Guild Wars 2

I like the idea of Trahearne being the one who defeats Scarlet. There’s something so delicious about that.

Then, to rub salt in our collective wounds, his act of heroism would make him so popular that he would be crowned Queen of Tyria.

ArenaNet, make it so!

The balance changes in the December 10 patch were a welcome improvement (in my opinion, anyway) and opened up some build options for some professions that weren’t viable before.

Unfortunately, it looks like Living World development is still stuck in the “grand open-world raid-style” zergfest mode (a la Tequatl Rising) until the Scarlet arc ends, so not much love for those of us who despise that sort of thing and are forced to find other things to do in the increasingly stale rest of the world.

On the bright side, I do think Colin and the gang have heard our pleas for content with broader appeal and more staying power, so maybe we’ll start to see it a few months down the road.

In the meantime, a vacation sounds nice.

Vol.7601:

There are a lot of selfish players that think they are entitled to help and free stuff all the time.

Selfish
adj
Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

I’m selfish because I prefer content that doesn’t give us a zerg parody of WoW’s insufferable “leet raid” culture in the open world. I love this game, but they are moving away from me with this sort of time-gated, niche-oriented, group-only content.

I’ll concede that it’s selfish of me to want the rest of the game to stop being so stagnant, but I won’t feel guilty about it.

H.P. Lovecraft called.

He wants his eldritch abomination back.

Rod.6581:

As i haven’t played GW (1), does anyone has idea what they mean by character growth? Does it stands for increased level cap or something else?

Well, here’s one possibility.

“Go Away: GW2 Isn’t For You!”

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I don’t want the message to be “shut up, we don’t want you” or “we’re going to ignore you til you go away”.

This is the professed, almost verbatim message of the legions of self-appointed “defenders of the game” who infest these forums (as they do in all games) and spend their time discouraging and chasing off anyone who doesn’t see things their way, rather than spending that time actually playing the game themselves.

No one at ArenaNet has ever said anything like this.

“Join Us: GW2 Is For You!”

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I want the message to be “then help us try to get to where you think the game should be”.

This is the message ArenaNet has consistently given us since long before the game entered beta, and which they continue to give us in all aspects of their interactions with us.

In contrast to the “rabid fanboys” (who, ironically enough, are actually projecting their own frustrations with the game on other players), ArenaNet’s communications are invariably cogent, professional and courteous — and they are always asking us for our honest feedback.

The conflict between these messages, and the philosophies underlying them, couldn’t be any more stark.

Here’s hoping ArenaNet’s message wins, so that we all can.

I will confess that before I read the last few pages of this thread, I still harbored a tiny shred of resentment that ArenaNet employees aren’t more forthcoming about future plans for Guild Wars 2.

That shred is gone forever. The scales have fallen from my eyes. I really, really get it now. I repent.

From this moment forward, if anyone reading this should ever see me complain about ArenaNet not telling us more, or flat out lying about what they’ve said, or claiming to know their innermost thoughts, or arguing that only my interpretation of their words is the gospel truth, or insisting correlation equals causation, or that ArenaNet is staffed by lying, greedy, evil people, or otherwise net-lawyering them to death, then please, slap me.

Because I sure as kitten will have deserved it.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Now, how can we fix that?

A sensible, eloquent and constructive proposal which I hope the relevant devs will have a chance to read and consider.

Would +1 again.

Emily.1985:

Oh well, just let me know how you have such shiny wallets!!

I recommend reading Karl Marx’s Das Kapital.

It’s all in there.

Perhaps they can offer a “Scroll of Royal Terrace Quieting” for a few gems more…

solrik.6028:

What kind of chaos would happen if player bodies had collision?

The kind I’m happy not to be a part of.

(Never mind. Good luck!)

TheBlackLeech.9360:

It’s not a false dichotomy. You simply read and interpreted the question differently than the way I intended.

I was asking if he blamed it on either thing.

Its a yes or no question.

Not that he had to choose one or the other.

It is, by definition, a false dichotomy. It is also not a yes or no question, since neither answer would resolve the dichotomy.

However, I can say…

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Do you blame this on people doing maximum possible damage or poor enemy AI?

No.

Please understand: I’m not saying the argument in the OP is invalid, or that I even disagree with it, just that this particular question literally does not make sense — and indeed, it actually derails your own thread.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Do you blame this on people doing maximum possible damage or poor enemy AI?

I blame it on a false dichotomy.

Best game I’ve ever played.

Just needs more polish, bug fixes and permanent, replayable content, and they are coming.

I have used the words “spectacular disappointment” to describe the non-replayable, time-gated “throwaway content” of the Living World experience here and elsewhere, so I’m definitely not shy about giving blunt criticism.

However, I’m pretty sure ArenaNet has heard us loud and clear. Based on what Colin said last summer and other devs have also said since, I am very optimistic about the Living World in 2014. Heck, even Scarlet haters might be pleasantly surprised by what’s coming in the last four installments of her story arc.

Granted, I may be setting myself up for even more disappointment, but I have very high regard for the ArenaNet staff (they did, after all, give us this amazing game) and am confident that if anyone can turn the Living World around, they can.

Blackgate: Our last, best hope for playable group content.

I like being able to see, and I don’t want anything to be harder to see than it already is, regardless of what time it is.

Or just guest to Blackgate like almost everyone else.

Ren.5842:

I’m loving Guild Wars 2!

Welcome to the club. Just remember: we gripe because we love.

Otherwise, we would be busy griping about some other game in its forums instead.

Regenerator.7326:

im sorry if i sound slightly upset, but i just need to let this out somewhere.

Indeed, you should apologize for not sounding very upset.

My two nickels: yeah, it sucks and needs to be fixed.

For whatever it’s worth: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Diminishing_returns

Kaos.9162:

I’d rather be able to get a legendary entirely from playing WvW, but it just doesn’t work that way.

Maybe it should.

I’d rather play the game the way I want to play it.

/colin

Play It Again, Sam

If the content introduced by an expansion expired and became unplayable a month after its release, would people buy it?

The problem with the Living World so far is that it has made permanent changes to the open world, as designed, but has left little content that can actually be replayed — or even experienced at all by players who don’t catch it before it is tossed on the ash heap of Tyrian history. For those of us who miss it, it might as well have never existed at all and means nothing to us.

Living World content has mostly been mindless zerging, tedious achievement checklists and bug-addled, slapdash “throwaway content” that the LW teams have little incentive to refine or debug, because they are under heavy deadline pressure and need to turn right around and get to work on the next release. The quality and appeal of Guild Wars 2 has suffered because of this.

Colin and other devs have already acknowledged the problem with this approach and have indicated that we can expect more permanent, replayable content from the Living World in the future.

While that may not satisfy the desire some players have for a full paid expansion, growing the world with new, permanent, replayable content would definitely make the contrast less stark and enrich the game experience for everyone.

A truly living, growing world with new replayable, meaningful content is my hope for 2014, and I’m counting on the good people of ArenaNet to make it happen.

Could you expand or clarify on this a bit?

Are you asking that higher level items not drop in lower level zones?

LOTRO has consensual dueling in the PvE world, with the option to disable dueling requests and thus never be duelable.

I never used dueling mode for anything other than testing builds and I’m personally neutral on the issue, but when I played LOTRO, it really wasn’t a big deal either way.

I, for one, welcome our new VIP overlords.

I deeply wish more critiques of the game were this mature, patient and eloquent. Thanks for expressing what a lot of us are feeling but may not be able to say so well.

I’ve been very critical of the Living World’s “throwaway content” and the way the rest of the game, despite many welcome quality of life improvements, has languished. I think that and the “Zerg Wars” paradigm underlies a lot of the dissatisfaction many players are experiencing.

However, I believe ArenaNet has gotten the message — at least on the Living World, and hopefully scaling down “zerg-only content” — and I really do think we’ll see a welcome change of direction in 2014.

If not, it’s still the best game I’ve ever played, just lacking in key areas. If so, and we see ArenaNet’s efforts to incorporate collaborative development make meaningful improvements to Guild Wars 2 that will bring us a truly living, growing world constantly being filled with fresh, replayable new content, it’s going to be EPIC.

Lettuce prey.

It would be nice to be able to “opt out” and turn them off in the Options panel. For new players who haven’t disabled them, they would remain visible.

Everyone wins!

“Too much” pretty much describes everything about Southsun Cove — except player participation, which tends to be the opposite.

If they ease off on the former, we’ll probably see more of the latter.

Moderation in all things.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

1. While playing Guild Wars 2, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the Game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players.

Threatening to report a player is a threat, and can be reported as such. Also, as others have mentioned:

21. You may use the Guild Wars 2 reporting system within the Game to alert the company to in-game issues such as inappropriate behavior, offensive names, the perceived use of a “bot,” or other misconduct. You may not use the Guild Wars 2 reporting system to inflict harm upon or harass another player, to submit false reports, or to cause undue load on our servers. Individuals who abuse the reporting function will be investigated and will face possible account suspension or account termination.

If a group of players conspired to harass you via the reporting system, I would expect them to suffer the consequences.

By and large, however, no one, including ArenaNet, has the resources to adjudicate every dispute, so if someone is hassling you, it’s usually best to just ignore or /block them and go about enjoying the game.

I think dispersing Suggestions to the relevant forums makes perfect sense and support the change 100%. This is expected to be accompanied by more dev interaction in those forums, which will be awesome if it works out (please make them feel welcome!).

I also like the idea of splitting the profession forums into PvP and PvE sections, because they have totally separate builds and objectives, but if keeping them together makes it easier for the devs to participate, then I’m okay with that too.

Ever since Minionmancers became viable, Minionmancer bots have also been viable. Hope ArenaNet figures out how to deal with them soon.

Just don’t nerf Minionmancers, because we waited a long time for minions to start working right.

“Someone” is usually not the most reliable source. However…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Account-transfer/first#post1427223

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, confirmed by my good team member: *The server transfer fee is for moving characters, if you have no characters the transfer is free.

Seems true to me.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t know, he got to like level 22. I’m not sure by level 22, you can even know what the style of play is really like, particularly the end game style of play.

Granted, some professions don’t really “come alive” until higher levels (I’m looking at you, Mesmer), but odds are if a player doesn’t like, say, stabbing things with a sword at level 22, it probably won’t be any more appealing at level 80.

Vayne.8563:

The only thing I’d say, is that even some of the professions have changed. I didn’t like the necromancer at launch (I felt it was far too limited) and now it’s one of my favorite professions.

They’ve definitely gotten better, and the Necromancer is a good example. Heck, even Turreteer (for Engineers) is viable now, thanks to the last patch, and the devs have listed further build diversity as a goal, so the future looks bright.

The styles of play are still basically the same, though, so I’m hoping it’s not a case of not liking any of them, because I think there’s something to like about all of them.

Space Odin.2605:

So now after about 1 and a half years, has anything changed? I’m gonna level up an Asura guardian for now, but any info about major changes since the game started would be nice.

As Vayne pointed out, much has changed. The core gameplay is still the same, however, including the professions. So if you didn’t find a profession you really liked, that may not change.

That said, I play all races and professions, consider them all unique and very well-differentiated and think it likely you can create a character you will enjoy, once you get familiar with it.

You may have seen it already, but the GW2 Wiki Professions page gives a good overview of the options if your current choice doesn’t work out. And, of course, the profession forums are here for the more detailed stuff.

Whatever you end up doing, I hope you have as much fun as I have!

Welcome to GW2! While there’s much to complain about (which we so diligently do in these forums, as is the custom in every gaming forum), there’s much more to love, in my opinion.

I’ve been playing since BWE2 and, despite many candid complaints (mainly about “throwaway content” you’ll probably never get to see anyway), I still consider GW2 the best game I’ve ever played.

Alas, it has ruined every other MMO for me (five years of playing and two lifetime subs to LOTRO died when GW2 launched, and nothing else current or in the MMO pipeline appeals to me at all), so I’m stuck here, as many of us are.

Your list is long, but there are many things I love about the game that aren’t included. I won’t post a list of my own here, but I’m hoping your list will grow (like mine has) as your adventure continues.

Good luck, and good hunting!

pandora eight.9451:

There’s no need to write nonsense.

ArenaNet purposedfully denies refunds to certain countries.

It does not warn about that during the account registration, despite country being specified. Or anywhere else.

That is unacceptable.

You keep making this claim over and over without providing any details or evidence to support it, and in the face of far more credible evidence to the contrary. How is that not nonsense — or acceptable?

Why are you posting this here if you’re not willing to discuss the facts?

Manifest Destiny

The Manifesto is alive and well and lives on in our hearts — and, I sincerely believe, in the hearts of most ArenaNet employees. I don’t think anyone in the video was lying, nor have I ever seen any evidence that anyone at ArenaNet even remotely resembles the “monsters from the id” too many players accuse them of being.

Like any creed, opinions on how the Manifesto should be interpreted, how it should be applied, how strictly it should be applied or when it should not be applied will vary, and disagreement naturally ensues. That is just as true within ArenaNet as it is in these forums, so any pretense of a One True Interpretation of the Manifesto is no more credible than any other claims of inspired revelation.

As eloquent as the Manifesto may be, it’s not perfect and never was. It’s probably not possible to actually publish a game which would conform to the Manifesto perfectly, and even if that somehow happened, players would nonetheless argue over whether it actually did, because opinions inevitably vary.

Rather, I think it is best to consider the Manifesto a statement of principles and ideals to draw upon and work toward, recognize that not everyone will agree on the best way to do that, and endeavor as a community to help shape the extraordinary vision ArenaNet has laid out for us.

Granted, that’s not always easy, we naturally tend to get emotional about things we care about, and I could certainly stand to better practice what I preach, myself.

But as long as we keep our eyes on the prize, (politely) hold ArenaNet to that vision and respect the fact that our fellow players can disagree (without necessarily being wrong), we won’t lose sight of what we care about most.

And that’s a goal worthy of us all.

Serdoc.7261:

I play a lot of PvP, and 1 thing I try to do as a PvPer is be kind to the new players who are obviously PvP-ing for the first time. It might help, it might not, but its worth a try.

Play a Mesmer so you can clone yourself.

No such thing as too many helpful players.

They are princesses and they can do what they want!

Nothing a few well-placed shinies couldn’t smooth over…

Fafnir.5124:

I love how everyone forgets that we knew first year of living story would suck because they where setting up repeating events.

How can we forget something no one at ArenaNet has ever said? Indeed, who predicted the Living World would suck for the first year? Got a link? Seems you are arguing with an imaginary straw man.

Rationalizing away the game’s problems by blaming dissatisfied players and even other game developers is not a very convincing argument, particularly when it is coupled with your own complaint that GW2 “has no end game currently only LS which makes it boring to play”.

The thinly-veiled truth behind this reaction, as with most like it in these forums, is that you wouldn’t feel compelled to blame others if you didn’t have similar complaints about the game yourself. Indeed, your own words say so quite clearly.

Nothing wrong with disagreeing with other players — everyone has their own opinions, and negativity can get old fast. But if you focus on reading what other real players are actually writing about the game, you will probably find yourself disagreeing with them less than the imaginary kind.

Tman.6349:

“No interest in smack talk”….“don’t want to deal with childish brats” O.o
Lol you’re silly

No offense intended, but pretty much every post you’ve made to this thread exemplifies what people don’t like about the “PvP community”.

You may not see it yourself, but believe me, it’s painfully obvious.

Just sayin’

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

I really hope Tara Strong is getting paid well for her roll as Scarlet. Otherwise the hatred of the fans she is going to be getting for this role probably isn’t worth it.

I’m not worried about Tara; she already has an enormous portfolio and fanbase outside of GW2, and most players are mature enough to know the difference between an actress and the character she portrays.

For my part, I hope they keep her beyond this arc, either as a better-written Scarlet or a different character. Considering her crazy versatility, they could give her just about any part (or several) and she could pull it (them) off with her usual professionalism and poise.

This ain’t her first rodeo.

Orr is an evil and forbidding land whose very design is contrived to keep players out.

It appears to be working as designed, if not necessarily as intended.

Illusions.3108:

If the Devs pulled a SWG and revamped the combat system completely to more accurately mirror GW1, would you support it or be very disgruntled??

I’m sure it would be just as welcomed and have the same effect as it had in SWG.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

Running Down The Clock

At the end of Clockwork Chaos, they greatly increased the difficulty while keeping the timer the same, making successful completion of the meta-event impossible for anything other than well-organized teams working together, while simultaneously nerfing the loot into the ground, thus eliminating any incentive for well-organized teams to do them at all.

My impression at the time is that they were essentially “parking” the invasion events by giving them enough of a delta between risk and reward to minimize the likelihood of exploits emerging and players farming them in a way that might affect the economy (the way they did when they were featured in the Living World). Doing that prevented the invasions from becoming a problem for them as they work on other things.

I tried several invasion events after Clockwork Chaos ended, but never saw a meta even make it past the second wave, and the drops/rewards from the individual events is now so dismal as to be unappealing. Thanks to ArenaNet’s unfortunate “timeritis” syndrome, players have learned to simply leave and do other things when it’s clear an event can’t be completed in time.

These days, if I’m in a zone and Scarlet invades it, I leave immediately. The penalty for not doing so is to have Scarlet randomly spawn and attack, often while heavily engaged with other mobs. This typically results in death with no prospect for additional reward, which renders the zone much less attractive than any other zone until the invasion is over.

Not sure if that’s what they intended, and maybe it’s better on Blackgate, where everyone seems to be transferring these days, but that’s how it plays out on my server.