Guild Wars 2

Ayrilana.1396:

Eye of the North cost about $45 and offered much less than Heart of Thorns.

Bzzzzz! Wrong!. It was $39,99, which is the usual price for expansions (as opposed to $50,00, which is the usual price for rip-offs).

Besides, “much less than Heart of Thorns”? It had:

• 4 new regions. HoT has 4 new maps.

• 150 new skills. HoT has, what? Half of that?

• 18 dungeons. Meanwhile, HoT will be released with the promise of one third of a single raid sometime after release.

• Dozens of new weapon models. HoT will have… 5 new weapon sets. Only 5.

And so on, and so on.

Really, pet, you should learn more about what you’re trying to talk about. The kitten images were better.

Chris.5720:

There is a reason these events are happening. To sort out bugs before the lunch

So, are you saying that, since ArenaNet has only beta tested part of HoT, the rest of the expansion will be a bug filled mess?

Chris.5720:

and to be honest, literally all MMOs nowadays launch with bugs that get fixed over the weeks after lunch – that’s how these games work.

Sounds to me less like that’s how MMOs work and more like how MMO players are willing to accept low quality standards. But then again, looks like there are less and less MMO players every day.

Chris.5720:

Fact is, they did say we will get Living Story back sometime after HoT which will continue right after the story of HoT.

Do you know how much content will be released through the Living Story?

Do you know when the Living Story episodes will be released?

Do you honestly think those vague promises are worth overlooking how flawed everything we have seen of HoT currently is? Specially considering ArenaNet’s track records of broken promises?

Rose Solane.1027:

HoT isn’t only the content on release date, HoT is all the content we get the next few years (well, without the holiday content). ArenaNet may have made a expansion, I see no signs that they abandoned the road of regular content updates (Living World).

Ah, ok. So you think people should overlook the bugged mess that HoT is right now because of a vague promise of undefined content to be release in an unspecificied amount of time?

Sure, sure. Perfectly reasonable.

Agrotera.1254:

What part of Beta is everyone missing? That is why you have Betas, so that you can find and fix bugs. We had a Beta, we found bugs, and now they know that they need fixed.

How would you feel if they didn’t have Betas and that had been the live release instead? Then we would have the live release, of the expansion, bugs included.

And then you realize that what we have tested is but a fraction of the content available at release, and that even the content that has been tested is becoming more broken, not less (see the “bug” with the difficulty right now).

What do you think is the state of the untested, unseen until now content?

Because you either think that the beta was really about testing the game for bugs, and so the fact we have found a massive amount of bugs on the content we have tested means the rest of the content – the part we won’t see until release – is massively bugged as well…

…Or you think that the beta wasn’t really about testing the game for bugs, since the majority of HoT won’t be tested, and thus that all the bugs we are seeing at the beta are stuff ArenaNet didn’t think we would still find. Which, again, shows how bugged the rest of the content must be.

Really, it’s a lose/lose situation here.

Because the expansion is basically an overpriced DLC with poor Quality Control.

Really. The few pieces of content we have seen were massively bugged; not only that, but the bugs are actually increasing as we get closer to release. Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Yet here we are, with something so small as mob difficulty being bugged in the entire beta map.

NTDK.4897:

keep in mind you are paying for future updates too that could be for 3 next years, not just things that have been announced and available on day 1.

Funny. When ArenaNet says they will do something and then don’t do it, people scream “it wasn’t a promise, just something they said they would do but didn’t! It wasn’t their fault!”.

And then people turn around and say, “Buy the very overpriced DLC because ArenaNet promised it will come with a vague amount of new content over a vague period of time! It’s definitely worth it!”.

Right. Completely logical.

Nokaru.7831:

Test.8734:

Isn’t it interesting that it’s (one more) ArenaNet’s communication mess, and they don’t even bother to fix it on their own official forum, rather somewhere else?

I mean, they could have told people here all about it. But noooooo, looks like Twitter and Reddit are more important.

Sorry, I didn’t realize that this mess started on the forums. Oh wait… It didn’t! It’s started because somebody overreacted on the forums about something they read on Twitter!

Yeah, you mean, when ArenaNet made a big statement outside their official forum leading to the community talking about it here, and then ArenaNet replied outside their official forum?

Or are you talking about how this mess began with a Twitter comment and ArenaNet decided Twitter wasn’t the best media in which to address it, so they chose Reddit instead of, I don’t know, their official forum?

By the way, if you take a look at Reddit, how about reading all the posts by the GW2 Lead Designer over there, like this long retrospective about ArenaNet? Oh, did I mention that the last time said Lead Designer posted on their official forum was just 11 months ago?

This is, as always, ArenaNet’s excelent communication at work. Again we see a situation in which the original Guild Wars was far better than GW2, in how it dealt with community foruns.

Ayrilana.1396:

For those thinking it’s required

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3mz8ta/crystal_reid_raids_will_be_balanced_around/cvk6djq

Isn’t it interesting that it’s (one more) ArenaNet’s communication mess, and they don’t even bother to fix it on their own official forum, rather somewhere else?

I mean, they could have told people here all about it. But noooooo, looks like Twitter and Reddit are more important.

SkiTz.4590:

Since when did raids becoming REQUIRED or FORCED onto every single player?

The entire kittening content known as RAIDS ARE OPTIONAL, THUS ASCENDED IS OPTIONAL.

Irrelevant.

ArenaNet has said that:

ArenaNet

“We don’t think you should need to grind to get the best gear and stats in Guild Wars 2”.

So what exactly does that mean:

- The best gear/stats: This means to have statistically the best abilities in the game, you shouldn’t need to, by our definition of the word, grind. This goes for leveling and getting top gear (by our definition that’s ascended gear, legendary being an optional extra thing you can do, but don’t need to do.)

So yeah, saying that ascended gear being grindy is ok because it’s optional is completely irrelevant – by ArenaNet’s own definition, it was not meant to be grindy. Despite how it is.

Now, it’s a well known fact that raids are a niche activity. You could even try making a game focused on raiders, but it would be nothing if not a big failure (Wildstar says “hi!”).

We also know ArenaNet is starved for resources. They have put content production for GW2 on hold while they work on the expansion, they are releasing a very expensive expansion with just four maps, they have admited that they won’t release all content with the expansion, and so on.

Ergo, what they are doing with the raid is using their (little) resources for something we all know is a niche activity.

That is pretty much a recipe for failure. There’s no way around it.

They should reduce the barrier entry for raids so it’s not as niche as raids usually are. Instead:

• They are saying themselves that only players who have ascended gear should bother with raids.

• They are saying that players need to have grinded specific ranks of the HoT masteries before bothering with raids. Which is pretty much a kind of attunement system.

The great majority of players will not bother with raids – we know that from historical data based on players’ behaviors in MMORPGs. What ArenaNet could have done is make it so at least more players would try the raid, but by increasing the barrier entry, they are condemning their own creation to irrelevance.

It’s funny to see how they keep talking about support roles being useful in raids and in WvW. With the current state of WvW and how dead raids will likely be, the predominant meta in the far great majority of the game will continue to berserker, with the Druid, the Herald and alikes being the most useless thing in GW2.

So, GW2 went free to play.

And NCSoft, despite owning 100% of ArenaNet, has been removing itself from GW2 and won’t publish it anymore.

And now the lead designer has left the game.

Yeah, I’m sure everything is alright. No sir, there’s clearly no sign of trouble here sir.

Kormeg.2469:

Well they really don’t have a choice, take that as a slap in the face if you want. The game isn’t as as successful as they need it to be so they are adapting. Obviously if they are changing direction it’s because they foresee switching their systems to appeal to more people than the current one.

That’s very risky, though.

Look at how we have people complaining even before the content is revealed. ArenaNet has always been an expert on having great ideas but flawed implementation; if the idea here is already creating such discussion, when the raids are released we will likely get a massive outcry.

ArenaNet has had 3 years to refine the systems currently in their game. Their answer is to completely change those systems to something else – requiring a healer to complete hard content. However, they have zero experience adding that kind of content to GW2… And if adding the kind of content they had experience with has not been successful, trying to add something new like this will very likely blow in their faces.

This is the kind of risk you can take with free, low key content. Releasing it as something as loud as they are releasing is a recipe for failure.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Test.8734:

Nike.2631:

lukejoe.1592:

Standing still and mashing a rotation is exactly what you get with the trinity.

Standing still and mashing a rotation is exactly what you get with BAD ENCOUNTER DESIGN.

The thing is, we have zero evidence that ArenaNet got any better in encounter design.

We have plenty of evidence that they are changing the types of encounters.

Irrelevant, tbh.

The quote I was replying to said (correctly, by the way) that the issues with the combat system are due to “BAD ENCOUNTER DESIGN”. That’s not HOMOGENOUS ENCOUNTER DESIGN. There would be no need to change the types of encounters if the ones we have weren’t bad.

Meanwhile, we go back to my question: ArenaNet has promised to change the type of encounter. Do we have any evidence that they got better at encounter design? Because making different types of encounters that are as bad or worse than what we have right now is not really an improvement.

They can talk the talk as much as they want, but when it’s about walking the walk, we get the Mordremoth Invasion. That doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

Paulash.5814:

My only response to this is that many players have level 80 Rangers on their account.

How many players who currently have a level 80 ranger on their account have created that character to play as a dedicated healer?

Zero.

What makes you think that people who made a character to NOT play as a dedicated healer will be willing to just turn around and play as a dedicated healer?

If anything, the situation will likely become worse than it’s right now for rangers. Instead of being not very sought but being begrudgingly accepted in groups (unlike necromancers, who are simply not accepted), rangers will only be accepted if they agree to use a healing build, and will be kicked otherwise.

Even worse, we will likely see the return of the “OMG I died because that n00b didn’t heal me!” phenomen. And rangers will get the blame.

Nike.2631:

lukejoe.1592:

Standing still and mashing a rotation is exactly what you get with the trinity.

Standing still and mashing a rotation is exactly what you get with BAD ENCOUNTER DESIGN.

The thing is, we have zero evidence that ArenaNet got any better in encounter design.

Even worse, they are not going to change the game we currently have.

Which means, considering how little content HoT will bring, that 99% of the game still rewards the same meta we have today – berserker over everything else and no point in anyone healing the others.

So the Druid and the Ventari Revenant are pretty much useless in almost the entire game. And that’s even after HoT. Plus, if 99% of the game rewards one meta, it’s unlikely that people are going to change their builds just because of the remaining 1%. Even if raiding is well designed and actually rewards a more balanced playstyle, the fact it’s a VERY small part of the game, plus the weekly lockout, plus how raiding is basically a niche activity, all mean that those specs and builds that go beyond berserker are not going away any time soon.

And really, that’s assuming the raids will be well designed. Which brings us back to the beginning of my post – what evidence do we have that ArenaNet can actually make good encounters? The Mordremoth Invasions? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

Random.4691:

No they did not.

Your interpretation of what they promise is not the interpretation of everyone.

ArenaNet has said: “Instead, support will be ‘proactive’. ‘Healing is for when you are already losing. In Guild Wars 2 we prefer that you support your allies before they take a beating,’ Peters explained in his piece on the Guild Wars 2 website. ‘Other kinds of support include buffs, active defence, and cross-profession combinations’.”

Number of Druid staff skills that heal: 4 out of 5
Number of Druid staff skills that offer buffs: 0 out of 5

The only staff skill available for Druids that do something other than healing is one that removes conditions, which, just like healing, is a reactive measure, not “proactive”.

You can assume that there are multiple interpretations for what ArenaNet has said. Your mistake lies in assuming that all those interpretations are correct.

Ok, this was… Very bad.

Incredibly bad, even.

ArenaNet has fallen in the same trap a lot of MMORPG developers fall into – they are putting the NPCs under the spotlight to the detriment of the player characters. This has always been an issue for ArenaNet – from people complaining that Prince Rurik was stealing the show in GW: Prophecies, then Mhenlo in GW: Factions, Kormir in Nightfall and later Traheanne in GW2. It would have been expected that ArenaNet would know better than to do an entire trailer – and something they’re calling such a big thing like the “launch trailer” – focusing exclusively on showing NPCs being “cool”. The message here is clear – Rytlock will be the next Traheanne, don’t expect your character to be the hero of the story.

It’s also sad to see how ArenaNet has lost one of their most unique aspects, the use of animated concept art for cinematics. The last time we saw this in full force was at the video right after character creation, but since the first time we saw it – the Guild Wars 2 Teaser Video - it was widely praised. I’m not surprised ArenaNet has mostly abandoned this format – one of the main artists responsible for it, Kekai Kotaki, has left the company. But it’s still a big symbol of how much ArenaNet has lost.

Mordemoth’s voice is also very cliché. He sounds like a Protoss – that effect they have added to his voice must be one of the most overused sound effects in games. It shows a huge lack of creativity.

I’m very disappointed in this trailer.

Xstein.2187:

3. I don’t know why, but the devs decided to strongly tie one of the human gods to this class. Lyssa is the goddess of beauty, water, and illusion. She is also heavily associated with chaos. Lyssa’s association with illusion, chaos, and beauty may also be one of the reasons why mesmers are associated with fashion, art, and beauty.

Almost all of the core GW1 professions were linked to one of the “original” Five Gods:

• Warriors to Balthazar

• Rangers to Melandru

• Monks to Dwayna

• Necromancers to Grenth

• Mesmers to Lyssa

Mesmers were linked to Chaos magic in the original Guild Wars since it was one of the few kinds of damage that were not reduced by armor, and most of the mesmer skills that did damage ignored armor.

The link to butterflies started when one of the Mesmers’ core and one of their most iconic skills, Soothing Images, had butterflies in its animation, as may be seen here.

For the design decisions behind the mesmer, well, you would have to look for the interviews predating the release of the original Guild Wars, which means before 2005. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original Mesmer designers weren’t even working at ArenaNet anymore today.

I use kittens a lot, but the only issue is when people can’t tell the difference between you writing “kitten” and you writing something else that has been filtered as kitten. Sometimes I use “small cats” instead of “kitten” to make this point clear, but well, it’s simply not the same thing, right?

A pet peeve of mine is how the forum takes “isn’t [pretend this doesn't exist] it?” and converts it into “isn’kitten”.

Ayrilana.1396:

I recently replied back to someone whose post to me was full of the filtered “kitten”. They were saying something like I was arguing like kittens or without a lot of kittens. I can’t remember their exact phrasing. I responded back by manually typing kitten numerous times in a lengthy post and each mention of kitten linked to a photo of a kitten.

No, pet. All those kittens were 100% original, manually typed kittens.

Thund.2795:

I’ve try to do my best… here the entire elite specialization picture!

This looks nice, good work! Better than what is at the official website, to be sure.

I won’t buy HoT because it’s a desperate gambit to try to save a sinking ship, and it’s obvious it’s a very rushed product as a result.

ArenaNet itself said, when talking about the Living World: “If we do this right, we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy”.

And here we are with an expansion.

Which means, ArenaNet realized they did not do the Living World right. This is obvious – they followed a model with the first season, then went in a completely different direction with the second season, and now, instead of a third season, we’re getting an expansion. Between that and the falling GW2 earnings during the LW seasons 1 and 2, it’s very easy to see that ArenaNet’s original intended model was a failure.

Now, is ArenaNet in trouble? We know NCSoft, which own 100% of ArenaNet, has already began trying to distance themselves from the company (which Mike O’Brien admited when he mentioned that NCSoft won’t publish GW2 anymore, now it’s ArenaNet itself which has to do it). GW2 was also earning less than Lineage and Blade & Soul, and more or less the same as Aion, which isn’t exactly a good sign.

Then we have the HoT content itself. It’s obviously extremely rushed – “we will release only 3 legendaries and more ‘later’”, “we will release only the first wing of the first raid with more to come ‘later’”, “we will add more specializations ‘later’”, and so on and so on – and we have no idea when that “later” will be.

Add to this that ArenaNet’s track record of “later” isn’t exactly nice – all the way back in 2013 ArenaNet said, “On top of this, you’ll also see new legendary weapons and new types of legendary gear in 2013”, and look at that, it’s two years later and we are still waiting, only to get three new weapon skins and more to come… “Later”? How much later? Two years, again? More?

This scarcity of content applies to many aspects of the game. Only 4 maps, with a few of those having multiple layers? Only a handful of new armors? Very few new weapon sets? Looks like ArenaNet has made more art for the Gem Store than for HoT.

It’s also very debatable how well tested the expansion content is. In one of the first beta, the main event chains were so broken that people couldn’t even test them properly, because they would simply get stuck. The specializations people played with were a complete mess, needing massive changes that, in some cases, have yet to be done (see Hunter, the Tempest, and so on).

And honestly, the latest content ArenaNet has been adding to the game is poor. The Silverwastes is a copy-paste map repeating the same events over and over. It’s the opposite of what ArenaNet claimed they would do, when they said: “The more persistent events we can provide in a specific area, the less often each of the events in that area needs to occur, which in turn adds to the sense of an ever-evolving open world”.

Looks like at some point ArenaNet gave up on creating a sense of an ever-evolving open world, and then decided to just leave us with the same two events repeating over and over, while we fight the same few kinds of enemy through the entire map.

What does HoT appear to be, then? A rushed, poorly tested small piece of content based on a system which tries to make players repeat the same few activities over and over, while promising more in a very vague “later” date.

In other words, it’s a low quality DLC. Trying to pretend it’s a season pass.

What amazes me is how people defend paying $50 for this mess. If you think wasting your time with this is a good deal, you should be in your house running in circles. You can waste 10.000 hours doing that too, and it’s actually for free – how great a deal is THAT?

Lord Trejgon.2809:

Linken.6345:

Still would like a link were they said we would get chef and jeweler 500 tho

they didn’t

Yeah, they DID.

ArenaNet said: “We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!”.

All crafting professions. And do notice how they said they would do that during 2013. I guess they are just two years late, but we know they won’t add in 2015 the things they promised us in 2013.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Is someone else with me?

Definitely. Once upon a time, ArenaNet said:

ArenaNet

The more persistent events we can provide in a specific area, the less often each of the events in that area needs to occur, which in turn adds to the sense of an ever-evolving open world.

And then they went and designed the Silverwastes, which not only is basically two events occurring over and over in the same place – it’s also the same two events occurring over and over in four different places at the same time.

I wonder what happened that made ArenaNet change from trying to make events that are fun to trying to make events that people just grind over and over.

Maybe they are confusing popularity with how much a given area is placed, and by making the Silverwastes the most profitable area in the game, they think it’s being played a lot because people enjoy it, as opposed to because it gives more profit than anywhere else.

I will have a great laugh if ArenaNet makes HoT similar to the Silverwastes but less profitable, and then wonder why everyone and their mother is still playing only in the Silverwastes six months frow now. You can’t have multiple areas as the most profitable place where to farm.

Meanwhile, all the great and fun events – like the story arc about the boy who tried to fool the Grawl and save his family while his father was hurt – will remain exclusive to the core game.

Cyan.6904:

It’s almost ironic that you accuse others of terrible debating, while you claim that everything you provide are facts and should be seen as the only truth.

Almost everything I provide are facts and should be seen as the only truth.

Cyan.6904:

The gameplay between GuildWars and GuildWars 2 is pretty different

False.

Both are third person online RPGs with an slightly over the shoulder camera. In both, you use a limited skill bar to cast skills in order to defeat enemies. In both, you have very similar professions, often similar skills, and the setting is very similar. They both have the same engine.

“Pretty different”? Compare Guild Wars 2 with Tetris. THAT is pretty different. Anything else is irrelevant.

More importantly, the point behind this comparison also happens to be irrelevant – it’s an excuse claiming that you cannot compare content in the original GW with content in GW2. Not only we can – because, rather obviously, they are very similar games -, but those who claim you cannot compare GW1 with GW2 also happen to say that we cannot compare GW2 with anything else. And that’s because GW2 would end up losing.

Cyan.6904:

The amount of armor is less in Gw2, but the difference isn’t that big as you want us to believe. A lot of the EotN armor were remakes with different details, elite armor was basically the same in concept as the normal ones (with some exceptions), etc etc

Sure! And all GW2 armor just happens to be completely unique! No repetition here, of course not, no sir!.

Meanwhile, even if you were to reduce the number of unique armor art in the original Guild Wars by half, we would still end with 5 times more unique armor art available in game in GW1 than in GW2.

And saying “GW2 armor is more complex, that’s why it’s ok for ArenaNet to make less” is a joke. Not only they have twice as much staff today, but if they have made the process of designing armor so complex that they are reduced to one tenth of the total unique art, well, they really should learn how to make better processes.

Cyan.6904:

In my opinion (as you stated yours), the free accounts are nothing more than a glorified trial, with a lot of encouragement to buy the whole packet.

Irrelevant. You must be very poorly informed about MMORPGs if you think the GW2 current model is unique. Saying it’s a glorified trial is a blatant excuse when many other MMORPGs went free to play under the same or very similar conditions to what GW2 does now. Wishful thinking doesn’t change the big “play for free” message in front of the GW2 website.

Would you like an example? The Old Republic, a game that even its parent company admitted to be a failure, has a business model in which players can experiment all content in the core game for free, although with limits in gameplay (such as less bank space). Meanwhile, in order to access the content of the “Shadow of Revan” expansion, players need to actually buy the expansion. Is some of that even slightly familiar?

And yep, that’s free to play. And yep, all MMORPGs that went from another business model to free to play did not change because their previous business model was a success. Do you have even the slightest evidence that GW2 is the single exception to this rule?

No?

Somehow, I didn’t think you did.

Saying that GW2 is not free to play, and that the reason it’s currently free to play is not because it has failed, is simply denial. That’s, well, a fact and the only truth. If you think otherwise, I dare you to prove it, because I know you can’t.

EDIT: Oh, and the kittens are very happy, I assure you.

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s pretty well established that the gameplay between GW1 and GW2 is very different.

“Pretty well established”? Riiiiiiight.

Have you noticed something interesting? How my posts are filled with links and facts, while your own are basically a nice collection of kittens?

Test.8734:

Ayrilana.1396:

GW doesn’t have 150+ different armor unless you count the differences between professions. If you do that then you can do the same in GW2 versus the five races so you have 90+ armor from GW2.

…It takes someone with no knowledge about either game to say that Warrior Elite Canthan armor is the same thing as Elementalist Elite Canthan armor, but that human Embroidered armor is oh “so” different from sylvari Embroidered armor.

Ayrilana.1396:

These are the unique armor sets. I count like 33 of them.

So, stop trying to dodge the question. You are saying that:

• This and this are the same thing.
• But this and this are completely different?

I like how you manage to destroy your own credibility, when you say those “two” armors are completely different from each other then claims that GW1 is completely different from GW2.

Ayrilana.1396:

Test.8734:

Ayrilana.1396:

Also, F2P does not mean the game failed

Really? Because which MMORPG has changed its business model to free to play because its previous business model was a big success?

The Old Republic? Even its parent company admitted it was a failure.

ESO? They are still suffering layofs.

Wildstar? LOOOOOOOOOOOL!

But hey, you can continue to ignore everything related to facts and evidence and assume that everything is fine. It will make it much funnier when reality comes crashing down around you.

I’m sorry but going to F2P is not an indication that a game is failing.

Because… One more of your kittens, I guess?

See, you failed to answer a simple question:

Which MMORPG has changed its business model to free to play because its previous business model was a big success?

Or are you going to avoid the question, just like you are trying to avoid the truth?

Ayrilana.1396:

sorudo.9054:

Ayrilana.1396:

sorudo.9054:

Ayrilana.1396:

Test.8734:

Pistol Joe.3741:

Dont forget gw2 is not like other games .. we always keep getting new stuff !

Sure, sure. In 3 years, we got in game:

• Illustrious armor (the ascended one)

• Glorious armor (the PvP one) and its reskin, Glorious Hero

• Carapace and its reskin, Luminescent

• Hellfire armor

• Radiant armor

Meanwhile, the Gem Store got:

• Aetherblade armor

• Primeval armor

• Braham’s armor

• Phalanx armor

• Flamewrath armor

• Zodiac armor

• Rampart armor

• And 24 (!!!) outfits

So yeah, we definitely keep getting stuff… In the Gem Store. We got even less armors in-game than in the Gem Store, and that’s considering how ArenaNet said they would focus the Gem Store in outfits, not in armors.

They made that statement after they started doing outfits. You can’t make their statement retroactive and then accuse them of lying.

in GW1 we had in one year more new armors in-game then we have gem store armor skins in GW2, in my eyes they have become extremely lazy.

In GW1, you had only humans to play as which is much different than what we have in GW2. More work is required to create GW2 armor than GW1 armor.

nope, the same work is required, the model in GW2 can be used for GW1 just as easy, only the skin is made specifically for ether.
also, most models are made for humans and adjusted for other races, the only “extra” work is for the charr and even with that it’s half the work then normal. (only one model made)

Nope.

Typical answer. It really shows a master of debate using logic and facts to debunk an argument. As opposed to, you know, using only kittens.

Ayrilana.1396:

Since you consider them to be incredibly similar gameplay wise, I’d say that you’ve never played Guild Wars 1.

Since you consider them to be incredibly different gameplay wise, I’d say that you’ve never played Guild Wars 1. If you’re going to go off about GW1, please please have played it before.

Besides…

Ayrilana.1396:

GW doesn’t have 150+ different armor unless you count the differences between professions. If you do that then you can do the same in GW2 versus the five races so you have 90+ armor from GW2.

…It takes someone with no knowledge about either game to say that Warrior Elite Canthan armor is the same thing as Elementalist Elite Canthan armor, but that human Embroidered armor is oh “so” different from sylvari Embroidered armor.

Ayrilana.1396:

Also, F2P does not mean the game failed

Really? Because which MMORPG has changed its business model to free to play because its previous business model was a big success?

The Old Republic? Even its parent company admitted it was a failure.

ESO? They are still suffering layofs.

Wildstar? LOOOOOOOOOOOL!

But hey, you can continue to ignore everything related to facts and evidence and assume that everything is fine. It will make it much funnier when reality comes crashing down around you.

PopeUrban.2578:

Assuming datamined material is 100% of the armor avaliable in GW2 is fallacy.

Also, it’s not completely silly to assume more skins will exist from ambient drops.

Really? Where have you read anyone in this topic assuming that datamined material is 100% of the armor available in GW2?

Because you may not be aware of it, but ArenaNet itself has said how many armor sets we will find in HoT’s open world. Who is the one making assumptions here?

FrizzFreston.5290:

Also i don’t remember 150 armors in gw1. Armor pieces perhaps, but not armors. But that maybe my memory.

You can see by yourself.

Lauren Kamieniecki.6245:

HawkMeister.4758:

FixitFixitFixitFixitFixitFixit!
/Fry

Patience young grasshopper :P

We’re hoping on our next release that our fix will clear this up!

This was in June. That’s the last reply we have from ArenaNet in this topic.

Did “Next release” mean “next game we will release”? Does HoT count? I somehow don’t think ArenaNet will last long enough to make a GW3…

Looks boring and ugly. The helmet is hideous, and that thing at the top has very bad physics. Using it without the helmet makes our characters’ head to look very small, because it’s another example of “character inside a tin can” design.

At least it’s a good sign, as far as future Gem Store updates go. This was likely a Gem Store design that was thrown away for being too ugly, which indicates that there is better quality control at the store.

Too bad ArenaNet can’t fix the 3 months old bug that makes changing dyes of armor a pain. Considering how much money they make on aesthetic stuff, you would think they would be more careful with this kind of thing.

EDIT: Although, let’s see what the “minor fixes” do. If they break it like the Monk outfit, it may at least be worth a few laughs.

ronpierce.2760:

Test.8734:

Ayrilana.1396:

Test.8734:

Ayrilana.1396:

sorudo.9054:

Ayrilana.1396:

Test.8734:

Pistol Joe.3741:

Dont forget gw2 is not like other games .. we always keep getting new stuff !

Sure, sure. In 3 years, we got in game:

• Illustrious armor (the ascended one)

• Glorious armor (the PvP one) and its reskin, Glorious Hero

• Carapace and its reskin, Luminescent

• Hellfire armor

• Radiant armor

Meanwhile, the Gem Store got:

• Aetherblade armor

• Primeval armor

• Braham’s armor

• Phalanx armor

• Flamewrath armor

• Zodiac armor

• Rampart armor

• And 24 (!!!) outfits

So yeah, we definitely keep getting stuff… In the Gem Store. We got even less armors in-game than in the Gem Store, and that’s considering how ArenaNet said they would focus the Gem Store in outfits, not in armors.

They made that statement after they started doing outfits. You can’t make their statement retroactive and then accuse them of lying.

in GW1 we had in one year more new armors in-game then we have gem store armor skins in GW2, in my eyes they have become extremely lazy.

In GW1, you had only humans to play as which is much different than what we have in GW2. More work is required to create GW2 armor than GW1 armor.

Uhuh.

So the excuse “GW2 is more complex” is the reason why, 3 years after release of the original Guild Wars, we had:

• More than 160 new maps (in GW2, 3 years later we have 3 new maps)

• More than 150 new armors completely available in game (in GW2, 3 years later we have 15 new armors in-game)

• 4 new professions (in GW2, 3 years after release we have zero new professions)

• More than 70 new skills for each of the core professions, not counting the generic PvE only skills (in GW2, 3 years after release we have a single new profession specific skill for each profession)

And so on, and so on. Despite how, at the time, ArenaNet had half of the staff they have today.

Considering how by then we had ten times more armors – again, ten times -, maybe the lesson here is that, if GW2 is that complex, ArenaNet tried to bite more than they can chew.

I suggest playing Guild Wars 1. That game is almost completely different than GW2.

Indeed.

Gameplay wise they are incredibly similar. But you are right in saying that they are very different: one was a big success, able to fund both constant updates and even a sequel, while the other has been such a failure that it has been forced to go free to play after enduring multiple content droughts and having next to no content added to it.

And one had, in two years, 150+ new armors available in game. The other has had, in three years, 15 armors available in-game. With the massive amount of… 4? Armors incoming.

That’s a lot of buzz in one post. 4 (per armor type), fits 5 races

“Fits”? LOL! ArenaNet itself said that they’re aware of all the armor issues with the Charr – you know, the ridiculous tail clipping, the way textures are clearly stretched, and so on and on and on -, but that they were not going to fix it since very few people play as Charr and therefore it’s not worth the effort.

Asura armors also have issues. The only ones that are spared are the Sylvari and the Norn, because their armors look soooooo different from the human ones /NOT

ronpierce.2760:

Enjoy GW1, bud.

I take it you have never played GW1. I suggest playing it, it’s a great game – but I do have to warn you: like most of the non-failed games, GW1 is not free to play, so you have to buy it to play it. Funny that a 10+ years old game is still buy to play, right? I guess that’s what success does to a game.

Ayrilana.1396:

Test.8734:

Ayrilana.1396:

sorudo.9054:

Ayrilana.1396:

Test.8734:

Pistol Joe.3741:

Dont forget gw2 is not like other games .. we always keep getting new stuff !

Sure, sure. In 3 years, we got in game:

• Illustrious armor (the ascended one)

• Glorious armor (the PvP one) and its reskin, Glorious Hero

• Carapace and its reskin, Luminescent

• Hellfire armor

• Radiant armor

Meanwhile, the Gem Store got:

• Aetherblade armor

• Primeval armor

• Braham’s armor

• Phalanx armor

• Flamewrath armor

• Zodiac armor

• Rampart armor

• And 24 (!!!) outfits

So yeah, we definitely keep getting stuff… In the Gem Store. We got even less armors in-game than in the Gem Store, and that’s considering how ArenaNet said they would focus the Gem Store in outfits, not in armors.

They made that statement after they started doing outfits. You can’t make their statement retroactive and then accuse them of lying.

in GW1 we had in one year more new armors in-game then we have gem store armor skins in GW2, in my eyes they have become extremely lazy.

In GW1, you had only humans to play as which is much different than what we have in GW2. More work is required to create GW2 armor than GW1 armor.

Uhuh.

So the excuse “GW2 is more complex” is the reason why, 3 years after release of the original Guild Wars, we had:

• More than 160 new maps (in GW2, 3 years later we have 3 new maps)

• More than 150 new armors completely available in game (in GW2, 3 years later we have 15 new armors in-game)

• 4 new professions (in GW2, 3 years after release we have zero new professions)

• More than 70 new skills for each of the core professions, not counting the generic PvE only skills (in GW2, 3 years after release we have a single new profession specific skill for each profession)

And so on, and so on. Despite how, at the time, ArenaNet had half of the staff they have today.

Considering how by then we had ten times more armors – again, ten times -, maybe the lesson here is that, if GW2 is that complex, ArenaNet tried to bite more than they can chew.

I suggest playing Guild Wars 1. That game is almost completely different than GW2.

Indeed.

Gameplay wise they are incredibly similar. But you are right in saying that they are very different: one was a big success, able to fund both constant updates and even a sequel, while the other has been such a failure that it has been forced to go free to play after enduring multiple content droughts and having next to no content added to it.

And one had, in two years, 150+ new armors available in game. The other has had, in three years, 15 armors available in-game. With the massive amount of… 4? Armors incoming.

Ayrilana.1396:

sorudo.9054:

Ayrilana.1396:

Test.8734:

Pistol Joe.3741:

Dont forget gw2 is not like other games .. we always keep getting new stuff !

Sure, sure. In 3 years, we got in game:

• Illustrious armor (the ascended one)

• Glorious armor (the PvP one) and its reskin, Glorious Hero

• Carapace and its reskin, Luminescent

• Hellfire armor

• Radiant armor

Meanwhile, the Gem Store got:

• Aetherblade armor

• Primeval armor

• Braham’s armor

• Phalanx armor

• Flamewrath armor

• Zodiac armor

• Rampart armor

• And 24 (!!!) outfits

So yeah, we definitely keep getting stuff… In the Gem Store. We got even less armors in-game than in the Gem Store, and that’s considering how ArenaNet said they would focus the Gem Store in outfits, not in armors.

They made that statement after they started doing outfits. You can’t make their statement retroactive and then accuse them of lying.

in GW1 we had in one year more new armors in-game then we have gem store armor skins in GW2, in my eyes they have become extremely lazy.

In GW1, you had only humans to play as which is much different than what we have in GW2. More work is required to create GW2 armor than GW1 armor.

Uhuh.

So the excuse “GW2 is more complex” is the reason why, 3 years after release of the original Guild Wars, we had:

• More than 160 new maps (in GW2, 3 years later we have 3 new maps)

• More than 150 new armors completely available in game (in GW2, 3 years later we have 15 new armors in-game)

• 4 new professions (in GW2, 3 years after release we have zero new professions)

• More than 70 new skills for each of the core professions, not counting the generic PvE only skills (in GW2, 3 years after release we have a single new profession specific skill for each profession)

And so on, and so on. Despite how, at the time, ArenaNet had half of the staff they have today.

Considering how by then we had ten times more armors – again, ten times -, maybe the lesson here is that, if GW2 is that complex, ArenaNet tried to bite more than they can chew.

Ayrilana.1396:

This again? You do realize that plans change over time within companies, right.

Ergo…

Ayrilana.1396:

The full set can be included. It’s something that will be released over time with HoT as a requirement in order to acquire them.

You do realize that plans change over time within companies, right. I also suppose that plans can change again and the full set won’t be released ever, so you saying that people should buy HoT because it will include a full legendary set is at best a mistake, at worst a sign of desperation.

Pistol Joe.3741:

Dont forget gw2 is not like other games .. we always keep getting new stuff !

Sure, sure. In 3 years, we got in game:

• Illustrious armor (the ascended one)

• Glorious armor (the PvP one) and its reskin, Glorious Hero

• Carapace and its reskin, Luminescent

• Hellfire armor

• Radiant armor

Meanwhile, the Gem Store got:

• Aetherblade armor

• Primeval armor

• Braham’s armor

• Phalanx armor

• Flamewrath armor

• Zodiac armor

• Rampart armor

• And 24 (!!!) outfits

So yeah, we definitely keep getting stuff… In the Gem Store. We got even less armors in-game than in the Gem Store, and that’s considering how ArenaNet said they would focus the Gem Store in outfits, not in armors.

Ayrilana.1396:

phys.7689:

pvp and wvw are not part of Hot.
fractal system is also not hot.
3 new legendary weapons, not a new set of weapons
map bonus, i dont think is hot only change

The full set can be included. It’s something that will be released over time with HoT as a requirement in order to acquire them.

Amazing how people have selective memory when they want to.

Q: In 2013, ArenaNet said that, during that year, we would see the release of new legendary weapons and new kinds of legendary items. Has ArenaNet broken their promises?

A: OMG of course no! That was not a promise, just something ArenaNet said they were going to do! You cannot expect ArenaNet to do what they said they’re going to do!

Q: HoT has very little content. Isn’t just 3 new legendary weapons too little?

A: OMG of course no! ArenaNet promised they will add more legendary weapons soon! They didn’t say when but we know ArenaNet will add those, so you can consider them part of the expansion when you buy HoT!

Uhuh.

eisberg.2379:

Free players won’t be excluded from expansion content? If yes, therefore the game is still buy to play, and they have only given a highly restricted access to the game that really amounts to it being a demo/never ending trial. If no, then why is there a price for it?

Ah, so you are saying that The Old Republic is buy to play? Because, exactly like GW2, it demands people to buy an expansion in order to play through its content, despite how the core game is available for free.

If you really think that, you should share your wisdom with the company that makes The Old Republic, because they – for some completely unknown reason – claim their game is free to play. What do they know, right?

rotten.9753:

The simpler explanation, at least for me, is that they moved their resources (like Robert Hrouda, dungeon designer) to Live Team because of lack of resources. Bi-weekly releases required a lot of effort.

Robert Hrouda was fired.

It’s interesting because it shows ArenaNet’s though process very well. “Hey Robert, a lot of people are playing in the Ascalon Catacombs to farm it, we need you to fix it!”. So Robert went there, changed how the encounters in that dungeon work, made it less farmeable but also harder and more interesting. The result: “Hey Robert, people are playing Ascalon Catacombs a lot less now” (obviously, because they weren’t farming it anymore) “So your new design sucks. Bye!”.

Mr Hrouda’s parting words are very sad. He mentions how he wanted to build something that would last… And instead his last assignment was a temporary dungeon.

SkiTz.4590:

Your version of GW2 dream is not the same as others.
This game is fine and well, only getting better.

Its the final nail in Gibsons GW2, not mine or many others.
Bye.

The game has failed, like any other MMORPG that found itself forced to go into free to play (like TOR, ESO, WildStar and so on). You should beg Gibson to stay, because unless GW2 gets a lot more players, the next step is for ArenaNet to begin laying off its workers.

Behellagh.1468:

But in SWTOR you couldn’t do anything without being wacked in the head with a pay wall. That doesn’t exist here.

Sure.

Unless you want to ask in map chat for help.

Or enter the big city right behind you when you create a new character.

Or actually go explore the rest of the world when you reach the border of a starting map.

Or make more than 2 characters.

Or have more than 3 bags.

Or trade with someone.

Or get those laurels people talk about.

Or talk in the official forums.

And so on, and so on.

Those restrictions, especially those regarding number of available characters and number of bag slots, are very similar to those seen on The Old Republic or any other cheap free to play game.

captainteemo.6537:

So, it’s Free to Play the game… Why don’t they just say it straight forward and skip overall all the subterfuge with the wording? This isn’t Buy to Play anymore. The core principles and idea behind b2p is gone.

(…)

At least Anet has all the pre-order money before they let people know they were changing their buy to play model.

Truth be said, they were probably hoping the presales would give them enough money so they wouldn’t have to go free to play. When that failed, they threw the towel, turned into free to play and finally announced how little content HoT will have (only 4 maps, only 4 armors, only 5 weapon sets, and so on).

Behellagh.1468:

It’s still buy to play for the expansion. It’s still buy to play for unrestricted core access. It’s F2P for anyone who don’t mind the restrictions or was unwilling to pay fifty dollars to see if they like it.

That’s how everyone does F2P. The Old Republic, a MMORPG that was infamous as being a massive disaster, when into the same free to play model when it left its pay to play original strategy – you can go F2P if you don’t mind the restrictions and if you don’t want to buy the expansion(s). I wonder if GW2 has failed as much as TOR has, for ArenaNet to decide that going free to play was the best option for them.

Behellagh.1468:

Test.8734:

chemiclord.3978:

I mean, Warlords of Draenor launched with all of five zones and one raid hub. And that’s with the resources Blizzard had available to them. Considering that Arena.net has probably a fraction of that, coming out with 4 maps and one raid zone is actually pretty kitten impressive.

See OP, this is again more of what ArenaNet wants.

Players who say, “Blizzard has a lot more resources than ArenaNet, you can’t possibly hold them to the same standards!”.

And then turn around to say, “Asking $50 for the expansion is fine, Blizzard does the same thing!”.

Some players need to learn they cannot have it both ways.

And some players need to understand that in one case it’s a company’s total income which impacts the amount of resources and the other it’s the unit price of the product the market expects and accepts.

Uhuh.

The “market expects”? How much was FFXIV’s expansion again? And how much was The Old Republic’s expansion, too?

People compare ArenaNet’s price with Blizzard’s price because everyone else has a lower price. That’s the supreme irony in those who turn around and say “but you cannot compare ArenaNet with Blizzard, the latter has a lot more resources!”.

And as far as the market “accepting” HoT’s price, well, I have some very long topics in this forum showing you otherwise.

See, OP? It’s not possible to defend ArenaNet using the truth. Unless you rely on excuses and half-truths, you cannot really defend what they have been doing.

The thing is, ArenaNet hoped this forum would be their PR. That a potential player would come here, see only people praising the game, and then decide to buy GW2.

When faced with angry players asking ArenaNet to account for their many mistakes, the studio is incredibly happy to see players willing to defend them, even if those players are disruptive and basically twist facts in order to try to make a point.

Under this permissive disruption, it’s no surprise the community is as bad as it is. Some players want ArenaNet to answer for their mistakes, while a few act as if the devs were helpless kids in distress and hurry to their rescue, regardless of how answering the players’ demands isn’t their place or within their hability.

That’s why you get the community this game has. Those who are right want ArenaNet to fix their game, but at the same time ArenaNet allows those who defend them to be disruptive and to hide their heads in the sand pretending everything is perfect.

chemiclord.3978:

I mean, Warlords of Draenor launched with all of five zones and one raid hub. And that’s with the resources Blizzard had available to them. Considering that Arena.net has probably a fraction of that, coming out with 4 maps and one raid zone is actually pretty kitten impressive.

See OP, this is again more of what ArenaNet wants.

Players who say, “Blizzard has a lot more resources than ArenaNet, you can’t possibly hold them to the same standards!”.

And then turn around to say, “Asking $50 for the expansion is fine, Blizzard does the same thing!”.

Some players need to learn they cannot have it both ways.

Vayne.8563:

SWToR is free to play. ESO is free to play. Archeage is free to play. Wildstar is going free to play. Honestly how do you people think the game is going to compete.

Yeah, and the funny thing is – all of those had another business model and then went free to play when they failed, and failed hard.

What do you think is the reason for GW2 ito go free to play, then? Because if every single example you have went free to play when they failed and now GW2 is going free to play, well… I wonder when the layoffs will begin.

chemiclord.3978:

See above. You claim “overpromises” of things not promised, and were in fact expressly stated would possibly change depending on resources allocation and available time.

See OP, this is the kind of player ArenaNet wants.

Right now, ArenaNet is saying: “We will release HoT with next to no content, we know, BUT! We will add more later, we promise! We will release HoT with just 4 maps but we will add more later, we will release HoT with only 3 legendaries but we will add more later, we will release HoT with only one third of a single raid but we will add more later!”.

And later, when they fail to implement even half of the things they’re promising, they want players who will say, “But ArenaNet never promised anything! Stop being entitled!”.

That’s why this community is so bad.

fluffdragon.1523:

So I guess all I’m left to do now is wonder what went so horribly wrong.

The community doesn’t trust ArenaNet anymore. Why would it? ArenaNet has given us plenty of reasons to not believe in them. Just to give a few examples:

• ArenaNet lost control over their own forum. They undid the contract with the company that designed and mantained this forum, which is why they cannot add new features or fix bugs (notice how the “forum bug” posts, correcting a bug in which the forum stops showing posts when a topic reaches a new page, are still around; the forum search is still broken, too). Do you honestly think Blizzard would ever have allowed that to happen, much less allowed their own forum to not belong to them for years? That’s how much ArenaNet cares about what people in their own official forum say.

• ArenaNet overpromises and underdelivers. Want one example? “We’ll begin regularly adding new skills and traits to the game”, “We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!”, “On top of this, you’ll also see new legendary weapons and new types of legendary gear in 2013”. None of that ever happened. Later they said they would add to the game a new fun and interesting way for people to unlock traits, which led to a massive outcry and years later they eventually overhauled the entire system (again). They also said they would make the initial player experience more “fun”, and the result was the hated NPE update, which made the beginning of the game a torture.

• They keep finding small ways in which to screw their players. The SAB Continue Coin stands as another example of this.

• “Oh, but they gave us so much content for free!”. Really? Where is it? Can you play Living World Season 1 right now? Can you play SAB? How about the Queen’s Festival? Oh, you can play through Living World season 2 if you – guess what? – pay for it of if you happened to be around at the time. The amount of content they have really added to the game is minuscule. And what they have addedd… Take a look at Silverwastes: it’s a copy-&-paste map. The exact same fortresses with the exact same events copied 4 times over the map, with a world boss, and that’s it. If the same team had designed Queensdale, it would be just a small map with 4 copies of the centaur camp and the Shadow Behemoth fight. “Oh, a lot of people play in the Silverwastes!” – sure, it’s the most profitable place where to farm in the game. It’s the single world boss that is not under a timer and that gives full rewards whenever players kill it. This will bite ArenaNet’s behind when people realize that farming it is more profitable than farming HoT, and leave the expansion maps half empty.

• And meanwhile, while we are at a content draught, and while we get no new skin in game, ArenaNet continues to release new skins at the Gem Store monthly. HoT will come with new armor sets – TWO - and meanwhile they have innundated the Gem Store with new outfits. This proves what are ArenaNet’s priorities.

And so on and so on.

This community is wrong because that’s how ArenaNet built it.

Samarak.7519:

Simzani.4318:

There are 4 mini-maps, the total is equal to one normal map. Discard their pr speak about layers, it’s not innocent that in their beta week ends they only show a tiny part of their mini-maps. Given all the problems they had with this tiny demonstrations, it should be normal that they want to beta test all the mini-maps before the launch, wich is near. But they don’t, they only show a little part of a little map. Prepare to be disapointed.

The available content in Verdant Brinks beta map has already completely annihilated your opinion.

Too bad the main events were so bugged that very few players managed to experience the so-called “available” content in Verdant Brinks.

Aramil.9503:

Is it true that people are boycotting this because it is overpriced?

No, people are simply not buying because it’s overpriced.

HoT will come with:

• Only 4 new PvE maps. This is almost nothing.
• Only 2 new armor skins per weight, plus legendary armor. This is less than the number of outfits they have released in the Gem Store since they announced HoT.
• Only 5 new weapon skins. Again, they have released more skins in the Gem Store than this.
• Only 3 new legendary weapons. Because ArenaNet says they will add more “soon” (last time they said that, it was more than 2 years ago and we’re still waiting)
• Only part of a single raid. They will release more “soon” (current bets say in 2017)

Really, it’s DLC-worth content. The kind of thing people would pay at most $10 for.

Don’t buy it right now. Wait, and, considering how starved for money ArenaNet is (free to play game, rushing to release an obviously unfinished “expansion”), they will reduce the price as soon as the poor reviews start pouring in.

Galen Grey.4709:

Well not exactly double, dont expect adventures and such will change so its not exactly double bit still quite a bit more.

Uhu. Adventures won’t change, the landscape won’t change, vistas won’t change (assuming the new maps will even have those, looks like polish was restricted to the core release) and so on.

It’s not even near double. It’s more like a x1.1.

Ohoni.6057:

It probably won’t be “12 maps,” but recent maps have been much more dense in content, so they really do feel a lot bigger in practice than they look from above.

Silverwastes is basically a copy-paste map that feels like ArenaNet decided to increase its size without bothering to increase its content, leading us to 4 fortresses that are exactly the same and just cycle the exact same events over and over.

If HoT will be like Silverwastes – and it looks like it will be – then the 4 maps (LOL!) will be basically copy-paste maps as well. They have already told us we will fight the same boss in multiple maps (the wyvern or whatever it’s called).

DarksunG.9537:

Factions MORE THAN DOUBLED the number of armor sets. Nightfall just about doubled.. In a Cosmetically-based progression game… they add 2. This just can’t be right.

It is right. Don’t worry, ArenaNet will add a lot of outfits to the Gem Store so you can customize your character’s appearance as much as you want… Assuming, of course, you don’t want to mix and match your pieces.

Wait, wait…

The expansion will come with TWO armor sets? ONLY two?

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

This is officially a DLC now. And ArenaNet is asking us to pay the price of a full game for this? Two armor sets and five weapon sets? This is less than the art they release in the Gem Store during the time they were working on HoT. It’s nice to see ArenaNet making clear what their priorities are.

So we will have:

• A laughable amount of new skins
• One third of a raid (with the rest coming “soon”, which in ArenaNet’s universe can take more than 2 years)
• Three legendary weapons, with more coming “soon” (see above)
• Less than one handful of new maps
• A half new profession (because the revenant has less skills than everyone else, and is less versatile than everyone else)
• A few new skills for the old professions
• A new PvP mode… With only a single map
• A couple of guild halls… With more to come “soon” (see above again)

This deserves $10 at most.

Vavume.8065:

I don’t like it, can I has gems instead? thx

Same, it’s ugly and that helmet is hideous. I’m sure ArenaNet didn’t bother trying to make this outfit nice since they could spend more time working on Gem Store outfits. They didn’t even bother making it an armor instead of just an outfit. It’s like they don’t care at all.

Vayne.8563:

Looks pretty good to me.

Wow, SUCH a surprise!

Vayne, my good and excellent friend, tell me one thing: among those successful MMORPGs, of which you claim GW2 is a pristine example of, how many have changed their model to free to play?

Because I just happen to have a list of MMORPG failures which were forced to, at the apex of their failure, go free to play. In fact, for most of them going F2P was the main sign of how poorly they were doing.

Is this somehow familiar to you?

It was incredibly underwhelming, you didn’t miss anything.

I’m laughing at how few people clapped when the trailer ended.

Donari.5237:

I think they are too busy to do something like that. This saddens me. The 2012 BWEs were extra special thanks to the end events.

They have always been busy. But it used to be that they cared about small, little fun things that improved the game even without being “massive” features they could make blog posts and thus get some publicity from.

Now, it’s the other way around – are more likely to see a blog post overpromising something than finding such little small details in the game.

Connor Obrian.8420:

The only logical result of this thought is that we won’t see an announcement for a real f2p base game this evening. The risk to destroy their reputation, disappointing the fan base shortly before an important release is simply too high. If you want to do something controversial, then you do it when your risk is calculable small.

I think ArenaNet is assuming most people will actually enjoy the change to free to play (despite how there’s no clearer sign that a MMORPG is failing than it changing its business model to free to play).

Although I’m not sure what to think of their marketing strategy, considering how they just did the most underwhelming release date announcement I have EVER seen. And one day before a major announcement at a big convention, even.