Guild Wars 2

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Vote with your wallets, as long as people buy gems with real money this greedy behaviour will continue. Stop buying gems and there might be a chance they’ll change their ways, otherwise your complaints will do nothing.

I didn’t pay a cent after buying the game, they don’t deserve it. Such greed shouldn’t be rewarded.

That argument cuts both ways: how is wanting an endless supply of new stuff for free not greedy? Is ArenaNet greedy because they don’t give you free stuff, or are you greedy because you don’t want to pay for it?

New skins cost time and money to make. Funding them through the gem store can reasonably be considered a way to pay for that. GW2 already offers a lot of new content for no additional cost, so should everything that is added from now until forever, including new cosmetic items, cost nothing as well?

It’s easy enough to call other people “greedy” (or my personal favorite: “selfish”), but as the great Stuart Smalley reminds us: “When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back at you.”

Just sayin’

She saw the Eternal Alchemy, then spent the rest of the weekend burning incense and listening to the Doors.

The following Monday, she emerged from her meditations as the Lizard Queen, but changed her name to Scarlet Briar on the advice of her lawyer.

The rest is history.

I’m totally indignant about this for some reason!

Oh yeah, um… what’s a tormented weapon skin?

Chrispy.5641:

I’ll question it.

How dare you question Science?!?

It’s Science! It cannot be questioned!

Don’t worry, there are already plenty of Chinese players on the trading post.

What I like most about Taimi is that she doesn’t let a “little thing” like hardly being able to walk slow her down.

She has attitude and she has plans — being cute is icing on the cake.

I do worry about her obsession with Scarlet, however. Here’s hoping sweet little Taimi isn’t going to become Scarlet II.

“Caithe, someday you’ll see. Tyria needs me.”

— Scarlet Briar

You can hit “ESC” to immediately exit the cutscene.

Constructive Crowdsourcing

Axiom.6137:

One of the victories of the original game design was how it subtly discouraged negative player behavior and fostered a friendly, cooperative game environment.

While I don’t think the GW2 community is as bad as being claimed by some, and don’t share your degree of bitterness about the direction of the game post-launch, I definitely agree with this, and agree that much of the post-launch content seems to lose sight of the unique and brilliant vision GW2 brought to the MMO genre.

The inherently cooperative mechanics of the game, which liberate players from haggling over kill credit, loot and resource nodes, combined with the effortless ad hoc grouping and dynamic event system, are a proposition no other MMO can match (for now, at least). They are what brought me here, and I dislike how things like zerging (the backdrop for this thread) and other similar mechanics work against that by putting players in competition with one another in various ways.

In this case, players are being tarred for not giving up potential income to stop and save other players the cost of using a waypoint and running around the corner (the Trader’s Forum, featured in the OP’s attachment, is near enough to the Canal Ward Waypoint to be embarassing) so they can resume zerging for income, and the conflict of interest in turn leads to ugly threads like these and general bad will.

It doesn’t have to be like this, and I hope the designers will give more thought to creating content that brings people together in positive ways, rather than leading us into yet more mass loot grabs that often feel more like opportunistic street riots than heroic quests.

In the meantime, we as players can make the virtual world (and the real one, for that matter) a better place by being honest with ourselves, respecting one another and doing unto others as we would have them do unto us — not slandering them when they don’t satisfy our expectations.

Those of us who do will be rewarded by a world that looks much brighter when we don’t project our own negativity onto it.

Those of us who don’t will experience the bitterness that comes from living in a darker world by seeing evil where it does not exist (and thereby failing to see it where it does), which is its own harsh punishment.

Here’s hoping for a brighter world.

Zaxares.5419:

Well, if minis were to continue to remain rare, it WOULD take thousands of gold to purchase all the miniatures. (You just said yourself above that your mini collection dropped by almost 1000 gold, implying that you spent thousands of gold building it.) That means that only a very, very select few (the ultra-wealthy) would have a complete collection.

Pay no attention to the speculative investor behind the curtain!

Stones From The Glass House

I personally rez and generally try to help out other players whenever I reasonably can, but when I see indignation and finger-wagging in response to assumed insults to one’s sense of self-entitlement, it’s impossible not to be reminded of a rather famous definition:

“Selfish, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.”

— Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary

In other words, people are “selfish” because they don’t give us what we want. Look at any accusation of “selfishness”, and it is always made because someone didn’t get something they feel entitled to.

To that, I will add…

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

— Matthew 7:3

It is easy enough to condemn others for perceived slights and feel good about ourselves for doing so, but the assumption that it elevates oneself or somehow grants moral superiority is false.

This thread is founded an a blanket condemnation of the Guild Wars 2 community that is utterly unwarranted and with which I wholeheartedly disagree. There are plenty of good people who play GW2, and this is not going to make anyone better.

Feel free to condemn me for seeing through the sanctimony and not going along with the stone-throwing.

Consider it my selfless gift to anyone and everyone who needs it to feel better.

A HA! Now we know who to blame: feather farmers!

Get ’em, people! Rawr!

…because we always need someone to blame…

/pitchforks_and_torches

Thanks for the tip! I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

RLHawk.3290:

Sad to see all the negativity on the official forms, but I wanted to at least take a break from playing long enough to throw in a positive word here.

I have my criticisms and suggestions, and there have been bugs, but I do agree that it’s quite an incredible update.

It doesn’t have to be either/or.

Anything can be bargained and rationalized away, no matter how outrageous.

They took crafting stations out of the transportation hub so they could sell access to them in an airship overhead? So what?

At least the champ trains run on time.

Great dialog between Heal-o-tron and Gnashblade.

I love this stuff.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Can’t wait to see the final fight between Mordremoth vs Giant Robo Marionette.

If this is not a shameless copy and paste from old school Gozilla movies what is…

Don’t forget Quagzilla. When he shows up and takes them both out, Tokyo will be saved!

Lion’s Arch, on the other hand…

I could do with less zerging, but the art, writing and overall release are par for the course for ArenaNet — which is to say, awesome.

It also seems surprisingly light on bugs, which is pretty amazing given the scope of the release.

While I’m not thrilled about certain questionable maneuvers involving gems, the talented people who worked so hard to produce this release deserve serious credit for bringing us one of the most epic chapters of our story so far.

Kudos.

Tub.4560:

What many players seem to take take offence at is the combination of removing convenience and selling it back for gems. Some people seem to be fine with it. To others, it feels like extortion.

There it is, simply and eloquently stated.

Arguments which ignore or attempt to obfuscate this key point are tangential and ultimately irrelevant.

Worlds Apart

The Living World has given us a lot of content over the months, but unfortunately, much of it is now gone and no longer available.

There are some lingering changes, to be sure, and many, many welcome quality-of-life and gameplay refinements (all of which I greatly appreciate), but once the short-lived novelty of each Living Story release fades (and it tends to fade more quickly as the new installments start to blend together in their similarities), we’re left with a game that offers little more in the way of playable (and replayable) content than it did at launch.

I consider that the “spectacular disappointment” of the Living World.

It’s not for lack of talent. ArenaNet has some of the very best artists, writers and designers in the business.

It’s not even for lack of content. Taken together, the Living Story has added a tremendous number of things to do and explore — at least, for a while.

But now most of it is gone. New players will never see it, existing players who missed it have missed it forever, and players who enjoyed it and would like to experience it again will never be able to do so.

What does remain, such as Southsun Cove or the ruins of the Tower of Nightmares, appeals to a very narrow minority of players and offers little incentive to play or replay. The Edge of the Mists is an encouraging exception (at least for players that like some PvP with their PvE) by being permanent, replayable, and a breathtakingly beautiful map as well (and a clever way to take the edge off WvW wait queues), but alas, it is an exception.

Time waits for no one, but the tragedy of the Living World is that it leaves so many behind, or out in the cold altogether.

My wish upon a star for the next season of the Living World is that it will focus more on new permanent, replayable content (Edges of the Mists “for the rest of us”, if you will) that all players, now and in the future, can enjoy whenever they want.

I know that’s not necessarily easy in the context of a vision of “changing the world forever” (i.e., “blowing stuff up”), but if anyone can do it, ArenaNet can.

Or so I pray.

The Blame Game

warbreaker.8154:

.Like many people have already said, this event was created specifically with the intention to break up a zerg. Just because people continue to zerg in spite of that isn’t ArenaNet’s fault and is out of their hands at that point. I’ve been an admin of games before, and I can tell you that there’s nothing more frustrating than when players cry and blame you and beg you to fix something that you can’t fix no matter how hard you try because the playerbase is the problem. But no one wants to acknowledge that their peers much just be a bunch of stupid kittens who will never be happy for any concession you make for them and are actually the ones ruining it for everyone.

Games that are designed with contempt for the players reflect it in their design. It’s a kind of karma, in the same way that obnoxious people tend to think everyone else is obnoxious because they don’t respond warmly to constant abuse.

Game designers that blame players for problems with their games condemn themselves to never making better games. It’s not an attitude found among successful designers, and certainly not an approach that allows for improvement.

Players zerg in GW2 because that’s the way the content has trained us to play. I’m not a zerg follower by nature and didn’t buy GW2 because I wanted to zerg. The main draws for me were things like non-competitive PvE (no haggling over loot, nodes or kill credit) and the ability to experience seamless solo and no-hassle ad hoc group play at will without having to wait around and beg for groups — all within an incredibly beautiful game world that won my undying affection during my very first beta weekend event, oh so long ago.

At its heart, Guild Wars 2 is a liberating and thoroughly enjoyable game. It is, in fact, the best game I’ve ever played of any genre. Period. It’s so good, it has ruined other MMOs for me, including my beloved LOTRO, with my two life subscriptions doomed to remain unused after five years of faithful service unless and until the game were to suddenly turn into a GW2 clone with hobbits.

The players aren’t the problem. If anything, the GW2 community is fairly typical of any gaming community, with the notable plus of all of us having the good taste to play such a superior game.

ArenaNet doesn’t blame the players for problems with GW2. It’s not how they roll, and I’ve never seen even so much as a hint of such a sentiment from anyone who works there.

We are playing the game ArenaNet has made for us. I think it could use less zerging and a more compelling experience for each of us as players.

I’m not blaming them, us or anyone else for how things are. It’s not about assigning blame, because there’s no point in it. I just think there’s room for improvement, and I’m confident the devs think so too.

Keep giving us your best, ArenaNet, because as imperfect as it may be, it’s already the best anyone offers.

Just don’t give up making it better. I’m counting on you!

Skiing The Slippery Slope

It is becoming increasingly difficult not to see moves like this as deliberate and contrived to convert features that were free at launch into de-facto “premium membership” perquisites that must be purchased at additional cost.

I’m all for ArenaNet making money off this excellent game, but using the Living World as a pretext to facilitate these sorts of changes comes across as underhanded and strains player trust.

The specious arguments and insults that fly back and forth in this thread and elsewhere, pro or con, will not change anyone’s mind at the end of the day. They never have and they never will.

What each of us is left with is the question of how comfortable we are with this process.

I’m not.

Zerg Wars 2: The Zergening

I’m impressed with all the changes to Lion’s Arch, the Vigil Keep (looks great!) and the surrounding areas. A lot of work went into them. The overall effect is quite striking and — dare I say — epic?

Unfortunately, I literally fell asleep about a half hour into my first run into Lion’s Arch.

Granted, I was low on sleep to begin with, but it didn’t help that I had already gone from spending quite a bit of time zerging the Marionette events over the past few weeks when I wasn’t zerging in WvW (I prefer roaming, but our commanders have been pushing to keep us ahead, and I couldn’t ignore the call).

When I fought my way in with yet another zerg into an overflow instance, I was curious to see what the “new” Lion’s Arch looks like, but spent most of the time trying to tag mobs for loot before the zerg burned them down. When I wasn’t staying in the zerg, I was surrounded by scads of veterans and elites that were presumably upscaled because of the zergs running within their scaling radius, forcing me to constantly dodge, break stuns and do just about anything other than explore the map.

Given my Mesmer main’s gross unsuitability for zerg-tagging, I found myself back on the Charr Shortbow Thief I geared up for WvW, tagging away yet again. Despite my interest in at least making my way around the map, I just couldn’t stay awake. It was just the same old grind in a different neighborhood.

I really appreciate what ArenaNet is trying to do with the Living World and I’m not knocking that at all. I understand that special events will attract a lot of players at once, and that a lot of players will tend to mean zerging.

But I also know the same talented people who have brought us “Zerg Wars 2” have it in them to give us a more direct and compelling experience as individual players, even in the midst of epic events, and I would really like to see more future releases do just that.

In the meantime, I have now rested up and am about to head back into Lion’s Arch. My Thief has loads of stealth she can use to sneak past the worst of the mob blobs, and I’m already burned out on the idea of zerging for shinies, so my new goal is seeing if I can find some zerg-free (or at least zerg-light) entertainment somewhere in the ashes of Lion’s Arch.

Here’s hoping that in her search for fun, my slippery cat burglar won’t come up empty-pawed.

I just sent some flowers addressed to “Europe”.

Hope they cheer up my friends across the Pond.

Funkybacon.2635:

That’s not a complaint, its a suggestion or request.

Many of the “complaints” being not-being-complained-about are also “suggestions or requests”.

Just sayin’

FlamingFoxx.1305:

You can have the EXACT same experience that you had in LA in any of the Racial capitals. The have the exact same services – often more central to one another – and load quicker than LA. The only thing they do not have is the Mystic Toilet. But how often do you need to use that?

Lion’s Arch was also the transport hub for free Asura gate travel between cities, which is a key point. The new hub lacks services the previous hub provided, but for a “small fee” you can have what Lion’s Arch used to offer for free.

Therein lies the rub.

Funkybacon.2635:

This patch is out for a few and already there’s threads with complaints.

And threads with complaints about complaints.

The ironic recursion, it burns!

Antara.3189:

WvW Laurel Merchants do not sell all the same items as the one from LA, just checked. Only ascended gear is the same.

Regardless, the whole point of LA was to have a central hub for players.

So taking it away and giving me the option of “convenience” by only getting gems is disheartening as something that the game provided, is now no longer being provided, which was convenience.

A fair point on the WvW vendor, and agreement on the principle of removing services from the transportation hub as explained in an alternate universe.

morrolan.9608:

Like I said loading screens are a hassle, I sometimes get over a minute in a loading screen.

Every map has a loading screen, but I can understand and don’t disagree that if you are used to being able to do everything in one place (such as Lion’s Arch), you shouldn’t have to go to another map for it or pay for the privilege.

Other capital cities do have crafting stations, but are not Asura gate hubs, so unless Vigil’s Keep provides all the same services Lion’s Arch did, then it does represent a downgrade, and casts reasonable doubt on ArenaNet’s motives if it is not an oversight.

So here’s hoping it is an oversight and not an unseemly money grab.

Antara.3189:

I don’t believe there’s a laurel merchant in any home starter area

Oh ye of little faith…

Laurel Merchant

There’s one in each capital city and in each WvW borderlands citadel.

I’m not saying the Vigil Keep shouldn’t have one (I think it should), but it’s not the only game around.

morrolan.9608:

Spending a minute per loading screen is a pain. Coupled with the fact that getting out of WvW is actually 2 screens, firstly to the mists then back to where you were in tyria.

When you choose “Leave the Mists” from the WvW interface, you are returned directly to the map you left. That is the only loading screen involved when you leave.

As for the hassle of using the borderlands crafting stations versus Lion’s Arch, that’s debatable, of course, but entering WvW isn’t any more laborious than traveling to a waypoint — and costs nothing.

YMMV.

cainejw.7142:

Again, the fact you can go somewhere else is a moot point. That is the rationalization that this is OK. The issue is that they took features in LA and put them behind a payment requirement.

Oh, I don’t disagree with you about that. I was just pointing out (admittedly with some redundance given the other replies) that it’s very easy to return from WvW and isn’t a pain at all.

There are many places to craft, but I agree nuking Lion’s Arch and not providing crafting stations in the new hub — while simultaneously floating a pay-to-enter airship overhead that offers them for a price — does seem rather shady.

Hopefully the refugees in the Vigil Keep will be able to set up some crafting stations there soon.

Maybe the Havoc’s Heir can drop some as a gesture of good will to the peons below.

What about the quaggans?

Won’t somequaggan please think of the quaggans?

Oh the irony.

No one zergs anymore. It’s too crowded.

Ironically enough, all game maps are instances anyway. We enter them whenever we enter a new map.

So really the issue isn’t actually “instanced” versus “open world” content, but how many players are allowed into an instance and what they have to do to enter.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

If you enter WvW, your main server BL has a TP, Merchants, Laurel Merchant, and even Crafting Stations. It’s convenient to get there and free to travel.

Ranger Hussy.9523:

and a pain to get back to where you were

Actually, all you have to do is open the WvW dialog (default key “B”) and select “Leave the Mists” in the lower right-hand corner.

You will be returned to the precise place in the PvE world where you were standing when you entered, which can be anywhere in Tyria that’s not in an instance.

Just saying.

Do explosions count?

Game Update Notes – February 18, 2014

Note: All characters that were stationed in Lion’s Arch before the attack will be relocated to an adjoining map.

It appears players who logged out in Lion’s Arch are not supposed to find themselves in a cloud of miasma when they log back in.

If more of us devoted more effort to respecting fellow players and less effort to defending game bugs and reflexive disagreement, maybe the forums would be a more pleasant place.

The Skritt King approves of this idea.

#TeamShinies

Fear not! We can still turn on our commander tags and dance naked at the Vigil Keep.

All your lion are belong to Scarlet.

This dovetails perfectly with my own Hollywood-inspired rating system: the more explosions, the better the movie.

Zelyhn.8069:

Maybe Scarlet’s misdeeds could bother the Tengus into breaking out of their isolation. Maybe this could coincide with the release of GW2 in China.

Perhaps. This would certainly be an opportune time for the Tengu to come out of isolation.

But considering how closely the Tengu are modeled after the Japanese, from their name to their historical similarities, I’m not sure how popular they would be in China, given the circumstances.

CHIPS.6018:

Oh I wasn’t asking to use 15 weapon skills at the same time. I was asking for 15 weapons skill to choose from, and we pick 5 to use.

I am also hoping for this, and while I can’t say when, I suspect we will eventually see it.

But first they will have to come up with the new skills for all the many weapons and professions (since doing only a few at a time would result in howls of protest), and that’s not something they can rush, nor would we be happy if they did.

timmyf.1490:

That’s CUT, not UCT! UCT is Uniformed Curling Time.

Only in Canada, the Friendliest State In America.™

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Yet America stands for 100% of the world’s hope for freedom.

Indeed, we are experts at freeing people whether they like it or not, even if it kills them. But best we not talk about that here.

For now, let’s just take comfort in the fact that using Google to find “Seattle time” is apparently a skill that only Americans possess, thus ensuring our world supremacy for generations to come.
Let’s get back to stuffing our arteries with trans-fats and pumping carbon into the atmosphere with the lavish SUVs we drive to avoid the inconvenience of having to haul our obese frames down the block to the local McDonald’s for the six 3000-calorie meals we eat every day.

AtlasSi.9130:

The Heart doesn’t count for 100%.

Ah, good point. (Just checked the map completion wiki page.)

Be sure to check the Heart of the Mists if you haven’t already.

Sorry to hear it, Europe.

I hope you’ll be feeling better tomorrow.

CursedShaitan.9720:

Had they used GMT-8 there would have been 3 idiots that couldn’t get through high school running a google search instead of the entire european player base.

But then we would have been robbed of all this delicious international pedantry.

How fun is that?