Guild Wars 2

i got a better idea. how about instead of mounts, we just get saddles. you’re a charr? poof now you’re a mount. you’re a norn? poof now you’re a mount. you’re an asura? poof now you’re a tiny mount. have set up so you can designate a rider, or allow general access so you can sell rides around the mystic forge. give it a few skills on the hotbar so you can sprint, buck and even toss your rider.

then everyone wins. people who want mounts are satisfied, people who don’t want mounts are satisfied, and Anet gets a new thing to sell in the gem store.

i’d like to try to get something together for NA too. i’ve been working on getting a team together on TC, but we don’t have anyone to play against yet. would it be possible to include an NA division on the site to help organize it?

well, if nothing else, at least we have asuraball.

Gorani.7205:

DevonCarver.5370:

There are some updates coming soon, quite soon even, that hopefully will dispel this. Say bye-bye to the Quaggan.

Why? Interacting with the NPC Quaggans is a nice event chain that severs as introduction to WvW newcomers, can provide help for capping camps if you are alone or with just two people, can contest a keep to divert attention and does provide a source of WxP.

Just wanted to add to the other posters as I think it is a bad idea

the quaggans and center island are both also deceptively important pieces of strategy. if used properly, they can completely turn the tide of a drawn out fight in the keeps and two of the southern camps. not to mention how useful they are to contest waypoints as well.

SomeoneElse.3685:

Did the Developer actually mention that there was going to be a stat buff? The answer is no.

actually…… that’s exactly what he said.

DevonCarver.5370:

Are the orbs coming back? No. Are we bringing back the buff? Yes, although the way you get it and hold it is going to be drastically different. Are you going to see a major map change in concert with this? Yes. Is it coming soon? Most definitely.

kurtosis.9526:

Urrid.4593:

DevonCarver.5370:

Hope that is informative.

It was. Thank you.

You seriously need a bigger team. But I am sure you know that. Back to waiting, but at least I can pretend these issues are on some list somewhere and not buried under the proverbial “golem mastery” monthly wvw update.

If it was me I would focus 100% of my efforts to overhaul the guild/commander tag system. New methods in how we play = lots of content that you don’t have to make.

Just want to second and reiterate this point. A more sophisticated and flexible commander system would tide players over a long time while you work on the other stuff.

And speaking of other stuff, one more request – please make defending more rewarding. An easy way to do it would be simply by trippling the Karma/XP/WXP/silver of defensive DEs – successfully defending yaks and defending keeps namely.

That would make scouting, sentrying, and sieging and the general strategic play that goes with them financially viable alternatives to karma train zerging. Combined with a better Commander tag system, those two changes alone would go a long way toward changing the whole dynamic of WvW and turning into an entirely different game, keeping it fresh and fun while you work on the other stuff.

i agree 100% on everything that’s in both of these quotes

DevonCarver.5370:

Are the orbs coming back? No. Are we bringing back the buff? Yes, although the way you get it and hold it is going to be drastically different. Are you going to see a major map change in concert with this? Yes. Is it coming soon? Most definitely.

i’m sorry man, but you absolutely went in the wrong direction with this one. the positive aspect of the orbs was that they provided an extra dynamic to the borderlands, and extra objective to be concerned about and made the defense of at least one area on the map high priority. the negative aspects were the hacking to get them, and the buff they provided to the already dominant server.

all you needed to do was return the mechanic in a way that couldn’t be exploited. a way, coincidentally, that was actually laid out already in this very thread. instead, you’ve returned the buffs, which are nothing but a detriment to any PvP activity, let alone one that relies to heavily on population alone. sure, they might not be as open to exploits as they were before, but….. so what? it doesn’t matter if there’s rock solid security if the system you implement actively drives even more players away from WvW for extended periods. no one will be around for it to matter.

right now, WvW has completely devolved into zerging from one tower/keep to the next with a group consisting of 90% of the people on the map. it’s one giant karma train. returning the buffs will only steer even further into the skid, and drive away anyone who actually gives a kitten about competition. all that will remain are people who just want to spam 1 at the doors of empty towers/keeps, to get their easy “rewards”, then move immediately on to the next tower/keep.

if you actually do care about WvW, then you won’t bring back buffs that will only cause lopsided matches to be even more so. it’s just plain a bad idea. unless, of course, you actually DO wish to get rid of competitive players. then it’s spot on. and if that’s the case, then it just lends credence to my tin foil hat theory that you guys are actively trying to get people to migrate away from GW2 to Wildstar for increased box sales.

all the orbs need to do is cause the keep they’re being held in to require a defensive presence. that’s all. NOT buff stats. hell, all you really needed to do with them is make it so people transported them from the altar at the north camp to a keep, then gave it to the keep lord. then, the keep lord holds onto it. have it buff his personal stats if you absolutely need to have stat buffs at all. then he’s impossible to solo, or even take down with a small group, especially when there are defenders present. no one would bother to exploit into keeps to get it, since they wouldn’t be able to get it anyway.

it’s not complicated man. you’re just walking in the opposite direction of where you need to be heading. not for my personal preferences, but for the well being of this kitten game.

lordkrall.7241:

Phantom.8130:

that would be all well and good, except…… there’s one key problem with all of it. the money people spend in the BLTC doesn’t go to Arenanet it goes to NCSoft. who then use that money to fund their other MMOs, including wildstar. so when you put in your credit card numbers, and think you’re helping to support Anet, you’re not. you’re helping to support wildstar. and, THAT, ladies and gentlemen is the reason for all of the focus being on 2 week living story stuff instead of the entire rest of the game. what they’ve been doing is setting up spring break and mardi gras, then filling the BLTC with souvenirs, and then try to lure as many tourists in as possible. those of us who have been playing the game since launch are the locals, and aren’t the target customer base for the giant tourist trap that GW2 has become. so they couldn’t care less about us. they only care about the money they can get out of the tourist they bring in with their constant stream of party events and worthless souvenirs, which are then used to fund the next big project.

Ah, this again.
ArenaNet doesn’t have ANY money, since they are fully owned by NCSoft. People also seems to ignore that the only reason we have GW2 is because of NCSofts other games (Aion, Lineage, Lineage 2 and City of Heroes) made enough money to finance the development of the game.
But for some reason people refuse to accept that NCSoft want to earn those money back.

GW2 is most likely their most successful game right now, so of course they will spend quite a bit of their money on it (the fact that they are constantly hiring people for different positions in ArenaNet should be a rather major hint).
Do you really think that all those 2-week content are produced without any kind of cost?

you realize you pretty much proved my point here? that they make one game to fund the next one, then that one to fund the one after that. with that cycle, they don’t need to worry about the longevity of any of them. they just need to be able to squeeze as much money out of the customers as they can until the next game in the cycle launches. at that point, who cares what happens to the previous games? they served their purpose already. and right now, guild wars 2 is serving its purpose as well, to fund wildstar. just like CoH served its purpose, and look at how that turned out.

Urrid.4593:

Wildstar is run by NCsoft / Nexon as well, just like GW2 was run by NCsoft / Nexon. Do not give them more money.

quoted for emphasis.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Troop.1369:

I remember a couple of months ago, one of your community managers said something about trying to punish zerging. Still waiting…

I remember a couple of months ago, one of your community manager said something about trying to reduce skill lag. Still waiting…

I remember a couple of months ago, one of your community manager said something about trying to correct and adjust the unrealistic World vs World achievements. Still waiting…

Some people at a.net should stop putting so much effort into something that will NEVER beat SC2, WoW, DOTA and LoL on the ESPORT scene. Of course i’m talking about spvp.

Some people at a.net should stop putting so much effort into “trying” to please the PvE crowd with living story every two weeks and focus on GUILD WARS

They should create a new mode, a real GvG mode (not that boring kitten on WvW maps).

Do you realize that WvW will NEVER pay the bills? They have to go with SPvP, or PvE, but that’s it. PvE brings in cash, and SPvP might have a chance at an esport (I don’t think GW2 is anywhere close to remotely being close to ready, but that’s a different discussion). WvW brings almost nothing to the sustainability of the game.

Ask yourself this, how many people do you know in WvW that have spent 50$ or up on the game post release? If you’re wvw friends are like mine your answer will be 1/2. While I’ve spent over 200$ on the game, and most of my friends that PvE put in 30$ or so a month towards the game. Maybe it’s just my experience, but PvE players seem to put their money into the game, while WvW players don’t. I’m fairly certain Anet has noticed this too, and while they aren’t entirely ignoring WvW they are going with their money makers.

This should be a good thing though. In the end it means that eventually they will get around to doing better stuff for wvw. They won’t if they can’t keep the doors open though, and they need to do two things for that: 1) FIX SPVP/TPVP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and 2)keep PvE players happy. Then when they have a chance they can fix WvW.

Btw for anyone here that thinks "oh this guy never wvws, doesn’t pvp, etc please look at my history. I’ve put so much into wvw. I’m just being honest here, and I think if more of you were honest about how important WvW is overall you would say the same.

that would be all well and good, except…… there’s one key problem with all of it. the money people spend in the BLTC doesn’t go to Arenanet it goes to NCSoft. who then use that money to fund their other MMOs, including wildstar. so when you put in your credit card numbers, and think you’re helping to support Anet, you’re not. you’re helping to support wildstar. and, THAT, ladies and gentlemen is the reason for all of the focus being on 2 week living story stuff instead of the entire rest of the game. what they’ve been doing is setting up spring break and mardi gras, then filling the BLTC with souvenirs, and then try to lure as many tourists in as possible. those of us who have been playing the game since launch are the locals, and aren’t the target customer base for the giant tourist trap that GW2 has become. so they couldn’t care less about us. they only care about the money they can get out of the tourist they bring in with their constant stream of party events and worthless souvenirs, which are then used to fund the next big project.

pantsforbirds.9032:

I’m not sure what everyone is complaining about. The dev’s (either J-Dawg or Devon, but i cant remember) told us that we are getting 1) new maps “sooner than we might think” 2) a replacement for the orb system, and we can assume 3) bug fixes along with that. In the meantime we get these WXP upgrade lines constantly being added so that we can customize how we are going to enjoy our WvW experience. (Plus all of this content is being added without a subscription fee).

TLDR; Buck up my friends, change is coming.

to be fair, we were told all of that months ago, and nothing has come of it. when anet says “soon” they really mean “never”. we learned that when they said the rewards for yak escorting will be coming back in “soon”. through their own actions, they’ve conditioned us to expect nothing from them. and that’s just what we’ve gotten. do they really think people will stick around for continued neglect once any other option becomes available on the market? it doesn’t even need to be a good option at this point. just any other game with a WvW-like game in it.

Antara.3189:

Yes, they do care. But unfortunately priorities at ArenaNet go beyond the scope of WvW, so the WvW team is probably smaller than most and have to focus on certain projects at a time. I would guess also that they have to share programmers with other teams involved in more than WvW.

here’s the thing though. WvW players have no problem with sharing their attention. we have a problem with getting a few table scraps, and then ignored for months, while there’s a constant stream of updates, patches, and bug fixes going to PvE. we don’t want to monopolize their time in any way, shape or form. we just want our fair share, which if you dig back through each of the patch notes since launch, we haven’t gotten. even the “big WvW patch” in march was lackluster in comparison to every living story patch since then.

all we’ve gotten is a bunch of empty promises about the things that we need, and forced to accept a few minor things that we didn’t even want. it’s like if a kid asks their parent for something to eat, because they’re starving to death and the parent gives them a barbie doll. sure, the kid might shut up for a little bit, but eventually he will starve to death. and that’s the point we’re at now with WvW.

kossman.8206:

Alright!!!!!
grabs the popcorn

sweet! the new episode of “manifesto wars” is on. turn up the volume and slide over so i can sit down.

think of it this way. the gold you would have made for voting went to pay for the giant holographic image of ellen kiel’s rear end, and for that, we all thank you!

Jacula.1083:

Has this matter ever been addressed by a dev in GW2?

several months ago, one of the devs attended the guild summit on TC, and said how much they cared about the RP community and wanted to assist it and then……. nothing. not a word since that time, and nothing added for the benefit of RPers. which is pretty telling in and of itself.

i feel a /roll ability is something that should be in anything that has RPG anywhere in the title, which includes MMORPGs. a d100 is the basic (and limited), but there should also be options for d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, and d2. the standard RP dice that come in any tube.

the problem, however, is that the only stat that would actually support the dice rolls is crit percentage. everything else is entirely too high to actually be used by the players in any meaningful way, without the players needing to completely invent an entire system and translate those enormous stats into it. and even then, it would only cover direct combat. all of which is just plain absurd.

your best bet is to just download a free dice system, like dice-mage, and just use an external system from an actual RPG, instead of one that’s an RPG in name only. (which is almost every single MMO on the market, as well as future MMOs) but, at that point, gw2 becomes completely irrelevant to the situation, as you can do the same thing anywhere multiple people can all get together online, such as a chat room.

it’s downright pathetic that this is the state online roleplaying has descended into, but until game developers actually learn about the medium they’re creating in, this will be the bulk of the “wonderful RP opportunities” roleplayers will have to suffer through.

there are, and will be, a few exceptions to this. however, those are actual RPGs made into MMOs, not MMOs that tack RPG on at the end for marketing purposes.

daimasei.4091:

Phantom.8130:

i’m curious what the maintenance will actually do. i mean, 6 hours is a long time for a game that doesn’t go down for more than a couple minutes at a time. i can’t help but imagine the Anet employees logging onto our characters, dressing them up in embarrassing outfits, putting them in perverted poses, and taking hundreds of screenshots of it all. then wiggling a few wires at HQ and blowing a bit of dust off everything, so they wouldn’t technically be lying about doing maintenance, and turning everything back on.

Maintenance? Do you think is only click on the restart button?

I don’t know what you understand for "maintenance " but in online games, that always take a while (they always said 6 hour but it may take less or way more than that).

here’s the joke
.
.
.
.
and here’s your head.

i’m curious what the maintenance will actually do. i mean, 6 hours is a long time for a game that doesn’t go down for more than a couple minutes at a time. i can’t help but imagine the Anet employees logging onto our characters, dressing them up in embarrassing outfits, putting them in perverted poses, and taking hundreds of screenshots of it all. then wiggling a few wires at HQ and blowing a bit of dust off everything, so they wouldn’t technically be lying about doing maintenance, and turning everything back on.

Straegen.2938:

I think some of these are a test like The Last Starfighter. When a person finally gets the achievement they will be wisked away into an alien realm to kill Yaks.

lunoh.1963:

just so you know, the 250k kills achievement has been done like month an a half ago? even longer?… Also Anet wants to give credit to people who will be playing the game for several years, what wrong with that?

hmm…… once he got it, it made a thread and immediately retired from GW2, and his guild as well….. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/World-First-250k-Kills-Ultimate-Dominator/first

kossman.8206:

Grabs Popcorn

it’s been an interesting little soap opera, hasn’t it? especially when you take all of the acts in the other threads about it into consideration? i started keeping up with it a week or two ago, how about you?

/munches popcorn

Waffler.1257:

Sitkaz.5463:

Yes, I died walking down some stairs in the northern EB keep. Totally bizarre. I didn’t look at my combat log though.

Sometimes the game likes to spam fall damage on you when you go down inclines, I’ve died walking down stairs many times from this.

it’s also been known to do it on level surfaces as well. when i was first leveling my character up right after launch, there were a ton of us in mount maelstrom. we were in the tunnels under the volcano, then suddenly, we all died. it was some sort of terrain bug, because there was an invisible line going from one wall of the tunnel across to the other that counted as massive falling damage to anyone who happened to walk over it. you could jump over it fine, but if you walked, you were dead. the first time i found it, i was alone, and an elemental easily finished me off. the second time, there was a good 20-30, and the last 3 people in the very back who managed to see us all go down managed to stop in time, then began raising us. interestingly enough, we died several more times trying to shift around and rez everyone.

i think it was some sort of seam in the terrain, because a guildmate noticed a few more in other areas. it’s highly unlikely that one would still exist in SM, but anything’s possible.

tolunart.2095:

Phantom.8130:

tolunart.2095:

The lowest common denominator between RPGs and other video games is that you kill stuff and collect points/loot.
.

it appears that you believe that roleplaying somehow doesn’t include combat. .

How does it appear so when I said that it does? It’s a lot more than that.

I was playing D&D when most of the people playing GW2 (and a few of the devs no doubt) were in diapers. You don’t need to lecture me about role playing.

i got that impression from the examples you used of running a shop and being a mayor. my apologies if i misinterpreted that. i’ve gotten used to those sort of activities being the primary expectation of RP and RPers in MMOs. it’s gotten to the point where that’s the vast majority of what i see in MMO RP anymore. tavern RP, trolling for ERP, or just people playing make-believe, all of which can be done just as easily in a chat room. ironically enough, i’ve actually gone into a RP chat room, and ran an event using dice rolls and did what i could to recreate a tabletop experience, and people had a blast. in MMOs, it’s been the exact opposite, to the point where i’ve seen people getting discriminated against for paying attention to their character sheet or the mechanics.

tolunart.2095:

That is because the Role Playing crowd is, and always was, a niche market. In expanding their reach to the more typical gamer, MMOs move away from role playing and towards generic gaming themes. The lowest common denominator between RPGs and other video games is that you kill stuff and collect points/loot.

There may be a market for a sandbox MMORPG where players can take on various non-combat roles like running a shop or being mayor of a town, and therefore support other kinds of gaming beyond “kill monsters and gather treasure, level up and kill bigger monsters.” But that kind of game is going to have a much, much smaller potential audience than the games chasing a piece of the WoW pie, and probably require an even bigger investment from the company that creates it, making the development of such a game unlikely.

it appears that you believe that roleplaying somehow doesn’t include combat. that’s not the case. every single RPG has extensive rules for combat. however, simply swinging a sword or casting a spell isn’t the extent of their rules. to go back to D&D as an example, there are a list of skills that players can add points into at each level up. skills such as hide and move silently, and their counter skills spot and listen. these were condensed in 4th edition to simply “stealth” and “perception”. it’s pretty easy to see how these would be useful for combat. then there was the diplomacy skill. while this may sound like a non combat skill, NWN broke this skill up into 3 sub skills. one of which, taunt, was able to be used in combat to apply penalties to an opponents combat abilities. even going beyond pure combat into the exploration territory, there were very crucial skills such as search, open locks, and disable device (for disarming traps). none of these have anything to do with owning a shop or being a mayor.

the common misconception is that roleplaying is simply sitting around town, peacefully socializing. the fact is, that’s just the watered down version of roleplaying that’s seen in MMO’s, because they simply don’t support any of the rest of it. why? because that’s how WoW handled it, and pretty much every MMO that’s come out since then has just copy/pasted the pre-existing lackluster system. in fact, those newer MMOs have even less than what WoW offered, because WoW at least kept lockpicking.

i honestly doubt that 99% of MMO makers have ever even sat down and played D&D, or shadowrun, or VTM, or even some form of GURPS, and their knowledge of roleplaying in general is limited to the myths and stereotypes that they have fed to them. the products they come out with are very telling in that regard. if they had actually played any of those games, even if they didn’t do it in character, MMOs would be vastly different than what they are today. which, in all actuality, are WoW’s framework with different details stuck to it, and then labeled as “revolutionary!!!” even though it’s a nearly identical experience in each and every one of them. (explore the PvE world to level up, then repeat dungeons/raids/PvP until you have your ideal set of gear, then sit around bored out of your mind until they decide to come out with new “content” to repeat the same cycle over until the next big game comes along.)

to be honest, they really should just stop calling them MMORPGs, since they’re doing everything that’s humanly possible to remove the RPG part of the games. but they won’t, for marketing purposes.

i made myself some cookies, and did some thinking about the rewards system, and i figured something out. they completely painted themselves into a corner, and here’s why: their stat system. every single stat in this game revolved around combat. healing power, toughness, crit damage, all of it. every single item is stuck pumping up these stats, and that’s ALL they can do. compare this to D&D, and actual role-playing game, and sure, there’s a combat system, but there’s a whole lot more to it than just that. and these things can be represented on the gear. (no, not appearances….) meaning a much much greater variety of max level gear that can be made. in fact, it would take forever to come up with a list of every different combination that would qualify as max level gear just using the charts in the core books.

meaning, all of the max level gear in gw2 would only amount to a tiny fraction of that total. and this is true for every other MMO that only has stats that relate directly to combat. so instead of being able to offer more variety at the same level, they’re forced to either continuously add higher and higher levels, or find some other way to create variety such as different appearances. however, both of these are extremely short sighted solutions, because overall, their creation will end up requiring much much more time, work and money to produce. not to mention a far more one dimensional game, that end up being extremely repetitive akittens very core(get group, kill mobs, get loot, rinse and repeat), even if the details surrounding that core change (new mobs, new loot, new ways to kill mobs).

the sad part is, MMOs and RPGs are, right now, on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. and it really looks like most MMOs are moving farther and farther away from RPGs, and are suffering for it. until they get back to being MMORPGs, expect the same exact problems to show up in every single MMO that comes out, and don’t count on even a single one coming up with a decent solution to them.

Tamaki Revolution.3548:

Phantom.8130:

snip

I love WvW, but your entire post just showed how much people loved SAB.

yep, i know. it was to show the person i quoted that even those “hardcore WvW and PvP” players loved SAB. the second paragraph didn’t have anything to do with SAB itself, just the overall neglect WvW has gotten in the updates, and why there would be some resentment about that.

Siphaed.9235:

The only….ONLY people that have issues with the SAB are the WvW & sPvP die-hards. But seeing as how the SAB is PvE content, who cares about those people’s opinions? They’re just angry that PvE is getting content while their type of gameplay is rather stagnate (and that’s how it really is in ALL PvP type scenarios). At least mini-games are a PvP mix-up, but …apparently PvPers and WvWers call still call mini-games “carebear content”. Sheesh!

i’m not sure what server you’re on, but on TC, when SAB first came out, WVW turned into a ghost town. even the most hardcore WvW players took up residence in there (including myself).

as for the part about WvW players being angry that PvE is getting all the content, well…… yeah. duh. there’s blatant problems in WvW, that never get fixed. there are mindnumbingly obvious updates that need to be made (the commander system), that never happen. WvW has been the illegitimate step child of gw2 since release. instead of getting anything we actually need, we get a WXP system that completely destroys the game by turning all of the maps into a giant circle farm fest. when all of it could be fixed in just a single update, because there isn’t a ton of stuff that’s actually needed. it’s just that the few things that are needed are never given, while every 2 weeks there’s new living story content put out with new maps, new items, new jumping puzzles, even new PvP style games. after being neglected for this long, it’s no wonder why there would be some resentment.

piken square is the EU RP server. it’s medium population, but the RP quality is fantastic. TC, on the other hand, has a bit of everything for everyone. for better or worse.

Esplen.3940:

Vayne, you need to step back and read. You just argued with me for arguing for you. Your posts in this thread are degenerating in content. I hopped in to stop you both.

well, this ongoing saga just took an interesting twist….

/popcorn

last i checked, guild halls are on the “soon” list, and player housing is on the “hey, check out this completely unrelated thing over here instead of talking about that” list

piken square is the EU RP server. it’s medium population, but the RP quality there is really good. i’m not sure about PvE servers though.

i’ve always hated emote spam, and wanted to see it removed for a different reason. it’s insanely hard to hide when it constantly spams that you’re sitting/sleeping out in a radius around you. its like a frickin’ homing beacon. it’s been in every MMO i’ve ever played, and it’s been absolutely unnecessary. if it’s used in a social situation, i can see the dude i’m talking to sit down. no one is going to be like “oh crap, what did he do?? he’s not standing anymore!! holy crap! i’m scared!!!” then look over and read the chat box, breath a huge sigh of relief and say" whew!!! he’s only sitting. i’m glad the game made it a point to tell me that. now if only it would remind me each time i’m supposed to breath….."

instead, they stick it in there like we’re too dumb to comprehend what we just watched. then, if someone wants to make use of kneeling, sitting, or laying down for stealth purposes, they’re SOL. and don’t even get me started on that obnoxious neon sign floating over my head. name tag….. when was the last time you went into burger king and saw one of those over the head of the dude behind the counter? maybe if you were tripping your balls off, but not if you were sober.

Lisa.6102:

Phantom.8130:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Phantom.8130:

oh, so what you’re saying is that it’s the parent’s responsibility to make sure their kids aren’t gambling, and the casinos hold no obligation to ensure the same exact thing?

No, casinos are under a legal obligation, that’s different. And you knew it was different, plus . . .

in any other place in the world, that’s illegal, but it’s ok because it’s in gw2? right…..

Of course it’s not okay. It’s just not illegal. There’s a difference there. Excepting Gem Cards, the other means of getting Gems to purchase a huge bunch of Keys is to input a credit card or Paypal account. I don’t know for sure, but it’s generally accepted that if you have a credit card you are financially responsible enough to make your own decisions that way.

. . . it’s laughable, yes, especially with what you discover when you start looking into it, but that’s the assumption card companies operate from. And there’s a bunch of holes in the whole mess anyway so we come back to . . . one detail.

It’s not illegal. Therefore there’s no legal leverage to stop it from happening, and thus it falls to others to handle it. And so!

Why aren’t the parents or guardians being responsible in keeping an eye on this again?

actually, japan made it illegal over a year ago. their reasoning was that marketing gambling to children isn’t something they feel should be allowed to happen. the asian market adjusted, and removed their gambling systems in anticipation of that law coming in.

and, for the record, i never said the parents or guardians aren’t responsible. i simply said that the casino is responsible as well, which in this case, is guild wars 2. since they’re the ones providing the gambling. which the RNG boxes are. which makes them a casino. marketing gambling. to children. if you can’t see how that’s immoral, or at the very least completely irresponsible, then by all means, bring this conversation up at the next parent teacher meeting, and see what the results are.

I wonder what the average age of a GW2 player is ?

i can’t really say what the average age would be, but i am certain that there are a significant amount who aren’t really old enough to learn about those fancy underwear you mentioned earlier.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Phantom.8130:

and, for the record, i never said the parents or guardians aren’t responsible. i simply said that the casino is responsible as well, which in this case, is guild wars 2. since they’re the ones providing the gambling. which the RNG boxes are. which makes them a casino. marketing gambling. to children. if you can’t see how that’s immoral, or at the very least completely irresponsible, then by all means, bring this conversation up at the next parent teacher meeting, and see what the results are.

Oh gods in heaven, no. Because the splitting of hairs of what constitutes gambling has derailed more PTAs than the question of what to call the American Civil War. I’m not going to go any further on that note, though I’ll just say it needed popcorn and tickets.

then just answer me this one last question, as a teacher, if it was brought up at a meeting, and you took the stance you just took now, would you still have a job?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Phantom.8130:

oh, so what you’re saying is that it’s the parent’s responsibility to make sure their kids aren’t gambling, and the casinos hold no obligation to ensure the same exact thing?

No, casinos are under a legal obligation, that’s different. And you knew it was different, plus . . .

in any other place in the world, that’s illegal, but it’s ok because it’s in gw2? right…..

Of course it’s not okay. It’s just not illegal. There’s a difference there. Excepting Gem Cards, the other means of getting Gems to purchase a huge bunch of Keys is to input a credit card or Paypal account. I don’t know for sure, but it’s generally accepted that if you have a credit card you are financially responsible enough to make your own decisions that way.

. . . it’s laughable, yes, especially with what you discover when you start looking into it, but that’s the assumption card companies operate from. And there’s a bunch of holes in the whole mess anyway so we come back to . . . one detail.

It’s not illegal. Therefore there’s no legal leverage to stop it from happening, and thus it falls to others to handle it. And so!

Why aren’t the parents or guardians being responsible in keeping an eye on this again?

actually, japan made it illegal over a year ago. their reasoning was that marketing gambling to children isn’t something they feel should be allowed to happen. the asian market adjusted, and removed their gambling systems in anticipation of that law coming in.

and, for the record, i never said the parents or guardians aren’t responsible. i simply said that the casino is responsible as well, which in this case, is guild wars 2. since they’re the ones providing the gambling. which the RNG boxes are. which makes them a casino. marketing gambling. to children. if you can’t see how that’s immoral, or at the very least completely irresponsible, then by all means, bring this conversation up at the next parent teacher meeting, and see what the results are.

man, i read that too fast and thought it said evel knievel icon, and ended up with the mental image of an asura wearing a jumpsuit with a flag cape jumping a motorcycle over one of the walls of SM and crashing in a ball of flame, and was gonna say WE NEED THIS!

then i reread it and saw that it was about icons for dueling, and am less enthusiastic. however, if it gave them jumpsuits, flag capes and there were balls of flames, then my overly enthusiastic response would stand. as it stands, it’s in the “it could be fun and handy for some people” category. so i guess i’m for it.

conversing would be less likely though, because they wouldn’t want it used for trolling/griefing, which already happens a lot as it is.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Phantom.8130:

the onus shouldn’t be on the kids to learn how to be responsible with money, the onus should be on ANet to not market gambling to children.

Nope.

The onus is on the parents or guardians to know what their children are up to, and whether it is potentially harmful. There is no person, or group responsible for raising a child which is not the parent or guardian.

I’ve had this conversation too many times as a teacher, with teachers, and with other people who felt it was their obligation to raise children in their classrooms or groups. No. It’s not their responsibility, and it sure as heck isn’t something I would ever . . . ever lay at the feet of a corporation.

oh, so what you’re saying is that it’s the parent’s responsibility to make sure their kids aren’t gambling, and the casinos hold no obligation to ensure the same exact thing? funny, because the last time i went into a casino, they wouldn’t let anyone in that didn’t have a valid ID verifying that they were of legal age, because well, they’d be breaking the law.

this isn’t about teaching your kid not to swear, this is about legality of offering gambling to minors. the RNG boxes are gambling. there’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. they’re gambling. and they’re being marketed to minors. in any other place in the world, that’s illegal, but it’s ok because it’s in gw2? right…..

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Phantom.8130:

ezd.6359:

About kids… Nothing personal. I meant they have free time to spend they don’t know how. I suggest to get a job and buy keys directly. Even if it will be 5$ a hour – it is much more profitable.

so…… you’re suggesting that kids get jobs to support their video game gambling habits, and you see nothing wrong with that….?

I’ve seen there’s one of two outcomes:

- They work for their money instead of getting it given to them as an allowance, so they get a bigger respect for it.

- They blow it and wind up learning working and being broke is no fun.

Whether they change their mind depends on more variables but I’ve seen grown adults be completely careless with their money for less

the onus shouldn’t be on the kids to learn how to be responsible with money, the onus should be on ANet to not market gambling to children. their RNG boxes are pretty much the textbook definition of gambling, as it’s no different then playing a slot machine. it’s illegal to even be inside a casino if you’re under 21, it’s illegal to sign up to online gambling sites if you’re under 21 and the majority of those were shut down years ago. yet….. somehow, this escapes scrutiny even though the only difference is that the kids get imaginary pixels on a screen instead of cash when they hit the jackpot? well, japan saw through the BS and outlawed this sort of crap last year, because they saw it for exactly what it was. perhaps every black lion chest should come with a phone number for gamblers anonymous?

ezd.6359:

About kids… Nothing personal. I meant they have free time to spend they don’t know how. I suggest to get a job and buy keys directly. Even if it will be 5$ a hour – it is much more profitable.

so…… you’re suggesting that kids get jobs to support their video game gambling habits, and you see nothing wrong with that….?

milo.6942:

The most optimal gameplay solution would be to create a totally separate game for pvp. However this is 100% not going to happen.

actually, it’s too late for the optimal gameplay solution, which is to balance the classes around PvP and THEN create the PvE around that balance. the PvE is already made, so any balancing around PvP now just screws the PVE up, and any balancing around PvE just screws the PvP up. it’s something that has to be done before the game is launched, and in that very specific order. anything else will only result in an eternal tug-of-war between the two, or the need to separate the two entirely.

your best bet would be to check on the community site. http://tcgw2.com/forums/

Cactus.2710:

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game with such a large gap between potential and execution.

i couldn’t agree more. in fact, i’d wager that this is where the majority of all the complaint threads stem from. at launch, the amount of potential this game had was just staggering. in itself, it was good, but it needed some more things (which have been suggested on the forums countless times, in neat orderly compiled lists even) to make it perfect. since then, each patch has either been completely underwhelming, or just flat out bad. it was a game with all of the potential in the world, that’s been completely mismanaged. it could have been so much more than it is, but the direction they’ve been heading in shows that it will never even be what it once was.

if someone is into mountains of fluff, or endless party hopping, then this is a great game for them. if someone wants to play an MMORPG, then this game fell dramatically short. there’s no RP support, very little guild support, WvW is a zerg-filled laggy mess, open world PvE is pretty much the same, dungeons are laughably easy, sPvP will never be an e-sport no matter how hard they keep pushing it, and the storyline ended up being a giant kick to players’ nuts.

the only thing they’ve shown any interest in is coming up with new gimmicks to try to lure new players in, and then usher them to the gemstore. existing players? screw us, Anet and NCSoft got our money already, so we’re not even on their radar. the sharks need fresh meat filled with new blood. we’re just the disposed carcasses, and can rot for all they care.

to be fair, though, i think the majority of the blame lies squarely on NCSoft’s shoulders, not Anet’s. NCSoft has a new game coming out that they need to fund, so they need as much emphasis put on the gemshop as possible. since NCSoft is the one that gets the profits from that, NOT Anet. Anet are just the puppets that have to dance to their coorperate master’s tune.

NaDaCure.2587:

Anet is no different that most online games, they won’t address the issues until it starts to ruin the game on a massive level. Just like they won’t take the time to ban people that drain supply or spy on server chat. This hack above is honestly less of an issue since it only stops OP from getting a kill, not screwing the whole server over.

actually….. it’s the reason they ended up removing the orbs. so it already did impact the game on a massive level, and instead of putting their foot down and doing anything to actually stop the cheaters, they wimped out and altered their game.

to be fair, the fight against zhaitan wasn’t so much of a fight as it was…… anime porn. i mean, we’re shooting white goo at a giant tentacle monster. the only thing missing was a teenaged girl with a 4 inch waistline and a chest the size of two watermelons wearing a skimpy schoolgirl outfit that exposed her white hello kitty panties. sure, there was logan, and he ain’t too far off, but he and the rest of destiny’s edge were dead on the ground the whole time.

Tolmos.8395:

Saelune.5316:

Is this your first RPG? Or have you been playing Skyrim lately?

Not all MMOs have been based on D&D rulesets. There have been quite a few MMOs since the 1990s that have allowed players to wear whatever they want. It’s just more common to follow along the D&D requirements

actually…… there’s only one MMO that’s been based on the D&D ruleset, D&D online. nothing else has been anywhere close to the D&D ruleset, not even neverwinter.

in D&D, you can wear whatever armor you want, but you take penalties to spell casting and certain skill checks based on how heavy the armor was. leather armor is 15% spell failure, with no skill penalty, platemail is 35% spell failure, with a -8 skill penalty. you also took penalties if you didn’t have the proper feat to wear them, but you were still able to put them on if you wanted.

truth be told, MMOs are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum as D&D and other tabletop RPGs. the systems are completely different, as are the areas they focus on. the focus of MMOs is combat, while the focus of tabletop RPGs is roleplaying. MMOs have pretty much kicked the entire concept of roleplaying to the curb, and only keep the rpg part in the title to try to lure roleplayers in with false hopes. anyone who plays an MMO should know exactly what to expect: hack-and-slash combat, and not much else. whereas tabletop RPGs have rules to be able to cater to any preference.

i would recommend guardians over warriors. if built and played properly, guardians can be unstoppable juggernauts, plus their group support is fantastic. i’d also recommend keeping a hammer and shield handy for frontline melee work. plus they’re pretty much able to sleep their way through PvE.

don’t get me wrong, warriors can be pretty good too, but guardians are just on a whole other level.

ah, but if you make an innocent mistake and end up losing gems, then you need to shell out more cash to buy more gems to make up for the mistake, and then even more to get back to the original amount of gems you started with.

it’s not too hard to figure out why they stick with something that is so obviously bad.

Caid.4932:

Realistically it’ll also favour the zergs more than the small roaming groups too. Zerging gives more wxp simple as that. It’d just be one more mechanic that favour numbers over skill and theres already far too many of them.

actually….. you can get far more WXP and loot from roaming with a small group than you can from zerging. zerging is just easier to do. it’s not all that tough to follow a dorito and spam 1, so that’s what most people tend to do. there’s no need to worry about your build, gear or how to get the most out of your skills. hell, there’s not even really much need to actually think, since the commander is the one who handles most of that. it’s just the path of least effort, which is what most people will take in all aspects of any game.

(as a side note, take a day or two and observe what happens when those same people don’t have a dorito to follow. it’s hilarious and sad at the same time)

more toughness. you want to have around 1700 if you plan on running with the zerg. a little bit more vitality will help too.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Phantom.8130:

*slow down the zerg. make it so everyone with in, say, 900 range of each other gives everyone in that range a cumulative 1% movement speed decrease. 5 people within range, they all get a 5% movement speed decrease, 30 people in the range, 30%, and yes 100 people in the range= 100% speed decrease.

This idea is simply horrible and opens the gate up to some nasty griefing and endless arguments.

also, not that having 100 friendly players in range is actually possible, but you understand that 100% speed decrease means zero movement, right?

yes. yes i do understand that. and what it does is it encourages people to split up into 20-30 man groups instead of forming everyone on the map up into a single giant zergball.

as for griefing, 1 or 2 people won’t make much of a difference to a 30 man group. if a sizable group decided to tag along with them for the sole purpose of griefing them, /report.

“fixing” WvW isn’t too terribly difficult. they just have to completely stop the direction they’re heading in, and turn around.

*remove WXP entirely, compensate players by giving them something like 50 badges (or even 50 silver) per rank earned.

*add useful functions to the commander system. what’s laid out here it the perfect start to that: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Suggestion-Diversity-with-Commander-Tags/first#post2511435

*allow for free transfers to servers of lower rank than the one you’re on. rank, NOT overall server population. RANK.

*allow guilds to retain the influence they had on their original server if they transfer to a server 5 or more ranks below them.

*adjust zerg-heavy features, including removing rallying, nerfing combo fields, and raising the player AoE limit.

*remove gold costs for upgrading camps/tower/keeps, so that people won’t be actively discouraged from doing it anymore.

*slow down the zerg. make it so everyone with in, say, 900 range of each other gives everyone in that range a cumulative 1% movement speed decrease. 5 people within range, they all get a 5% movement speed decrease, 30 people in the range, 30%, and yes 100 people in the range= 100% speed decrease.

*add a new map, specific to GvG combat. make it an arena, with multiple “battledomes”. make the standard style of play total-deathmatch. you can even add in other styles, such as king of the hill, or a “kill the commander” type of thing.

and that would result in WvW being in a much better place than it started, and lightyears ahead of where it is currently. these suggestions have all been made countless time by countless people on the forums. each time, WvW players have been ignored, and Anet’s gone in the exact opposite direction as some sort of act of defiance. it’s not hard to understand why WvW players wouldn’t be happy about what’s resulted.