Guild Wars 2

coso.9173:

the thing is when people claim they want real lfe issues to stay outside of gw2 or any mmos, they are either ignorant or just deliberately lying. gw2 is already filled with real life issues. war, poverty, political manipulation, love, relationships, are all real life issues, but no one cares about that, only certain topics are considered unwanted real life issues…
all fantasy humans create will always have real life issues, we mimic what we live and experience. sure, there are no dragons in real life, but what dragons cause in tyria is a reflection of what other things cause in real life.

You could have made your statement without characterizing people who have another opinion as “Ignorant” or “Liars”. And that is the polarization I was alluding to.

Is that Tolerance? Seriously?

Tyria has tyrian issues. You can be whatever advocate you want in context. Plea for forgiveness and understanding of the Mordrem. Advocate breaking Tengu xenophobia. Advocate for the plight of the forgotten Canthan and Elonian cultures. Protest that the Charr’s racist genocide needs a formal apology and reparations.

Contextually, you can’t occupy Wall Street. There isn’t one here. I suppose you could rail against the power and monopoly of the Black Lion Trading Co, but I don’t think Anet would be amused, and it really is just a mechanic and not Corporate abuse.

You would have a hard time advocating Traditional Feminism in Tyria, GW1 launched without roles, glass ceilings, disfranchisement, and had Women in prominent roles throughout, including the Military. Tyria has never had a problem with gender or gender roles, except for the Charr patriarchy we never saw and has already been dealt with. To bring that kind of advocacy in game would require injecting some sort of discrimination to advocate against. Why do that?

You could try to bring Black Lives Matter in. However, I don’t recall a single episode of racism based on color. Yes, we had the Canthan xenophobia and Isolationism, but it was directed at all Non Canthans. LA Guards are not shooting young Elonians. Elonians don’t appear to be victims of economic segregation. Elonians have not been barred from any organization. So why inject all that in order to advocate? Joko is the Elonian problem and oppressor.

The lesson in Jory and Kasmeer isn’t them. The lesson is a Tyrian society that didn’t care. Nobody refused to bake them a cake, threatened them with eternal kitten ation, fired them, disowned them, hid their children from them or any of the other things our world did. Why bring those struggles for acceptance to Tyria?

I could do a dozen examples and it would be pointless unless you understand Context.

coso.9173:

we are humans, and social/political issues impact every corner of our lives.
Media is also a great way to show social issues and help better us as a society. People were also against people of color being used on movies and TV back then, it’s exactly the same that now. Unless you’re specifically talking about political candidates or something like that. social issues are part of media, and games, specially MMOs.

Disagree strongly. Unless an MMO is set in a era and a world approximating our own real world, there is no basis for Social issues unrelated to the game world. Tyria has very few of our social issues, and if it does, example Charr and Human racial separatists, it is portrayed in Tyrian terms.

Introducing hotly debated social issues to a game that does not inherently have them can only lead to actual polarization of the real people behind the keys. We don’t need that.

We are inundated by our Real world social issues in every form of media. We are not unaware of them. Our social and ideological opinions are formed outside of the game, and should remain there for the most part. There is no consensus as to what is a “better society”. A devout Baptist will give you a very different view than an Athiest Marxist… but both should feel comfortable in Tyria. It is a fictional society, and one that was created without the minority injustices of our own society, for the most part.

Let Tyria be Tyria. A refuge from the divisiveness and hashtag crusades of our real society.

Please note that I am trying to avoid picking a side here, and that includes my own ideological beliefs regarding RL social issues.

Here is a hypothetical, if you can grasp it.

“Jane, I want you on our team. You have great people skills, your work is way above average, and our firm needs people like you.”

Or

“Jane, I want you on our team. Our firm really needs a Transgender”

Or another hypothetical Convo.

“Sya, now that you are transgender we need you to lead the next Dragon assault”

Sya replies “When I was male you wouldn’t give me the time of day. Why don’t you kiss my fine female posterior. Jerk.”

I’m pretty sure people want to be judged on their qualities, not their category.

Social Activism of any sort has an agenda.

Or we will get an evil clown with a horde of Flying Monkeys.

Necrotic.7820:

I would kinda like to see some lore in game that shows how Alesia started the very first Guardian school, training others in her particular way of fighting. Except of course now they would be wearing armor for the task.

Alesia? She was more adept at rezzing the hench with no rez signet and then dying a horrible death while doing it.

Also, the idea that Monk was solely human related is just silly. Stone Summit, Mursatt, charr, husks..lol, Island guardians, Afflicted, Margonites, the game was full of monk skill users. Pure heals? I guess you never drew an AI helper team in Cantha, only to watch them stand stiff and stupid in an Afflicted Monks ROJ and fall over dead.

DaikonSamurai.6714:

Coulter.2315:

DaikonSamurai.6714:

Daredevil cheered up a lot of disabled Marvel fans. If it brightens even one person’s day over whatever unjust struggles they have to go through, I think that’s “cool” and “hip” regardless of whatever cringe people in this thread seem to perceive.

Daredevil has better senses than people with working eyes xD He’s hardly a poster boy for the blind – he can “see” better than me. Remember the thing you think is “seeing” is just a picture your brain draws you from electrical sense input and guesses, Daredevil has a better input and thus a better picture and is not in any way disabled (sorry if you’re blind and loved DD and I ruined it for you).

Yeah DD takes it to superhuman extremes, but there’s some truth to enhanced touch, hearing, etc. for blind people last I checked. Regardless I’ll bet many people find Batman stories moving and relate to him losing loved ones despite never having his ridiculous superpower of “wealth” nor being the greatest detective in the world. You don’t have to be superhuman to relate to superheroes.

Hmm. I am inspired by real people overcoming real obstacles. Not fictional characters who overcome everything with mythical plot devices.

But, carry on.

I have a degenerative uncurable condition that has left me one handed, basically, and slowly affecting the other hand as well.

Dumping Tiami in game was offensive to me. Pity is offensive. It raised a miniscule amount of actual awareness. If I mention my disability affects my ability to platform I am told to find another game, often by players “inspired” by ANET’s “inclusiveness” of Tiami.

Useless, shallow, feel good “inclusiveness”. Tiami’s addition to the game did absolutely nothing for disabled people in game. Nothing real was done, in fact, the game has become far less friendly for a person with an actual motive/dexterity disability. Platforming is now the norm, and it’s not optional.

Cosmetic garbage. Lip Service. No actual care or concern at all.

They have been around long enough that their commentary is old and excruciating.

It’s like having Jar Jar binks on auto repeat.

Whether it has been effective or not, I do believe the Map awards were designed to get people to other maps, and particularly with Daily events add population to events.

Hearts are generally solo and do not require a group to complete. The reward reflects this. They are also non repeatable content. Not something that would entice players to revisit a “done” zone.

I’d like to see a Karma boost, but I do not think they rate inclusion in Map Rewards.

All of my human characters are Elonian. I suppose they could be considered “black” by some.

But… It would be senseless for me to drag Black Lives Matter into Tyria. Elonians haven’t experienced any of the issues important to BLM. What would it accomplish except to drag horrible real world polarization into Tyria?

I don’t care how “important” real world issues are. We don’t need to be choosing sides and making “statements” in a game that simply does not have those RL issues.

Racism exists in game. Some of us have issues with Salad gone bad. Human separatists hate Charr, for ingame lore and content reasons. Genocide is bad mmk. But it is Tyrian racism with imaginary races, not a RL Earth issue destined to inflame RL based conflict.

Restrict controversy to In Game scenarios. Avoid provoking conflict between the Actual People behind the keys.

This is the worst mob training game since EQ.

And people are right, it is not Anets problem. It is a people problem. They simply do not care how much aggro they drag, where they drag it, and consider it to be your problem when they dump it on you.

Then Blame you for being annoyed.

Harvesting is bad enough, but then we have those who think dragging several Champions into the middle field during Claw of Jormag is “someone else’s” problem. Or running in to a champ troll fight dragging more troll and elemental adds onto the backline.

It is simply poor gamesmanship and they don’t care.

Sure. It only takes “5 seconds” to kill a single mob trained on you. 5 seconds the person dragging it could also take to kill it.

Odds are as well that during the time you take to kill a mob trained to you on a node, other people will drag more to you. And blithely run off. “Your problem now, herpa kitten ”

The best is when there is a clear non aggro path, and Joe “I don’t give a kitten” will run through 6 Grawl trappers and worms to bestow them upon you because he can’t be bothered to avoid aggroing things he has no intention of fighting. It is rude.

possibly the most annoying thing in game.

other than fat, winged, flying charr.

SWG had a pistol specialist Officer class that was support Focused, heavy armor.

It was effective and kitten ed fun.

I play mostly Rangers. 8 of them now. Rangers, not Druids.

I’m not powerful. I am, however, very hard to kill in pve. I can out survive multiple encounters fairly easily.

Living to loot their dead corpses is winning. It’s just not instant.

GW skills required synergy to shine. True synergy, not “stacking”.

And I would be opposed to limiting weapons choice and choice of skills to arbitrary premades.

I absolutely hated those missions in gw that dropped an unfamiliar set of skills and weapons on you and said.. go fight, NOW.

Anet is championing change by hiring those individuals. Real change, in real life, where it actually matters and real courage is shown. To reward a person for talent and creativity.. who happens to be Transgender. Not because they are.

You are suggesting that an existing minor NPC should be given a major game role… solely because they are Transgender. Personally, I find that insulting and demeaning to be honest.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Where some see pioneering, I see pandering. DE2 is full of it. I don’t look for life lessons from a video game. Soul-less, pixillated non persons in a fake world with none of the struggles people in RL have to face. It is phony, feel good crap that accomplishes nothing.

That soul-less pixel you speak of was put in place by a real transgender Anet Dev, with real issues that she deals with on a daily basis. So be careful when you go out making such claims, especially when you’ve never walked a day in their shoes.

And no, she didn’t go out and shout to the world that an NPC is now transgender. I did that. I brought it to the forefront because I applaud her spirit and bravery to have to face a world that’s still not wholly accepting her as who she is. And it wasn’t to put her on a pedestal to worship, but rather to give a champion to LGBT’s struggles and give hope by showing people do care about them.

And just how would you know just what daily struggles I face?

Fluffball.8307:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

I highly doubt that the lesbian relationship here changed one single mind re RL acceptance.

Let’s also be sure not to confuse your good point about the stupidly named SJWs with the fact that anet did some decent writing with the lesbian relationship. They did not call attention to it; it just existed, like you wanted. Very tasteful IMO.

I thought the sylvari “same sex” relationships were beyond perfect, they didn’t even acknowledged that it was slightly unexpected. Absolutely perfect.

Perhaps, but the “Lets go pick out curtains” line made me throw up a little. And face it, had they been a male couple it would not have gone over so well.

I really do not want the game infected with Social Justice engineering.

What is the point? And why the bragging? Same sex relationships are common in games now. It is no big deal and certainly not a first.

Where some see pioneering, I see pandering. DE2 is full of it. I don’t look for life lessons from a video game. Soul-less, pixillated non persons in a fake world with none of the struggles people in RL have to face. It is phony, feel good crap that accomplishes nothing.

I want a better story, not an SJW tumblr blog and I don’t need a story driven by RL agenda unrelated to Tyria. (to my knowledge Gender inequality does not exist in Tyria) If the relationships are there, fine, but don’t trumpet them as some sort of social triumph and do not hype an NPC because of orientation. I highly doubt that the lesbian relationship here changed one single mind re RL acceptance.

Drop them all to level 35 rare, and give them the stat option we get on the giveaway storyline boots. You could actually use them at about the level you get accepted into an order.

Use them as a leveling set, priced for that level, and you get the skins unlocked for the future.

Silly to have these sets at level 80.

Livia and the Scepter of Orr mystery is a hell of a lot more important lore than any cabbage patch kid bit player, and it has never been remotely addressed.

So much GW lore went to the shredder via this games narrative team. I find it really hard to care about the GW2 snowflake races because of that.

So much Charr hype. My ancestors butchered them by the thousands in their own homelands.

Without Titan help, they were, and are, overrated blowhards.

The shantytown they live in suits them.

Solution. Summer Intern writes a book.

“Malyck fell into a pond of Roundup and died”

Put book in Priory. Drama Over.

They have done it before.

Hmm. I’ll bet someone here has a Sylvari-kin Tumbler blog.

Sorry, these bipolar, dysfunctional dragon minions have had far too much of the spotlight.

Norn had a great chance for expansion of their Lore post GW. What we got was a shallow characterization as drunken klingons. OH, MAH LEGUND!!!! Oh, wait, we did get the sensitive coming of Age story of a boy who loved furries, raised by insensitive Drunken Klingons. I discarded that bit of junk.

No sympathy for the snowflake here.

Oh, you lost a personal story mentor. Join the crowd. That is what Extras in Red Shirts do.

“apples for sale” Tybalt

Forgal … doesn’t even rate getting his note finished.

Thaddeus.4891:

PyrateSilly.4710:

Expansion – get the stuff that comes with it
no expansion – no extra stuff

How is this hard to understand when all games that have expansions do this? What would be the purpose of having an expansion in an MMO if you did not have this?

You would be right, but Anet did some jerk move with HoT. And to follow your deal, Anet removed some of the core game and put it behind HoT, How is this hard to understand?

- The vast majority of the guild stuff that was available pre-hot isn’t anymore. Banners, Buff, guild bank, etc. All of that could be unlocked and use pre-hot and you can’t access it now if you don’t have HoT.

- We used to have good ascended drop in fractal 50, 40 and 30. Now you need to reach higher level of fractal to get the good reward. Now even counting that the pre-hot level 50 is more similar to level 80-90 post-hot in term of difficulty. Without HoT you can only reach level 76 unless you pay a lot of gold to get some +12 or higher. With mean that you get less reward and can access less challenging content now that you could pre-hot.

- Elite spec are straight up boost for most if not all profession, especially in PvP. Pre-hot you could find a way to play one of the best build. Post-HoT you systematically can’t if you don’t have HoT. There is a difference between adding elite spec as different playstyle for all profession, with some of them being better than normal, some being equal and some being less good than core profession, but there is a problem when all of them are just simply better in all modes.

Not having access to new content when you don’t buy an expansion is normal. Losing content and having limited access to the old content because you didn’t buy an expansion is not normal.

This sums up my feelings exactly. I have never seen a major MMO remove content/features from an existing game and place it behind a new expansion paywall until it was done here.

With every expansion I have seen in other games new items and content/rewards were added. I have never seen a company Nerf rewards for base content and at the same time add new rewards added to that same old content gated by a pay wall.. till it was done here.

Dante.1508:

Please no more Salad

I swear to God any expansion that focusses on the Asura will be an expansion I shall avoid like the plague! It’s bad enough that Taimi exists in all her stunted patheticness, but if I have to put up with more of the wee rainbow munching potogold seeking bar stewards I will lose my kitten. The Asuran race needs to be collectively rammed into the SAB where they can be enjoyed as punching bags in place of that poor shop keeper’s cart.

Taimi is awesome and the best NPC guildwars 2 has ever created since release, if it wasn’t for seeing her in Hot expac i wouldn’t have even bothered purchasing Living Story 2..

What the hell is wrong with you to dislike such an awesome npc :o

I threw up a little reading this. I despise the superfriends, and that little bundle of bad tropes Tiami most of all. I walked out of the LS because of the horrific writing. Glad I missed them callously backhanding Eir out of the game.

Mary Sue something-something.

Scerun.5834:

My problem with wings is not their impracticality in JPs. I just think angel/demon wings are. so. awful.

it’s my understanding that they were adamant to avoid capes as back pieces because they were just too typical in RPG settings. But wings? my oh mighty my.

Sorry to derail your thread, but my wing-hate just cannot be contained

I so much agree.

Soldiers gear is probably the best gear for a new player to learn in.

If you aren’t new, you will have the resources to replace it.

It could have been Shamans.

I’ve yet to receive a ‘freebee" piece of exotic armor that wasn’t crap. I just delete them.

Rangers are just as bad. Frostgorge is full of them. No attempt to hide at all, and at it for hours.

set heal to auto-attack, bristleback, pact commander = profit.

I cannot believe they allow this.

I report them. It is obviously unattended gameplay, but I won’t be surprised if I get sanctioned for doing it.

Ugh PC quotes.

Screaming “RETREAT!!!” when the boss has a bare sliver of life left.
Charr. “Remember Ascalon” Yeah. I do. And I want to frag them.

My son doesn’t play GW2. He runs, and mentioned the other day he was nearly up to “Outrunning a Centaur”.

One NPC I truly miss, Lyasa. “chicken on the table soon”.

GW2’s pendulum swings wildly between “Play your Way” and “Play our Way”.

They won’t undo the guild changes though. That particular bit of Solo Hate has to be perma after all this time.. It would be really crappy to the people that rebuilt the new Grindhalls to revert it.

I really miss building and sharing WvW buffs and siege. Mine was not just a bank.

I sympathize with the OP.

It does not help to be bluntly told to “go away”.

I also have a big issue with JPs and Vertical platform content. I play with one hand using a mouse while the misshapen club that used to be my left hand can manage a spacebar. I did not plan on crippling RA. My love of MMOs remains.

At launch this was not an issue, although I spent agonizing hours trying some vista’s some of you would consider child’s play. I assure you, for me, they are not. I figured out how to cheese a lot of vista’s using a portal gun, but that isn’t enough for JPs.

It was ok. Josh himself stated that separate JPs were originally not intended to be needed for world completion. And then.. they were. And the creep has continued. Needed for updates for unrelated content. Needed for Living Stories. Then, needed to simply access a new zone. (one I have not managed to do and gave up on). And now, basically an entire expansion requires platforming skills.

Different gameplay styles should exist and should co exist without becoming mandatory. They did take WvW out of world completion because people felt it was a playstyle forced upon them.

I have learned to live with the fact I will never get a world complete on my own because of the 3 mandatory JPs to get to Vistas. I have learned I won’t ever get every story achievement locked behind a JP. I won’t ever craft or acquire gear locked behind a JP.

I do mind Dry Top access is locked behind a jumping puzzle, even if not an official JP, what purpose did it serve as an access point? Could it have not been standalone somewhere in the Zone? It gates me and I see no reason why.

And now HoT. I watched every Wooden Potatoes vid hoping there might be something for me. There is not. Frustration and failure simply isn’t fun. I feel the Game at this point only cares for a single Demographic, and in some ways said “go away” as forcibly as the most indifferent and toxic forum poster could.

Simply put, playstyle options are great. No options is not.

mtpelion.4562:

You guys do realize that they would just stop having dailies before they made them easier to do in one game mode, right?

Dailies exist in order to be a carrot to get you to participate in all game modes. Anything that harms that purpose isn’t a realistic suggestion.

This is exactly the problem though. They need to back off and stop micromanaging us.

Confused. Are gliders only allowed on HoT JPs or did they fail to implement “no fly” zones in core areas that require jumping?

I do not, at this time, feel “picked on” in open world PvE, simply because they have not done a core balance pass based upon HoT specializations. I’m not restricted by not having a Glider, that is something that simply allows players to bypass mobs and cheese some access points. I thought it was not wise to allow them in core, but they do not effect me personally.

I don’t have HoT and do not intend to buy it. I’m not limited by HoT only dailies, I would however prefer the old, less micromanaged Dailies.

I do think the specializations are problematic in WvW.

It is not PvE, particularly, but I do feel rather “picked on” every time I open my now useless Guild Window.

General Health.9678:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

You cannot buy a full featured Core game without HoT.

Well you can but not from Anet. But don’t let that get in the way of a misplaced rant.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

The actual content added is worth far less than a full game price.

So the new stuff you haven’t played isn’t worth full price? I don’t know where you’re getting your information from but HoT is pretty kitten good and will keep you busy for quite a while.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Particularly when part of that content is something I already had, Guild Upgrades, that were taken away and needed to be repurchased. I’m not fond of that type of business model.

I still have my personal guild for storage and guild banners. I also have a very large maxed out guild hall full of new guildies that I love playing with, something personal guilds lack.

My “rant” is my opinion. Mine. Something I am not telling you that you aren’t allowed to have.

The difference between an expansion here and an expansion in GW is fact, something my original post was pointing out and you happily ignored.

Carry on.

General Health.9678:

You can still buy core, what are you on about?
It now comes with a free copy of HoT which you are under NO OBLIGATION to play.

What I am “on about” is in response to the poster who claimed GW was done in this manner.

And a minor correction, a stripped down Core is now the free game that comes with HoT, something that did not happen with GW, the point that I was making. You can still buy a full featured Prophecies without EOTN. You cannot buy a full featured Core game without HoT.

No issue for a new player who is purchasing a full game. I already payed full price for the Core game, and I do not feel HoT offers enough to justify paying the full game price again for content I already own. The actual content added is worth far less than a full game price.

Particularly when part of that content is something I already had, Guild Upgrades, that were taken away and needed to be repurchased. I’m not fond of that type of business model. It is something they have done a bit too often for me.

LimitBreaker.4165:

Months after HoT release and people still qqing about the expansion price… It’s a feature rich expansion and not a content rich one if you don’t feel like it’s worth your money then don’t buy it and don’t complain. I paid $76 nzd pre-purchase and got hours of gameplay and a tonne of fun and it’s well worth every cent. People keep crying about how it’s $50 and that the base game was $50, it’s how anet handled gw1 expansions and that’s to give all previous expacs bundled into the latest one. Don’t mean to come off as a kitten but I’m getting real tired of people complaining about it, like I’ve gotten some people who are like “its honestly not worth it lmao if the expac was $45, I would’ve probably bought it by now” bruhhhh… $5-10 how stingy can you be -_-

That is NOT how ANET handled GW campaigns. All campaigns remained both Standalone or could be purchased in bundles. You cannot even buy GW2 core anymore. It is very different.

EOTN was the only expansion, and they did not devalue core campaigns and make them unobtainable when it released. Nor did they remove core game features and put them behind an expansion pay wall.

HoT is worth the price only to the new player. For someone who already owns GW2 core it is a very high priced DLC with a narrow choice of actual added World Content.. go vertical and platform or “go away”. They added Guild Halls, yes, but in the process destroyed already earned core guild features.

Mileage varies. I would be hesitant to pay 10 dollars for it.

Gilburt.9146:

In a game with relatively small maps filled with WPs, mounts are just a waste of precious development time.

I could see a few mounts added for a ranger elite spec, but otherwise I don’t see the point.

Mileage varies. I can log in to a myriad of wings, backpacks, flying unicorns, useless effects like footsteps, talking Moron-Tron packs, cutesy audio pollution, a whole gamut of functionally useless harvest effects and have a very different view of “waste of precious development time” from yours.

The old sword animation was fun and one of the best animations I’ve seen.

The new one looks like a blind person stabbing at a pinata. It is horribad.

I found as much positive in the old “stick to the target” as I did negative, honestly.

Plus, it appears we got a dps nerf for sword as well.

I have 8 rangers. I loved sword and dagger but… I’ll probably find another weapon. It is painful to watch them now.

What the OP is suggesting is what ANET did with the 3 campaigns in GW.

It was nice and worked well. Therefore, it needed to be trash canned for the Brave New MMO.

I don’t have a parser, but I am seeing a definite loss in DPS with sword/dagger now.

I thought the old sword animation was one of the best I have seen in 15+ years of MMOs.

And I find the new one is the worst. I have no clue what sort of spastic stabber they are trying to portray.

I see “immersion” being tossed about. I’m sorry, but Winged Flying Charr dug up Immersion’s Grave, burned the body, quartered it and sent the parts to the 4 corners of Tyria.

There is no immersion in GW2.

And.. the lighter Desert “Yaks” in wvw would be a fine mount.

Meanwhile, the hypocrites are dodging combat, getting places they don’t need to be, and abusing glider “mounts” throughout the core game, where they were NEVER needed.

And their arguments to get the core game opened to gliders were identical to mount arguments.

“They are fun”

Funny how that works.

ziggystardust.3721:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Well, if you aren’t among the Chosen, you get nothing.

I will not buy HoT. I guess I’m invisible and unworthy of any future consideration.

Doesn’t matter that I’ve bought gem cards worth far more than the cost of that sorry, single demographic, feature sized “expansion”.

So you want to play full game by not buying it? That’s like playing old fifa and complaining of not having same advantages as those who playing new one. I said before…free to play is bad for games.

I am not FTP. FTP can’t post, eh? Whatever.