Guild Wars 2

Lord no, I don’t even play it now and it’s free. There would need to be a MASSIVE change in direction for me to even consider paying a sub for what GW2 has become.
Look I’m happy to pay for regular added content and progressive game play. Ilve payed subs in WoW, EvE, War, Swtor, DCUO and i have an active prem acc in WoTs. But I’ll be kittened if I’m gnna be nickle and dimed by Anet, for sub-standard, broken gameplay, then be expected to pay 15 bucks a month in the hopes that they may one day get it right.

No

/15 Charrs

Lol, I think this problem just shows what a lot of players have been saying for months now. The loot/dr system is just utterly kittenen broken.
there have been threadnaughts about the looting/dr problems in this game and the best answer we can get from Anet is “working as intended”. After 3 months of Pr bs about their utterly broken DR system I was hoping the chests were a step in the right direction. Nice to see Anet are, at the very least, consistently inept

LOL.. so the Anet response to the thread about gear drop imbalances from open world to Fractals was…. wait for it…. Nerf the Fractals !1!!1

LOL.. so the Anet response to the thread about gear drop imbalances from open world to Fractals was…. wait for it…. Nerf the Fractals !1!!1You really didn’t see this coming people? … Really ?!

Edit.. Why is this stupid post repeating itself ?

RedBaron.6058:

Companies only listen to numbers: Sales, earnings growth, annual revenues, stock prices, etc.

The only way to be listened is to affect these numbers. It can take some time but it will work.

Concerning the numbers published in this thread, they mean nothing. Our own personal experience since the launch of this game is the best parameter to compare with the actual game experience.

Its a personal decision to accept the current state of affairs, to keep complaining or to give up.

I expressed my opinion extensively on the closed thread.

Time is the best equalizer. We will see what happens.

Until then I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Best regards,

Red

Yep I’m the same.

I just keep checking the forums once or twice a week to see if there has been a response.

As Red said, we’re being jerked around and nickel and dimed. Vote with your wallet.

Oh and feel free to voice your displeasure on other gaming forums when they mention GW2… I certainly do

Erasculio.2914:

Broken Angel.4956:

Its not player driven. Its supply/demand driven. And the supply is controlled by ANet

Do you think ArenaNet controls how many Legendary items there are in the game right now?

Or that they control the demand for those items?

Do you even understand the concept of supply and demand in the first place?

Of course they control how many Legendarys are in the game… they control the drop rate.

Of course they control the demand of Lengendarys… by making it the pre-eminent end game goal.

If you’re going to make condescending reply posts you might want to back it up with some thought chap. You’ll sound a lot less like a rabid fanboy

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

We’ve seen reports from players questioning the randomness of the drop mechanisms in GW2 and in particular asking if it’s been changed recently. This is not the case and we don’t think that the randomness mechanism is misbehaving, but we’re running some data to be sure there isn’t anything unexpected going on. So far nothing shows anything suspicious but we’ll keep gathering data and analyzing it. We’ve also created a thread where players can share with us their concrete data about any perceived strange drop behavior they encounter:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Share-your-data-about-perceived-strange-drop-behavior-here/first

Thanks for your understanding and help!

… really ?!

I’m at a loss for words.

Where do we start?
Well there’s a 1200 post thread of Data that players have accumulated, in fact youlre in it. Maybe you could start with that ?
Then there’s the TP, which has been inflating at a frightening rate since november. Since we now have a lot more lvl 80 players shouldn’t there be more lvl 80 rares/exotics on the market ? This is the trend I’ve noticed with every other new AAA mmo on the market, yet for some strange reason GW2 is heading in the opposite direction.

Why did Anet feel the need to start a stickied thread, where the tone of the post.is not a little insulting ? Asking it’s customers to supply ‘concrete’ data on a problem that
started 2 months ago ?!
What ‘concrete’ baseline are we meant to be comparing this data too? You wont tell us how DR really works or how the drop rates are supposed to be, so how are we supposed to gather data on a system we know nothing about?
I for one am not going to spend my time trying to prove to you your loot system is broken. This thread did a pretty good job of it and the only responses from the Anet team has been ‘Working as intended’ and ‘Prove it’… this kind of thing makes me angry.

But the person I’m angriest with is myself. For believing that a company that produces games might have actually cared about the IP they created. After the travestys that were WAR, DCUO and SWtoR I should have known better. I just love MMO gameplay.

I’d just like one last questioned answered.
When exactly did the MMO development companies stop seeing their Customers as actual Customers and start seeing them as ignorant cash-cows who they could milk for every dime possible with broken, un-finished products ?

Well the Steam sales on, might as well go find something else to play.

I do agree with the op to a certain extent. Unfortunately ‘Holiday’ content is disposable. It’s here for a few days to a week then its gone. when you see the amount of work involved you start to ask yourself wether the time in development was worth the return in valu to the game and the community.
Added to that, some of the major content in GW2 needs to be looked at (WvW, sPvP, even buggy dungeons and open world events, guild functionality). Yet the majority of content since relese seems to be disposable seasonal filler with additional legalised gambling for children. Though the one shining light in seasonal content is that it only needs major development once, then can be rehashed ad infinitum.
Yet as previous posters have mentioned, we are still only 4 months old. I have my fingers crossed that Jan/Feb will see some solid content fixes and updates. Though I have an ining we wont see much in the way of majot content release till after the first 12 month cycle.

Kietay.2345:

Winning is one specific moment in GW2. Absolutely unarguably it exists as a definite point.

That point is the moment when you are wandering around as a lowly Elementalist in WvWvW, and a team of 4 suddenly spot you and charge in for the easy kill. You just grin to yourself and immediately ride the lightning to their thief, up-drafting him into a triple fire combo. You continue you dance around them as your AOE attacks and multiple heals drain away their life and keep you at full.

Finally, the moment you win in GW2 occurs, when you see the last person left alive, his three friends dead, and he realizes “We’ve just lost a 4v1 against an elementalist” and he begins to run away.

Of course you kill him, but the real win moment is when their joy turns to fear! Their glee at victory into terror and retreat. Especially when you see the 4 of them again… and that moment comes after you kill only one then next time.

Thats it!

I was gonna write another P2W gripe, and you just shut me up.

Yes you are entirely correct, this is “Win”

I’m going to go roll an Elementalist now, and it’s all your fault

Mkalafut.1273:

It’s Halloween all over again. I have nearly 10 of each of the other minipets and have yet to see a single mini Snowman. Bought 10$ more of gems for some more boxes again tonight and this time it was just a ton of tonics and presents (a.k.a sweaters socks and hats).

Meanwhile, my friend has ~20 of each pet and can’t send me a single snowman because they’re account bound. I’m not spending another cent on gems because I know I won’t get it if after 50$ I haven’t already gotten it.

Is there any plan to make these pets from the boxes tradable? Because this is a bit obnoxious.

The only problem with GW2 is people like you.
I’m glad you have learned your lesson but you’ve done so much damage to the game now that Anet will probably just continue with this farcical excuse for content for the foreseeable future.
What happens when the next “holiday” content is released and they have a new mini that you just HAVE to have. Will you say to yourself ’I’ll just spend 20$ on keys" ?

Think of the amount of genuine content they could have released instead of putting all the dev time into new minis and costumes. More development time could of been spent on squashing bugs, fixing broken content and balancing classes.
But NOOOO, because the sheeple in the world and the Pokemon kittenen mentatlity, the genuine gamers, the people who actually want to game, and help develop the communities of the game… we have to suffer.
If I had one wish this Christmas (and if that fat, pagan, red dressed effigy of corporate greed actually existed), it would be for the GW2 community to STOP BUYING KEYS kitten img src="/include/images/smilies/smile.png" />

Cheers

Good grief,
You mean you didn’t get the hint after the whole holloween debacle. The problem with the system thats in place is that people STILL spend money on it. If you stopped throwing your hard earned at an inherently corrupt system they might actually change it.

No pity for self affliction.

I’ve been fairly vocal in my displeasure at the direction Anet has taken GW2.
Though after the whole Karka Chest debacle, Anet managed to get me sorted out and I posted to that effect in a thread, with my thanks. That earned me a verbal from some fanboy tool.
AS I’ve said in previous threads, I actually like this game. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. It has massive potential and could well be a contender. The only thing stopping that are the developers and whichever suits are making budget and design choices.
Must admit they’ve done a better job of Wintersday. I’m not interested in all the fluff and gambling crud but visually it’s been pretty cool.
I’m still never going to buy another gem until they fix the droprates… just saying

All I want for Christmas is…

my drop rates fixed

Syktek.7912:

Riel.2160:

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

Who kittenen cares.

Anet / ncsosft money department should

and that means all of you fanboys too …
you know less money less content even less bug fixes?

No, no they shouldn’t. They already made money off him and if he doesn’t get a refund ,Which most people will not, they made their money off him.

This game will stay healthy for quite some time and probably has already met its marketing needs to the point where they have made money off of it. They will continue to do so regardless of players like this leaving as more will always join.

Just look at EVE Online. The great freak out of September 2011 (Oh the drama was delicious), nearly ten thousand players left or even more. CCP shrugged it off and guess what? Most of them came back and they have many new players now.

CCP didnt “Shrug it off”. The CEO wrote a public apology, they changed the direction of their game and a few people lost their jobs over it.. or so the Internet scuttlebutt goes.
But then again, CCPs one of the smarter MMO devs out there. They KNOW how to monetize their product. Anet should be going to CCP for advice, not the bottom-feeders from Nexon

Oh yeah, and GL to the OP, I hope you find what you’re looking for. I’m in the market for a new mmo myself.. any suggestions ?

Yep, ended up sending in a report mainly to see if I was eligible. Got the chest yesterday.
I’ve been doing a lot of whinging on the forums lately about the state of our game but props to Anet for getting this one sorted out.

So TY Anet from a disgruntled customer

I have no goals apart frm progresaion and persomal enjoyment, and I was getting that at release. No2 that the game has changed my level of enjoyment has fallen through the floor.
I have no objection to paying for gems, in fact I have been since release. 10-15 bucks a month just to show my appreciation. I’ve bought bank slots, armor skins and even a few BL keys during Halloween. But I did that because I wanted too, not because I had too.
Since the infamous stealth nerf I’ve decided Anet wont get another cent from this fat wallet. I will NOT be nickel and dimex on a game I’ve already paid for.

The thing is, some of us cant dedicate the time needed to farm dungeons. 3 screaming kids in the house and a 60 hr a week job means I can’t spend that amount of uninterrupted time glued to a keyboard. At release at least I felt I could get some progression just playing casually, catch up with the power grinders and compete on a relatively lvl playing field.
Now I have an 80 (he’s only 3 wks old) Ilve hit the wall. Open world has just become a giant pita, hours of gaming for little reward and no progression. I can’t even get through Malchors Leap with all the bugs and randomly spawning mobs. Between WP and repair costs I’m hemmoraging gold at a frightening rate.
I’m down to playing an hour a week now and soon I’ll be gone. the fact that Ilm still here, surfing the forums and looking for answers should show you how much I actually enjoyed my gameplay at release. I’ve come to the conclusion that GW2 is no longer a casual PvErs game. Go HC dungeon grinder or FOB2WoW ? Because thats all I’m hearing from Anet and the community.

RedBaron.6058:

Well, I dont even play today because I know it will be another night of farming without rewards. I will keep coming to forum in the hope something changes but until then I will play my nice tier 7 – tier 10 tanks..:)

Now if you really want to see a fine example of P2W, it’s WoTs.
unfortunately I never made it into my T54 befor they released the tier 10 meds.
Not a bad suggestion though, havn’t blatted round in my T43 in ages

10 points for effort, 3 points for execution.

I tried hard to work through the lagfest first stage. Did the quests up to second stage till the 3vent bugged out. I thought I’d get back to it after work on monday. Got back hpme to find out the third event was completed, and I’d missed out on some Phat loot. Was a little miffed but hey, not the end of the world.
Then there was the whole d/c issue, Anet said theyld fix it and they have certaiy attempted to. Unfortunately they seem to have done as poor a job of fixing it ad they did of the event itself. When I saw on the forums that people who’d never participated in the evnt at all were getting a chest, I thought they’d taken the easy and smart route and just given everyone a chest. This would have enabled Anet to draw a line under the evnt and the community would have moved on.
Now unfortunately we have this debacle. Now we’ll have another month of hate whining on the forums.
TY for your hard work in trying to fix this issue Anet, but I believe you have failed and you now need to take a serious look and whatever monitoring and metric systems you have runnin in game. Moving Forward (ty Chris) I’d like to suggest you send a chest to everyone and move onto your Christmas event with fingers crossed that this waont happen again

Sotaudi.1265:

Snores.7806:

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

Thanks for the explanation.

I can see how this works for Call of Duty for example. But for an MMO, that is supposed to be long-term enjoyment, this would be shooting themselves in the foot. No one would ever buy something from them again. Ever.

I honestly think Anet isnt stupid enough to choose a course like that. Which brings me to my second question: why do you think anet would choose a course like this?

Which AAA MMO have you participated in for the last 5 tears has given you “long term enjoyment” ? Swtor ? DCUO ? LotRO ? AoC? WAR ?

I can’t name a single one apart from WoW and EVE, and they’ve been going for 10 yrs. MMO companies have discovered that the easy bucks are based around hype and a quick turnaround

First, WoW came out in November of 2004. By the most recent discoveries in the field of mathematics, it turns out that WoW, then, has only been out for eight years, not ten. Likewise, Eve was released in May of 2003, which means it has been out only a bit over nine years, not ten. By contrast, SWG came out only month after Eve and over a year before WoW. Even despite the NGE, the game lasted until December of last year, which means it was out as long as WoW has been thus far. More to the point, EQ2 came out a month before WoW, and it is still going. LotRO released in April 2007. It is still around.

As to the “long term enjoyment” argument, I have never and will never play Eve, and I played WoW for a total of seven months. By contrast, I played SWG on and off until just before LotRO came out, probably about two years total play time. I played EQ2 for a total of at least two years. I played LotRO from Open Beta until the day they announced it was going free-to-play. It released in April 2007, and the announcement was in June of 2010, that means I played LotRO for just over three years. I left because of the announcement they were going free to play, not because of the game play itself.

Similarly, I played SW:TOR from early access. I left around August this year, not because I did not like the game, but because I got fed up with the negativity of people who wanted the game to be SWG2, WoW in space, or KOTOR: Online and were finding fault with every aspect of the game because it was not. In short, I left the game because of the community, not the game itself, but, still, I played it at least as long as I played WoW. Additionally, I played Rift longer than I played WoW. I played STO longer than I played WoW (I am still playing it on and off).

The idea that the only games that are in it for the long-term are WoW and Eve or that only they offer long-term enjoyment is non-sense. MMOs are experimenting with non-traditional subscription models (with a hybrid subscription/free-to-play combination being the most likely next standard model), but they are not throwing away millions of dollars of development money in the hopes of running a game for only a couple of years. Some MMOs have, indeed, failed out of the gate. But these failed from either bad design or the growing unrealistic expectations of the MMO community as a whole, not because of some tin-hat conspiracy that they are looking only for short term profits.

I like my tin foil hat. It’s snug, warm and stops the CIA from scanning my thoughts with their ebil, ebil satellites

But I digress. As I’ve said in a previous post, this is just my opinion, and I’m running a holding pattern with GW2 atm and waiting to see how it develops. I only statted playing MMOs about 7 yrs ago and certainly havn’t seen everything on the market. My opinions are based alot on study and conjecture but they are my opinions. This is the first mMo Ilve played that haa a cash shop really, others developed them aftervIld given up and have never come back.

All in all I’m happy to be re-educated by the more knowledgable gamers out there. Just pls keep the flaming and personal attacks to a minimum

Agreed, and they are fully entitled to monetize their product as they see fit. Though at which point does it become exploitative behaviour ? and how far will they go to increase their profits? There’s already alot of unhappy customers out there now

As … disjointed as that post was, he has a valid point. But it’s a point being made all over so just because he enjoys farming (which the company has nerfed into the ground) theres no need to rag on the guy.

To the OP, i’d really recommend you stay away from the Mystic Toilet, you’r litererally flushing your gold down a hole. Also coming onto the forums to rage is just a bad Idea. Itls just flame bait for the trolls to tell you how you’re ‘doin it wrong’

Best of luck

Hmmm, didn’t really start this thread as a robust discussion on P2W games. It was mainly based on what I believe to be the slippery slope that the company has started down. The observations of increased grind, vertical progression and what seems ro be an out of control economy. I was hoping to get peoples opinion on the direction the company has taken since release and wether we’ll see more of it in the future.
I will weigh in on the P2W argument though. I believe it depends entirely on your definition of ‘win’ in an MMO. What exactly do you consider to be ‘Win’ in GW2?
If you believe that having a fully geared 80 with all the best gear, bells and trimmings then yes, GW2 is definitely P2W. If you believe it tb be having a distinct advantage over a non paying customer then I’d have to say no, as any one has access to the ability to get similar geared.
What does wrry me though is that if the company continues along the path it has been travelling since release, they are going to make the cash shop more and more attractive for your avg player. Enticement can be a terribly powerful tool to manipulate the OCD types who make up the major population of most MMOs.

Hold on to to it mate. With the current inflation rate it should be worth around six squibillion gold in 3 months time. You’ll be able to buy a new pair of trousers

phaneo.4597:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Teleporting-gatherer-bots/910421

So yeah, they’re not sleeping, not on vacation or anything else; but basically ignoring this.

- I always hated MMO’s for being grindy. I have always been single player gaming guy and never played another MMO.
- GW2 gets advertised as non-grindy game. I read a lot about it and user reviews during BWE’s and buy the game.
- I play a couple of BWE’s and feel happy about my decision to buy.
- Game goes live and I start playing. Eventually I start reading about legendaries and find them quite attractive.
- Quite a lot of the players already started running around with a ton of gold and legendaries before the game was even a month old. Good for them, I feel a bit motivated to get one.
- Someone rants how a casual can’t have a legendary and they’ll always suck and should stick to lower end of the game. I get irritated and make getting a legendary my primary goal in the game.
- Nerfs inbound. They fixed Karma weapon exploit while people who exploited got their accounts back and no items actually taken from them. Godskull weapon exploit fixed, and people already benefited with the exploit are let go.
- DR inbound. Bots are still active and since they don’t really live, breath, go to work/school and spend their precious time on gaming it hardly affects them; meanwhile genuine players farming hit DR and get lesser rewards.
- More nerfs inbound along with bugged one-time events and pointless new content, with precursors given away to the lucky few who made it through the end of the whole event while many disconnected/couldn’t join the event due to first 2 phases being laggy and buggy and being unfortunate to be born and live in a different timezone.
- Dyes drop like porous bones, and they suddenly nerf it before any casual player noticed it, while hardcore players farmed them like crazy making ton of gold in the current market.
- Patch that’s supposed to improve loot in open world, infact decreases the rate to a pathetic level and new patches don’t help this issue either.

GW2 was basically promoted as the game that players can play the way they want, with no grind, and primarily a casual player-oriented game.

Play the way you want: You can’t – farm same events/same dungeons, request anything on forums, or raise your voice.
No grind – Exotic gear – grind; legendary weapon – let’s not talk about it even; dungeon gear – grind; ascended gear – grind; monthly achievements – grind
Casual friendly: Avg play time of casual player :- 3-4hrs a day (zero drops in that playtime); Avg play time of hardcore players:- practically whole day except when they don’t eat/sleep/take dumps etc (more gold made in a day than casual player)

So…

I was going to write a “travesty” timeline when I got home tonite. Unfortunately you beat me to it. Though i would have added the BLC chest debacle from the first Halloween event

Well played Sir

BLCs are a giant waste of time and money. You’ll get a couple of boosters, a potion or 2 and a gathering implement.
None of these things will be of any real benefit to your game experience. You would be better off selling your chest and trashing your keys

Well said Sir.

The game game was a kitten sight better at release.

Now it’s just a crippled shell of it’s former potential..

Unfortunately the powers that be chose to monetize their product rather then improve it. F2P in 6 months. You heard it here first !

Mirta.5029:

Snores.7806:

@Mirta
At the moment you are the top of the food chain. A hardcore player with established 80s and money in the bank. Not trying to take away from your achievements but tH majority of that success would have come before the income nerfs.
What chance does a new player now have to try and get to a lvl playing field? How much more difficult do you think it is now then 3 months ago ?
Those that have played since release and pushed through the content early have a distinct advantage over those players now entering the game. How much worse is that gap going to become over the next 3 months?

well I only started playing a month ago so lol?
I’m also leveling 2 alts, without using my 80s money and I could say that so far I’m not getting worse drops. Later with the top tier of gear being ascended, newbies will actually be the ones winning, because people with 80s right now already spent money on their exotics and will be spending the same amount again for the ascendeds if they feel like it. Newbies coming in later will only be making the top tier – ascendeds, not spending anything on exotics and saving money like veterans couldn’t have.
Really it’s all a point of perspective. I can say that right now the game, for me is not worse than it was a month ago, so I don’t see the advantage being that big on either side.

lol, yep you’re definitely a hardcore player. I’ve been playing since pre-release and I only got my Guardian to 80 two weeks ago.
Maybe the problem isn’t the game after all but my decidedly casual playstyle. It just seems that every week that I log on the goalposts have moved that little bit further away.
And though I can see where you’re coming from with your reasoning behind the game getting easier for new players, it doesnt really stand up to analysis. When a new player finally gets there toon to 80 they are going to be competing with you for the availble gear and materials on the TP. Exotic and Ascended/Legendary gear all come from the same material pool.
In the end these are just my observations based on my playstyle and what I want from my game. It’s a pity as I was hoping GW2 would be “the one”

@Mirta
At the moment you are the top of the food chain. A hardcore player with established 80s and money in the bank. Not trying to take away from your achievements but tH majority of that success would have come before the income nerfs.
What chance does a new player now have to try and get to a lvl playing field? How much more difficult do you think it is now then 3 months ago ?
Those that have played since release and pushed through the content early have a distinct advantage over those players now entering the game. How much worse is that gap going to become over the next 3 months?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Snores.7806:

So who paid for your in game gold so you could convert it to gems ?

This is a real question? This is meant to be taken seriously?

I bought two bank expansions with gold I earned from doing events and exploration. I did not pay a third party for them, nor did I play the market, NOR did I have to do an immense amount of grinding. I have enough Gems for another character slot if I need it, but given Wintersday is around the corner I might just use them then.

In short? I worked for my gold to transform them into gems. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sorry Tobias got that question round the wrong way, have edited it for greater understanding.
The point I was trying to make was that another had to have purchased the gems for you to buy them with in game gold.
And did you purchase said gems when they were only 20s/100, or when they more the quadrupled in price after the stealth loot nerf and the introduction of the hellish gring that is Ascended gear ?

So who paid for your gems so you could convert them with in game gold ?
And I paid for AoC and Swtor, and I managed to lvl a max toon on both

The point of the original post is not where the game is now (though I’ll admit I’m not happy with the current state of affairs), the point was where the game was at release… and where is it heading ?

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

Oh, what content do you need to pay extra for before you can play it then? Must have missed something.

Au contraire, the cash shop doesnt offer me anything I want. So even if I want to buy gems, I wouldnt know what to do with them.

Theres not a F2P game on the market that demands I pay extra before I can play it. But then I havn’t played everything.

What happens if you’d like more Bank space? Or you have 5 toons and would like to roll another ? Or maybe you’d like a semi-decent armor skin and didn’t want to grind 40 dungeons to get it ?

Galen Grey.4709:

Snores.7806:

I’m am worried about the direction of GW2.

Over the 3 months since release I have seen a steady stream of patches and updates that do little to nothing for the long term development of the game and it’s community. This has me worried that what we’re seeing is a “Churn and Burn” policy from our game developers.
The constant content push, month after month, for new content instead of a focus on game stability and playability. The steady nerfs to the economy, drop rates and general wealth generation. The lack of genuine communication and any real QA from the development team.
All these issues are leading me to believe the the games designers are pushing for higher profits rather then the vibrant, progressive community all the current customers were hoping for when they purchased the game.

But these are just my observations. As erroneous as they may seem, I’m happy to discuss so…

Fire away

I disagree for starters such a practice wouldnt work in a buy to play business model! the cash shop sales is a fraction of the box sales so the primary business motivator is customer retintion and making customers happy in order to convince them to buy the expansion when it comes out primarily.

That being said you’re also contradicting yourself. nerfing isnt done for some sadisitic purpose, its done to ensure the health of the economy in the long run! Lost shores was also geared at the long term improvement of the game! the new southern cove is a canvas where more events can be added and more so in the fractal of the mists!

Not sure where you got the idea of lack of communication! they’re actually quite communicative in my opinion not that common that developers get this involved with the community in my experiance!

What makes you think you’re still playing in a B2P game? Because you bought the box set?
I bought the box set too and judging by the game developments over the last 3 months I’m believing I’ve opted into some strange F2P model where they charge you an entry fee

Gnatoay.7581:

1. Cash shop
2. profit only
3. Gear-Checks in dungeons

Remind you of anything??

GregT.4702:

Snores.7806:

I’m am worried about the direction of GW2.

…patches and updates that do little to nothing for the long term development of the game and it’s community….
… constant content push […] for new content instead of a focus on game stability and playability. The steady nerfs to the economy, drop rates and general wealth generation. The lack of genuine communication and any real QA from the development team.

Dude, I don’t know what you’re seeing or what your experience is, but I can tell you in 30 years of gaming:

• I’ve rarely seen a game release solid new content this reliably or this often;
• I’ve never seen a game team of this size answer questions so frankly and fully in so many different places; and
• with the notable exception of EVE Online, I’ve never seen a game take such a serious and professional approach to managing its economy.

I’m ignoring, obviously, Lost Shores, which had just a ton of problems which the dev team have never fully addressed. And the game’s not perfect, obviously, because otherwise everyone everywhere would play it and I’d never need any other game ever again. But beyond that – man, if you find a game that does all these things BETTER, be sure to tell me what it is, and what I need to smoke in order to play it.

• Solid content is a relative term. I’ve seen naught but seasonal content, which seems to be mostly gambling and skins, and Lost Shores. Which you’ve already mentioned.
• And where would all those frank answers be exactly? I’ve seen the MMA which seemed to be a lot of PR speak and “Moving forward”
• Having a bid/buyout function doesn’t make your economy, and GW2 has nowhere near the sandbox based, player driven economy of Eve Online . Have you seen what the economy has been doing in the last month ? The Economy is driven by the company and the drop rates they allow. Try not to kid yourself into thinking that the GW2 economy is by any means “Serious”

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

Thanks for the explanation.

I can see how this works for Call of Duty for example. But for an MMO, that is supposed to be long-term enjoyment, this would be shooting themselves in the foot. No one would ever buy something from them again. Ever.

I honestly think Anet isnt stupid enough to choose a course like that. Which brings me to my second question: why do you think anet would choose a course like this?

Which AAA MMO have you participated in for the last 5 tears has given you “long term enjoyment” ? Swtor ? DCUO ? LotRO ? AoC? WAR ?

I can’t name a single one apart from WoW and EVE, and they’ve been going for 10 yrs. MMO companies have discovered that the easy bucks are based around hype and a quick turnaround

[/quote]

Since I’m a complete newbie when it comes to economics and business models… care to elaborate why something like that would be a good idea for an MMO company? [/quote]

Take a solid brand with a good reputation, publicly owned and dependant on share price for company value. Develop and market a new product with high monetization and profit prospects to an existing customer base while touting it’s endless virtues.
Release said product to high sales and international acclaim. Budget in bare bones development after release while cutting costs/maintenance over the lifespan of the product. On a short term scale this will usually be only 12 months.
Increase the absolute monetization of the product over a 12 month period while aggressively marketing said product to as many new customer bases a possible. Pull all funding and development after 12 months and reap whatever profits are left in the product while the company moves on to newer developments.

Churn and Burn

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

I wonder why you think a vibrant community gets in the way of higher profit. Happy costumer = spending costumer.

That’s the point of a Churn and Burn policy Tosha. It focuses on raw profit over a shorter time scale.

I’m am worried about the direction of GW2.

Over the 3 months since release I have seen a steady stream of patches and updates that do little to nothing for the long term development of the game and it’s community. This has me worried that what we’re seeing is a “Churn and Burn” policy from our game developers.
The constant content push, month after month, for new content instead of a focus on game stability and playability. The steady nerfs to the economy, drop rates and general wealth generation. The lack of genuine communication and any real QA from the development team.
All these issues are leading me to believe the the games designers are pushing for higher profits rather then the vibrant, progressive community all the current customers were hoping for when they purchased the game.

But these are just my observations. As erroneous as they may seem, I’m happy to discuss so…

Fire away

Judging by previous Events/Patches it’ll be a kittenen travesty of lag, greed and poor QA.

Oh, and it will be “Well received”

LOL… we’ll just call it the “Working as Intended” patch then shall we ?

I’ll refer to it as the “Get into fractals or FOB2WOW” patch

So much potential… just wasted.

I’d love to offer you some advice but unfortunately I’m in the exact same boat.
Hit 80 on the weekend and cleared my bank of unused mats to buy me a full set of rares and MW jewellery. Been trying to grind my way through the straits for the last couple of days so I can get to the point where I can continue my story quests.
Honestly the gear hasn’t helped much at all. the Straits seem to be a complete mire of chainpulling, CC and condition wielding undead on stupidly fast respawn timers. Itls steadily going from being a challange to incredibly frustrating.
Apart from the 2 suggestions youlve already mentioned (FotM and buying gold), the only other options are get some assistance or get out of Orr. Judging from the posts Ilve read, you really need to be exocticed up if you are hoping to solo through the Orr.
good luck trying to scout up enough gold to get an exotic set from lower lvl areas though. Since Anet nerfed the open world drop rates through the floor it should only take you a solid year of grinding
I honestly would’ve thrown the towel in already if my good friend hadn’t decided to purchase this dog of a game last week.
Oh and I hope you’ve prepared for the incoming stream of “Get a guild”, l2play and “You just suck at GW2” posts that will follow in this thread.

Because people are mostly a pita. I play MMORPGs for the massive online rpg part, the multiplayer bit only comes into it when I feel the need for some RvR. It’s nice having other folks around and I’ll always help out if someone needs a hand, but having 3 screaming midgets and a cancer stick habit doesn’t lend itself to productive grouping.
I was hoping that GW2 was going to be THE game for me. An extensive solo experience that I could play when i wanted and party if I needed. It started that way but Anet has nerfed Open world PvE into the ground, and outright kittenen ignored WvW since release. So unfortunately for a guy like me… this is game over (now i just need to find another MMO forum to troll )

Karizee.8076:

Greetings fellow traveler!

I would like to point out that the items you are looking for, lodestones and t6 mats are RARE items. They do not drop readily, are not easily farmable and they never have been since the game launched.

Let’s look at t6 mats. Vials of Powerful Blood for example.
There are certain types of mobs that drop blood: Skelks, Bats, Trolls, etc. The lower level mobs drop the lower level bloods while the higher level mobs drop the higher bloods. If you want to farm the rare t6 blood, farm the mobs that regularly drop the t5 – this will give you a CHANCE at the rare t6 drop. Also note that the new mobs they added to the game in the last patch, the Young Karka, also drop blood.

Now after you’ve farmed these fellows for awhile you will find significantly more t5 blood in your bag than t6. This is because t6 is RARE.

What you can do is sell your excess t5 mats on the Trading Post and use that gold to purchase t6 from other players that have listed them on the Trading Post or you can use the t5 mats in a Mystic Forge recipe that creates a random amount of t6 mats.

Here are the best places to look for mobs that drop the mats and Mystic Forge recipes to transmute t5:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.gw2db.com/
http://www.guildhead.com/

This is what everyone is doing, what everyone has been doing since the game launched.

Happy Hunting!

LOL… really?!

Judging by the OPs phrasing of his question I’m sure he knows what a rare item is. But I’m sure he’s grateful for your long-winded condescension.

OP: As the others in the thread have pointed out there’s seems to be a problem with drop rates in open world atm. We are waiting to hear back from Anet about it.
If you want rare drops at the moment you have 3 choices.

1. Run Fractals
2. Buy Gems to convert to gold.
3. Grind for 10 hrs a day 7 days a week

I went with the 4th option… which is just not to play.

Good Luck

Well I’ve managed to get to 80, got myself a rare set (after selling all my rare mats) and now I’m done.
I’m an open world PvE junkie and I love me my grinds. I’m at my happiest just wombling around whacking creatures with my hammer and stealing their goodies. Now Anet has decided I’m not allowed to play that way so I’m out till they sort their kitten out.
I’m the kind of guy that has a decent disposable income and I am willing to blow my hard earned on Gems just to support a good product and I game I want to play. GW2 has become neither of those things.
I said in a earlier post that I wont be nickle and dimed and I meant it. I’ll keep an eye on the forumsto see if Anet owns up to the stealth nerf and fixes some of the Bugs and balance problems that have plagued GW2 since release. As of now this game goes on the “Fail” pile along with WAR, DCUO, Swtor and D3
To all those still playing and holding in there I wish you all the best of luck

I was about to start my own thread about this problem. WTF happened to the drop rates?! I took a month off to play some other things, came back a week ago after I heard about the Karka event (don’t get me started on that travesty),and theres nothing but vendor trash dropping.
Really Anet ? I’m only lvl65 and there’s been a distinct nerf in drops since I started playing. There was a problem with DR after your wonderful “Punishing the Bots” patch that ended up punishing all your legitimate customers too. You have either made the same mistake twice, or this is deliberate. If you’re planning to nickel and dime your customer base like this I’m honestly done.

Sort it out.

Having trouble with an old client I installed on a mates computer prerelease. The heads of the Asura Males arent rendering during Avatar selection or during cutscenes, they’re just black globs of unrendered mesh. Something tells me its a corrupt file and it’s going to take a full reinstall to fix.
Anyone had a similar problem? Any suggestions on a fix that wont involve a full reinstall ?

Cheers

Snores

Played at release then took a break for a month after they nerfed the puppy out of my guard. Started again about a week ago, and since i’ve been back the drops have just been utter rubbish. I thought it was me to begin with, now I’m beginning to to think theylve nerfed the drop tables into the ground. I’m still lvling and I’m having trouble staying on top of my gear. This is on top of ludicrous crafting requirements that means Illl probly never get crafting skills to a reasonable lvl. Anet seems to have spent their time since release just patching in more grind. I’m glad I never recommended GW2 to my friends, I’d look like an idiot now if I had

LOL… Knew this kitten would happen.
First time I saw the BLC’s and Gem Store Keys with their horrific drop rates I went “Hmmm, wont be touching those”
Then the Halloween Update was announced and I saw the statement regarding new skins in BLC’s and went " Oh no, here we go. This wont end well for Anet or the Customer base "
Srry to all those involved. It’s nice to be proven correct but not at the expense of others.
BLC’s are gambling. Pure and simple. Most Countries legislate against online gambling yet so many of these FTP games are really blatant about it. Methinks there should be some Govt Departments involved in this kind of thing.

I would say roll both and play them through the starter areas to get a feel for the Avatars.
I personally grew to hate my Norn and rerolled. Their size makes them feel a bit slow and clumsy.
Plus when I rolled a Norn I chose the smallest stature I could. This led to a weird animation bug where the shoulder pads floated at ear level rather then sitting on the shoulders… was totally off putting