own against the others. Some would say this is due to “dishonorable” conduct of other servers to insure a win. In the end though, when this tournament was mentioned many of our wvw guilds could not bear a repeat and moved on.

When I log on these days during what used to be our peak times, there is simply nothing really to do other than to be wiped by the other side. It is ironic because Anet has always strived to build tighter communities, but for ours, these wvw events have destroyed ours.

2. Megaserver. At first megaserver was awesome! It was great to see so many people in what used to be dead zones. I know megaservers are a WiP and will only get better and I am truly optimistic that they will. When I logged into one of my guilds that runs scheduled special events for world bosses it became quite apparent that we had to learn to adjust. It was just frustrating trying to coordinate in what used to be an already effective system. Time will make it better I am sure (I hope).

3. World Bosses. There seems to be some pretty significant bugs this weekend. These too will be fixed I am sure. Surprisingly there haven’t been many people there. They have felt quite lonely. I am hopeful that after the bugs are addressed that they will fill back up.

4. Champ train nerfs. So with not being able to WvW, or run World Boss chains, I decided to waste my little bit of time in Frostgorge. No one was there, again making the game feel lonely. I already knew about the nerf to loot, but hey what the heck, a few cycles of the old train would still give something? With the new times between events I quickly found out why I was the only one there.

5. Balance. So off to dungeons. Because of the scaling and ferocity change I believe, AC felt full of trash mobs. It seemed much easier and less exciting. This too will change I’m sure.

So what now? Well I’ve spent more time typing this than I’ve played the game tonight. I can’t WvW, do World Bosses, Champ Train, and Dungeon runs have gotten boring. I haven’t PvP, so maybe that’s where I will head next. I’m definitely waiting to see how everything with Megaservers and game balance is fixed and adjusted. However, I am frustrated and disappointed that something that was to add features feels to only have further broken something that was seeming to stabilize. Change is necessary in MMO’s and I’m glad, I just hope that this doesn’t kill it for me. I really do like this game and it’s history.

So what’ s your experience so far?

Perhaps he does not spawn if a player is in that space? Can anyone confirm he showed up while waiting?

1. Ranger.
2. Necros
3.Engineers

~ Useless or broken secondary mechanics (pets, minions, turrets)
~ They fall short of the niches they are designed to fulfill.
~ Players can find another profession that accomplishes the same thing but better and with less headaches.

IMO this is not something to be fixed by nerfing the other classes (most easy and likely “fix”) or by buffing the weakest. The biggest problem (especially with rangers) are core profession mechanics (pets, condition damage, & kits) that just don’t work well and essentially need an overhaul or redesign to make other players find a true use for them other than novelty.

Kind of getting back to that broken combat system that everyone seems to bring up.

I know we need to keep it to three, but since I support the other professions’ issues (attunements, stealth, clones) and a lack of people saying anything about guardian, please, please,please do not nerf the guardian just to level the playing field.

Sorry I thought was important to say.

So why then does Anet not make a greater separation in our skills between PvE and PvP? If the abuse/problems are stemming from PvP and WvW combat why not address that instead?

I left my Thief months ago. It is still my first love, but it is simply not enjoyable anymore to play when compared to other professions. My main reason for saying that is stability. I’ve played through a lot of nerfs/changes. More will come. This is not the last major nerf for the thief.

So, I can not simply play this profession anymore knowing that it will be changing again sometime down the road making me reevaluate my game play, builds, and gear. Change is good and all – it keeps the game interesting but there is always a sense of loss when Anet makes these “improvements” that makes playing something I’ve invested so much into downright depressing.

We should, in all fairness, give the patch a chance. If it is indeed another depressing improvement to our most beloved profession, then we should stop playing our thieves for about a month. Maybe then Anet will take notice of the lack of thieves and maybe do something to bring some thief-love back to the game. I mean how else are we supposed to get them to listen to us. It’s not like they are reading this forum anymore with all the frustration and anger here. In a game that is supposed to put community first, the thief community always seems to me to be most unhappy – how is that good long-term?

Clyan.1593:

They could have brought up all of this in an expansion, yes, but it would have been a bad expansion like it is a bad LS now. The real problem is that they don’t use the existing opportunities:
- Maps: Crystal Desert, Maguuma Wastes, Far Shiverpeaks, Woodland Cascades, Ring of Fire, Blood Legion Homelands
- Races: Tengu, Dwarfs, Largos
- Dungeons: Underworld, Fissure of Woe (i would LOVE to see this, but in classic style please! make it huge and really hard!)
- Lore: Elder Dragons, bringing back dwarfs, floating castle, old races like Mursaat, Forgotten…
- fighting factions (instead of creating new ones): Nightmare Court, Inquest, Sons of Svanir, Flame Legion…

It’s not about adding new jumping puzzles or revamping something. The story needs to progress. It’s not enought to tell us that scarlet was behind the thaumanova reactor. Like always: Something happens and we don’t know why.

Honestly, this game has to do its next step.

Beside all of this i really hope they will give us cantha, janthir or elona, because one day we’ll just have enough of tyria.

Wow, I could not have constructed a better list of things I want!!

It would be so nice if the focus was on those things that are already in game (lore-wise). I do appreciate the new lore because I don’t want a re-hash of old content. There has to be a balance, though. I feel the current direction of the LS has swung the pendulum too far to the side of “totally new lore”. It would be nice of that pendulum began to swing back to the more familiar.

lordkrall.7241:

Funnily enough back during Prophecies people were complaining about how bad and disconnected that story was as well.

I agree with this statement. In fact I forgot all about that until you mentioned it. However I don’t think I truly understood how all the separate plots came together until I played through the missions a second time. Therein lies a valid point. Maybe this LS would be more enjoyable once it has concluded and a player can play through it again with no pauses between chapters. I don’t think that would likely happen.

One key point I was referring to about differences in story-telling is the difference of tone. The tone lately for the LS and huge part of the personal story has been light, childish, and weak humor. Granted some of those elements where in GW1, but not to this degree.

Lots of interesting theories. I really like the HoS idea, it is clearly painted on that map. I’m beginning to think that our community has more creativity!

It will be really something if it is actually something that cool and interesting. Considering the direction that Anet has taken so far, these towers are probably not that creatively intentional, Just another thing to have Scarlet meddling in across Tyria with no real point. That is my bet on what they are, just another sidestep of the Scarlet story that leads to more disappointment of a neat opportunity lost.

I hope I’m wrong and that it leads to something more exciting!

Hi all,

I curious about the development history of the GW series and was looking for someone to give me some details. I have seen it mentioned that the same writing/creative team on GW Prophecies changed at some time during the expansions, and that is why the direction/flavor changed so much during the releases even to today with GW2 and the LS. So what changed? Who left and who took over? Who is in charge now of the LS/Scarlet and were they even part of the development of GW1 and and any of its expansions?

I ask this because what captured me most about GW1 was the lore. The stories were better than average, but I love the rich history they had developed as a purpose and motivation behind in game missions & quests. I realize that at some pt during the series things changed slightly, but the general formula stayed the same.

What captured my interest and fueled my anticipation about GW2 was again the lore, specifically the dragons and their roles in the world of Tyria. I remember watching the cut scene of a band of heroes taking on the Shatterer and thinking this game would be so epic!

Then I bought the game and played through the personal story. At first I was annoyed and then greatly disappointed. With Scarlet – that disappointment became even greater. Heck! The Wooden Potatoes videos speculating the purpose of the stories are more exciting than the actual release. All his work done on the Thaumanova reactor was intriguing, and then to actually play through the story to find out that Scarlet was behind it with no greater explanation than that was sooooo disappointing.

So what happened? I know I could just stop playing the game, but I feel too invested in the previous series to just simply drop the game without understanding some how the game evolved into this.

Yeah, feeling majorly burned out too!

I was so eager for this game and have defended it sooooo much. I might have evenly been called a loyal fan. I am by far not even close to a “hater”, but I thought I’d never truly leave this game, but know I am not so sure. I might join in on this migration thing, but not the direction they would want.

GW2 is like the Wii of the game consoles. Interesting ideas but nothing of substances, lots of interest at first, but quick to lose momentum. Fun but ultimately childish content.

I still play because it fits my casual play style. I have been eagerly optimistic with the future releases, but that eagerness is cooling off due to the quality of the releases. I honestly thought I would never be this disappointed due to my enjoyment with GW1, but it is creeping up on me.

I’ll probably leave with ESO and maybe comeback if anything substantial is released.

So disappointed.

In the spirit of open collaboration I think this is an important discussion to have. I know it has been brought up numerous, numerous times. However, I have not seen any topics so far evaluating the worth of the LS as an adequate replacement for any future expansions. So I’d thought I’d ask that question and hope there would be honest open feedback to maybe give the devs any new insight on to what the community thinks.

Anet has gone on record and said they are unsure if there will be expansions released in the traditional form and that LS is something they would like to explore. That has lead many of us to believe that the current iterations of LS are mini chunks of a larger expansion released to satisfy our wait time and to keep us interested in staying the game. That’s just an assumption, but a valid one in light of what has been told/released to us so far.

So, if all of this is indeed true, one has to wonder if after a year’s worth of LS content release has added up to the equivalent of an expansion (or close to it). I might be naive, because I am not a game developer, but I would have to imagine that the amount of time, money, and resources poured into this past year of LS updates and seriously detracted from any other developments ie an expansion.

So post your thoughts and keep them civil. I think it is obvious that many here on the forums and GW2guru forums and have posted their angst about Scarlett – I think that is something they are already well aware of. Which I think it would be well worth everyone’s interests to create an in game survey asking the community if they like the current LS. That would put to rest the idea that it is most of the community hating Scarlett or just a smaller more vocal group.

(TL/DR)
1. After playing through a year’s worth of LS updates, do you still feel like you want an expansion?

2. Does the sum of last year’s worth of LS updates feel like the equivalent of an expansion?

3. If no. 2 is yes: What features are missing from the LS updates that would make it feel more like a proper expansion?

So perhaps the question I should be asking is:

1. Do you feel hacking is currently being used in WvW? A quick youtube search shows you that there are some out there. The speed hack I saw is very similar to what I saw that warrior doing at full speed.

2. Assuming hacking is indeed being used, how prevalent do you suppose it is? Less than 5% of the community? Do you feel some servers use it more than others? Guilds?

3. Do you suppose that hacking is being detected and dealt with in a timely manner?

4. Do you think that the use of hacks might influence the outcome of Season 1?

So I logged into today from SoR to do a little WvW. One of the first things I noticed is that there was a LOT of discussion about hacks specifically how certain players of Blackgate were using those methods to win.

I myself may have had such an encounter with one. About 10+ of us attacked a BG warrior. At first something seemed odd, because of how fast he was moving but then again there could be buffs combined with runes/sigils etc. . . that I’m completely not aware of that could make someone so fast. At times he had to be moving 3x our swift speed because there was no catching up to guy I have never seen someone in pve, pvp, or wvw move so fast. It was like watching The Flash in the Justice League cartoons. Another odd thing is that when we first encountered the guy he was immune to all stuns/knockdowns, etc. . . I saw the little immune text pop over him when I used my CC skills and when the group and I talked about it they said the same. Now I know there are skills that make one immune, but don’t they usually only last for a few seconds. This seemed more like 30 seconds to me. The last odd thing is that he took down two of our guys in one hit. That seems impossible to me.

My dilemma is that could such a scenario as I described above exist in game with the right combination of WvWpts, traits, gear, and food happen without hacks? I’m not in WvW every day, nor do I have or research the super optimal builds like some and that is why I have some hesitation in reporting because I know that false reports can come back on me as a loogie spit out of the car in front of me on the highway.

Now I’m not the most up-to-date guy, but I’m not naive enough to believe that such hacking methods don’t exist – I’m sure they do. I also know that Anet has a strict enforcement policy and likely those players will be caught and dealt with. That lead to me two a couple of thoughts tho.

1. I can’t see the players real player name, but I’m sure reporting is the same as any other time. I just right click on their nameplate and go from there right?

2. Can I leave the explanation I described above as kind of insurance for me because I’m ignorant of these super optimal builds?

3. If some servers gain an advantage due to a few of their players unknowingly hacking (because who would encourage there community to hack just to win, right??? -wishful sarcasm here in case you didn’t catch that). They probably won’t be caught until after the damage is done so if a server wins and those players are dealt with after the season – how is that dealt with? Does that DQ a server? What would be the % of player caught in a server to justify action?

4. Point #3 scares me because if such hacks are out there and this is a highly competitive season does this mean that this is the new state of WvW?

ColinJohanson.2394:

So a fun question to ask to help direct the conversation a bit: What aspects of your favorite television shows would you think would be cool to see reflected in a game medium?

To a large degree, the things we want to accomplish with living world overlap in a lot of ways with what a television series does. Or another example of our goals: if you bought your favorite RPG and the story was constantly expanded or continued, for free on a regular basis.

For episodic TV, I am a fan of suspenseful dramas. What keeps me tuning into the same show is:

1. Character Development:

Characters should be well developed, with back stories to feel connected to them. The viewer should see them make tough choices and be aware of the degree of cost to that character. There should be quality character interaction so that they don’t feel like some token character there just to fill a niche. Sadly to me Scarlett does not feel that way to me. It seemed that it started that way then it lost what momentum it had.

1. Seriousness:

Like I said before there should be some level of cost. To me that makes me feel invested and keeps me coming back to tune in again and again to see those consequences.

1. Humor:

Well that contradicts the previous one, but let’s face it. A TV show that is all seriousness with no humor is intense, and gets rather boring. I loved the series 24, but I was quickly burned out after season 3 & 4. It needed something to balance the intensity of the series.

1. Fun:

Some of my favorite shows had some level of grandness. Some new adventure, new sights, something unique that kept things fun. On another side on of my favorite TV shows of all time: “Friends” had that fun factor because of the situations they faced daily and how they handled them humorously.

1. Cutscenes:

Missed most of all from GW1 stories. We had a little return of that with Rox and Braham in the Fire and Frost story. We need more of that to get that this is a story feel. Hopefully less talking heads in the future and more of the cinematics/cutscenes.

1. Cohesiveness:

Probably the most important part of any episodic series. There has to be an obvious central theme that connects all the little episodes together. I know that there is something with the LS that does connect them because it was said out of game in an announcement. Good story telling, however, shouldn’t rely on that. Good story-telling makes that obvious in the story. Right now the LS feels so disjointed, I do not see at all how Mad King, Toy Maker, Southsun, SAB, Aetherblades, the Bazaar place, and Scarlett all connect. Hopefully we do soon.

I would suggest write the story out as a whole and then tell each chapter with each new patch. My two cents tho – what do I know – I am not a game designer.

HOWEVER

After playing through just the intro of today’s Krait tower story I see some of these things I mentioned in there. Hopefully this trend continues!

Bottom Line:

Living Story while a most excellent idea and full of potential is poorly implemented and forgettable.

I will never forget seeing Prince Rurik defeated or his return. I will never forget the Vizer showing his true nature. I will never forget Shiro’s betrayal. I will never forget Kormir’s sacrifice. I will never forget Salma’s rise to power.

However most of the living story – I don’t remember and I don’t see how it is all connected. I should not need to be told outside of game that somehow it is all connected – just bear with us. That is poor storytelling. The living story like the main game story is just not interesting and doesn’t afford any experiences to me that I will remember for years to come (except the Tybalt part)

You don’t know how sorry I am to say that. I have been an avid GW2 fan since the official announcement of it coming out. I have played almost every day since BWEs. I have defended GW2 on numerous occasion across other forums, and I am sorry to say that I am losing interest.

Major Stinking Points for Me:

1. Everything released is cute, goofy, and just not serious.
   Sure there is a place and time for it, but everything? Scarlett had so much potential to the next big bad guy and it is just plain hard to take her seriously.

1. Content is temporary.
   I had newborn twins recently and I missed content. I still have no idea who the aetherblades are. From a design perspective is that something you would want? To release new content only for it to be missed and not understood how it all fits together? What about new players? We have new players in our guild they go on Scarlett invasions when the happen, but they have no idea what’s going on because they just bought the game. That alienates them and I am sure that is not something you want.

What worked for me was how War in Kryta stuff for GW1 was handled. I could play all the chapters of that story at one time if I waited for the final release. Now that was a successful Living Story IMO.

1. Dragons!
   There are what 6 dragons? Now we have Scarlett??? I hope somehow she is tied to them. The dragons that were hyped up before launch had me interested, but now after 1 year we have only dealt with one. How long do I need to keep hanging on before I see more dragon content? I honestly can’t keep doing this for another year.

1. GW1 Lore.
   I am a fan of GW1 and all it’s rich lore and places. I am still waiting for Maguuma, Ring of Fire, Far Shiverpeaks, Crystal Desert, what’s left of Deldirmor to open up. Even after 1 year, there is still no hint of it coming. That for me is my biggest disappointment. Especially with no real focus on expansions coming out, I think that Living Story should reintroduce those areas and that is a huge opportunity lost on your part. GW2 feels handicapped to me without the return of the full world.

1. Chapters.
   Ever read a good book you just couldn’t put down? We all have. With the current LS, I don’t have that feel, but why not? shouldn’t this be an epic story that has a chapter by chapter release feel? Something that has me looking forward for the next page and can’t wait for it’s release. I think LS is a huge opportunity to do something great. It should be written as a novel and then each chapter released with each new patch. That would have me waiting impatiently for the next release. If that is the intent with the latest LS it sure doesn’t feel that way.

1. Use LS to bring back GW1 mechanics like GvG, Battle Isles, Guild Halls

The game is called Guild Wars. We are still waiting for this content to return. I would much rather see this than some new villian.

1. Surveys

Remember the BWE surveys? They were a great opportunity to hear from us what we thought. There should be a survey after every patch so you can take a quick temperature check to see if you are on fire or as cold as ice.

I have heaps more to say, but everyone here echos my thoughts. Great game, hope you don’t miss this opporutunity to do something unique and memorable!!!

Dear Motto. . . .

In your first release I fell in love with SAB. This time I can’t seem to capture that initial enjoyment I had and I have been asking myself why.

When you first released SAB I spent hours upon hours that month going back through SAB. After I had conquered all the achievements I then spent my time equipping all my characters with gear, digging, and selling my baubles for skins. After you left, I had equipped my characters with super weapons and I felt a sense of achievement. I was really looking forward to release 2.0.

When 2.0 came around I was excited, I went back through world 1 and discovered my favorite digging spots yielded different amount of baubles in a chest. OK, so that was different. When I realized that those chests were only once per day per account that was my first moment of sunken disappointment. But that’s OK, because there is tribulation mode. . . .

First off, I am not the sort of guy who finds enjoyment in torture. However I mad it through the first stage and decided to not keep going. Why? Because it can be frustrating to invest time with no reward when there are other things going on outside SAB with greater rewards. I understand I might miss out on some achievement points, but for the first time since I entered Rata Sum that was OK with me. I simply just don’t take pleasure in trying to perfect every movement, every timing every second just for something I already have, but just a different color. I know there are those players who do, who like bragging rights, but it is not something worth it to me.

I feel that others echo this sentiment. I do not see the buzz in chat that I did upon your first release, I do not see swarms of people outside SAB like before (of course they might be inside). When I arrive at the world bosses I also notice I do not see nearly as meany super weapons as I did before either. After talking with friends and fellow guildies they feel the same way. Let down by the second release. Sure it is still fun, but that fun factor is just a small chunk of what it was before.

Sure I could have been considered an evil farmer that contributed to the nerf, but I did it not to make a profit but to equip my characters the way I wanted to. I looked forward to entering SAB each time and it was fun, now it seems like a chore for the reward is achievement pts (which are good in themselves, but when they are done, they are done)

I suppose I should not be surprised. For the man who’s shadow you stand in does much the same. He has released many games and devices. Initially his inventions were widely popular, but then upon his next release he would only succeed in disappointing his fans. However, he would eventually gain that back, and so the roller coaster goes. . .

With that in mind I go to finish my achievement points, I will not have all the weapons this time for various characters and that is OK with me (they kinda lost their luster anyhow) It is fun, but disappointing, but if you follow the same roller coaster pattern as your earthly alternate SAB 3.0 should be hugely entertaining.

~~ Loyal Fan on the Fence ~~

Erasculio.2914:

Kythan Myr.4719:

After reading through all the whines in GW2 guru forums, I have started to wonder if Anet has stopped listening to the community.

ArenaNet listens to the community. But you are confusing “listening to the community” with “doing what the community asks”. Let’s be honest – the majority of the playerbase lacks the ability to be good game designers. If ArenaNet did exactly what the most vocal parts of the community tell them to do, we would have a disaster far worse than what GW2 is right now. In fact, you could point any topic from Guru and I could point you ten reasons why it’s completely stupid.

No successful business does exactly what customers ask them to do.

This is completely true, and I agree with you. I see many posts here and there from players who want everything in the easiest, quickest sort of way. If those paths existed then any game would burn bright, but then quickly die out.

I see so many of these posts tho, and not many positive ones. I realize it’s easier for people to be negative, and for many people that is just in their nature and they are quick to complain. As I said I don’t see many positive posts (a few here and there – especially after new content).

That is why I wanted to make this post. To see people’s honest feedback. I was hoping I would draw out some positives – and I did. I hope they keep coming, not just for me, but also for the company. Because a successful business needs to keep its client base happy. (not to mention share holders – but I’m not addressing them)

*Edit: I meant traits. Sorry forgot the “s”. I originally had the word " changes" in the title too, but hit the character limit.

I have not yet logged in today to see for myself, but I have read the notes and although I do see some good, I also see a lot of potential disappointments. So, I ask those of you actively played around with the new changes – how did Anet do? Did they knock it out of the park or miss the mark of what the community wants?

After reading through all the whines in GW2 guru forums, I have started to wonder if Anet has stopped listening to the community. During the beta stages, they listened to the community and issued many statements that had many of us cheering in joy and looking with fevered anticipation for the game launch. In beta we were given in game surveys and the choice to give constructive feedback. It seemed they were the champion of the MMO player.

After reading through these forums (mostly within specific professions) and on other sites, I am left wondering how do we give our feedback to Anet or do they even want it anymore? If so many people are unhappy with these changes shouldn’t there be an avenue to let them know. I’m sure we can leave feedback here, but no one is 100% certain these posts go to the right sorts of people. They usually just get locked or buried.

So, maybe the changes are not that bad, maybe there’s just a lot of whiners, but I for one would love to hear what the community thinks in a mature, constructive sort of way. Right now I see a lot of negative out there, if there is some positive, I would be the first to want to hear it. Who knows, maybe the right people at Anet will read this and get a temperature check of sorts to see if they are hot or cold with this community. Because we all know unhappy players leave and that doesn’t bode well for a game that is not even a year old yet.

So lets hear those comments!

Yes I am familiar with the TP, but I am looking at farming my own mats instead of buying them.

I have been looking for good spot/event to farm mats. So far, I have found Gendarran Fields- (Arena Event) to be a good place for T2 and Harathi Hinterlands (Centaur Meta event) to be a good place for T3. Then there is Cursed Shores DEs for T5/T6 (mostly bones tho). However I have not found anything similar yet for T4.

I have completed the lvl 50-60 areas such as Timberline Falls, Iron Marches, and Sparkfly Fen with several characters but I have not yet found a comparative spot for T4 mats. In my experience the better spots have guys that drop bags of loot that provide a greater variety of loot instead of a specific material. As in those events I mentioned before they have quick cool downs, relatively large mobs that go down fairly quick. So I ask you, is there anything similar for the T4s?

Thanks in advance.

Don’t know if this should go under tech issues or not. This would not be a tech issue if I am just now noticing the absence of surround sound and that is just the way it is.

I don’t know if my rear speakers (I have a 4.1 system) played audio from GW2 since launch, I always assumed so. I have never noticed any odd dead zones from panning with the camera or absent background audio, but after yesterday’s patch things started to sound odd to me.

I did some checking and I noticed my two rear speakers do not play any audio when GW2 is active. However, using my audio software I can confirm they are active and play sounds just fine. I double checked through Windows 7 audio panel and they are set correctly and again confirmed that they can play audio. I fired up another game that supports surround and it to used the rear speakers. When I started GW2 though only the front two speaker produce anything.

Now, maybe it has done this all along and I just noticed today, but as I said earlier I began noticing immediately after the patch that things began to sound a little off. It wasn’t until the arrival of the airship at the grove and I panned the camera to look 180 degrees from it that I noticed I could not hear the hum of the airships engines through my back speakers.

Since then I have troubleshooted everything I can think of and confirmed it is not my PC, soundcard, drivers, or speaker setup/wiring. So I am curious has there not been support for surround sound this whole time and I am just noticing now, or has something recently changed? Any suggestions would be appreciated, it is weird playing this way that is why I assume something has changed.

Thanks

Due to work and other things I missed all one-time events. No biggie that’s the luck of the draw I suppose. Finally get to the one on Sunday – the ancient Karkara or whatever it’s called. On an overflow server, lag is immense, even an Anet employee, Wide Char, was there. Almost two hours in and looking to be epic a nice change from everything else and then it happens, the dreaded sound bug “woo – woo – woo – woo” followed by “duh- duh – duh – duh” as computer freezes. So have to restart, by time log in event is over and many of the people I was fighting with are bragging about their rewards.

I killed many veteran karka, many young and others, I revived around 30 or so people made it from the beach to the nesting sites. I destroyed those nesting sites to erupt steam, used motars to push it, etc. . . and then to not get anything because of a glitch since betas that still hasn’t been fixed.

I’m not here to flame or vent just to tell my experience, since Anet has made that there focus and mission, and IMHO they have succeeded at just that for the whole scope of this game. This event was my single worst experience of this wonderful game. With all the bugs at the beginning and missing of the major events, I am sorely disappointed, but hey it’s just a game!

If any Anet employee ever reads this I hope something from my experience is taken away and applied to other events down the road. I will be hesitant about ever enjoying any one-time events released for GW2, because of my experiences. If I had to say of a single thing that ruined it for me it would be the bugs – please, please, please remember this especially with releasing with so much hype and limited time to enjoy the content.

I will enjoy the things left after this weekend. I did enjoy the dungeon and the new island to explore and I DO look forward to new content – maybe not “one-time” events.

I hope that there is also a survey like there was with WiK to evaluate what the players thought. If there is I hope there is a section about the bugs interfering with people’s gameplay. From what I’ve seen in map & guild chat people’s experiences are very mixed, but I would bet more than half of us are sorely disappointed with the weekend.

Don’t know if the anyone in ANET tracks this post anymore or if this falls under the category of “just live with it people” but I am having the same problem since game launch.

I have reduced my sound settings to fastest and stable and I still get the siren in big group events. Twice yesterday during dragon events the game froze and I had to log back in only to find the dragons defeated and no rewards for me!

I hope an ANET employee responds so that we just know what to expect about this bug. It’s so bad I’ve been weighing the pros/cons of joining huge group events, and if I did stay out of them it kind of defeats the purpose of the game.

Please fix!!!

Same here, been playing human (so Kryta areas) and have noticed the same exact thing. Thought it was because I had sound latency over at stable.