Guild Wars 2

Te’Quatl

Pronounced: Tah’ – Qwah – Tole

There’s a definite space between the TE and the QUATL, and it should be acknowledged as such. The TL has an invisible “O” sound made with your mouth as you pronounce them together to get the “tole” that I’d mentioned above without it really being there.

Zoid.2568:

In the update coming the 17th we get Tequatl Rising which gives us a reworked Tequatl fight, world bosses got stronger, the looking for group tool and some new stuff to wvwvw. A great update with needed changes and additions!

Now when there’s 4 teams working on one update each they have 8 weeks (2 months) to work on content to be released. I think the content in this update is a little bit weak, could have been more. Maybe there’s a reason for this or am i overestimating ArenaNet?

Each team is given 3 months because they do paired content updates, not just singular ones. By that I mean that both Queen’s Jubilee and Clockwork Chaos was done by the same team for the same month (just as Cutthroat Politics & Bazaar of the Four Winds; Dragon Bash & Sky Pirates; Secrets of Southsun & Last Stand at Southsun). That’s just a correction I had to place in there.

But, we must look at the most obvious. SAB is SUPER POPULAR. Even with the mishaps with World 2, it’s still a very popular content. Being that it’s 4 weeks long, whatever 2-week patch goes in mid-September (Te’Quatl Rising) will see some overshadowing by the SAB. It would be foolish of them to create a big content patch on the lines of say Aetherblade Retreat, only to have it be parallel to SAB….one would overshadow the other in popularity and it would be wasted content on A.Net’s part.

Another thing to consider is future content coming up in the next few months.

~Ready for content overload?

1) October is going to have Halloween out the wazoo. We’ll have returning mini-games of Lunatic Inquisition and Reaper’s Rumble. Zones will be plagued with doors from the Mad Realm opening up for Thorn’s minions to come through (presumably in a much grander fashion than singular skeletons like last year). Inside the Mad Realm itself is a whole area of events and Champions for players to kill. Clock Tower anyone? Yep, that’s to return. And we may have another chance to once again go toe-to-toe with the Mad King himself in his own realm.

2) November is going to have something, but don’t know what yet. If the first patch in October (the one prior to the predictable Halloween one) isn’t going to be Fractals, which it’s assumed it will not be, then they will fall into the November patch. What Fractals? Why the Aetherblade Retreat, Molten Weapons Facility, and Thaumanova Reactor, of course. They won’t release around Wintersday, so that removes December from the window, and October it’s assumed the same thing as to why Sep 17th’ patch is light (no overshadowing the bigger content updates with other bigger content updates in the same monthly cycle). So we’ll see new Fractals in November. But why stop at Fractals? Some sort of Legendary Accessory is to release in 2013 (according to devs @ PAX)….and why not have said unique gear type release at the same time that new permanent [partial]dungeon types are added into the game? Yep, I’m seeing November as the perfect window for releasing that type of gear set with that type of dungeon set.

3) December, as mentioned above, will see Wintersday. That’ll be return of Tixx’s flying toy shop (though said to be destined to a different city other than LA….that’ll be a hoot if true). It means we’ll get Snow ball mini-game as well as Bell Choir too. Toys may or may not be the center stage calamity, but there’s certainly going to be some hassle that will give players an instanced type holiday themed dungeon to participate in.

Welcome to GW2’s Fall to Winter transition. Enjoy your content overload…..

Shadow Behemoth sounds so freakin’ fun! Zone wide killing effect and teleportation to the underworld? Sign me up!

All this anti-WvW talk as of late based on hate directed towards reintroduction of the Orb mechanic is beyond crazy.

There’s such a thing as Creative Freedom (points to PG-18 video: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8049-Creative-Freedom-Strings-Attached?utm_source=videos&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all )

The developers make the game, and they make it in their design and image. Players can choose to play it the way they make it, or they can choose to go else where and play something else. This is freedom on both sides. Players do give the developers feedback, they listen, but they can also choose not to follow what is less critical opinion, more coached dictation.

WvW is the brainchild of the developer’s way of making Open World PvP that doesn’t interrupt PvE. It’s a way to have Realm fighting from larger pool of players than individual servers. And it’s also a way for other guilds on your server to work WITH your guild -instead of against- so as to keep civility amongst the player base within the communities.

PvE is somewhat split from WvW, just as sPvP is. Just like sPvP, if they introduce more modes it’ll split the playerbase even further; meaning that introduction of GvG will take a major shot at the population to split from WvW or other modes. Splitting the community is a bad thing.

But back to what I was saying about Freedom. This game has never announced GvG to be a key feature or one that was going to add in the immediate future post-release (or even right now, 1 year down the line). Based on that information, customers have the freedom to purchase this product knowing that feature wasn’t in the game. They also have the freedom to continue playing the game or leave the game knowing that feature isn’t a priority to the developers. They do NOT have the freedom to try to dictate the creative direction the developers choose to go with THIER GAME.

P.S. As an additional note: I’m kind of glad that this Orb bonus might actually stop the faux GvG behind the windmill. They’ll either stick to their threats and leave the game (yay?) [freeing up queue slots in the process], or they’ll actively participate in the WvW meta as was originally designed.

Galtrix.7369:

Siphaed.9235:

Seriously, just do a search for like 30sec and you’ll find the answer. The Guild Wars has nothing to do with Guild vs Guild at all….so, just stop already, please. The Guild Wars is most notably about the 3rd Guild War, which spread into the streets of Orr (when it was still a major thing). This war was interrupted by the Charr invasions, using The Searing -mystical cauldron that shot giant burning crystals down to areas of their choosing (given to them by false gods known as Titans, who were really minions of Abaddon)- at which point a nutjob by the name of Vizier Khilbron decided to read a forbidden scroll and sink Orr. That ended the Charr invasion which ended the 3rd Guild War.

There’s a [fake] history lesson for you. Enjoy.

That’s pretty misleading to a person wanting to buy the game, don’t you think? Logic would say that there must be guild wars in a game called Guild Wars 2.

No, it’s not misleading. “World of Warcraft” doesn’t have a war in it, does it? In fact, the patch 5.4 that releases soon (if not already) has both factions working together against an angry Orc. Guild Wars 2 sticks to the franchise based on lore of the world being set up by The Guild Wars, which is referenced many times in-game.

Godzzila.3752:

Isn’t the game being called Guild Wars 2 a valid reason?
Some people might be interested on it for having GvG.

See my original post in the quote above. Nothing to do with GvG.

Nightarch.2943:

ArenaNet was piggy-backing off a successful franchise. All they did was slap the same name on it and added a two.

Except that they were using all the lore, species, races, background, and so on. The game is a sequel of events in the future after the Elder Dragons awoke and the world is broken from the events from the first game (and set up events prior to that).

Godzzila.3752:

This game is probably the only game out there that has more than enough reasons to have GvG.
First: The game is called Guild Wars
Second: A major feature of the game is WvW, which is a large-scale PvP (pretty much the same as GvG)
Third: Guild Wars 1 already had GvG

1st) See my original post quoted above.
2nd) World vs World is about cooperating with the guilds/members on your server against the total collaboration of all members of the opposite servers you’re matched up against. Not related to “GvG” in the least bit.
3rd) GW1 had GvG, yes. But it wasn’t something they wanted to copy-n’-paste into GW2, as said many times in development cycle. The developers mentioned that they wanted something different, on a larger grander scale…and that’s where WvW came to be.

Sounds like a horrible idea. The Guild Wars happened in a state of unease between split nations of men. Those events only ended when Charr invaded and crazy humans went to extremes to destroy their invading foe (first with the Foefire, then with the Cataclysm).

But since that time humans have been pushed back into the far corners of the lands thanks to Centaurs, Bandits, creatures….oh, and a tiny little thing known as Elder Dragons. The Krytan kingdom is but a paltry piece of what it once was.

Enough about humans, let’s look at the other races: Charr are spending day and night fighting Ghosts of the Foefire fallout (i.e. Ascallon), remainders of the Flame Legion, and minions of Kralkatorrik. They’ve also drawn a peace treaty with 10yr reigning Queen Jenna, from which they were previously at war. Norn have been push much south thanks to Jormag and his vile filth (they even lost 3 of their revered Spirits in their retreat). Asura were completely pushed out of their …5 (?) cities underground by Primordus, so they have lots to deal with on being surface dwellers. And the Sylvari, they’re young saplings of max 25 years old with little understanding of the world; and add to that their morals are split between following a Centaur’s tablet with Dream or falling with the Nightmares.

Okay, take all the above rambling and put that every race is in a periled fight with inter-territorial conflicts as well as Elder Dragon woes. Enter the cackling Scarlet! Now we have an additional powered threat against all the races in Tyria besides just the Elder Dragons: a ‘twig that has snapped’ and wants pure chaos throughout.

What’s my point and where am I getting at? All the 5 major races of Tyria -and at point quite a few of the lesser ones too- have gotten together to fight threats throughout the land. There’s no room for any more inner national conflicts such as Guild Wars. Those are illogical In These Dragon Filled Times.

TLDR Subtext: GW2 is meant to be friendly to those on your server and to avoid conflict with them. Instead, you fight the other servers (think alternate reality, like each one is another dimension) through WvW, or you have friendly sparing matches in the regenerative Mists via sPvP.

eisberg.2379:

Guild Wars is in reference to a historical War in the Tyria’s lore. Nothing to do with player guilds vs Player guilds. The Guild Wars ended when the Char invaded Ascalon

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Guild_Wars

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This guy above.

Seriously, just do a search for like 30sec and you’ll find the answer. The Guild Wars has nothing to do with Guild vs Guild at all….so, just stop already, please. The Guild Wars is most notably about the 3rd Guild War, which spread into the streets of Orr (when it was still a major thing). This war was interrupted by the Charr invasions, using The Searing -mystical cauldron that shot giant burning crystals down to areas of their choosing (given to them by false gods known as Titans, who were really minions of Abaddon)- at which point a nutjob by the name of Vizier Khilbron decided to read a forbidden scroll and sink Orr. That ended the Charr invasion which ended the 3rd Guild War.

There’s a [fake] history lesson for you. Enjoy.

Puru.4217:

Do not fret, in the next release we will be sent underwater for 5s after getting hit by one of Tequila’s attacks.

The problem I’ve seen with that one is that it treats the water much like other games do: You stay under too long and you drown (well, it’s supposedly poisoned water by TeQuatl himself, but still…).

What I was really hoping for was a push towards more underwater areas, possible zones, and creatures. Looking at Southsun Shores as on exampled area, there’s very little ‘water’ interaction with players on this secluded island resort* (*note: it’s not a resort and the locals will kill you).

Bubbles is an inevitability with this game. When it’s introduced, I’m really hoping that it’s done through the care of being a gigantic water area instead of a measly washed ashore dragon.

P.S. I recall a screenshot of a zone area that looked like an underwater Atlantis early on during the game’s development cycle. This was showing players outside this bubbled dome mini-town/hub with sea creatures all about and coral surrounding the area. Quite beautiful, like most underwater areas in this game, whatever happened to it?

Corvindi.5734:

Siphaed.9235:

As a “PvE grinder”, I’d like to proclaim that WvW is an extension of the PvE game as a whole. It’s basically the “Open world PvP” that other games have, but without all the ganking and interruption mid-mob kill. However, gear and stats still make it into equitation just as it would in OWPvP like other games. In other words: just deal with it. :P

You grinders were supposed to be able to enjoy your preferred methods of play without forcing others to do the same to keep up stat-wise, though.

How sad that you are the ones who prevailed.

And yet, you are wrong. I’ve been in WvW for the past week and have collected hundreds of Ascended crafting materials. These are dropped from Champions, which incidentally every Keep, Tower, and Camp has at least one mob that fits the classification. Each home-borderland had an array of crafting stations to use. 1+1= fun on a bun. Get it? Yes, I’m essentially stating that you’re able to do a large portion of Ascended via WvWvW. Get to it.

As a “PvE grinder”, I’d like to proclaim that WvW is an extension of the PvE game as a whole. It’s basically the “Open world PvP” that other games have, but without all the ganking and interruption mid-mob kill. However, gear and stats still make it into equitation just as it would in OWPvP like other games. In other words: just deal with it. :P

GvG obsess people are neglecting the simple fact that they are the chicken, the Orb is the egg it came first. What do I mean?

Orbs were in since the game’s Beta and were only removed for exploiting reasons around Nov 1st because of the excessive exploiting (that was griefing massive amounts of players due to the score imbalance because of it).

From the very time that Orbs were removed, Arena Net has stated time and time again that they’d return into the game in some form or another -just not the Orb form it originally was-. Well, that’s what these Lake Ruin CP’s are: a non-exploitable form of the Orb mechanic returned to the game as it originally was designed to be in.

Your so loved GvG was nothing more than an unintended byproduct of the time off from the Orb while it was “in the shop, getting repaired”.

As many have pointed out, sPvP now has Custom Arenas that allow players to set up their own scheduled even-team matches. There may no be 15/20 man, but there are 10-man teams, which is still a fairly good sized fight.

P.S. Just to point out, the ‘game mode’ is called “WORLD vs WORLD vs WORLD”, not “Guild vs Guild by the windmill”. World = server.

Bumping this to front page to get more attention on this issue (since no reply in 3 days). The bug is very irritating and starting to bug me so very much (hence the name “bug”?). But, I can’t play the game with it doing this.

Edit: Oh, and this…

MattChernicky

This is actually a fairly common issue that players have been experiencing due to certain configurations in the Nvidia Control Panel. We suggest adjusting your Anti-Aliasing settings in the Nvidia Control Panel. Please try the steps below to make these changes:

1. Right click on the desktop.
2. Select NVIDIA control panel.
3. Select Manage 3D Settings.
4. Verify the “Antialiasing – Mode” is set to Application-controlled / or click Restore.
5. Click OK.

Once completed, please try launching Guild Wars 2 again.

Did that, it didn’t work either.

Since the black screen is associated with a “disconnected from server” issue, I’m going to try something I dug up related to Port Forwarding on this game. It’ll be ports 80, 443, 6600, and 6112. Hopefully that’ll resolve the issue, as they’re said to be solutions related to an error with Netgear Routers and Modems (which my ISP uses exclusively).

Kuzzi.2198:

The dailies are too much, even for hardcore players.

I just had two friends quit the game within the past week because they could not afford to spend 2-4 hours every single day to get all dailies done. These friends were both hardcore – one with 12501 AP and other with 10339 AP.

I know people will say “You don’t HAVE to do all the dailies”. But, the truth is hardcore players will try to stay on the rankings and will try to do all of them every day.

I think a possible solution for this is to cap the PvE dailies at 10AP/day. This would let the game have more of the advertised “play how you want” feel.

You can do the daily in less than an hour if done “just right” (i.e. mixing and matching the easiest to obtain objectives). So that “2-4 hours every single day” just sounds completely off and more like their normal play session. I must also remark that in that normal play session, a daily can usually complete without even attempting it as the thing just ticks away during gameplay.

But related to your comment about how “hardcore players will try to do them every day”, though somehow that burns them outs. It sounds like a problem with your friends, not the game. I’ve missed…2-5 dailies so far since the first of the month.

It’s not required, it’s not necessary, and it’s not some ball-and-chain that you make it out to be.

It’s an extra goal that someone may or may ot choose to complete for the sake of getting extra rewards, all the while playing the game normally.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

New wallpaper for sure! Hope everyone enjoyed the stream and see you on the battlefield!

Well, I couldn’t find one of a Warrior doing that punt move to phase all black through a drop shadow and same for an animated flying cat. Sadly, that’s what I wanted to do.

Instead, I did find a more relevant way to apply your quote to the Living Story…

You’ve only truly completely World 1 (W1) when you’ve waited the countdown after the King Toad fight and then went into the “Bonus level”. After that bonus level you’ll received a single Bauble Bubble and it will be then that you’ve been recognized as completing W1.

Question was already in title, so why not?

Originally when the SAB came out, there were several things players could get with the Bauble Bubbles besides just weapon skins and continue coins. These items were Obsidian Shards, Crystals, Philosopher’s Stones, and SAB Box o’ Fun.

With the Champion Loot Bags dropping skill points, I can see why Crystals and Philosopher Stones aren’t an option any more. Skill Points are far easier to obtain and purchase these things with.

And with the Account Wallet making Karma account wide, I could also see why Obsidian Shards are no longer on that list either. Well, that and they’re also obtainable through the Fractals of the Mists.

But, the Box-o’-Fun is currently only on the Gem Store. That irks me in such a way. Why? Because they’ve reverted what was originally a fun way for others to have these besides spending exorbitant amounts of gold or $5-10 to get them. They were purchasable with the Bauble Bubbles, which at the time were easily farmable using the create-run-delete new character method. However, this new SAB iteration is not farmable as the chests are once-daily account bound affairs. So, someone could chose to either spend Baubles on free skins, or on the boxes.

At the time they were available in both Gem Store and in-game, I felt like A.Net was giving me enough options as a player to go ahead and support them. I spent money in the gem store at the time (purchase the mini-pets, of all things). However, this current lock-behind that they’ve done makes me not really want to support them this month. Maybe next month’s Gem Store options will be better and allow me to choose not to be a “freeloader”, but right now this month I’m using in-game gold, getting the Continue Coin via that, and that’s about it. Sorry….

Raesin.2908:

It’s P2W because it does give you an advantage over other players.
ANet said Trib mode would be so ‘hard’ that they didn’t expect many people to have the Trib mode skins.
With the Infinite Coin you’re pretty much guaranteed those items, all you have to do is follow a guide and no matter how many times you fail you can just try again.
It’s giving you infinite lives, much like any cheat code in any other game that gives you infinite lives.
With this coin ANet have essentially taken the challenge out of Trib mode.

The people insisting it’s not P2W are probably those who have bought it and don’t like the fact that their ‘method’ of getting the achievements or skins is considered cheap or cheating. It’s may be a small-scale P2W, it’s not exactly selling ‘Epic Uber Sword of Smiting +99’ but it’s still P2W.

Have you been in Trib mode yet? If not, you really have nothing to say for it. Someone who “sucks” at jumping can have 1million attempts at it and still fail. That’s all the Infinite Coin is: attempts to TRY to complete the content.

W1-Z1, just after the 2nd hard checkpoint is an example of what I mean. That location is a gully with ‘bounce rocks’, 4 spike traps, and two timid monkeys. There are a series of 7 required back-to-back consecutive jumps that have to be perfectly synced and timed without error.

In fact, most of the Trib mode requires precision jumping, attention to the minor details, and skill. I don’t care what delusions people have about the Infinite Coin, but it’s just extra lives in something that someone who has no skill at precision jumping or details will not complete. No matter if they have 1,000 Infinite Coins, it’s still a CHANCE!

I converted 30g, completely earned in-game through the Scarlet Invasions (normal play and NOT FAIL FARMING), to Gems and purchased the Infinite Continue Coin. Not a single dollar shed from my pocket, yet I was still able to obtain this “Pay 2 Win” item. Curious how, if it’s truly “P2W” that it’s obtainable in-game?

P.S. Didn’t use it at all until I started Tribulation mode as the 5 coins Moto sent me -in addition to the 7 banked ones from April- were more than sufficient to do W1 & W2 in Normal mode.

Daywolf.2630:

Came expecting a derogatory racial slur against Charr, left disappointed.

A developer hits a cat off a cliff with a giant hammer (although in a game). How can one possibly be disappointed with that?!

Hugh Norfolk, a WvW design developer, did a preview of the up coming Bloodlust in the Borderlands content. Video found here: http://youtu.be/8ciFk-dvUOI?t=15m50s Really cool preview, but the best part was summed up in one very funny, very epic quote:

• “I’m going to have to kill my kitty assistant.”

This was followed by the lobbing punt right off the cliff for the poor kitty. P.E.T.A., you can now throw a fit about this (but your cries will go unheard).

Ashley Segovia.8276:

Hi My Attack Will Kill,

I’d start with a router bypass so we can rule that out right away. If that doesn’t work, I’d follow with Msconfig to rule out potentially conflicting apps.

Hope this helps!

Having the same issue myself recently. I have no router to “bypass”, so that’s a nonissue. Mind you it’s on an nVidia GTX 560 with driver 9.18.13.1422 (I’m not using the newer 320.49 because I’ve had issues with that one across all my games on my system and it was crashing far too much).

This issue of blank, black screen is only happening in GW2, not happening in games like Firefall, which I can play hours on end. It’s a recent issue that started 2-3 weeks ago. This error only seems to happen during loading screens. That’s the correlation that I’ve discovered so far, though not sure what it is about. I can still hear music in the game, still hear combat like everything is happening. What’s odd is that just before the blank, black screen is a “disconnected from server” error code that pops up, but it’s not really a disconnection from the server (otherwise would be booted to login screen and/or not hear anything within the game actually going on).

I would like an answer to this rather soon. If there’s a repair to the game’s client or something, maybe? It’s really bothersome when I’m about 10ft from the 1st boss in W1-Z1 S.A.B. Tribulation mode, die, loadscreen starts to go and get that bug/error. That is irritating.

Edit: Did the Tool thingy (attached to here)

Villious.8530:

tolunart.2095:

Villious.8530:

I thought the ‘scavenger hunt’ and ‘precursor crafting’ were still in the “we’re discussing it” phase.

Eight months ago it was…. official word is “coming in the next three months” which means it’s developed and in testing/approval stages.

Good to know…thanks. It will be interesting to see how it’s implemented.

My general guess would be an Account Bound item that drops off Zhaitan (meaning story mode Arah); a few Account Bound items dropped off Shatterer, The Claws of Jormag, and Te’Quatl each; some Ectos; some refined/combined Quartz; and some T7 maps just to add some more stuff. This way it’s both a crafting thing, a time gated thing, AND a “scavenger hunt” all-in-one.

This is based on logical deduction.

2-week Patch cycle list for remaining 2013:

• September 17th: Rising (TeQuatl’s reboot)

• Oct 1st: ???

• Oct 15th: Preemptive Halloween Patch

• Oct 29th: Last of Halloween patch (+ something else, considering that Oct 31st ends just 2 days later and that’s the last day that Mad King Thorn can be out of the Mad Realm).

• Nov 12th: ???

• Nov 26th: ???

• Dec 10th: Preemptive Wintersday patch

• Dec 24th: Final Wintersday Patch (sinks through to Jan 7th, which wouldn’t be too bad for the developers).

Based on above, November seems to be the only month not already set with holiday or content that can fill in the new Fractals. Mind you there are supposed to be 3 Fractals to release at the same time: Molten Weapons Facility, Aetherblade Retreat, and Thaumanova Reactor.

I can only assume that it won’t be in the Oct 1st patch, because that gives it a short window before being overshadowed by a holiday event and would seem to be fitting more a “filler” patch (like a flash back episode in a Manga/Anime). But there’s also in consideration that we’ll be losing a dungeon just after this month’s passed, being that the SAB will have finished it’s cycle and gone back into build mode by Moto on that same patch. To go from ‘dungeon mode’ to another ‘dungeon mode’ wouldn’t sync well with their patching techniques that they’ve been doing.

Thoughts on my crazy conspiracies?

Raine.1394:

We have no way to know what the cost of ‘building’ a precursor will be. Since there is no way of comparing that cost to the cost of buying one today of the TP, it really can’t enter in to the decision making process of someone who desires a legendary today.

One interesting side effect is that if the OP succeeds in getting people to refrain from purchasing, the price will go down as demand declines. Then OP could buy a precursor for less gold. Hmmm, I don’t know that either though.

I would not. I’ve been “casually” doing the off setting parts, like the Gift of Mastery and …well, that’s it. The Gift of Fortune would be a far more likely thing to obtain before ever getting a Precursor, and that thing is expensive! After going for that -if I actually decide to- I’d have to go for the Legendary specific Gift and THEN the Precursor after all that. But, I don’t expect that to happen any time at all this month due to the SAB taking me out of the game’s world and instead into the game’s world (inception!). October is going to once again take me out of the game’s world and into the magical lands of the Mad Realm with Made King Thorn. ….ugh, this game! But, my point is that in the time it would take to obtain those other things first, the Precursor crafting method would be in and it would be far more beneficial to just craft the item myself instead of purchasing one from another player.

daimasei.4091:

Legendaries need to stay unique?

There is always a lot of people in LA with legendaries. My guild have a lot of people with legendaries. There was always 1 or 2 persons with legendaries when I used to run dungeons.

The only reason I don’t have a legendary is because I only play necro and the only legendary I like is Twilight (I got Dusk but sold it for 800g).

So nope, legendaries aren’t unique, just really expensive (if every single player would really work for one, everyone would have a legendarie).

And no, even if you can craft a precursor, people will still pay a lot for them so if this is an attempt to lower the prices well, is a lame attempt and isn’t going to work.

1) Legendary weapons are in their own right expensive via the Gift of Fortune and Icy Runestones. That right there is still well over 400-500g worth of materials, not even including the individual Legendary weapon’s required special mats (like 100 Charged Lodestones, 250 Orichalcum Bars, and 250 Hardened Leather for a Gift of Weather).

2) This is not “an attempt to lower prices of Precursors”, as logic dictates that the sellers will not delist and lose the 5% posting fee to relist at a lower price. Instead this is an attempt to warn those who are trying to collect the 800g to purchase Dusk to rethink their options. Even if Precursors average out at 200g each to craft, that’s still far cheaper and will cause market prices in 4 months from now to nose dive. I will not have any hand in it, the system will do all the work; and that will be rewarding for those who are trying to get a Precursor, but are locked out due to the currently extortionist market prices.

Nuka Cola.8520:

More crafting? Do these devs ever get another ideas of acquiring items? What about adding hard mode to current dungeons, collect relics (that aren’t tradable) and combine them to build a precursor? I don’t want to craft more of your kitten! All they do is release items that you craft, so what’s the point of even going outside LA… i swear these people—-

Are you ware that crafting requires materials gathered from around the game’s world and zones? That you cannot obtain those things in LA unless you purchase from the trading post (although account bound ones you cannot). But another thing to note is that in order to purchase you’ll need to obtain gold, once again requiring to leave LA in order to obtain.

Your ranting argument is baseless and more or less that you don’t like crafting. Well,….I’m sorry, but that’s how it’s going to be. Either take that, or the other two options are to go and find one from a chest in the game’s world (.5% chance?) and/or purchase from another lucky player in the game for 100’s of gold.

Have you watched this video: http://youtu.be/Jy7CcwnfUdU?t=13m25s ?

• “The other thing that you’ll see this year is that you’ll see the ability to build a precursor. It’s not going to be next week. It’ll probably be as we get closer to the end of the year. But we’ll absolutely add that support so that you can make your own precursor and make it feel like your making progress putting one of those together. Very likely it’ll be through crafting. We haven’t completely finalized that. But that’s more than likely where that’s all going to drop in."

Again, do NOT waste your hard earned gold purchasing an expensive Precursor at 200-800g from some random stranger just so that you can get your Legendary this month. There are 4 months left in the year. Be patient, save your gold to build one at a fraction of the cost, and be rewarded for the process. To those with Precursors on the market, I’m sorry, but something’s got to give….

My biggest complain of difficulty:

- Where’s the sword?

Sure, we originally get the Pointy Stick in W1-Z1, but how come it hasn’t upgraded yet? The torch has an upgrade, the shovel has an upgrade, but the stick is still a stick? Why? Especially when it comes to the bears -polar and forest- as well as bananas, hillbillies, and raccoon mafia. Those things just laughing at the player’s Pointy Stick.

(Oh, and if there is a stick upgrade that I’m completely overlooking, please point it out and ignore this post).

Pro tip:

Dodge THROUGH him. As he charges you, use your dodge mechanic towards him. What happens is that it pushes you at a greater distance from him in behind. If done properly, you’ll be out of range of his 3rd charge before he goes back to the palm technique. It’s 1, 2, 3 charges, then palm. Kind of difficult to keep up the pace.

I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but I’d heard rumors that Trait points that boost Endurance (dodge meter recovery) work in the SAB. If that is true, it’ll definitely help in this fight to have that kind of spec.

That’s my only tip. I’d thought that one time my Whip actually hit him, but it could be a mistaken assumption. If you have the extra lives to waste, try the Whip and see if he likes it…

Radio Isotope.3045:

Its official! Guild Wars 2 is officially pay to win. Infinite coin and tribulation mode makes it so. Sorry if you don’t see it that way but I do. Even world 2 zone 2 on infantile mode is way too hard for majority of people “who end up running out of continue coins (pay for this kitten kitten Infinite Continue Coin to keep playing)”. I speak for my guild and the things they have brought to my attention. I love SAB and have Distinction in Applied Jumping. But World 2 zone 2 seems a bit too long and too hard for most people and not enough baubles to make it worth the effort. When we can just farm World 1 easy peasy and get several bubbles in just one run….

If you paid for the Infinite Continue Coin ….and still haven’t completed W2-Z2, then clearly it’s not P2W. I’ve completed W2-Z2, but came to a roadblock in W2-Z3 with having not enough baubles to get the Torch. However, it still only took 37 lives to complete W2-Z2, which equates to 8 Continue Coins. Of those coins, I received 2 per chest up until then (that’s 4chests x 2 each = 8 coins) as well as the 5 Moto sent me via mail. Now that the “trial and error” period has ended, I can probably cut the amount of coins in 1/2, then in a week it’ll probably be 1 coin at most.

Learn2Edu-tainment better. :P

Okay, so S.A.B. was the brainchild of an individual developer at A.Net that got the team backing to be “a thing” for April Fools. World #1 was born and it was okay, but still incredibly easy. I could solo the whole thing in less than 15 minutes. Now 4 months passed since that thing has closed in Tyria.

In comes World #2. Holy Skritt! It’s amazing! Ninjas, booby-trapped dojos, killer koi (well, they’re labeled “piranha”, but they look koi) all make up some of the hardest, craziest, and best content to come to GW2 in forever and ago. I never thought that a lone April Fools content could extend to being such a hugely awesome thing as it has.

Oh, and the Smokey The Bear knockoffs are insanely funny and obnoxiously painful…but still fun to kick the rear of (what game has EVER let a player beat the living snot out of Smokey The Bear with a stick?!). I just really dislike the cave behind the waterfall, which seems to be their home or something, as three in there just light up the entire floor quickly with their red rings of death.

The hillbillies, crocodiles, Frogger-style river crossings, and polar bears are all ‘okay’, but very easy to master in one go through. The raccoon mafia is a cake walk in circles with the bomb upgrade, so it’s not too challenging -maybe a middle ground style-.

My biggest gripe with the World #2 is the need for the 400 baubles to get the torch for Zone 3 to melt the ice wall and continue on. That’s my biggest issue is the lock out on those……oh, and the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom opening scene recreation in the dojo; those darts, those darts, those darts! But even after a few coins used -roughly 6- I got that part down easy-peasy.

1) Requesting developer answers directly, or addressing them in thread topic/title, is against the forum rules.

2) Developers have already said that the Elder Dragons will continue personal story arches eventually down the road. HOWEVER, this will not happen for 2013, so the earliest is Jan 2014 (but that’s post-holiday, so don’t expect until March at the earliest).

Why are there currently so many “fail” conditions that just end up the exact same at the end as it was a the beginning?

Orr’s Temples have got to be the only good “fail conditions” within the game. Right now if those are failed, the temples become contested, infested, and unusable for a time. Sure they need to have far less farmable champions as a condition of losing (because that’s all player do right now), but the concept of losing a valuable key location is sound.

Scarlet’s Invasions, which will have ended today, are a horrible example of effect on the world. Many times players would fail these events without an consequence to them or the environment. Zones wouldn’t become occupied, camps remained safe, and the world stayed as static as ever beyond the 45 minute “farm”.

To use an example, I recall in Rift that when the Planar Invasions occurred, they occupied quest hubs. The NPCs were slaughtered no longer there; the hub completely changed. Players could not do the quests from there -turn in or obtain- without first dealing with the Planar creatures and taking back the hub. THAT was truly world-effecting dynamic events.

Scarlet’s victory -and the player’s failure- can be summed up with her chuckling and deciding to ….leave? Really? Okay, so the evil badgu….girl wins the day and yet still decides to give the land to the goodie, goodie heroes? I can’t be the only one who sees something wrong with that.

Possible suggestion(s) for future Scarlet victories (because they will happen unless the Champion thing gets fixed fast):

-Lightning from the sky using Aetherblade tech. Killing every player in the zone at the same time.
-Scarlet has a “gold magnet” and takes 1 gold from every participant in the zone (these would be people who got silver or above in the events).
-Zone stays occupied by Scarlet’s minions for no less than 2-4hrs after the event ended, all “friendly” NPCs constantly attacked and/or killed by them and making it very unfavorable to quest or do anything within the zone (occupied units might have 1-2 champions, but those are non-loot dropping champs).
-Lions Arch gets invaded and occupied by Scarlet and requires a “breakout event” of some kind that cannot happen for 30minutes after occupation began. All players booted out to surrounding zones.

Look, those above may sound like crazy suggestions, but they’re something to a true cause&effect needed within the game. There has to be SOME kind of negative condition for losing all the time. Is the player base going to be happy to be a bunch of Participation Reward losers (again, not used in a name-calling fashion, but in term of definition of one that loses at something)?

This suggestion comes at the simplistic idea that the game would be a lot more enjoyable if it was played for the sake of being a fun game.

“Loot” has taken front center over story, over success, over community, over friendliness, over everything! Honestly, it needs to stop.

No excuses from the players about “it’s designed that way”, or “it’s the dev’s fault”, or “who cares” or whatever excuse can be thrown at it. Know how’s fault it really it? The players; the individuals who voluntarily choose to purposely fail events, to repeatedly farm, to trash talk other players, and to obsess about getting more coin per hour (or whatever else they obsess about).

So, back to my original suggestion: Removing loot drops from the entire game, and making everything “skin only”. It’ll probably never happen in a million years, but it’s a dang good way to fix the people problem. Because the players just wont’ change….

Have No Faith In Me.1840:

Julie Yann.5379:

If they gave no reward for failure and left the rest of the event as is, you would still have a hard time completing it cause the farmers would just go back to farmer champs in Frostgorge and Orr and you would be stuck trying to complete it with 1/2 the people..

This, except closer to 1/4th the people.

But, with scaling, 1/4th the people is still very much doable. The problem is that with all these farming leeches -yes, that’s exactly what they are-, they scale the event up to a super high level getting tons of champions (as per their obvious goal) and other mobs. This makes it nearly impossible for those trying to complete it to actually complete it with both scale and other players working against it.

If those leeching farmers were to go back to Orr, then they wouldn’t be making the event work against those who are trying to complete it. More would get done, in a better fashion. So what if they leave? Wouldn’t miss them; wouldn’t care. In fact, please do this change and MAKE THEM LEAVE!

/end angry post that sounds like a rant but totally isn’t.

hector.2891:

They can check or ask for ip sellers and buyers on internet selling pages and check if they associate with any gw2 account.

IP banning has been a failed concept since 2007ish. This is because dynamic IPs and IP spoofing. Both of these will mean that one banned IP could circulate back into a legit person’s account and get them banned. No company wants to risk such a thing. And yes, I’m aware that a NIC has a single-PC identification ID with it, but those can be swapped too so that the PC can once again be read as something different on a network, bypassing a ban.

Technically, they’re not selling an “in-game item”. What they are selling is “a string of code consisting of digits and numbers”, which coincidently when entered on an ArenaNet account will unlock a special Mr. Sparkles mini. LOOP HOLES!

ZudetGambeous.9573:

There isn’t anything Anet can do about it. The codes aren’t associated with a specific IP address so they can’t know who is supposed to input the codes from where.

I suppose they could send the codes to accounts instead of handing them out, but I don’t know how they did it.

Simple really, during an event the attendees have a sheet that they sign and put their account name down on it. Then after the event is over, the developers pass the list to their programmers and/or GM team to send out in-game mails with the item within it. As a few extra steps and a few more employees paid for the effort, it might not be financially reliable as just instead printing cards with codes on them.

Knote.2904:

ArchonWing.9480:

This isn’t hard to deal with. If an event is prolonged for too long, loot should be severely degraded, possibly even to nothing. This allows farming without abusing it to make it the sole goal and make it so that winning is more important and is consistent with Anet’s stances towards loot in general.

Furthermore, the chest at the end of the event shouldn’t be gated or restricted at all. Though will you object to people speedrunning these things?

No, that’s as bad as DR, an artificial band aid fix for something that’s fundamentally flawed design wise.

Reward for beating an event >>> Reward for failing an event.

It’s that simple.

IMO event mobs shouldn’t drop loot at all, make it so each mob killed “stores” the loot for the event and when you beat it everyone gets an equal share of that loot based on their participation.

Participation should be based on how long during the event you were “participating” instead of just how much dmg you did to some mobs in the event or w/e.

That itself is a great idea that’s similar to what I’ve been thinking/saying (which is that all Champions should be tied to a DE and only the DE completion gives out a chest similar to the Daily Chest…but after completion only; failure rewards only Karma and coin, no “loot”).

Why is the Lion’s Arch infamous fountain still MIA?

Dragon Bash and it’s subsequent interruption has ended over a month ago. At that time the Asura replaced the fountain with the giant holographic projection device. But, since it’s inoperable right now, why is that HPD still in LA instead of being moved for a installment of the fountain?

If memory serves correct, Mad King Thorn has a knack for destroying the LA Fountain (as he so ruthlessly did last year). We have about 1 and 1/2 months until that cackling nutjob pops up again for one more round of “try to escape the Mad Realm”. We would like to see the fountain reinstated so that it can be experienced for the short period before once again it gets destroyed.

ilr.9675:

Pretty biased opening there….

They replaced IOP / capture the flag with MORE CONQUEST mode.
Don’t you think if people wanted to be doing that all day, they’d be in sPvP and not WvW?

Teq: They didn’t need to add a unique-skin Carrot + require 10x more people just to get bads to SPREAD OUT and actually defend the Turret encampments. It’ll also fall into the same status as Jormag a month later once eveyone’s gotten their Achieves and realized the skin still isn’t as flashy as those gaudy Legendaries. WHY?? B/c they give all the Minions the same punitive No-Loot treatment as the Claw…

LFG tool: gonna be a cesspool of bads when it comes to dungeons. Many will still use LFG.com to find higher quality players.

Not sure where the “biased” is in my original post. It was basic summarization of the PAX Live Stream details for the next patch following tomorrows, ended with a few questions that I’d had about the content related to it.

The follow up post about people purposely failing events to farm Champions is biased, sure, but that’s because I despise them with a passion. They’re losers in the base definition of the term (not name calling, actual defining): they lose at content completion. Why? Because instant gratification of getting a reward now via champion is much easier than completing to get a chest that may or may not include something they want.

The problem with the ORB mechanic was that it was far too easily exploited. Sure they fixed many of the exploits, but the problem is that say 5 programmers are fixing it while 100 players are coming up with new exploits -an uphill fight, basically-. The new lakes mechanic does multiple things for WvW: static capture points that are less likely to be exploited, as well as spreading out the players. With 5 points total, and 3 being required for the perk, it means that a team would have to spread out by a minimum of 3 as a victory condition. Zerg reduction forced inside new mechanic = good news for everyone (except zerg obsessed players)

Your LFG post: Talk about biased. “cesspool of bads”…is that how you see your fellow players? Ever stopped for 5sec to explain a fight to a new player? Assist someone on a build? Stop to resurrect a total stranger? Although Karma is a currency in-game, there’s also the concept that extends to everything you do: “treat others how you want to be treated”, “respect and be respected”, “do good and receive good”, “you get yours in the end”.

anzenketh.3759:

Siphaed.9235:

anzenketh.3759:

*snipped

Question 6: Just like it is now.

*snipped

As for #6, you say “as it is now”, I think you misunderstand the context of what I was asking. I’m wondering if they’re going to do something similar to the Scarlet Invasions, but with undead minions under the command of Te’Quatl throughout other zones (ones beyond Spark Fly Fen).

1. I understand your question now. I do not see this likely. It would be fun though for the effecting the world.

Is it “not likely” because the players will repeatedly fail it over and over again to farm Undead Champion #6,587 just to get the “phat lootz” as a sort of instant gratification for themselves?

I maybe coming off as perturbed, but that’s because this is how PvE has currently become in both the Meta events encircling the Scarlet Invasions, as well as those of Orr. I’m really hoping that they patch in several fixes to the permanent content -and the temp events- very soon. Hopefully something like a Champ Chest cap of 2 per Dynamic Event or something that would purposely encourage players to continue chains and finish one Dynamic Event to go onto another. That might be a negative form of encouragement, but the only other option would be to try to find ways to shift the Champ Chest off the actual champion mob, but instead place it on the Dynamic Event for the sake of completion (failing obviously wouldn’t produce a chest, mob killed or not).

See, I like what they’re doing with Te’Qualt that they’ve already done with The Claws of Jormag: Champion mobs tied to the event do not drop loot chests, thus aren’t profitably farmable. This keeps the focus off of trash mobs and instead on the main event: a giant skrittin’ dragon trying to kill you!

Venirto.4208:

I’d like the Stalwart and Commando medium armors to be added as well.

Commando is within the game already. It’s piecemealed out to the player through sections of their Personal Story chain (near the end in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s). Now, if players miss out by not selecting them, that’s their problem. Just equally the same goes for deleting them too.

Why does everything to your generation -sorry for the assumption, but I’m pegging you into the Instant Gratification (IG) Generation- need to have some reward to make it purposeful to you (generalized “you”)?

Mini pets are fine as they are right now: visual pets that follow the player around.

The only issue I personally have with them is that bug that makes them follow 50yrs behind the player instead of near like they should. That’s a low priority issue to the developers compared to other things in the game, so I respect that it’s taken a while to get fixed.

anzenketh.3759:

Question 1:This will be coming on the 17th patch. October is when Season 1 WvW starts.

Question 2: Watch this space.

Question 3: If it is anything like Gw1 LFG system yes they will no longer be in a LFG party system. If that does not happen I expect it to be a hotfix. It makes no sence to leave them in the LFG system when they are not logged in

Question 4: If it is anything like the Gw1 LFG system you actually joined the party that you were LFG for. Then you communicated. Went wherever and did the party stuff and left.

Question 5: Yes
Source: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/7728/page/1

Question 6: Just like it is now.

Thank you for that season answer. I got the stream quotes mixed up a bit. Though the recording is up and I was able to rewatch it, it would seem that the map changes are set for the 17th patch and the season is indeed in October. Also, thanks for the MMORPG.com link, didn’t finish the article yet, but still a good find.

As for #6, you say “as it is now”, I think you misunderstand the context of what I was asking. I’m wondering if they’re going to do something similar to the Scarlet Invasions, but with undead minions under the command of Te’Quatl throughout other zones (ones beyond Spark Fly Fen).

So everyone’s almost in one swift move forgotten about the Super Adventure Box in 3 days (3rd of Sept). That’s because the big news of what patch releases after it was revealed at PAX. That patch, aptly dubbed “The Rising”, hits on the 17th. So, what’s in it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The ~ Rising~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• WvW Season #1 starts: ~all servers in their respective regions (Europe and North America) will get split into multiple brackets -Gold, Silver, Bronze- and fight it out for 7 weeks. Winners in November will get a unique PvP finisher and trophy (?). Oh…let’s not forget bragging rights, because there’s that. ~~ Starts October 4th, completely different patch.

• Bloodlust in the Borderlands : ~ Borderlands are going to be getting map revamps for WvWvW. Shown in the Live Stream sneak peak on Aug 23rd, the maps will get a new mechanic similar to the sPvP point capture. There will be 5 new locations added to the maps around the central lake, each being a sort of Boon-shrine that can be captured. Holding 3 or more of them gives your server a similar effect to that of the old Orb mechanics (though full details have not been revealed yet).

• Te’Quatl the Sunless revamp: ~possibly that “GW2 unique version of raiding?”. 80-man, level 65 or higher and well geared, as well as coordinated players required. Mechanics include fields, mob control, debuffing, environmental weapons, damage avoidance, massive AoEs, and extra shielding. Loot table has been revamped to include Te’Quatl specific Ascended weapons, rare mini Te’Quatl, Ascended crafting materials, and just all around good stuff. And, as seen in the PAX preview, it’s very much possible to fail the event (though still obtain loot at certain HP thresholds on the beast). Special note that the developer had mentioned: mobs spawned during the event don’t drop loot, so that way there aren’t purpose fails for the Champions, or people paying more attention to the mobs than the boss.

• Looking For Group tool revamp: Did you know that GW2 has a LFG tool? It’s on a Tab under Contacts, and it’s very simplistic. Well, the new rollout is going to be a 300% improvement over that one, though still in the exact same place. It’ll have a [Join] button, so no more /join or /invite needed. The tool also shows classes in the group, names of the players when scrolled over, and a special message that the original listing person can set (ex. “Need 4 more Zerk Warriors for CoF pt 1, link gear”…..well, that’s a worse case scenario example, but you get the idea). There are categories for all types of gameplay that pools from your entire region [without cross region], but has two exceptions: WvW and Open World under Living World….seeing as how you can’t cross-server the former and the latter is assumed that you’ll be on your server instead of the ol log-out/log-in to guest.

Q’s)

1: Last week on Friday the 23rd of August, Hugh Norfolk revealed that WvW Borderlands are going to get a map update/revamp. This was shown in a new mechanic that’s related to them having 5 Boon-giving capture points surrounding the central lake on the map. Will this map change occur for Season #1 on the 17th or will it happen after that in November?

2: Will the Te’Quatl mini and uniquely skinned Ascended Weapons be tradable, thus sellable on the Trading Post? Or, are they Account Bound or Soulbound?

3: Will the LFG have an automatic delisting for individuals that log-off from the game?

4: Being that tPvP (Tournament sPvP) can give leaver debuffs, will the LFG be locked out of people that are in a match?

5: Since players can put text inside the LFG tool, and KNOWING the playerbase, there are reasonable expectations of a way to report those that write up profane, obscene, prejudice, and racist terms in that section. Yes or no?

6: Te’Quatl is undead. PvE event encircles him. Just him, or zone invasions to every other zone in Tyria? 6.5) And if every zone, is Lion’s Arch -a city that borders the Sea of Sorrows from which Zhaitan’s forces come- be considered a prime invasion location?

So there’s a run down of the upcoming patch as well my questions and concerns related to it. In the mean time between then and now I’ll have a few days left of using Scarlet’s forces as punching bags. And from there it’s on to the enjoyment of World #2 of SAB. Yay! Joy! 8-bit entertainment!

Miss Pink Floyd.9730:

I was less than 25 salvages from getting my monthly and they reset it on me. It is still the 31st of August! I am really kittening upset, I put a lot of effort into it, all for nothing.

It’s not “early”, as it’s been like this since the introduction of Monthly Achievements. It’s always, ALWAYS 5pm PST on the very last day of the month.

I completely disagree with your post, Duke. The point is to make viewing it ENTERTAINING.

Watching a football game is about the entertainment, not trying to deduce the base stats of players, their weight, the trajectory of the ball, the plays, the coach’s words, and so on. That’s just CRAZY!

Most people watch for the entertainment value of it, and these shoutcasters of this current tournament (still going on at this post) is entertaining. No reason to see individual numbers flying, stats and UI cluttering up the actual content: THE FIGHT! From the player-view camera, you can see the actual fight, and it’s entertaining to watch.

The only thing of your post I can agree with is that the overhead map cameras needs a better view.

Siliconmana.3816:

While it should provide rewards and much fun for those with vertical prowess, some of us just simply fail dismally at JP’s. Now Anet wants to rub salt in the wound and bring in round two of SAB for more frustration and impossible rewards. Yaay…not.

Infantile mode is just for you. It allows you to complete the 8-bit stylized dungeon while skipping the jumping parts (via sparkly rainbows and smiling clouds). However, from my understand it would seem that Infantile Mode is so “easy” that rewards are almost non-existent in it. So, there you go.

What a bunch of selfish, negative trolls this thread has. Most the time you here “A.Net isn’t releasing numbers, because the game is doing poorly.” They finally release numbers in a PR statement at their ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY and the trolls are again out in force with “these numbers are last years numbers; no way they’re current.” Seriously, please stop trying to poke holes into the game’s success.

I’m sorry that Guild War 2’s success some how causes you such strife in the world. That’s something that needs a reality check fast, as the world doesn’t revolve around the individual (anyone). There are millions that enjoy this game, there are 460k that logged in at once recently (the number back in January was 400k, so it’s spiked 60k since then). These are undisputable facts from the people that are able to monitor the numbers through providing the service; whether you believe them is completely moot as they are factual. Deal with it!

Diviner.7405:

So I never really understood this logic.

Why cater to casuals?

I have heard claims and claims that there is a larger casual base than a hardcore base…. but is this really true?

Now I might be wrong here, but I would imagine casuals are the people more likely to move from game to game after 1 month or so then a hardcore player.

So what I see Guild Wars 2 doing is:
Most casuals move on to other games in 1 month or so no matter what you add to the game. It is just their nature.

At the same time, hardcore players are alienated and leave.

So the outcome is that you are losing on both sides. Would it not be better to keep the hardcore fan-base, so you are at least winning on 1 side?

Maybe Im missing something here…. hmmmm

You’re missing everything.

1) You’re making too many sweeping generalizations for things you “imagine” (something you said yourself).

2) ‘Hardcores’ are the most likely to jump from game to game to game. This is based on them eating through content really, really fast and trying to jump to the “next big thing” just to eat through that content. *This is my perspective only, as I’ve seen through many of games.

3) ‘Casuals’ take longer to experience content, thus tend to stay within a game a bit longer. They also create an enjoyable, friendly community that helps expand the population. *This again is personal perspective only, as seen in many games.

4) If you’ve read recent information about the game’s 1st Year mark, you’d know that the population has not shrank. Instead the population has actually grown in terms of concurrent players and boxes sold. That right there says that the direction the game is taking works for the developers the best. There is no “losing from both sides”, as you put it.