Guild Wars 2

I don’t mind ascended not being tradeable, however I would prefer if they gave people more ways of obtaining it. Honestly, I feel ascended should be obtained in at least as many possible ways as exotic is (just massively more expensive), and maybe with time we’ll get that option. Right now they are feeding it to us a little bit at a time. Once upon a time you could only get the trinkets from playing fractals, now you can get them with laurels. Likely we’ll also get the ability craft some of them (jewelcrafting) when the other professions get leveled. Might need to just give them time, here’s to hoping.

As for the LS backpiece skins, Colin did say at PAX that they wanted to create some sort of skin closet like you’re talking about. It’s on their list of things to do, but I’m sure that list is 9 miles long by now and development can only be done so fast. This also likely takes a back seat to the ‘core game improvements’ that they’ve said was their main focus of this year, and all of the other things we’ve been told they are working on (world boss overhauls, dungeon updates, etc). So, again, I simply recommend patience. Neither Rome, nor our beloved GW1, was built in a day…(or even a year)

@champ, per the live stream yesterday, the new TA path does not allow skipping of the trash mobs. It is designed to play linearly, straight thru. It was one of the questions the dev fielded during the game play. Think he was trying to keep an ooze alive at the time. I’ll see if I can find the time stamp for you.

15:45 – 16:20 “Definitely along the lines of an Arah style Explorable path.” “Definitely designed to be played thru in sequence. Wanted to design it in such a way the skipping is essentially impossible” So…might be some skipability, but prob not a lot.

Inherently fun (for me, not in any particular order):

Leveling / Map completion – I know. I’m weird.

Dungeons – Story Mode. I just like watching the stories and the interactions.

DE hunting – I will go out of my way if I see a DE pop up on my map. I simply like doing them.

LS – Not the achievement hunting per se, but just checking out what’s new, catching the little story tidbits and trying to piece it all together. Sometimes it’s like playing an extremely vague version of Clue. Makes for some good fan fiction ideas…

New Tequatl – still aint beat him, but having a blast trying

None of these things are generally super rewarding… but I like them none the less.

I think what we need to consider here is that ‘fun’ is subjective. If you watch the Twitch streams, the developers do very much seem to enjoy their game. They are having fun with what they’ve made. They are happy with it, and this is probably somewhat how they gauge what is fun and what is not. Which is fine.

That said, what is fun for one, is not necessarily fun for someone else. Which from the hollering on the forums, is very very obvious. So while they are potentially creating a ‘fun game’ to them, it doesn’t suit some of your tastes, so you take what they said and throw it back them claiming they are lying.

I don’t feel they were (or are) lying. I think it’s a matter of perspective.

No, I don’t think I’ve spent more than a sub fee would be, but I haven’t really been tracking it. Why? Because I’m happy with my purchases. I’m also content with knowing that the choice to make the purchase was solely my own, and not forced upon me in the form of “you must pay x to keep playing.” Like Kopper, I spent money some months, more other months, and yet others none at all, all of my own choosing. So long as I’m a happy gamer, I have no desire to tally it up.

Vayne.8563:

Knote.2904:

All the temporary stuff is meant to milk the players for money, nothing else, Anet doesn’t care if it’s conveinent for us.

Hell they’re not gonna stop with temp content either, because they only listen to their metrics.

Milk the players for money. Another way of saying that is to get some sales. When someone tries to sell something in the real world, when JC Penny puts something on limited time special, I don’t see people screaming that they’re trying to milk they’re customers. They are, however, trying to get customers to spend money.

You make it sound like it’s a seedy thing to do, when businesses in the real world, even your local supermarket, will run limited time specials to make something more appealing.

Milking the players indeed.

All I get is an image of an old farm hand with an Anet t-shirt, pulling the udders of us unfortunate cows. lol

Have to agree with Vayne. Hell, even grocery stores have ‘limited stock’ ‘one day only’ items that once they’re out, they’re out. You snooze, you lose.

How about the mass rushes when new gaming platforms come out? You get slammed with launch day “limited quantity” “limited time bonus” etc etc when we’re expecting the new platform. It’s not any different.

and then we have….Black Friday sales! Woo there’s a day to hide at home and venture out only if you absolutely have to.

Spoiled may not be the right term, as Paul points out. Generally being spoiled is due to the parent or parental figure giving in. Although, perhaps we do have some instances of this, so maybe a little of the blame could fall on anet.

Still, I feel the vast majority of the issue simple boils down to player attitudes. Many of the people on here are very ego centric, many I would (and have) compare to poorly disciplined toddlers throwing tantrums because Daddy Anet didn’t give them their way.

I do not see recurring content as ‘temporary content’ simply due to the fact that recurring content will return. Likely on a set schedule, ie Halloween and Wintersday.

SAB does not yet have a predefined schedule, however I wouldn’t be surprised if it was back again in April around ‘Spring Break’ and again next Sept around ‘Back to School’ time. Why? Because of the theme behind this “event.” The original idea what that it was developed as a means of educating asuran offspring (“Moto, an asura inventor, created Super Adventure Box as a way to teach young asura important life skills, like cooperation and avoiding poisonous water.”).

If you’re on a NA server, SSW on Anvil Rock might suit you. We’re very casual and laid back. Small, but still fun. We aren’t on a lot of hours each week either, since most of us either work or have school. We have a post in the recruitment section if you’d like to learn more about us.

-bump-

still accepting people =)

Of course. If you’d like to just hang out at some point prior, sort of as a ‘dry run’ feel free to message me in game. I very much prefer people to get a feel for ‘who we are’ before they make any commitments. One of those, if you’re happy then I’m hammy kind of things.

Loved what I got to experience of it. Hopefully I can try the bell choir thing this year. It sounded like it was similar to like the silly rock guitar game, cant think of what its called at the moment. But I’m heading out for food, so I’ll catch you later.

I didn’t have much luck with the clock tower either. Looking forward to trying it again this year though.

I gave up on SAB personally. I’m so terrible I couldn’t do it in infantile mode (got some good laughs though)

Still, all good things must come to an end. Besides, it’ll be back. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made April and September specific SAB months in the future.

Vick.6805:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Ok I Did It.2854:

If you are wondering how long it will take you, check out the wiki chart,

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Luck

You wont be maxing it out anytime before xmas that’s for sure, its basically going to come down to when you’ve had enough of salvaging.

chuckle This completely reminds me of trying to build lucky and unlucky titles on GW1, and building lucky benefited your account a bit as well. Entirely insane to max out though.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lucky

Nah, it just required a couple hundred plat and several weekends AFK on the boardwalk 9-rings game, and that ended up working toward lucky and unlucky simultaneously.

The insane part was figuring out how to keep yourself entertained when you’re AFK all weekend. :P

Lol not everyone went that route :p

As a human, I’m sure Eve is loooooong dead.

Although Marjory was introduced and she’s a necro. She could potentially slide into the role you’re looking at filling. She strikes me as…just a little odd. Not quite the same as Eve, but still workable.

SSW is on Anvil Rock, and we might suit your needs. We’re small, fun loving, and exploratory. Not huge into WvW though, which works out ok since you’re not on our server. Dungeons are something most of us would like to do as well, but its mainly a weekend thing for us since we’re evening and weekend players. We do use skype for voip on occasion, but mostly we just use guild chat, so absolutely no worries about a lack of mic.

Let me know if you’re interested, we can discuss further to determine if you want to give us a try. I’d be more than happy to hang out and play a bit together as well if you wanted, before you made any commitments.

SSW is a casual, laid back guild on AR.

I hesitate to necessarily label us as being mature though. Sometimes its fun to be a goofball. We’re very small though, so we may not be what you’re seeking.

So, generally speaking I don’t actively “recruit” for my guild, but we could use a few more I think, so I’ll post it here.

Shadow Sworn Warriors [SSW] is a 7 yr old GW1 guild that migrated over at beta. Sadly, most of us have wandered off in life to do our own things, but a couple of us still play and would like to rebuild what we had in GW1 – a close knit, fun group of people to hang out with.

We prefer being small, right now we have 6 a dozen people. We don’t have any plans on becoming one of the huge 500 people guilds, because we feel that you lose that special “something” when you get that many people. As leader, I like to know my members, and I like my members to know me.

We’re very casual. GW2 is a game, not a job. We don’t have any type of requirement for specific times to be on, for example. Most of us have jobs and families, and or school. So we’re mostly on evenings and weekends. When we’re on, we’re generally pretty chatty, and like to just hang out and goof off.

We’re mainly PvE oriented, been doing a lot of random map completing. Just getting lost and having a laugh at doing stupid stuff (like rocket booting off a really tall cliff intentionally). Tends to lead to lots of fun misadventures. Some of us do want to get into a little bit of dungeoning, although we aren’t “hard core” about it. Just something fun to do and enjoy.

sPvP and WvW aren’t something we indulge in often, although I know that I and a couple other will occasionally jump in and play some of it. These types of players are still welcome, I have no issue having variety in my guild. Don’t feel alienated because we don’t necessarily do it as our mainstream. Having more people that do it might encourage some of us to partake more often. After all, variety is the spice of life.

Our motto is ‘Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.’ We are very playful in nature. We harass each other constantly (in good fun) and conversations do not always stay child appropriate. As such, if you are easily offended, we are definitely not the guild for you.

We do not have a website. Nor do we have teamspeak, mumble, or vent (at this time). We have been using skype for voip purposes as needed, it pretty much covers our needs at this point.

We are looking for people that simply want to play to have fun. That like leveling alts, and exploring. That may play with goals in mind, but aren’t necessarily in a mad rush to achieve them. Someone relatively laid back, that can roll with the punches. If you’re interested, feel free to track me down. You can PM me on here, or you can wsper me in game my forum id is my game id.

Good luck and remember to have fun out there,

Lan

Nick.6972:

Well, remember GW1? People player UW/FoW for years even though it almost never changed, and it was hardcore content. I don’t recall anyone ever complaining about it.

Personally, I think this game lacks decent hardcore team content with more than 5 players.

They played it for years because they were the only places to obtain shards and ecto, which were necessary for FoW armor, and sold really well. The same could be said of DoA…people were after the gems to get the armbraces to get the weapons, all of which could be sold lucratively. The Deep and Urgoz were ‘elite’ content, but until the revamps, were essentially dead, and even after, still didn’t see the traffic the other 3 places did. Why? The rewards sold for little to nothing.

People weren’t necessarily doing it because it was hard content, or because they enjoyed it. They did it for the farming… which is why you found far more farmers than actual groups in the ToA. After the addition of the end chests, its why speed clears came into play. People didn’t want to ‘do’ the content, they just wanted to get the rewards as quickly as possible…

The ability to knocks foes off a ledge (potentially to their death).

If they can knock my sorry butt off (potentially killing me depending on the fall), I should be able to do the same to them. What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander!

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Sadly, I will probably never defeat this boss because I refuse to get to the zone an hour early and sit there twiddling my thumbs waiting for him to spawn. If I go do other stuff while waiting and try to zone in when he starts attacking, I get dumped into overflow which is a sure failure.

Anvil rock is never full when I’m around, never an overflow in sight. I always map in 2-3 minutes after it starts, but then again…we’ve lost every time I’ve tried as well. (Then again, I never expected a handful of people to be able to do it either)

TooBz.3065:

Me too. But I think that, like dungeons, first no one knows what to do and they are hard, then someone figures it out (blackgate), someone posts a topic about how to do it, organized groups learn how to do it (TC), eventually everyone knows what to do and it becomes rote.

To me, this is the problem inherent in PvE content. That’s why whenever people ask for a challenge I direct them to check out PvP.

I think Teq was perfect content to add to the game. I have never completed it, I’ve only tried twice. But I know it can be done.

For another example, look at the Obsidian Sanctum, that was a pain the first time, now it’s easy.

/Agreed, all content it like this.

The first time or two its hard, because of the learning curve. After that… it goes much more smoothly.

Ah fond memories…

I made my own guild, and generally speaking I don’t advertise it. I’ve found that like minded people simply gravitate to me during the times I play, and then eventually join the guild. Probably why I’m so small, but I’m ok with that.

I’ve found too many guild hoppers, multi-guilders, or simply non-like minded individuals going the “SSW is recruiting” phases. Even trying to weed them out by asking what they look for, etc etc. shrug

My suggestion would be, if you see a guild group running together in the open world, see if you can join them. Play with them a bit, if you like them and they seem to like you, then check out if they are recruiting.

Ok I Did It.2854:

If you are wondering how long it will take you, check out the wiki chart,

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Luck

You wont be maxing it out anytime before xmas that’s for sure, its basically going to come down to when you’ve had enough of salvaging.

chuckle This completely reminds me of trying to build lucky and unlucky titles on GW1, and building lucky benefited your account a bit as well. Entirely insane to max out though.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lucky

Lol the 3 times I’ve attempted Tequalt all I hear is “can’t wait for them to nerf him”, “it’s about time for a nef now”, etc. LMAO.

Some people do find it hard.

TooBz.3065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

TooBz.3065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

A pve “armor closet” is something on their todo list. It’s been mentioned several times in the past, and Colin mentioned at PAX that a ‘skin’ closet so we can reuse those limited time skins was something they still want to do. Just takes time…

Yeah, I think he also said that you would apply the skins using transmutation stones. Let’s just say I’m not optimistic about this becoming a viable end game strategy. They always introduce some microtransaction to make what I enjoy less acceptable.

Maybe, maybe not. He did say “pay transmutation stones” to get another copy… but we paid gold in GW1 to obtain additional copies of a hat or costume as well.

I guess it would depend on how many stones/crystals it would cost. Just 1 like a normal transmute? I’m fine with that, I have bunches of the things from normal everyday playing (probably because I save most of my transmuting til the tail end of my leveling). Beyond that, you can still shift gold to gems to get them from the store, for no out of pocket cost.

We will just have to see what they come up with. I just have had my confidence shaken to the core. I hope you are correct.

Yeah, all we can do is have some patience and see how it turns out. Still, when hope is lost, then all is lost…thus why hope is the last thing to die. I still have hope, they haven’t jaded me so badly that I’ve lost it yet.

“Not off the table” means that they are still options they are considering. Expansions, level raise, etc are not things they have ruled out at this time, they are “still on the table” – ie still being discussed, still viable, etc. Its an indirect way of saying nothings been ruled at this time without making any commits to doing, or not doing something.

haviz.1340:

Calae.1738:

Right. NPCs with more health and stats. That’s what I meant. In the end, no one is getting stronger. It’s just the numbers that are inflating.

Stronger means better and more interesting combat mechanics as well.

Not necessarily. Simply saying “stronger” could mean a lot of things, which is an issue with communication. We cannot read your mind, so a vague term like ‘stronger’ could mean something entirely different to someone else. Which Calae demonstrated nicely. In order to get your meaning, you need to be very clear and precise in the wording you choose.

This is part of the issue people have with Anet. Anet says “A” meaning “A” but someone interprets it to actually mean “B” then get’s ticked off when Anet gives them “A” and not “B.”

TooBz.3065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

A pve “armor closet” is something on their todo list. It’s been mentioned several times in the past, and Colin mentioned at PAX that a ‘skin’ closet so we can reuse those limited time skins was something they still want to do. Just takes time…

Yeah, I think he also said that you would apply the skins using transmutation stones. Let’s just say I’m not optimistic about this becoming a viable end game strategy. They always introduce some microtransaction to make what I enjoy less acceptable.

Maybe, maybe not. He did say “pay transmutation stones” to get another copy… but we paid gold in GW1 to obtain additional copies of a hat or costume as well.

I guess it would depend on how many stones/crystals it would cost. Just 1 like a normal transmute? I’m fine with that, I have bunches of the things from normal everyday playing (probably because I save most of my transmuting til the tail end of my leveling). Beyond that, you can still shift gold to gems to get them from the store, for no out of pocket cost.

Vayne.8563:

An idea or concept is not a “plan”. A plan is something very specific. Some writers write with outlines…that’s a plan for what you write. Piers Anthony outlines everything to the letter. Some writers write from the seat of their pants. Stephen King does this. It’s talked about in his book On Writing. He often has no idea where a story will go.

Having an idea or concept is not the same as a plan. Why do you think so many people call the manifesto a lie? It wasn’t a “plan” it was a concept.

I think we simply disagree on what a ‘plan’ or ‘roadmap’ is precisely.

Plan:
“A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective.”

“a set of actions that have been thought of as a way to do or achieve something”

“something that a person intends to do”

I believe Anet has something like this, based on the definitions above. It doesn’t have to be insanely complex, and it doesn’t have to be for the next 5 years even; however, I can easily see them having mapped out what they want to achieve and push out to us over the course of the next year. They’ve obviously mapped out what they want to achieve over the 6 months of July through December…Colin spelled it out to us in a blog. (Considering how fluid the game and development markets are, I consider 6 months to be a ‘long’ term)

MrRuin.9740:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I think maybe we’re looking at this wrong. Why do we always want to live in the past?

You can’t avoid it. People inevitably ask : how do I get (insert name here) skin? How I do I get (insert name here) backpiece? Where’s the content they claimed they added? Wheres the new dungeons? How did you get so many AP’s?

The answers are always : you can’t get it anymore, its gone and they’ve been removed. There’s new stuff coming yes, but you’re kitten out of luck if you want any past skins or titles or anything else that was a permanent remnant of past content.

its not all negative, I do tell people they’ve done some changes I like to world bosses, the changes to Tequatl and those improvements, but when the company claims they’ve added more content than anyone else in less time, people inevitably ask where the hell is this content? Its frustrating to me too as I start new characters and want past skins and want to run past dungeons with them. How was I supposed to know what skins I wanted for a character I might create 6 months down the road?
The biggest flaw of the Living Story is that it and the methods to obtain items from it (w/o cashshop) are all removed.

I’ve found that if I present the LS to people and explain the reasoning behind it, most people accept the logic and are less bummed about missing a skin or 3. But everyone will be different.

A lot of people that game are still tied to the antiquated idea that they must get everything, must achieve everything, and that everything must absolutely be static so they can do it whenever they please. LS does not follow this at all and people have a hard time accepting change….which is screwy, because its the only true constant in life.

A pve “armor closet” is something on their todo list. It’s been mentioned several times in the past, and Colin mentioned at PAX that a ‘skin’ closet so we can reuse those limited time skins was something they still want to do. Just takes time…

Eurhetemec.9052:

Vayne.8563:

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

I don’t always agree with Vayne, but he’s spot-on here.

Blizzard are a good example. They have moderate-to-long-term plans in terms of where they want to go plot and location-wise (i.e. “fluff”), vague ones, in their games, but their plans for mechanics, or for nearer-term content? Those change absolutely constantly, by their own admission.

This is a large part of their success. Another game comes up with a good idea? Well, WoW’s development is agile enough that they can steal it, rather than remaining tied to ultra-specific plans. You can see this too in how they virtually rebuild the game every expansion – accounting for changes in the world of MMOs, for what’s fun and what isn’t, and so on.

I mean, they’ve done 180s, they’ve delayed stuff they wanted to do for years and years, they’ve changed course countless times, and I’m pretty sure that’s helped them.

I expect that things are similar at ArenaNet. They have longer-term plans regarding fluff and story, and so on (I hope!), but only shorter-term ones with mechanical stuff. With games like TESO and WildStar on the way, they will undoubtedly need to adapt, and to move rapidly.

That said, not planning to do expansions is a fairly big deal – if they change their mind on that it will not be trivial to reverse course on it, because you need multiple teams working on an expansion for months or years. So I wouldn’t anticipate an expansion any time soon.

Vayne says they have no long term plans. Essentally they ‘cant’ because of how the industry works, and you agree…. Then go on to state that WoW has “moderate-to-long-term plans in terms of where they want to go plot and location-wise” as an example? That’s actually a direct contradiction of what Vayne was saying.

Yes, no plan is set in stone, but I’m sure Anet has “plans” for where they want to go; how they want to story to play out, what maps they are opening up and possible a rough ‘when.’

Vayne.8563:

I don’t think they have long term plans. I think they have ideas. I’ve seen some very successful businesses run by the seat of their pants. Hell, MY business was run without much of a plan. That is to say, we sold stuff that we could make a profit on…and that was the plan. But I didn’t have any deep cache of lore to go to to run the business I ran, because computers changed too fast to figure out that stuff anyway. Your plan was to look at what everyone else was doing and adapt on the fly. Some plan.

Yes, I ran a business. Until I saw what the competition did, particularly the big guys, I couldn’t devise a survival strategy. You know, pharmacies started selling printers. Why would someone buy a printer from me, when they could get it cheaper next door. I had no business plan for that, because I didn’t realize that would happen till it did, and I had to react.

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

Just because things change and adapt doesn’t mean they don’t have previously laid plans, ie a roadmap. It’s rare that businesses survive flying by the seat of their pants, because the roadmap is what helps build the solid foundation on which to stand and helps to keep them on track. Considering the living world initiative is something they talked about before the game luanched, I’m sure these things have been planned for sometime. The actual implementation…maybe not so much. Technology is funky that way.

With the way their living story teams rotate, if each one gets a 3-4 month development process, they definitely have pre-laid plans for at least that long of a time period (3-4 month time span). Considering each arc sort of ties into the next, the story has to be planned out further than that, so when one team is ‘done’ and needs to start on its next assignment it knows what it’s doing. That’s generally how development works. You have logs of things to do and a game plan for how to approach them. Yes, today some may be high priority, but tomorrow something might crash and take precedence. That alters the overall plan some, but it doesn’t blow it out of the water.

There is always some VP in games, even GW1 had it. However, unlike other MMO’s GW1 has a cap to theirs. You got your max stat armor, got your maxed runes/insigs of choice and that was it. Game on.

In games like WoW, its grind content A – get Tier 1 → proceed to content B and grind for tier 2, etc. You are always “preparing” to play, never really “just” playing because its always about the next piece of gear grind. Hamster, meet Wheel.

That is not a fun model for many of us. We believe that content b should be as readily accessible to those in tier 1 as to those in tier 2. The only difference is that for those in tier 1, it will be harder and that is fine.

GW2 originally gave us a stat cap with exotics. They (and the players) decided that exotics were too easy to get, so Anet gave us Ascended – something that took a little more effort to get. A new stat cap, with minor assurances that it’s the last tier for the foreseeable future. If the game had launched with this tier as its initial final stat cap, we wouldn’t have the uproar we have now. I feel we need to give them a break, for the time being. As long as they don’t introduce another tier, I won’t have an issue. I’ll reserve my yelling for ‘if’ that should happen.

Yes, we have tiers of sigils and runes, but this is no different than how runes worked in gw1, and people willing made the choice to not have top tier runes there. Of course, they had drawbacks to them…ie, reduction in health. Perhaps we should implement that again for runes or something in this game. more powerful = less hp, seems like a fair trade. Infusions have not reached their ‘final’ cap yet, but they will in time (maybe these should have the trade off, instead of the runes or sigils. The higher tier of infusion, the greater the trade off). At that point, we will have our ‘stat cap’ which Anet did say they wanted to do, they just never said we would necessarily have at launch.

Ugh….and it’s because of people like the OP that we got ascended.

“Well, I rushed through everything, forgot to smell the roses so to speak, now I’m bored. Give me another external motivator – ie carrot- because I don’t know how to entertain myself” is exactly what this amounts to.

We do not need more stat climbing. NO MORE!

We do need:
better boss mechanics,
more emphasis on playing something other than pure dps,
additional skills and interesting ways to find/unlock them (hi ho, hi ho, if off skill hunting we go!),
better pet AI (cmon boys, you had it in GW1 for ranger pets! minions and spirits, not so much, but still, we know you can do it),
and so on…

Vayne.8563:

Do you really think Anet has ANY long term plans? Cause I’ve seen no evidence of it. They seem to be flying by the seat of their pants. That’s why it looks like they’re lying sometimes. Because they just sort of see what happens and rolls with it.

Doesn’t work out a lot. lol

Yes, they have long term plans. As someone who claims to have run/managed a business you should know how this stuff works. Typical business plans include both short, and long term “road maps” and goals to help keep things on track and running smoothly. Considering I ran my own hobby business for years, this is something I am aware of.

Additionally, Colin has told us repeatedly that they have plans laid out well in advance. 6 months ago he told us they had the next years worth of content already planned. At PAX, he said they have a roadmap and that they plan on following it. Beyond that, we have been getting the “next 6 months expectations” blogs, and nothing has been said that we won’t get another come Jan/Feb.

Now, does that mean that everything is set in stone? Lol, nope. Nothing ever works out precisely as planned, life isn’t perfect that way.

The first suggestion you’re likely to get would be to join a guild. And it’s a good suggestion. There are plenty of casual guilds out there that would ‘allow’ you to make new friends and be able to fill out the 5 man parties for dungeons.

That said, the majority of open world pve content can be done in your group of 2-3. From my understanding some of the 5 man dungeons can also be done with fewer players, but it is more difficult, so it would depend on your skill level and determination.

Victory.2879:

Short answer- no. Almost everything is geared for 5 man teams, there is no scaling of dungeons for smaller teams and no solo mode at all. In fact, the game designers are heading in the opposite direction- Teq the Funless was designed to get 80+ co ordinated people all in ts standing around for hours planning for a 15 minute chance at failing.

They gave us exactly what we asked for when it comes to Tequatl. People have been calling for ‘raid like’ content since essentially the launch of the game. Anet responded. They gave us harder open world content where anyone could join in, you don’t have to sit around for hours trying to get a group to do it. Tequatl is very doable as a number of servers have already shown.

Conner.4702:

Yeah most of those “positives” are actually negatives. The thing that does an even better job against stress is quitting and that’s what their current set up will get people to do.

Saying they have had a new peak in concurrent players is meaningless PR drivel as it does not mean they gotten more new players, sure it might be new players, but it might be people are putting in more hours.

The concept of the living story is good, the execution has been horrible and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

I don’t see them as negatives, but difference in play styles, priorities, and opinions I suppose.

I wasn’t touting the PR crud. Every company, every game has that. It’s simply part of running a business.

I will agree that the execution of the LS could have been better. I feel its getting better, but they still have a way to go. I would like to see more story development in each arc, and a more clearly defined means of presenting that story to the player (ie, clearer directions on getting to some of it). Something more than just a single opening or closing cut scene, and a little bit of character depth. However, I am well aware that Anet is not always the best at presenting their stories/lore, so I’m being patient since they’ve at least acknowledged this and claim to be working on it.

I’d like to see some story development for the new characters being added.

Rox is trying to get into Rytloks warband for example. He keeps sending her out on errands, that we help with. Let’s give Rox a specific story arc to fill out her character, help give her some depth and get us ‘attached’ to her as a story component. Help her achieve her goal.

Braham and Eir are none too friendly, and we know essentially nothing about Norn culture when it comes to child rearing. We’re heroes, they’re our friends, wouldn’t it be logical that we would try to help bridge that gap between them? Give us an arc to do this, which should help flesh out Braham as a character, as well as endear us to Eir.

Marjory and Kasmeer…so many places we could go with these two, but I’d love to learn more about the issues with Caudicus, the council, and Queen Jennah. Logan pulled them into the story at Dragon Bash, which brought in the Aetherblades, and her back story from the website shows that she’s not blind to the corruption within the council. She’s a detective, let her sniff it out..further building her character, and Kasmeer’s.

There are so many potential sub plots and twists waiting to be fleshed out. I just hope that in time they do, instead of just letting them sit. Heck, I’d be more than happy to offer my ideas and my writing if they so pleased.

I think maybe we’re looking at this wrong. Why do we always want to live in the past?

When I talk to people about the game, yes I tell them about the great previous experiences I’ve had, but when asked ‘well what have they added’ instead of saying “well we had ‘x’” we should be saying, “they are doing small content updates every two weeks, to keep things exciting” and then explain how it works and the reasoning behind it. I get a much more positive reaction from people that way. It’s all about perspective and how you present it. Of course if you make it seem like a negative thing, people are going to walk away feeling negatively about it. If you don’t like the living world content, you shouldn’t be pitching it as a selling point of the game when someone asks you about it, instead you talk about the things you do like…

How about the 3 new fractals we’re expecting?
The new perm dungeon path for TA in the next update?
Halloween is right around the corner… (and we’ve known that it would return since forever)
The changes to Tequatl?
The additional bank tabs for horders? (Now don’t take offence, I’m one too)
For the people that want VP, the new ascended gear?

I could keep going, but I won’t. Yes, most of those are recent changes, but there have been smaller other things (jump puzzles, dynamic events, etc) previously. You get the idea though. Focus on the positives, not the negatives. It’ll do wonders for your stress levels.

“xx” members logged in simply counts the number of times anyone in the guild logged into a character. If you are in a guild all alone, and you log in 3 different times on the same day, it will say “3 members logged in” (even if you log in and play the same character each time)

That… is very nicely done

Anet is not always the best at presenting their story, and admittedly there are flaws and plot holes. Things that get posted on the website that should be in the game as backstory and such.

Still, this general plot line holds potential. (Grab the tinfoil hats now, it’s a whopper) Following the original OPs theory of a dragon, this would be a way to introduce the mythical ‘jungle dragon’. If the theory is correct that the Sylvari were indeed supposed to be its original minions, being ‘corrupted’ to the good side has him a few thralls short. Scarlet could potentially be his puppet, gathering unsuspecting minions to his legions. Based on Scarlet’s back story, the ‘vine’ trying to choke the pale tree in the vision could easily be a representation of her dragon master trying to exert control over her.

Would be an interesting twist, no?

Erick Alastor.3917:

Julie Yann.5379:

Yeah Anet, plz no more tedious kittening pumpkin carving, or snowman building, or paper dragon activities nobody enjoys doing those.

We want to give you a meaningful experience, not one that is a vapid waste of your time. Whatever your reasons for spending time in Tyria, we don’t want to waste it by doing stuff that isn’t fun. ~Anet

Different people enjoy different things…. I actually think of most of this as being akin to farming ToT bags or lunar fortunes or whatever in GW1. Same difference.

I did like the pumpkin carving. I found it entertaining…

Karizee.8076:

I got you!
https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/halloween-in-tyria

Woot! TY!

I do miss my monk from GW1… “Oh were you trying to cap that shrine? Sorry about your luck buddy!” Good times…good times…. running around like my hair was on fire (sometimes I think it might actually have been)

Still, I don’t think that “role” fits into this game’s set up. It would definitely ‘break’ too much, imo.

Karizee.8076:

Loved Halloween last year, looking forward to it again this year.

One of my favorite things was the scavenger hunt for the Mad Memories backpiece. I took so many players through the Lion’s Arch sewers, they’d be all like bwuh? I had no idea this was here right under my feet!

Last year’s trailer to get you in the mood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdGIstEG32E

Hehe love this….

I need to go find just the music and put it on repeat for the rest of the day…

marnick.4305:

TheDaiBish.9735:

marnick.4305:

Rejected unanimously by the GW1 veterans.

No level cap increase would be rejected by GW1 vets? o.O

I’d have said they’d approve of it.

They wouldn’t. Most GW1 veterans will claim that GW2 has 60 levels too many already.

I’ve yet to hear any GW1 player with either decent pvp rank or 50/50 and GWAMM to ask for more levels.

There’s no point to levels outside of pen and paper.

As a GW1 vet, I do agree… no level cap increase please.

Although, I wouldn’t say it has 60 too many. I was fine when they said they were doing a higher level cap waaaaay back in the beginning. Although…I think they should have stopped at like 50… or 60, and then had a bunch of lvl 50-60 zones.

I’m looking forward to Halloween again as well (and why wouldn’t I, it’s my freaking birthday!) Loved it last year, couldn’t complete the clock tower… so, looking forward to trying it this year (and frustrating myself into insanity again. Thank you Thorn, I must be masochistic).

Look forward to the music again too, hehehehe.

haviz.1340:

Galen Grey.4709:

Please, no you dont have that rule else why are you posting in a post regarding casuals. Or are you going to imply that high level fractals which is what you stated you play exclusively content you think is for casuals? Or are you going to imply you’re experianced with the rest of the game you refuse to play?

Why can we get ascended rings with laurels? is completing a daily challenging? simply speaking one challenge doesn’t preclude the other.

Except that you can get rings with laurerls.

Yes you can….. I was just looking at them the other day…..

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Laurel_merchant