Guild Wars 2

I just wanna get some in-game mail. My in game name is Sang Blackwood.

Send me a letter, a good on a bad one, send some trash, gold, ANYTHING. I just want some mail that’s not from an NPC. XD

Let’s be GW penpals! I’ll write back and send you a surprise too, although I’m poor so it’ll just be something for “fun.” ;-)

r z.7261:

The PvE in GW2 is very shallow and very easy. I can spam 1 while watching TV, not even looking at my screen and not die.

I’m starting to agree. The challenge it seems tends to be using the dodge button to avoid “one shot” mechanics and using the dodge button to get out of red circles. Just dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge…. and dodge a bit more; all while everyone pretty much goes full throttle dps.

As it stands, I like it – but I see this getting old after a few months, tbh.

Jack of Tears.9458:

If you go looking for RP you will find it on TC; I’ve never had a problem finding it when I actively try and I usually play during weird hours.

Truth

Mungrul.9358:

I’d like to make a side observation and say that the majority of Guardians are big fat male Norns.

I lol’d.

As an RP’er one thing that bothers me is the lack of RP clothing in the game. Even what they have in the store is lacking. At least, we should be able to wear armor that is below what our class natively wears, for RP.

I mean some vendors selling simple RP garments would be nice. Nothing that requires use to hop through hoops or visit the store for, just some simple clothing from a vendor to give a bit more depth to our RP.

Vayne.8563:

20 emotes isn’t almost zero. Everyone gets a free dance…other dances are sold in the store. I’m not sure what more you expected?

Wait, dances and emotes are sold in the store? My apologies, but lol @ that. Really Anet?

rogerwilko.6895:

any more recent reports ?
I`m searching for a class to focus except Warr & Guard.

I leveled a Guard to 80, and it’s fun – but they are a dime a dozen. So in interest of being a special little snowflake I went ahead and rolled a Thief…. she’s a blast to play. Hope you like dodging though. Thieves are pretty common too, however.

In the end yes some classes are more popular than others, but with so many players and only 8 classes there’s gonna seem like there is an influx of 1, especially when you play it.

Thanks for the video Vayne, I enjoyed that.

Edit: I would also like to add that I thoroughly enjoy dynamic events.

Vol.5241:

UI changes were requested a long time ago but I believe they said it was too complicated to customize. But who knows, maybe they have been attempting it.

Why not just let other players do it? There is some real talent out there, and it will free up some dev time while bringing more people to the community.

I see nothing wrong with mods, so long as they are cosmetic. When it gets to be a problem, imo, is when they get to the point that devs have to start designing game mechanics around mods (see WoW’s DBM), or they promote bullying/elitism (see recount). Other than that, see what the community can do, I say.

I’ll come out and say it straight up: If someone asked me the worst aspect of this game, I would emphatically answer, “the user interface.” It’s horrible, and in an MMO like this, you UI should be something very personal and suited to your needs or conditions.

Perhaps it is difficult to allow some customization, and that kinda stinks – but here’s hoping to something being worked out.

Don’t forget about weapon swapping. Use up those abilities, and when they are on CD swap to your next weapon set.

Vayne.8563:

I agree with most of what you say but the heart quest comments. The problem is, hearts were never supposed to be the meat of the game….dynamic events were. Heart were there specifically to keep people in an area where dynamic events spawn. More hearts is not an answer to anything, particularly because they’re not repeatable…dynamic events are.

Dynamic events have several important advantages over hearts. First they chain into multiple events, where as hearts do not. Some chain into different events depending on whether you fail or succeed at them. They tell stories much better than hearts do. And they provide, over all, better rewards than hearts as well.

If you do an event, stick around and wait to see if there’s a follow up event to them. Follow NPCs to see where they go after a quest. You’ll find some pretty amazing things.

I appreciate your response. But yeah, I didn’t know that thanks a ton.

This is not a shallow disclaimer to avoid flames, but I mean what I say from the bottom of my heart >>>Let me begin by saying I still enjoy this game and am having a blast. I have praised Guild Wars in this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/A-Noob-s-Thoughts/first

Now after spending some time @ 80, running some dungeons, and playing with an alt, I would like to share a few more thoughts, and some of them aren’t so positive.

Please Anet, for the love of all things holy, give us some option to really customize our interface beyond a few settings for scale. My abilities, I wanna be able to move them around, my health orb and endurance bar… yeah I need to be able to move those and set them @ 50% transparency and I would like to be able to put my map somewhere else. Boons are too small, and I want to be able to adjust the size of those, etc etc etc. With a game of this caliber, I honestly do not see why we do not have the option to fully customize our interface.

I like to RP and the lack of RP clothes is somewhat annoying. Even what’s offered in the store is lacking. Please consider placing vendors in the cities or world that sell simple non-combat clothing that can be used for RP. Please don’t make us jump through hoops to get it, a few coins should be able to get us some RP clothes.

The dodge mechanic is awesome, I really do enjoy it, but sometimes it feels overdone.

Please allow us to directly trade with other players.

Why can I not see who/what a mob or other player is targeting?

I have run story and exp modes on Arah, AC, CoF, and CM – these dungeons are amazing, although the hack and slash game play can sometimes be draining.

I am a 400 Chef, Artificer, Jeweler, Armorsmith and Weaponsmith – these professions feel almost useless beyond crafting items for myself and getting my char leveled. I guess I am missing something (and I probably am), but from what I can tell and considering the cost of mats my profit margin is paper thin.

Ughhh – pull my hair out: You guys have some AWESOME quests (hearts), but the problem is there aren’t enough of them in a given zone. Queensdale has like what, 17? C’mon, with that big beautiful zone there should be twice that. Yes, there is more to completing a zone than hearts, but perhaps I like questing (and I do) and want to focus on that more than vistas, personal story and whatnot. Oh, I love the personal stories btw, but it sometimes I feel like I HAVE to do them to fill in the gaps to to lack of hearts.

I actually like the setup of the TP. It’s beautifully simplistic, but it has the handling of a 1975 Cadillac Brougham driving through a muddy field. Furthermore, the “error attempting to sell” is quite the annoyance. I hear it’s for bots, but ughhh…. really?

I feel as if you guys were kinda cheap with some weapon and armor designs. Honestly, folks, why does blue quality level 5 greatsword have the same exact design as a level 80 yellow quality greatsword, with a lot of swords between those levels having the same exact design as well? On my Guard I hit the TP to buy some yellow quality gear when I hit 80. The armor I purchased has the same design as the stuff I bought @ 40. Even if it is starter gear, I wanna look like a level capped toon, without the need for transmutation.

In light of that I can still say I am enjoying the game, and I am very excited to see how this title will evolve and RL permitting I will be here with you guys and gals. These zones are beautiful, the community is amazing, and I really enjoy your dungeons. It is my hope that as this game moves into the future that certain things can be added or ironed out, ESPECIALLY UI customization.

I am enjoying saving gold for my exotics and can’t wait to run even more dungeons. Keep up the awesome work.

+1

I just came back to GW2 recently and play on tarnished coast as well. This game, especially the Tarnished Coast has an awesome community. It is so refreshing.

I hope this game makes it and stays healthy!

Side note: If you are at all interested in RP, or wanna get to know the Tarnished Coast community better visit: http://guildwars2roleplayers.com

Thanks a ton people! I did 2 more runs after submitting the OP and they didn’t go so bad. I’ll do a bit of tweaking and see if I get even better. I guess, in the end, GW2 dungeon combat just takes a bit of practice — which is a good thing.

Now I don’t know if this belongs in the Guardian section or here, but I’ll post here since my problem seems to be more with dungeons than the actual Guard — but the line is blurred so bear with me.

I am a new GW2 player, and I am loving the game. As of this writing I have run a grand total of two dungeons, both AC – once exp and once story. I am a level 80.

Man did I eat some floor in these dungeons. AoEs come so fast and I am dodging so much that sometimes I run out of endurance. Or I’ll try to get out of the way but am snared or something. Soooo, any tips would be greatly apreciated. Like for instance AoE puts that red circle on the ground, right? Well sometimes there is so much magic in the way that I can’t see the red circle… any tips for that?

Also, community, know this: I AM NOT COMPLAINING or upset in anyway. Understand, please, that I just facerolled through 7 years of WoW, so in a weird way I am happy to be dying and coming to forums like, “I need some help.” I am actually enjoying the challenge of this game all around.

Now what’s below makes me think I shoulda posted this in the Guard forums, but I’ll leave it here.

I educated myself about the Guardian here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Hammer-and-Altruistic-Healing-gameplay/first

Here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-PVE-Guardian-101-A-Beginner-s-Text/first

Here: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/66973-how-to-build-a-guardian-properly/

…and through various other sites, youtube vids, and talks with people in-game. I am good with keeping boons up, and try to make extensive use of my utility. I crush stuff when I am mapping, heck even in WvW when I happen across a straggling player I’ll most likely slay him or at least send him running – but dungeon mobs… they destroy me. Tips?

Just a FYI -The following picture if of my character’s traits – just taken a few mins ago. I would love some criticism. I am in Knight’s gear (with Berserker jewelry) and use the Hammer mostly and the shield and scepter when I need to range. I have no exotics atm, as I am saving for a set. I just dinged 80 like 3 days ago. Anyway, here:

Wolfheart.1938:

@ OP:

Just popping since I read that you consider armor design a weak point of GW2. Here you can preview most of the armors available in game, so check it out and see if your opinion changes Most of it though is only available through specific means (crafting, karma vendors, dungeons), so you are totally right when you say that there’s close to no variety as far as dropped armors goes.

http://www.gw2armor.com/

Thanks for that link – gonna start farming karma hardcore now. ;-)

But yeah, just for the sake of us cheesy RP’ers I would love a few vendors with a nice variety of simple clothes sold for but a few coins. I reckon things like that will come in time, so it’s all good.

I am saying this, Sijjvra – you seem to claim that these characters are all barbie doll like and the player therefore has no choice but to create a look that conforms to some pop-culture notion of beauty. As evidenced by the pic I took earlier, that is not the case. The developers gave you the option to make an ugly character. Anet’s NPCs are not ugly, and almost none of the players make ugly characters (so it’s not JUST on Anet). Still, the option still exists to make a troll, so to speak. If I wanted to make an ugly character and RP her as some sort of reject or whatever, thanks to the character customization I have that option. I can make my toon look like a supermodel or make her beauty one rung above that of an Asura. In light of this, you are grasping at straws when you go on to speak of their underwear, lol.

I feel it is unfair to accuse or imply Anet’s character customization is, in your words, “very lacking” and flavor that idea with that of them being beholden to a monolithic notion of this pop-culture beauty.

Oh yes, the Victorian era … I was fairly certain you’d mention that. Again, that’s why I said “quite often” and not “always.” Besides, while England was going through its Victorian era, French women were showing that cleavage like mad. ;-) Again, at many times in history, women were apt to show more skin than men, in the West at least. Either way, this trend continues to this day, and this game, and many others, reflect that reality and adds a stylistic spin to it. About sexism, objectification and whatnot – that’s a rabbit hole that I really don’t wanna go down right now as the thread will probably get deleted. I’ll just say, that women are objectified, yes – but Anet does not go off the deep end with it having these female toons with balloon boobies and airhead demeanors as so often portrayed in other games and media. In short, I don’t feel it is so bad here as to call out the devs —- especially when you can, again, make a char that flies in the face of this American beauty, if I may.

So simply put: We can make a pretty toon, we can make an ugly toon, and we can make one in between; we can make a black Nigerian girl, a Japanese girl, and a blonde hair and blue eyed Northern Euro looking girl. She can be short or tall, thick(er) or thin, and we can do the same for both sexes —- how exactly is is that, in your words, “very lacking”?

Now, I do agree with you about the armor – showing skin or not – it kinda sucks. I consider armor a drawback of this game. Too many pieces share the same design… like why is a level 60 greatsword the same model as a level 5?!

I love RP – and the lack of vendors that sell simple non-combat clothing is disheartening, and even what they have in the “store” is kinda lacking. Also, I don’t like how a profession cannot equip armor that is under the type they wear for combat (Guard can’t wear cloth, for example). That’s one aspect of WoW that absolutely decimates GW2 — in WoW I can, for a few coins, go right to a vendor and get a cheap white quality outfit to use for RP. The AH is stocked with all sorts of gear that one can use for RP. With regard to that, RP’ers kinda get it bad here, imo.

Benji.9203:

^……You sir have made my day.

Haha… yeah she’s pretty funny lookin’. One can use a lot of imagination at the character selection screen. A toon in GW2 need not look like this “ideal beauty.” The idea that all [GW2] characters conform to this idea of universal beauty by an effort of the devs is unfounded. Just roll a toon you consider ugly. Good work Anet….

SijjvraVisz.7159:

I’ve played plenty of MMO’s, and Guildwars 2 isn’t one of the better ones, in my opinion. It’s very limited, right from the character customization (of course all the female characters have to be showing massive amounts of skin and have pop-culture perfect features, except for 1 “ugly” face -) to “things you can really do” in this game.

Well, go look at the faces for the human males – I don’t see any Steve Buscemi or Chris Farley faces in there. Like the females, the male faces portray these “pop-culture perfect features.” They all look like Michelangelo’s “David” better even! Same for the male bodies too – all of ’em except one (the skinny kid) look like they belong on the front of a pack of boxers.

On a level I see where you’re coming from, but why call ’em out only with respect to the females instead of addressing that issue with regard to both sexes?

Also, in this culture at least, women are apt to show more skin than men, a walk through a busy mall during the summer months will make this clear, as you know. If you study the history of fashion, women, quite often, tended to show more skin than their male counterparts. For example, in the 14th century wealthy(ish) women would wear garments exposing their upper chest, cleavage, and shoulders, while the upper chest and shoulders would be covered on a male. Of course in this game it’s a bit more stylized, but this game (and others) just a reflection of that past and present reality.

Oh, but wait – you can make a female (or male) ugly in this game. The character creation ain’t that bad! Sijjvra, I present to you Velma — she really likes you and wants you to come to the Tarnished Coast:

Deinxceriis.6754:

CLIPPED

No, I didn’t “rage quit” WoW, not at all. And why would I want WoW to fail? I’m not a spiteful person. Just after 7 years I got tired, but hell a game that kept my attention for 7 years deserves some level of respect. The community over there is far worse, the lore is boring, and the community was further hurt by LF-this and that… but that doesn’t make me bitter towards WoW. Come to think of it, even if WoW had awesome lore, the community was amazing and there was still a sense of server community – I would still have left, most likely. In truth, as I stated, I could go on about the good things about WoW, for instance combat there feels more, ummmm, snappy. There is a lot GW2 can learn from WoW – and with a game that successful these devs would be stupid not to draw from that game. The game didn’t betray me – how could a game betray me? Also, I would not want GW2 to “crush” WoW, because I feel competition is good as it drives developers to produce better content instead of making them prone to rest on their laurels because they are the only big kid on the block, something I feel Blizzard has been guilty of at times.

GW2 not having a sub is a perk, but I’d pay $15/month to play this. Hell, within a week I already spent twice that on the market. It’s not about money.

You see no way someone could like way points, vistas or points of interest? Well I see no way someone could like rep grinds, hearthstones, or polka music – actually I do – see… opinions work that way. I like the fast travel without effort. What would I do in WoW? Go to a flightpath, hop on a bird, tab out and read the news until it lands – oh so immersive. Vistas and points of interest give you something to complete, whereas in WoW all you did was just clear the fog off the entire map… you do the same here except you have something to do along the way. In other words, you have just as much freedom of exploration in GW2 as you do in WoW, except here you get recognition for it (you do in WoW now with achievements) — it’s rather benign the vistas and PoI’s, but fun nonetheless. Still, like WoW, you still have a bunch of areas you can hop to, just ignore the vistas then — vistas existing does not take away from what you call “true exploration,” they just give you something to gain along the way. Does one see the vistas and think, “that’s the only place I can explore because that’s what the map tells me. Dang, how can I truly explore with those vistas and PoI’s telling me what to do?”

You’re wrong about the entire media influences on how women should look thing. See, I’ll be blunt: I happen to like what by the measure of this society can be termed fat girls — shame I can’t make one in this game (I did give mine the biggest body type though). Know what else? I prefer dark skinned women. So no, the media’s idea of how a woman should look does not appeal to me. Meh, call me an archaic Roman patrician, and skinny girls can be pretty too, but I would rather see a nice plump belly and a round face than a woman’s spine, sternum and clavicle (something the media likes to portray in “ideal” women). Look, go youtube a song titled “Natural Beauty” by the artist Immortal Technique, either that or look up the lyrics. That’s pretty much in tune to what I am saying here.

Lastly, with respect to the above, please, for the good of yourself and others, refrain from assuming you know someone enough to make such bold claims. You may think you have evidence, and maybe you do – but your work with it was sloppy and hasty. Therefore, it’s rude, presumptuous and is really a waste of time since your output is probably gonna be wrong. As you learn a bit more about the world, you’ll see trigger happy analyzation (over a forum, no less) only works for a select few who have a very special gift. No offense, but you don’t have that gift.

Also, bait people to give me things? No. Besides most people are aware pretty much every one of these female toons are guys anyway. That may have worked in 2005, but not now. Even if it did, I am not that low to essentially scam or take advantage of peoples’ emotions by fooling them into believing I am woman and it’s rather insulting and immature to levy such a charge. Plus I am not a woman nor do I want to be one for trickery or any other reason – many people [not saying you in particular] cannot seem to grasp the concept because of the barrier that has been placed between man and women and maintained in most cultures since time immemorial.

Thank You for the good discussion.

tigirius.9014:

Vayne.8563:

This is a great post. I think a lot more people would enjoy Guild Wars 2 if they hadn’t played games like WoW and the gazillion WoW clones that have popped up over the years. It’s a very different mindset.

As for cosmetic options, more will come in time, just like they do in every MMO. It’s just a matter of patience.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, welcome to the dark side. lol

people were saying that at launch almost a year ago.

It’s not a matter of what you played before either it’s a matter of whether they are actually listening to their more sensible playerbase on things like testing and the economy and balance, and whether they are ignoring them entirely to continue down a path of self destruction thru arrogance and a lack of memory when it comes to mmo development history. the latter is happening it’s only a matter of time.

Humbly:

If anyone doesn’t want this game to fail, I’d imagine it would be its creators and maintainers. I believe balancing an MMO that features both PvP and PvE challenges the brightest minds in the industry. I would wager they are indeed looking at history. Looking at history reveals mistakes – the challenge is figuring out the cause of those mistakes so you don’t repeat them. A study of history, be it of nations, empires, individuals, or games should not have as its end result a basket full of raw facts (google can give us that); rather such a study should aim to ultimately provide a synthesis of the information gleaned from those facts. So, then, perhaps the people behind this title are being a bit more methodical instead of trying to Rambo it and come out with guns blazing.

The danger, though, is your ship sinking while you are figuring out how to plug the holes – so what you say is, imo, valid and a very real concern.

You apologize to the wife and kids?

…I’m just messin’

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Dikeido.8436:

So it took you three trys to finally get hook on gw2, why is that? What did you do on the third try that you did not do on the last two try ?
Was it because all those time you were trying to play gw2 like how you would play wow ?

I’m betting it was a wrong class choice for the first start. I know I cannot play a thief and even though I like the idea of the elementalist I can’t get into playing one. If I picked those as my first class I’d probably have started with lukewarm reception too. No, instead I started with a ranger.

. . . make your own jokes here . . .

But seriously, I enjoy playing the rangers in GW1 and GW2 far more than the other classes.

Indeed, you’re right.

Something I learned the third time was just rolling a level 1 and taking it for a test drive in the Mists sparring area.

I have tried every profession for at least an hour and based on that I like:

Guardians (of course)
Ranger
Necro
Engineer

I do not like:

Thief
Mesmer
Elementalist
Warrior

50/50 split. XD

Dikeido.8436:

Nuage.5230:

Hello all I am just a lowly level 37, but I’d like to give some input.

I purchased your game shortly after release, rolled an Asura thief and after ~8 hours of gameplay I decided GW2 wasn’t for me; so I went back to WoW. A bit later I poked my head back in, but the game didn’t click; so I went back to WoW. I will admit, I had no faith in GW2.

Soooo on my SDD where space is at a premium, GW2 sat for months, ignored. Just this past Wednesday I went to delete the game, but decided I would give it another go… now I am hooked.

-SNIP-

So it took you three trys to finally get hook on gw2, why is that? What did you do on the third try that you did not do on the last two try ?
Was it because all those time you were trying to play gw2 like how you would play wow ?

Good question. I knew GW2 was GW2 and WoW was WoW, and that the former wasn’t a clone. I never expected a WoW experience out of GW2.

Firstly, I made a mistake, a stupid one: I rolled an Asura thief trying to be all different and whatnot, and after the Thief profession and Asura story didn’t impress me I was like, “meh, I’ll try it later” except I procrastinated for months. The third time I rolled a Guardian and I clicked with that profession. I love it.

Secondly, I have seen MMOs takeoff then come crashing down like the Hindenburg. I got burned with Warhammer and ToR, and I looked at GW2 and I was like “It’ll probably die after I invest a ton of time,” so my fear of the game failing drove me back to tried and true WoW.

Third, just after I came back the third time I got into GW lore and fell in love with that, so I quickly developed a much deeper appreciation of the game, and Asura lol. The lore surrounding this game is mind-blowing. I have spent more time on the wiki than I have playing my char. A guildmate told me about the /wiki and I just go around doing that and soaking up this lore like a sponge.

Lastly, I have really grown tired of WoW. Look, a lot of people treat their MMO of choice like a religion, so I don’t wanna kick a hornet’s nest here, but I have grown extremely disillusioned with WoW. There is a lot of good with WoW, and much Anet can borrow without becoming a clone, and I would discuss that if compelled to do so, but for my purposes here I say this: The community is terrible, LFR is an absolute joke, the gear grind is getting old, and the lore is just a snooze-fest. I have just probably played it too long and it’s time to move to, what I believe to be, a higher quality MMO. The people here are nicer, the lore is better, I have more freedom with respect to my class build, no snotty tanks or healers (I was a career healer in WoW, btw), no mob tapping, better guild setup, world events – etc etc… It’s a better quality game, and most of where GW2 falls short of WoW, I feel, is due to its young age. If Anet can hold on, keep people happy, and push out content I have faith that this game will remain a player on the MMO stage. In conclusion, this game represents an evolution in MMO design, and I did not appreciate that until recently, another mistake of mine.

Those are the reasons. Thanks.

Benji.9203:

If an Asura is the main character I’m down.

Played by Danny DeVito. ;-)

See guys, I just went to LA to chill and do a bit of RP and a “GM” a Dev, or some kind of Anet employee was there in game playing around and RP’ing with us. It’s cool to see stuff like that; for Anet to mingle with the community and whatnot.

Keep it up guys. I hope this game lasts for years and years, sees many expansions and a high population increase. Make some commercials, and grow the community even more, I say. More people means more “bad” people, so take a zero tolerance stance to blatant insulting, bullying, sexism, racism, etc..

I also love the challenge in this game. I might actually die out in the world! I don’t need to dedicate my life to a raiding guild (and submit to its leadership) to get a challenge….

Can someone please link the patch notes or tell me where to find them. Thank You.

Benji.9203:

OP……Welcome Home

but seriously everything you stated is the exact same reason i love this game and want to see it grow.

p.s. dont play TERA

Yes, indeed. One thing I worry about with Guild Wars 2 is its staying power. I hope it flourishes, but MMOs are dangerous investments. I pray I don’t invest hundreds or thousands of hours then the game founders. I worried about that way back when I tried it the first and second time, but it still seems to be pretty strong.

This could be a good thing or a bad thing, but I would like to see Anet do some advertising or better market this game. It really is a good title, imo. But like someone said lemme get to 80 play around for a bit and see the big picture.

As it stands, though, I am actually enjoying the leveling experience. Me enjoy leveling?!?! Yup….

Farzo.8410:

Men rolling Female character always say ‘’The animations are better’’ and yada yada.

That’s all a lie. Men just want to be pretty too, that’s just how it is.

It’s not a lie — perhaps they both are true.

Wolfheart.1938:

Refreshing post, OP. Don’t get too excited for level 80 though, as the game doesn’t change too much. Being lv 80 just opens up all the content the game has to offer, but there’s no traditional “endgame” per se.

…and that’s what I find appealing. Getting to 80 is just a perk, so to speak. Thanks for your reply!

SandraSolace.7682:

I’m a female and play only female toons.

If it sounded like I meant lust, sorry. I just meant to some they just look better like you say too.
I guess that would make me the “Would some of you be the one dude on the airfeild painting a homoerotic stud on the nose of that bomber?” Only female cause I’d fly a bomber with a nice looking woman on it!

No, I don’t think you were referring to lust. I was just throwing that out there.

Morrigan.2809:

Very interesting post OP.
I hope you have you have many many fun hours playing

Me too. I have had a few people tell me it can get boring at 80, but I actually don’t want to grind gear and friggin’ faction rep.

I am really excited about level 80.

Vayne.8563:

I play male and female toons, and I play them differently. Then again, I have a background in writing and I can write from either point of view too.

Coming from someone who not only plays but RPs female toons, I gotta give you this, just for the lulz:

About female toons:

These characters are nothing more than works of art. Some say “oh they are just pixels” as if that should diminish an appreciation for femininity. For example, John William Waterhouse’s “The Lady of Shalott” is nothing but oil on canvas, but she’s pretty. It’s not about LUST (as I’m not a lustful person), but about nothing more than having a deep appreciation for the feminine form/figure and enjoy representing that beauty in a hobby that I thoroughly enjoy. I mean if WWII bombers can paint nice looking women on their b-17 bombers, I can roll a hottie in an MMO. Why wasn’t Memphis Belle, Memphis Bob? Would some of you be the one dude on the airfeild painting a homoerotic stud on the nose of that bomber? That’s just a funny thought that came to me in the moment and I’m just messin’, but yeah. XD

In these games I never see myself as my character, I never hit up the character selection screen and be like “this is me.” Even if I did, so what. Look, consider my character a digital mukudj mask – because that’s essentially what it is. Sorry guys, I am kinda on a different wavelength with respect to how I view women, sexuality and the nature of “machoism” than most of the West and I’ll leave it at that. Thanx

Hello all I am just a lowly level 37, but I’d like to give some input.

I purchased your game shortly after release, rolled an Asura thief and after ~8 hours of gameplay I decided GW2 wasn’t for me; so I went back to WoW. A bit later I poked my head back in, but the game didn’t click; so I went back to WoW. I will admit, I had no faith in GW2.

Soooo on my SDD where space is at a premium, GW2 sat for months, ignored. Just this past Wednesday I went to delete the game, but decided I would give it another go… now I am hooked.

The Guardian is AMAZING (so is the Necro, imo) and crafting is FUN. I absolutely love level scaling, and I enjoy the TP. My server, the Tarnished Coast, is incredible. I love RP and RP servers, and this one is a full of so many good people. This community as a whole is just so refreshing after 7 years of vitriol in WoW. You can actually ask a noob question, and not walk away wanting to cut yourself questioning whether you should reproduce. Trolls exist, but they are not around every corner. I mean, I was amazed by the fact that I spent over an hour in battlegrounds and did not see any flaming whatsoever, and much to my astonishment opposing sides can communicate!

I only play female toons (a discussion for another thread), and the artistic design of my character is very, very good (massive clipping annoys me though). I mention the sex of my toon, because a lot of MMO makers seem keen to do silly things to female characters like give hot air balloons for boobs, or make them airheads, but you guys did it right. Jeez I’m weird, but w/e….

I love way points, vistas and points of interest. I like how I have a level of freedom with respect to building my toon; after ~7 years of WoW (I started just after BC hit), I have become almost institutionalized in that there is so much freedom in this game that I almost don’t like it – I don’t know what to do with it!

PvP is an absolute blast: I mean I rolled a toon, hit up Mists, spent a few minutes setting it up, practiced in the sparring area (which is an awesome idea, btw), and did some PvP. I call your PvP “no bulls—t PvP, btw.” I actually went and beat people, not because of gear but because of skill, and I lost to people because of lack of skill. Of course gear and profession matter to a degree, I reckon, but it’s not scripture – I like that.

Now, I wish could do more to my interface other than adjust its size. Like my “dodge energy bar” thingy, I wish that could be moved to the center of the screen, for example. I also wish abilities could be moved around on my action bar.

Now that all speaks to addons, and that is one thing I wish we could have ONLY IF THEY WERE COSMETIC. No, I don’t want recount, DBM, and things like that, but just cosmetic stuff would be nice – call ‘em benign addons, I guess. Even if we didn’t get actual addons, but made aesthetic customization options far more robust I would be a happy camper. However, in the end, I will trade class and leveling freedom for a static and boring interface any day of the week.

Oh one “lol” thing that really annoys me with this game is the water droplets on my screen when I exit a body of water. Which one of you did that, grrrrr? Oh speaking of water, exploring underwater, and underwater combat is fun as hell. From Mario to WoW I almost always hate being underwater in games, but you guys nailed it. I mean my computer is rather modest (I have an Asus G75 w 16gb of RAM), but these underwater areas still manage to be absolutely mind-blowing. Not only that, I love the speed at which my toon moves while underwater, as well as her swim animations. The mask that allows me to breathe underwater is good for nixing that “lemme watch my breath” mechanic and instead lets me focus on exploring while at the same time maintaining a level of realism, whatever the measure of that may be in an MMO.

I hate getting all “real life” on forums, but I live a very, very hard life, and I have for a while. All I have is games and my son to keep me stable. I am glad that I gave your game another chance! Excellent work, keep it up and you have in my one happy customer. You have helped me more than you know, both Anet and the Tarnished Coast community.

In closing: If you happen across this post and are thinking about getting Guild Wars 2, I say pick it up. You don’t even have to level to PvP (how cool is that?). Even if you don’t invest years, I can almost guarantee you’ll get $60 of enjoyment.

please forgive any WoW nomenclature I used here

Ratphink.4751:

You know those big blocks of text that every game asks you to read when you install them? Or every forum asks you to read when you register? I know they’re really boring and they’re filled with Legal hoop-lah, but they go to a lot of effort to make sure that you’ve read and understood what you’re agreeing to. Usually making you click a box confirming you’ve read it, or sometimes even having a little pop-up window to ask kindly if you’re not fibbing.

These are formally called ‘Terms of Service’, and they’re the terms each and every one of you have agreed to. And I know you’ve agreed to them because you’re registered forum users, and to be a registered forum user, you have to agree to them or you can’t post. Do you see where I’m going with this?

You all agreed that you would abide by the rules concerning language and etiquette that ANet outlined in their terms of service. If you didn’t like them, why did you agree to them? You probably didn’t even read it did you?

That is the crux of this. You are using a service provided by ANet, part of that service involves following the rules they’ve created. In agreeing to the rules, you are supporting them. In blindly agreeing to the rules without reading them, you are still supporting them. If you do not support these rules, you should not have agreed. Instead you should have e-mailed them, along with everyone else who shares these concerns, before agreeing to them to bring this issue to light.

You are all 4 months too late on this issue. Do yourselves a favour, and start reading Terms of Service before you agree to them.

For most ppl it’s officially called the tl;dr, it seems.

raenen.5807:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This game is a private entity, and that does not apply. To make you understand here’s an example:

If you invited to me to your residence for dinner and I started insulting your family with vitriol, you have the right to kick me out of your house for my speech. You can indeed ban cursing in your house all together.

…so many ppl don’t understand the 1st Amendment.

Epidemic is the wrong word, and is almost insulting. You could have at least said “proliferation,” lol. I’m just messin’ with you, OP – but personally, in this game I play only male Asura, and that’s because I like the way they look, move, cast… in short I like their persona. In WoW, I only use Human female characters because, like the Asura of Guild Wars II, I like the way they look move, and cast.

Since in the end I am a guy who will play a female, I’ll offer a bit of input about playing girls: When I get questioned about my choice to play females I often harken to the tradition of males wearing female masks in some West African societies. In these societies wearing such a mask isn’t in any way unmanly or gay. For some of these societies, first and foremost the mask represented feminine beauty or fertility – not one’s lust or sexual orientation. It’s all part of getting out of the mental prison of cultural hegemony and tasting other cultures. So consider my beautiful, dark-skinned female toon a digital Punu mask*. I appreciate such a depiction as one could any other form of fine art, and fine art is what these game artists are producing. If that makes me a pervert, gay, weird, lame or something similar then whatever.

*easy read: “Punu masks represent the idealized beauty of Punu women, and should only be carved by Punu men….” http://artyfactory.com/africanmasks/masks/punu.htm