I no longer play the game but do make my voice heard via the forums.
I can make sure that my opinion and view is heard and hope that it has an impact on how future content is made and executed. Will I come back? Doubt it very much but if enough things go in the right direction I could be tempted.
Until I see if Anet lives up to what it said it would I dont believe anything they say after the 15th. You are not alone and didnt over react. The grind is horrendous.
It is very unfortunate that it ended up this way. Anet saw a bleeding of player retention in sept and they scrambled. The only thing they could come up with was to grind and add in VP and reduce the drop rates of loot. This was an effort to retain and keep players long term and to stem the flow.
However this has had a horrific effect on population (and numbers) and now that normal players are seeing what is involved – they are getting irritated with it. In order to monetize what is left of the population they are forcing the grind and the casuals to purchase gems in order to continue gearing up or catching goal posts.
I dont think it was a good decision and it has had serious consequences. I hoped that they would have had more HP in the pipe but didnt and short term quick retention is grind. It is cost effective and quicker to create from what I have been told.
If that option came up I would re download the game just to contribute to that Nuke Orr fund. It was way overboard and the CC was unhealthy and irritating. Not hard in any way just poor mechanics.
With 0 loot now – plinx/shelt/pent dead and nerfed what point other than exploration is there a reason to go? Dont have the temples under control +more CC.
Way cool -make you work for it – lol.
Nuke it and then nuke it again to make sure no CC survived.
Then put in challenging mobs not chincy cheese on appropriate timers since everyone will be doing whatever dungeon they release for the next bunch of ascend gear.
Working as intended – grind to you give up.
The best mechanic there is.
Really shows who the most loyal dedicated GW2 players are.
As long as it has nothing to do with skill-time-dedication then it is the correct mechanic.
As of right now legendary weapons are mandatory simply because they will always be best in slot no matter what.
That means no matter what is released they will be bumped up and infusions added in perpetuity. So the second the new weapons drop this become the most powerful without the extra grind of obtaining said weapons.
Yes there will be a huge grind I have heard that it will be on order of 2X ascend stuff now. That is subject to change but you get the point.
They lost 25% of the pop because of this patch and just lost 5% more since the grinders have their stuff and moved off into another game.They have Raids incoming and trinity type mechanics for Feb-march.
The grind is going to get much worse as they force you to spend money for gems because they will attempt to squeeze what is left of the population for revenue.
30%of the population gone in 2 weeks because of this. Mousey is a lousey who sqeeks all the night long.
I agree that they should have kept their word but what can you do, they sold out for money – dont blame them.
I dont believe anything in that PR exercise of an ama sorry.
If ascend gear was to be introduced they would have mentioned it in all the promo material up to launch and legendaries would have had diff stats than exotic.This was to the effect of a stickier experience as pops were slowly dropping off.
They rolled everything out exactly as they wanted to – the only mia culpa is that it didnt go as planned that is all. As of right now 1 group of people have access to more powerful gear by design.
Yes it is gated content cause if you dont have infusions you cant continue on in fractals.
They dropped 25% of the population in 1 patch. Now we have Raids and trinity type mechanics incoming for Feb-March.
You believe they were honest in that ama? I believe they were honest that they got caught and that they rolled it out exactly as they wanted it to.
I hope they can recover and be truthful about the plans ect but I see a lot of cover up and misinformation they are distributing.
Pre-launch was really good. They spoke at length about the vision and direction the game was going and how they saw it playing it.
Now they hide in their offices with their tails between their legs wondering what is going on afraid to say anything.
They have dropped 25% of the population in 2 weeks since that patch and they are scrambling right now. Raids and trinity type mechanics are inbound for Feb-March and they still need to recover from the lost shore debacle.
Got your rewards yet? didnt think so.
They will remain silent to the new year and start over unless there is a significant crisis like dropping another 25% of the population.
Yes it is going down hill and the population gauges prove that. There recent patches have alienated the populations and now that the uber grinders have their 3 ascend pieces they are back with the game they love.The inside source is 25% pop left with the last patch. 2 weeks later it is at 30%+ and growing fast.
I am having more fun then ever just not in this game.I do hope they correct things but honestly dont know. Raids and trinity type mechanics are inc for Feb-March and this wont even look like what it launched as so who really knows.
I think it would be a good restart.
They have botched things from the start and with WvW free transfers to Spvp balance
and now the massive grind for ascend this game is perfect for the pay 2 win design.
I think that once we are out of the beta stage they will relaunch as a free 2 play after they everything worked out right and WvW paid transfers,Spvp Balance and PVE pay to not grind limits.
I am perfectly fine with it and hope Anet keeps up the great work and that there will be more agony and more dungeons. That is what this game needs after all.
all to force an impatient crowd into cash shop and at this point as difficult as they have made it to make gold, let alone get decent drops, they are figuring you will either stay and pay or leave.
One word for what’s happened…….Nexon
Yep, I agree ~ Its actually becoming quite comical that so many players on these forums are either so blind and in-denial that how serious a situation Guild Wars 2 is in right now.
As do I. Every time someone finds a way to make extra $ they close (hotpatch) it in 15sec. But arah bugged for 3.5 weeks straight so I cant finish my class story – who cares.
The only game ever that couldnt do the class quest.
Sad and sorry state the GW1 that stagnant thing Mike O said will out live this game and continue on because it is what people want.
Looks interesting but a lot of Meh.
That previous game must be WoW cause they threw GW1 under the bus and said it was a stagnate game not worth the time.
I take it will be more and more grind and build on more grind in the dungeon.Interesting to see what happens tho.
Try search first
Beyond that : they havent said yes or no so keep asking and you might just get a yes.
VP wasnt expected so hey you never know (raids incoming) -mounts,loot rolling,gear checks – I am sure all are on the agenda and just need a little push.
It is a nice Idea but the fact is Anet is forcing people to do dungeons and grind nothing but dungeons and asking for resources to be taken away from dungeons is not in the right direction.
It would be a nice addition to the game if wondering around and a ping pops up maybe even give a little exta life to the old content. I like it myself.
But better rewards are in the dungeons, more gold, and gear progression is all tied to one thing.Grind grind grind dungeon – that is the all consuming focus for anet and players unfortunately.
Maybe expansion this could get looked into. I am hoping atleast.
Yes, remove thief and let present thieves choose another profession with same gear, level, archievements, maps revealed…etc. Thief was totally ruined during last patches with nerfes. All cry here on forum and Anet still listen and dance how crying kids play. Thief = useless, with no defence, no damage and nerfed with every new patch. Remove thief.
I agree just delete the class and move on. Let the QQ start on another class till they are down to 1 and calling for that to be nerfed as well. It is so bad it isnt funny. That is the only real solution remove it from the game completely and compensate me with better equipment then I have now because of your inability to do things right or to tell QQ’s to stuff it.
But alas they dont want you leaving the game and making gold. They push you to buy gems and convert to gold and allow you to farm just enough to keep your head above water but not enough to get ahead.
Therefore it is account bound and not character bound. Buy gems you will?
They make sense now because of the new changes made on the 15th.
They will always be made BiS and will be perpetually bumped in power to equal whatever tier weapon is the most powerful.
So no matter what it is guaranteed to be grindless after achieving it until the game dies or they change their mind again.Yes the grind is there to get it but the fact that you never do it again makes it a must for me above anything else.
I like the idea but the devs prefer you do fractal dungeons and only fractal dungeons.
In Feb-March expect new guild activities (raids) to become available and the grind there is going to be epic. Dungeons are the in thing and trinity type roll mechanics will be used along with new equipment.
I do wish they did implement a decent chain to a dragon but they would just nerf the loot again and force you back to the gating mechanic in the dungeon so I dont get my hope up.
Unless it is an exploit that gives player extra gold the response time to these things are pathetic. Dont get your hopes up. May be better off transferring (server) to an open one.
Working as intended.
To keep you treading water but not under it. You want something buy gems and convert to gold.
They keep the grind the way it is so you log in every day and do your thing and are about even at the end of it.
Want to lesson the grind – you got it buy gems.
They dont have an incentive to make it easy for players their job is to keep you playing and paying. (consistent loot nerfs every other week)
Fun,fairness and equality do not enter this equation.
Your only other option is to stumble on an exploit and use it. sorry to tell you but that is how things are.
when i was playing I never made a lot in the market about 2g per hour and sometimes took a hit and sometime got a winner.
I found with MF full and plinx I manged about 3-4g per h or 2 runs of the circuit with the arena thrown in. I did the market while I waited for plinx to pop.
I havent been back since they nerfed it and could care less about the dungeon grind. Your best bet would be grind that puppy till your fingers bleed then Anet will nerf it as well. They nerf very well you know.
this is what we call call PR slip and move.
You expect one thing and something entirely different is done. In this case the grind will be reduced but instead it will be increased or stay the same.
There will be more PR about how everyone managed to get them despite the grind and that for the next release it will have to be increased.
This game is grind central and forced at that. In order to make income anet has attacked the player in every feesable way of deriving income with the exception of gold buying.
That keeps you playing longer and longer and that is what they want or you buy gems what they also want.
Fun has nothing to do with this and they dont care if it is fun as long as your grinding the vertical progression dungeon you dont worry about economics cause you have the next level to worry about.
It really is horrific if you think about it. It will get even worse when guild activities (raids) get introduced and the unreal grind and power creep that will happen with that.
So long answer is no they dont want you to have gold. They want you dependent on them for you next fix/grind.
working as intended and cant wait for fractals 2.0 the next day. That dungeon is going to rock.
No they wont release the items other than dungeons that was said to keep you playing and pacify you. If they do the grind will be so horrendous it will shame all of Korea.
Get use to the new direction because this is exactly how it works and how it is going to play out.
Op:
Raids/Guild Activities are incoming after christmas – think Feb or so. This will have what you are looking for along with the vertical progression gear wise as well.
Keep plugging away and keep making your voice heard you may get what you want and need. They implemented ascend gear for this reason.
Working as intended keep grinding. This is what people wanted so why complain?
I dont get it. Didnt have anything to do or nothing to chase and now you have it.
Go to it- and keep at it till its done- maybe you are just not who they want?
Maybe ask for way to pay to reduce the grind in the cash shop?
Or like me Move on to greener pastures there are games that do the grind far better than this one.IF anet get around to fixing stuff I may be back sometime.
I had no issue with the grinds for legendary stuff cause that was just a skin. But the new ascend stuff and the infusions forced into the dungeon sucks.
Nothing separated you stat wise with the gear but visual appearance. The greater the appearance the bigger the grind. I am fine with that or titles ect.
But to grind for +10 gear for me is not fun in this game. Many others do it much better and much more enjoyable and I have left for greener pastures.
If there was a more pronounced shift to pay to relieve grind like WoT does it might go better but anets prices seem out of whack.
I never achieved the 100% exploration but if I did and was on my 3 alt then I could see how it would be grind.
Anet seems to have grandiose visions and the implementation is poor and delusional at times.
What I can say is it is going to get worse as Raids (guild Activities) are incoming and the bugs ect and grind that come with that are going to be horrific. Along with trinity type mechanics introduced with the Raids. If there is a steep drop off of metrics from players they could put it on the back burner but seeing how they are going I doubt it.
I havent played in 2 weeks and moved on. I hope that my voice will help steer anet in the direction I want. Lol like a rock listens.
bad WoW clone is bad. and a giant fcuk you to the moderators.
Yes it is a poor wow clone now. Dont hate on the mods they are just doing what they are told. It is the management that deserve the pitchforks here. Front line staff dont get paid or deserve the crap they get. I am now in management and enjoy watching lemmings get it lol.
Look, they balls’d up. You don’t try to bait and switch, then send someone on for 8 hours to represent and answer questions to then bait and switch again. That’s idiotic.
Logged in just to reply to this.
Oh, please. Seriously. They HAD to send in someone to do an AMA. I would argue that it was specifically because of the backlash they did it and nothing else. It’s basically a fireman to a fire.
Just because one person says they are going to “fix it” doesn’t mean they wont try other ways of practicing it in the future. I mean kitten they even said they had meant to do it and that it was staying.
In any case, logic please?
Of course they had to send someone in to deal with it. I’m not saying that it wasn’t required or that it was some sort of altruism on Anet’s part.
My point was simple. If you have wrecked something and caused a great deal of damage to the community through lack of transparency, you don’t then set up an AMA with further deception at its heart.
They would have done less damage by doing nothing at all than they would have by further (personally I don’t believe they did) baiting and switching in the AMA.
Actually You do. It is a delay tactic used by politicians and like minded people. You keep them hanging on by deception and by the time the people realize what you have done they are in too far.
This case they may be trying to fix it (doubt) or stringing people along so that they get so far into the gear grind they simply say screw it I am this far in might as well keep going.
Then they have you hook line and sinker.
Wait and see but if past actions are to be used it doesnt look good. I mean they threw GW1 under the bus and raids incoming and trinity like mechanics who knows?
With guild activities (raids) incoming I do expect a new mechanic that will allow more role diversification to take place. There will be a more pronounced swing to a healer and tank or mechanic that will allow this to be viable. In a few months time things will look a little different.
My thoughts exactly. And without a ton of vertical progression this game isn’t going anywhere. They tried to make GW2 half GW and half WoW, and it just doesn’t work. It’s linear, grindy, and all around boring with a dead world and they expect people to keep playing? Yeah… good luck with THAT.
I agree they have no direction now except every direction and that isnt going to fly. They had what separated them from the others but now they are the same. But they dont seem to get that either. It is a weird discontent with the devs and the game. They implemented a very poor VP system and they are going to continue expanding it but they dont seem sure how.
There is a stunning lack of vision and drive in the game and frankly they dont have a lot of time to fix it because gamers have a fickle attention span. I hope they can fix it but I just wonder.
I brought this exact problem up during beta and got excuriated by everyone and now only 3 months later. People are complaining they cannot get through the game because the population has dropped off.
I was told that people would be leveling alts? Nope.
I was told after the initial zerg people would revist maps to “explore”. Not happening.
I was told there would be lots of new players to fill in the gaps. What a joke.
ANET needs to make the game solo friendly. Maybe they should look at GW1 for inspiration.
KingsX, same with me, I held off buying for a few reasons and as you say… everyone thought these things wouldn’t be a problem. You can take things today and simply say “Three months ago did you foresee what today’s game is like?” You would have been laughed off the boards (and worse) suggesting what we have today, 3 months ago.
Elsewhere I had that post back then, they reassured me. I revived it late last week and no one wants to touch it now.
they need to look at the competition not what they did right. Pull GW1 off the table that was well done and survived for 7 years.
They need to look at direct competition right now so that means TOR, Warhammer,STO. Those are the direct competition .
WoW is way out of this games league.
I agree that they need to look at revamping and making the much more solo able for those leveling up especially if they continue to funnel everyone into dungeons and the new guild activities.
Yes raids are coming back in some way you heard it here first.
I do hope they decide that they want more people than just the dungeon grinders but I guess we wait and see.
nothing – complain on the forums that there is nothing to do. oh wait…
Do whatever you enjoy doing and if you dont enjoy anything look for something.
I wont say take a break because with the insane gear grind for 10% more power you will be left behind at fractal whatever when in dec the next tier is released.
It is legendary because of the grind and nothing else. That is correct that a lot of the items can be purchased off the TP for gold which can be bought with gems.
It wasnt pay to win because the stats were the same as exotics but now that has changed. They will always be BiS (never heard of this before the 15) and there P2W and be perpetually and continually bumped in power to whatever new tier Anet comes out with this week.
The point now is to spend the money and get them now so it costs less money and resources and it is P2Win to the bank as it will never decrease in power only increase.
Get the grind on and buy some gems and you are set to receive the most powerful weapons money can buy in this game.
*some exploration and skills points may be required as well.
Depends on how the content rolls out. If we take the recent patch as the way things are going then dont leave because the grind to get back up will be impossible. Also throwing away 10% diff (whiteside said as much) would have implications in WvW.
Now If you hate to grind and dont like dungeons then why are you still here?
Wait and see is the best I can answer because frankly right now this game is in bad shape and needs a direction to run. See what Dec rolls out as and judge from there.
Besides if you cant keep up gear wise there is always the forum game that alone is worth 60 bucks. I learned that lesson in TOR
I am not in game myself I am waiting to see what happens because PR means little to me. I prefer action and implementation which also means they arent seeing money from me either which isnt healthy for a company.
“ArenaNet (sort of) held a hard line against all VP with GW1 — no VP ever, year after year — and it wasn’t that fun. It was stagnant.” -Mike O’brien, 11/27/12
What a fail reply by Mike O’brien. This just proves they don’t get it anymore. If they are wondering why GW died it’s because they completely abandoned all of us with no pvp balance or content to work on GW2 for YEARS. Anyone who actively played GW1 played it because IT HAD NO VP. Wow, is it seriously THAT HARD to get it through their heads? Jesus.
GW1 was NOT stagnant. I hate Mike O’brien with a passion now, I thought he was smarter than that. Just confirmation of the failure of GW2, it has no future with me.
Proves he is a tool and does not get it. Then Why call it GW2 since it is nothing like GW1?
Right to play off the success of the game and use the members of that community to support you in this game until you throw them under the bus when it suits you.
That is how resentment is built and they then go out and make one hell of noise and how bad you and your company is- They NEVER let it go. Think SWTOR – SWG/NGE ect. Those groups made that game toxic and I see that happening here now.
It doesnt matter where I stand because the others are going to carry this a lot farther then I ever could and Anet may never recover.
A 10% increase is a 10% increase as whiteside said. That advantage in WvW is the diff between a win and a loss.
To say Gw2 is less of a grind is a lie.This game shouldnt have been called guild wars 2 because it is nothing like gw1 and is incredibly disingenuous to do so.It has been shown time and time again that appealing to the 1% uber grinders is a death nail because you cant control the power creep and everyone else is left behind and they leave.
Right now the game has no direction and cant tell if it is a horizontal or vertical progression.They do nothing well and the game is suffering. Pick a direction and do it well. Just note that all Vert Prog has failed to beat wow and only a few have remained popular and provided a decent return.
Anet have to around Feb to get things in order before some things hit the net and really take the player base away. I hope they can get it together by then.
I am disappointed that they chose to ignore this but nothing we can do but continue to try and get more horizontal progression into the game.
I do understand from and dev point of view – that it is cheaper,easier,less time and roll out to do stat grind but if they did it with some imagination it might have been better.
The thought now turns to the fact they are trying to please everyone and doing nothing well. That is not a good direction (every direction) and things can become a mess.
Finally they have to compete with every other mmo in the market since GW2 is exactly the same and will they be able to succeed at the player draw and retention considering how things have been botched.
For now I dont believe what they said in PR and want to see direct implementation of what was promised. They were disingenuous about the grind ect so I need proof before I think about coming back let alone spend a penny.
Anet Team considers the way fractals were implemented, instructure, gating, and as the sole reward source for gear as a huge mistake.
In the following weeks they will be endeavoring to fix this.
If you believe them that is. They have been disingenuous in the past so there is no reason to believe what they say here and that the patch didnt do exactly what they want it to.
I really hope they do try to fix it but I want to see it in action and not PR words. So far everything said about grind and rng has been false so I will just wait and see.
If that were the case then legendaries should have just been skins and not stats.
They should have clearly stated that they will go wow lite and add a huge grind and say that lengendaries are mandatory because they will always be BiS. That way you never have to grind weapons again.
This game was marketed to the casuals because of the low grind availability of top tier gear.As of right now there is 1 way to get that gear and is 1 hell of a grind.
Now if you go back and see the material you will notice that most people got the impression of no stat increase because the devs directly inferred it and that the gear grind was minimal. This was a major selling point for them and many fan sites touted this.
At the very least this is disingenuous not to state that VertProg will always be a persistent factor.
Also they should have changed the name as this game goes against the fundamental principles of the original and should have not been used as a marketing tool so that no misconceptions could be made.
As of right now they are trying to appeal to everyone and in the end appeal to no one. Clear vision and road map would help with any further miscommunications.
For them there is nothing to reconcile. This isnt an issue and they dont care at least that is how I see it anyway.
I do agree that adding extra skills and titles are a much better way to go but that costs much more $ to develop implement and balance then roll out. I dont think they have the time or resources to add horizontal progression to the desired levels so it was scrapped in favour of vertical gear stat progression.
This also appeals to the larger audience than horizontal and in turn increases revenue and viability in the long run. Those who dont want this and see it as the same as every other mmo on the market are out of luck.
No I wont until I see implantation. There was a lot of crap in the ama and it was a joke.
Had that been one of my guys I would have terminated the contract.
They said some things tried damage control ect but the fact is they rolled everything out with precision. The grind and tiers ect were meant to be like that and to say otherwise is disingenuous.
It proves to me that they dont have a clue of what they are doing and what direction they want to go in. We will focus on all aspects of the game – well duh.
We will do vertical and horizontal progression – Lol Pleasing everyone is pleasing no one.
Should I play guildwars 2?
Looking into it. Lol
The only real hope is that they communicate more openly in a timely fashion. That AMA was a joke.
Until I see how they actually implement stuff no way am I playing this game. I cant trust them to do anything right or what changes are happening.
Who knows maybe fractals will be the only way to get ascend gear and they are blowing smoke?
This game is like a ginger :it has no sole and that is the issue. It doesnt have a direction or vision and the guiding principles the devs had before launch have been tossed out in favour of greed.
When they decide to go in a direction it might get better but seeing how ascend gear was implemented leaves me with no hope at all in this team.
Good news is you can always check back later unless you got a refund.
