Guild Wars 2

lordkrall.7241:

Did they actually say a “full week of reveals”? I seem to recall it being more along the lines of one being focused per week.

Funny how the “one being focused per week” suddenly became “a full DAY of reveals”

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Same old, I’d say.

Still, it’s amazing how bad ArenaNet’s communication about this beta has been. Would it have hurt them to actually give more information about the beta before throwing the big “go grind to join beta!” announcement?

I wonder if the number of daily player log-ins fell and they hurried to make this way to access beta in order to save face.

Zeick.2891:

Potential build diversity does not equal actual build diversity. Right now there a lot of builds you could run, but those build are not viable and so wont be played. By restricting our choice it makes it easier for Anet to balance traits. Hopefully this will mean that their is more viable builds, and thus more actual diversity.

There isn’t a situation in which a build is not viable, in the great majority of PvE. Not optimal? Sure. Not viable? As easy as PvE is? It would be very hard for something to not be viable; you can probably get a character without any traits and do 99% of the PvE content in the game with it.

Really, the only group that talks about a build being “viable” is the dungeon speed running community. ArenaNet cares that much about those players that they aren’t even going to add dungeons in HoT, so…

Right now, the game has a lot of build diversity, as you can try any build combination and succeed. Want to play a 3/3/3/3/2 elementalist build? If you have fun with it, go ahead, you’ll evenually finish events like anyone else. Want to play a Guardian build focused on spirit weapons? It will be slower than other builds, but if you are playing to have fun and you enjoy that playstyle, go for it.

What ArenaNet is about to do is removing the ability of playing how we want, and instead making we play how they want.

And that, under the pretense that professions will be better balanced. To which I ask – if ArenaNet did not manage to balance the current traits after 3 years, to the point in which there were people saying almost all builds available are bad, what makes you think they will actually manage to balance an entire reworked sets of traits plus the new specializations any time soon?

Nike.2631:

Lets be perfectly clear:

The “no grind” policy extends to a full set of Exotic gear. Full Stop. Done. Finito.

EVERYTHING beyond that does and is intended to require MASSIVE investment of playtime or real money.

Based on Colin’s statements a few months ago, the “no grind” policy was meant to extend to ascended gear as well.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

After changes:
gear – pow 120 prec 100 Fer 100
Or (This is important) you switch out one or two accesories and get
Gear – Pow 110 Prec 80 Fer 80 Heal pow 20 Vita 30

Which means, you will have to adjust your accessories if you want to go back to the build you have right now. And that’s assuming you are lucky enough to have a build that can actually be built with accessories, considering how limited stat distribution on items is, especially on ascended gear (which is even more limited than common gear).

What if, though, you feel like changing your build a bit? With traits, you could easily change some stat points from here to there, and change how you play. With stats coming exclusively from gear, in order to experiment you would need to change your accessories again, which isn’t so easy due to a multitude of issues (not only the limited stats on gear, but also the fact that getting so many ascended acessories isn’t easy, plus the lack of space where to keep everything, and etc).

In the end, the change punishes players who like to experiment and change their builds. I remember, in the original Guild Wars, when ArenaNet removed refund points and allowed players to change their attributes freely; it rejuvenated the game, and allowed for a lot more build diversity, build creativity and variety in play. Now… Now ArenaNet is going to kill all those things. And why? To make the game simpler for players to whom stat allocation would be “too confusing”. It’s the NPE all over again.

MiniEquine.6014:

They won’t be receiving a new weapon aside from the shield, but I don’t know if they addressed whether or not they might have weapons they currently used switched to different hands.

Very unlikely. It looks like mesmers will get less new skills than the other professions – ArenaNet did say that the elite specializations would get “a single heal, four utility skills, and one elite skill”, and they have mentioned “a new way to shatter illusions”.

So that would be two new weapon skills (shield), one new F skill (notice how they said “a new way”, not “new ways”), one heal, four utility and one elite. Compare that to the engineer: five new weapon skills at least (hammer, and it’s very likely the auto-attack will be a chain), one heal, four utility skills, one elite, toolbelt skills for all of those…

It’s also a pity, IMO, because mesmers already have off hand options for multiple builds, while main hand weapons are lacking – sword is mostly melee power, scepter is basically ranged conditions, and that’s it. You can’t use pistol, torch or focus properly if your build doesn’t fit one of those two. More main hand options would have been great. A pistol main hand for ranged power, for example.

Softspoken.2410:

Moving the stats from traits to gear isn’t going to make the gear situation any worse* than it currently is.

It will, actually.

Right now, stats on traits give us more possible combinations than gear does. Is there any gear with Power + Precision + Ferocity + Toughness? No, but you can invest in all those stats by using Berserker gear and investing in the trait line that gives Toughness. Same for any other attribute combination – gear gives only a small fraction of the combinations available by combining gear and traits.

Removing the only way we have to slot stats beyond gear will reduce build variety, since stats allocation on gear is extremelly limited.

Not to mention how it’s far easier to change traits than to change gear – or do you really see people around with multiple sets of full ascended armor? Locking stats to something we cannot easily respec will only lead players to change their builds even less often than they do today, which will make the game even more stagnant than it has been after three years of barely any new skill or trait.

ArenaNet should have done the opposite – removed stats from gear (beyond a basic damage for weapons and a basic defense for armor) and given players free control of their stats allocation, with respects available whenever out of combat. That would have given us true freedom to have a variety of builds whenever we wanted.

But, nope.

I hope ArenaNet at least allow us to change the stats of our equipment when this change hits. That’s really the bare minimum they should do.

Brother Grimm.5176:

I would choose Anet’s type of “grind” (fully optional) over other developers that REQUIRE you do the GRIND to advance the game…..

Irrelevant. You are not “REQUIRED” to advance the game. You aren’t even “REQUIRED” to play the game at all.

In fact, it’s ironic that people point at mandatory grind to raid as an example of required grind, when articles about MMORPGs show how only a very small percentage of the playerbase bothers with raids at all.

The issue with grind in GW2 is that ArenaNet is focusing most of their resources on grind and the Gem Store. Just take a look at the new maps they have introduced – the Silverwastes is just a massive grind, the Pavillion was farming central, and so on.

Soon, the options in this game will be “grind” or “stop playing”.

UnitedChaos.8364:

tl;dr Calm down. You are not an ‘expert’. Until the changes are live, we just don’t know what will come to fruition.

So what you’re saying is that people are not “experts”, so we don’t know what is going to happen… However, you:

UnitedChaos.8364:

From my point of view, every single class has been improved.

…Think you know enough to say what is going to happen.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

lordkrall.7241:

At least this way they guarantee that the people that get selected actually plays the game.

Correction: that people that get selected grind the game.

That could be HoT’s new slogan: “Only grinders need to apply!”

A big step away from the “We don’t want players to grind” mentality, but I guess that ship has sailed a long time ago.

kuben.9826:

Post Your thoughts here. Post other funny facts or things that were deleted after beta with no reason.

Considering the things that were added after release, it’s rather obvious that the game has only become worse. In beta:

1. There was no ascended gear.

2. There was no Fractals to grind Agony resistance for.

3. There was no kind of time gate for crafting.

4. You could actually get dyes as a drop.

5. ArenaNet didn’t hold content in order to release it in the Gem Store, which is pretty much what they have been doing with weapon skins these last few years.

6. The Personal Storyline made sense, instead of the broken mess we have right now (which ArenaNet has promised to fix, but no one knows when).

7. Trait acquisition was simple and fast, unlike the mess it is today, and unlike the mess it will become soon.

8. We unlocked weapon skills by using them, instead of through levelling, so you could easily end the tutorial having fully unlocked a weapon, which doesn’t happen today.

9. No matter if you were a new player or not, you could see everything in the map – skill points, vistas, etc. After the NPE, ArenaNet decided those things are just “too confusing” and has kept them hidden from new players.

10. Scarlet didn’t exist.

11. Players could use bundle items in the starting areas. I remember an interview in which Colin mentioned how he had a lot of fun with a player in Queensdale, after both of them spent a lot of time with buckets just throwing water on each other. Now that – which made even the developer have fun – has been removed from the game, and new characters cannot pick up buckets or similar things in the earlier maps.

And so on, and so on.

GW2 has been changing for the worst since right after release. HoT appears to be just one more step downards.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Looks like Silverwastes and Dry Top will be humming with players!

ArenaNet: “We don’t want players to grind!”

ArenaNet: “Oh, and if you want early access to the expansion, just grind the grindiest map in the game over and over! If RNG favors you, you will get an invite!”

I guess we know what kind of content the expansion will have, if even the beta invites are hidden behind a grind wall.

lordkrall.7241:

Rather interesting way to get into beta as well.

Hah! Did grinding become a “rather interesting way” to get something now? Because it’s fairly obvious that people who grind those two zones are more likely to get invites than anyone else.

It speaks rather poorly of the expansion, if just to access beta we’re expected to grind old content. I can’t help but wonder if the expansion will basically be a massive grind fest, and that’s why ArenaNet wants grinders to beta test it.

Zorish.2940:

I know a lot has changed. I do not plan on getting the expansion for now.

Should I roll a new character and enjoy levelling?

ArenaNet just announced they are completely going to change how building our characters work. Acquiring and using traits and new skills will become completely different from what it is right now. You can read more about it here.

It would probably be better for you to wait until this new system is implemented before you return. They said it will be implemented before the expansion is released, and it makes no sense to return to the game and begin relearning how the current system works, only to have it be completely redone (and forcing you to acquire again traits and skills you already had) while you’re in the middle of the levelling experience.

Khenzo.2465:

Is anyone else a little worried about the pve meta shifting from berserker or assassins simply because of the cost of ascended armour.

…Which is more evidence of how bad ArenaNet’s current system is.

Stats shouldn’t be linked to gear that takes a lot of time to acquire. Ascended armor should provide at most more raw armor, not stats like Power and Precision – since then players become unable to change their builds easily, and corner themselves in playing mostly the same build all the time.

If ArenaNet changed the game so gear had no stats other than base damage for weapons and base defense for armor, and players had stat points to distribute how they want – while being able to respec easily -, then we would be able to change how we play the game far more often than today, adding more variety and so making it less likely that a player would become bored with his/her character.

Instead, ArenaNet is going to move in the completely opposite direction, and remove stats control from players while adding more of it to gear. I wonder if ArenaNet is trying to increase player retention by making players grind more for gear, as opposed to making the game more fun, but it’s a very lazy and very boring approach to game design.

Tachenon.5270:

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

So what do you want them to do, OP? Churn out a bunch of skills that nobody will use?

I’d rather that they built the game to accommodate more build variety than reduce the variety of builds to accommodate the game. How about that?

It’s amazing, isn’kitten

ArenaNet has had THREE YEARS to fix the current balance of the game. Three years with barely any new skill or trait in which they could have worked to make balance better.

And yet, even after all that time, they are still so bad at balance that even people trying to defend ArenaNet claim if they added new skills they would likely be useless; and that ArenaNet has left the game in a state in which there are very few viable builds.

The answer here is obvious – ArenaNet is not doing enough to balance the game. If they plan on introducing new specializations in the future, and that’s what they claim they are going to do, soon they will find themselves in a situation like today, with more than they can handle. The solution isn’t for ArenaNet to remove choice from the players, so eventually we would end with MOBA-like characters, but rather for them to do their jobs properly and work more at making balance better.

petespri.6548:

I only have maybe 1/3 of my traits at this point, and I have been pursuing them my entire time leveling from 1 to 80. It literally took going trait event to trait event all over the map to get what i acquired, and I not even done yet.

Ironic, isn’kitten

ArenaNet: “Hey guys, now you need to do this stuff to unlock traits!”

Player A: “Ok, I guess I’ll stop doing skill challenges and do those other things in order to get my traits unlocked.”

Some time later…

Player A: “Finally, just got all traits unlocked. Too bad I have done almost zero skill challenges, but at least I got my traits.”

ArenaNet: “Hey guys, we will rework how traits work! If you haven’t done skill challenges, you won’t have enough hero points to unlock all traits! And those things you did to unlock the traits are useless now, by the way.”

Player A uninstalls.

Cyninja.2954:

Be happy about a new system which is more alt friendly/cheaper.

The original system, without the need to unlock trait by trait, was significantly more alt friendly/cheaper.

lordkrall.7241:

There were about 2-3 viable builds for each profession in Guild Wars 1. The vast majority of skills were never used, and plenty of them were more or less identical.

See, the original Guild Wars had the same issue the current one does: it was, and is, too easy.

Which also means, it’s very hard for a build to not be viable, unless you are an extremely bad player.

In the original Guild Wars, if you worked really hard, you could make a build that would actually help your enemies more than yourself. But for each build like that, there were literally thousands of builds that were perfectly viable in an easy game as PvE was there.

The same pretty much applies to GW2. Take a character in exotics and zero trait points, send him to do any kind of PvE content other than high level Fractals, and that character will succeed, unless it’s a very bad player playing.

So no, the “few viable builds” excuse doesn’t really fit. For PvP? Sure. For PvE? The only ones who claim a build is viable or not are the speed runners who farm dungeons, and even them what they’re really saying is if a build is optimal or not, not if it’s viable to finish the dungeon or not; and ArenaNet cares so much about the dungeon speed runners that they are not even to bother adding a new dungeon to HoT.

…It’s interesting to see the direction ArenaNet has been going to.

Right now, a Necromancer in the original Guild Wars has access to more or less 150 skills. But, in the original Guild Wars, our characters have access to two professions at once (and it’s rather easy to switch which second profession you have access to), so that Necromancer has access to more 150 Monk skills, or 150 Warior skills, and so on. Not to mention more or less 50 PvE only skills that are common between all professions.

And, while the skill bar has 8 skill lots (unlike the 10 we have today), the only restriction is that you can only have at most one Elite skill – you are free to to whatever you want with the rest of the skill bar. Unlike the GW2 system, in which you have 5 weapon skills, 1 healing skill, and so on.

We also get to control not only our build, but also our heroes’ builds. Heroes are NPC companions you can add to your party, and you can fully customize their builds within their professions. With 7 heroes in a party of 8 characters, you can pick 64 skills from a pool of more than one thousand skills and be as unique as you want to be.

That’s, though, in the past.

When ArenaNet was talking about Guild Wars 2, long before release, they mentioned they would remove the ability of having two professions, as well as reducing considerably the number of available skills, and locking skill slots for specific purposes – some skills are linked to weapons, some to utility slots, and so on.

That, they said, because they learned they couldn’t properly balance all skills within the original Guild Wars. Which is true – although it’s a sign of bad long term planning, more than anything else, that they only figured out they couldn’t balance that many skills after those had been added to the game. A more restrictive system, ArenaNet claimed, would lead to a more balanced system – so we would have less choices, but they would be more balanced, better choices.

Only, they weren’t.

We all know the balance mess that the game is right now. Even decimating diversity in Guild Wars 2 compared to the original Guild Wars, ArenaNet still was not able to balance the game. That, despite how combat in the original GW was more complex, with a lot more variables, and focused on parties of 8 characters (as opposed to 5 characters as we have right now).

So what is ArenaNet going to do?

Try to improve how they balance the game?

Nooooooooooooooo. They will cut diversity even more.

By ArenaNet’s own words:

ArenaNet

We like to describe builds using the new system in two ways:

1. I am a(n) {profession name} specializing in {Spec #1}, {Spec #2}, and {Spec #3}. i.e., I am a ranger specializing in Marksmanship, Wilderness Survival, and Beastmastery.

2. I am a(n) {elite spec} specializing in {Spec #2}, and {Spec #3}. i.e., I am a druid specializing in Nature Magic and Skirmishing.

So that’s how they see the diversity within builds. If you are a ranger in the current GW2, you will be defined by having chosen 3 out of 5 spec lines. And that’s all the diversity you are going to have.

It will likely be slightly better than that – we do have (very) few options of different traits within a given specialization line. It reminds me of Talent trees from other MMORPGs at this point.

I do wonder, though, if this “new” ArenaNet – twice, at least, the size of the ArenaNet that made the original Guild Wars games – will actually balance GW2 now (or what remains of it, anyway).

Or if they will realize they also cannot balance the system they are about to introduce, and just remove the trait system so all characters from a given profession are basically the same, not unlike pre-made characters from MOBAs.

Nike.2631:

Looking over your build, I looks like going into HoT you drop the 1 point in Virtues (awesome minor trait, I know) and get full progression in the other tree.

I think what annoys me the most is that the usual profession mechanics are a bit bland without traits. With minor investiments like one trait point, you could spice them up a bit – add the boons to the Virtues, add confusion to Shatters, it used to be that the boons on Elemental Attunements were also a minor trait, and so on.

Now, there are no “minor investiments” anymore. It’s all or nothing.

ArenaNet will change how traits work, but I don’t think they have changed enough. The three minor traits being kept between the major ones don’t really make sense – that’s a relic from the current system, since picking a trait line already unlocks all three minor traits; it’s not a progression from minor to major to minor anymore.

Likewise, I wish they had changed how the traits linked to the primary profession mechanics work. Instead of keeping them together with the other traits, I wish ArenaNet would have kept them apart, so everyone could choose one among three (or 4) ways to enhance the primary mechanic. So, for example, all elementalists would have access to Evasive Arcana or Elemental Attunement or one more option equally useful, beyond the trait system; all Guardians would have access to Inspired Virtue or Shielded Mind or Purity of Body or Permeating Wrath; and so on.

ArenaNet could bend their system a little more, now that they are overhauling it.

lordkrall.7241:

Would love to have sources for these things, because as far as I understand it there is no points whatsoever involved in the specialization system.

Well, it looks like in the end there are points involved in the specialization system

Build: here. Basically, a 6/3/0/4/1 Guardian build. It relies on symbols, and use the fact that Justice is recharged with each kill and that it gives Might to keep a stead supply of that boon.

Situation: gone. With access to only 3 trait lines, it would require 4 different lines in order to work. Those traits haven’t been merged.

“Ah, it’s not a viable build!!!”

Honestly, that’s an excuse used by bad players. In PvE, anything is viable (unless someone is a really bad player). You could do pretty much anything even without traits. Having an “optimal” build is only required by the dungeon speed-running groups, and ArenaNet cares so much about those players that they are not even going to add new dungeons with HoT.

What traits do is give diversity, allowing you to change how you play so you have more options, and therefore are less likely to become bored, and therefore less likely to stop playing. That’s a win-win situation for ArenaNet, but somehow they are curbing diversity from the game.

Hamfast.8719:

Bring back the animations! ’Nuff said.

I think the true reason was that some people saw the animations as “sensuous” (because of course a woman cannot stretch her arms without having the goal to show off her breasts, no, we need all women to keep her arms below the waist at all times), and so ArenaNet removed them in order to cater to the overly conservative and misogynist players.

It’s a shame, but isn’t the first time ArenaNet makes the game worse in order to cater to the lowest denominator.

BrooksP.4318:

Cosmetic only grinds can only hold for so long, this isn’t surprising nor all that bad.

So instead of adding a new tier of gear, they are making the current top tier – which is still not that common – more powerful?

All the while branding the “we have no gear treadmill” slogan?

One of the key aspects of the original Guild Wars was the ability to change specs all the time. A fire elementalist could quickly and easily change to water elementalist, or to a combination of water and earth, and so on. This added a lot of longevity to the game – are you bored of your character? Completely change your build, as was easy to do, and it almost feels like you’re playing a different character.

ArenaNet missed the mark, in GW2, by adding a lot of stats to items. The more powerful a given item is, the more time consuming it will be to acquire, and the less likely people will be to have multiple variations of it with different stats. The result is that people are less likely to change builds, since it’s not just a matter of changing attribute points or trait points – you also have to change your equipment, and that’s not as simple as changing the stats.

ArenaNet could have fixed this. We already had the trait system in the game, allowing players some way to change a bit their stats; by reducing significantly the stats from items, it would be possible to create a situation in which players are more likely to change builds, and so less likely to become bored with their characters.

But, of course, ArenaNet fails again. They will do the opposite change – increase the power of items, by removing stats alocation from traits and adding it to gear. Now ascended gear will give even better stats than it does today. People will be even more stuck on builds based on gear, since they will have less flexibility.

It’s as if ArenaNet were trying to make people stop playing GW2.

Cyninja.2954:

To point out even more things you missed. GW2 mchanics, events, etc have undergone major changes and are way more engaging than at release.

“More engaging”?

Sure, the new trait unlock system is a lot more “engaging”. The New Player Experience update, hiding many parts of the game, is a lot more “engaging”. Removing interactive items from low level areas is a lot more “engaging”. The new storyline system, that ArenaNet itself knows is broken but still have not fixed, is a lot more “engaging”.

And so on.

You do have a point, maybe ArenaNet could have released more content if they didn’t need so many resources to fix things they have broken. Still, all they have done is but a fraction of what they did during the same time when developing GW2.

Something was lost there, it seems. Efficiency and efficacy, mostly.

lordkrall.7241:

I am just pointing out that 14 people in 3 years is a very low number in this market.

So you are really assuming that no one else left? Despite how I mentioned a very clear “so on” at the end of my post? And despite how the wiki section on former employees has nearly 200 names, despite being out of date, and being very easy to find?

Better luck next time, buddy.

Scipio.3204:

@ Test
I think John Stumme still works at arenanet … at least I didn’t hear about him leaving.

Check his linkedin profile. He left ArenaNet last year.

Zaklex.6308:

For the millionth time, they started design on this expansion as soon as or very soon after(if not maybe slightly before) GW2 was released in August 2 and half years ago, so the expansion itself has been in development for 2+ years.

Source?

Because I doubt very, very much that’s true.

Considering how what we will get doesn’t appear to be more than Living World Season 3 with a few extras, and how ArenaNet claimed they won’t manage to even release more than a “handful” of legendaries, if that’s the best they can do after 30 months, I would be extremely disappointed.

Solori.6025:

39.99-59.99 is what I expect
that is reasonable for a company like Arena Net ( especially seeing as how other games that had a monthly fee charged you the same thing)

Not really.

The expansion feels like Living World Season 3 with a few extras. If we didn’t already have a lack of content in game due to the Gem Store I would still agree with you, though, in that 39.99 would be a fair price.

But with ArenaNet saying that they will only manage to add a “handful” of legendaries with HoT while they keep a steady flow of new complex weapon skins in the Gem Store… Sorry. We don’t pay a monthly fee, but we already lose enough due to the in-game store.

lordkrall.7241:

OMG, 14 people have left in three years! The company is clearly dying!!!

So, are you saying that no one else left ArenaNet?

Or that you think those 14 individuals I mentioned are not talented enough that the game feels different due to their departure?

maddoctor.2738:

Test.8734:

rotten.9753:

I see you like passive gameplay where your stats instead of your actions influence the end results. That’s okay, everyone should have an opinion but you should maybe try a different game where it is already happening instead of constantly complaining here without any result.

Are you that concerned about a game in which berserker isn’t king? Don’t worry, you would still have your existing playground. Everything else would require more and better, but if you don’t want to adapt, you can stay at what’s already there.

How is standing still and facetanking content “more and better”?

This again? Did I say anything about “standing still and facetanking content”? Nope.

The arguments against berzerker are clear as day. The answers can’t do better than to rely on statements that don’t exist. Looks pretty obvious what side ArenaNet should listen to.

Scipio.3204:

It just feels like it’s not the same anet since GW2’s release.

Exactly. Feels like becoming bigger actually made ArenaNet less productive.

A LOT of people left, too. I saw a discussion at reddit mentioning some names:

Former Staff:

• October 2014 Jonathan Sharp -Game Design Lead

• August 2014 Martin Kerstein – Community Team Lead

• August 2014 Kate Welch -UI Designer

• April 2014 Allie Murdock -PvP Community Coordinator

• August 2013 Josh Petrie – Engineering/Programmer

• August 2013 Robert Hrouda – Content Designer, laid off on August 20, 2013

• April 2013 Habib Loew, -Programmer

• July 2012 Kevin Ehmry – Programmer – of Ehmry Bay fame

Not to mention a lot of other important people who left – Christopher Whiteside, Kekai Kotaki, Horai Dociu, Katy Hargrove, John Hargrove, John Stumme, and so on…

ArenaNet doesn’t feel the same. They actually feel less…

Windsagio.1340:

I still don’t get these threads ><

What’s the goal exactly?

To give ArenaNet feedback so they can improve the game.

What is there not to get? People are allowed to have an opinion different from yours and to express it, for the good of the game.

Randulf.7614:

There is absolutely no way a company of Anet’s size could produce content to fill the gap whilst making an expansion. It is simply too much work and too many resources. It isn’t feasible for them, nor is it feasible to request it of them.

Really?

Because the last we heard from ArenaNet, they had more than 250 people.

And the Living World team was just a few people.

Meanwhile, while they were working on a project called Guild Wars 2 (which was slightly bigger than an expansion), they still left a few people working on the original Guild Wars so it would have some new content. It was called the Live Team (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?).

Speaking about the original Guild Wars, three years after release they had already published 2 full new campaigns, more than doubling the size of the original game, released 4 new professions, released a huge number of new skills, were about to release the first real expansion, AND were already working on Guild Wars 2. That, with a much smaller team than they have today.

Sounds like asking for more content than what we have today isn’t only “feasible”, it’s logical and obvious.

rotten.9753:

I see you like passive gameplay where your stats instead of your actions influence the end results. That’s okay, everyone should have an opinion but you should maybe try a different game where it is already happening instead of constantly complaining here without any result.

Are you that concerned about a game in which berserker isn’t king? Don’t worry, you would still have your existing playground. Everything else would require more and better, but if you don’t want to adapt, you can stay at what’s already there.

When you make content for people who are not worried about having fun, and instead want rewards as fast as possible and as easily as possible – aka “grind”, aka basically what Silverwastes is all about – you will get those who exploit it to get what they want without having to endure the content.

It’s a game flaw more than the guild’s flaw. If ArenaNet didn’t want people to do this kind of thing, they could have made a map in which the focus isn’t to grind.

Artemis Thuras.8795:

Do we need more bosses with fast attacks, different mechanics?
Yes.
MORE DUNGEONS PLS!!

Indeed.

Add a new dungeon where all enemies have an energy shield and are thus unable to receive critical hits: boom, two thirds of berzerker become useless. Add a positive spin on in (near the beginning, a friendly NPC gives the players a gizmo that refills endurance when they kill someone with the energy shield) and you have a different dungeon, requiring players to adapt (and not only gear, but traits and etc).

Add a new dungeon where all enemies either do fast attacks or come in huge waves of small enemies, so dodging each big attack is impossible – and then other kinds of defense become important, and berserker is not enough.

Add a new dungeon where most enemies have very high armor, very low health and are extra vulnerable to conditions. You change the focus away from berserker by rewarding a playstyle that is usually punished in PvE.

“But Test, what if someone complains saying, ‘I love berserker and I don’t have money to buy other gear?’”

I would say, “See, that’s what players who don’t use berserker have to deal with today, and stop complaining – you still have all the dungeons in vanilla GW2, in which your playstyle is the most effective”.

Akagami.9861:

I’m starting more and more to believe that they had Season 3 of LS done, or almost done, but then they made a change of plans and made from Season 3 an expansion, and they just started adding new things like specializations and Precursor.

I think they had Season 3 planned, not exactly done, but I agree with everything you said. The expansion feels like Season 3, which is basically what they have talked the most about, with a few extras so we feel it’s an expansion. And it’s noticeable how the specializations, one of the things that feels the most like “expansion-like” content, have not been mentioned and likely not well developed yet.

Scoobaniec.9561:

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets.

That was probably meaningless hype, just like the “revolution” they promised when they released GW2. The specializations appear to be the same old professions with just a few extra skills.

Palador.2170:

Besides, if that was the situation, the higher-ups would have to know how bad it is. We’d be seeing some of the big names getting off of the ship before it sinks, right?

Chris Whiteside, the Studio Designer Director, has just left ArenaNet…

Calyptica.6758:

My friend was in the beta for HoT, i wasn’t lucky… he can’t transmute the skin on his armor. My group can proof it too. One of us whispered him, he just answered: “I have this armor because i’m the best”.

Exploiter using a bug that a few beta testers got, in which the armor was unlocked for their entire account. Wasn’t something that happened to all beta testers, though. There were some topics about it already.

Report the guy. Would probably be better to report him through the website.

Palador.2170:

If they’re really not all that far along with making the specializations, then they’re talking about an expansion that they can’t promise to bring to the table.

Do you really have any doubt that ArenaNet’s situation is exactly what you have described above?

Think about it. ArenaNet is probably under pressure to make profits, after the China release – that made them stop to make content for the existing markets – underperformed. They haven’t figured out how to release new content – the idea of a Living World was shot down when players realized it meant very little permanent content, so ArenaNet changed their model from Season 1 to Season 2. And yet, they didn’t implement many of the things they said they would add to the game through the Living World (such as new legendaries, new professions, regular updates with new skills and traits, and so on). And now, Season 3 has shifted again – after telling us they wouldn’t need an expansion since they could release everything through the Living World, here comes an expansion!

They clearly have no idea of what they’re doing.

ArenaNet is very likely panicking and trying to adapt what would have been Season 3 into an expansion, making a package with what would have been a few Feature Packs, and desperately running to make more content players would strongly desire – like the new profession and specializations – before their money runs out.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the specializations were still in a very early stage, and they didn’t even know how players would unlock them, or what exactly they would change in the existing professions.

Astralporing.1957:

Or, we can skip the whole hoopla, and go straight to time investment without irritating many players on the way.

You are assuming that the “time investment” does not irritate many players…

Wreave.2138:

Complaining about grinding in an MMO is like complaining about sugar in a sugartart.

And that’s how it will always be unless people stop settling for less and demand more.

The MMORPG genre is in a very bad situation right now. Remember when everyone and their mother were trying to make a MMORPG? That time is long gone. Most of the big MMORPG releases in the last few years have performed very poorly. TOR was admitedly a failure at launch, FFXIV’s original release was such a failure that they had to rework the entire game, ESO is bleeding players and just went free to play, and so on.

The idea that “MMORPG = grind and if you don’t want grind, don’t bother with MMORPGs” is not helping. There aren’t that many grinders out there to fuel all those games. Instead of catering to those, developers should branch out and make games that are different.

Which, incidentally, is exactly what ArenaNet claimed they were going to do. Going from the original Guild Wars, that originally had VERY little grind, to their speech about “We don’t want players to grind” and the entire “if you don’t like MMOs, you REALLY should check GW2”, ArenaNet’s intention was stated as to being different from every other grind-based MMORPG.

They could have achieved it, too. They were close. But they got scared and, well, the result is what we have today.

silvermember.8941:

it would be foolish to add translation only to cater to a very small insignificant population

So you are saying that everyone in a country in which Spanish is the main language is “a very small insignificant population”.

Wow. I mean, just wow.

Rhialto.8423:

The ability to set huge events in motion that lead to a specific outcome is powerful, more so than being able to swing a sword really hard or make a really strong fireball.

Indeed. It’s impressive how Traheanne managed to organize all that and still be at the front lines, with the help of a few nobodies.

Zephyron.7081:

ArenaNet’s next expansion after HoT needs to be like WoW’s Cataclysm in the sense that all the vanilla maps are redone to accommodate the newer tech.

Assuming ArenaNet lasts that long, it’s very unlikely that they would do such thing in an expansion after HoT. In a recent interview, they mentioned that they won’t fix the fight against Zaithan because people tend to play new content more than old content.

So don’t expect to see much polishing of the features in the current Tyria.

The worst thing is, it sometimes feels like ArenaNet themselves don’t know which path to follow.

Before release, they made a huge speech about “starting a revolution” and making a game for “people who don’t like MMOs”… And when they get the first population drop, they fill the game with grind (Fractals and ascended).

They make a huge splash about how they will build a Living World that changes the content already in the game… And when they get a massive backlash after the temporary content introduced in Season 1, they give up on that too.

They claim they would introduce many skills, traits and even professions through the Living World… And poof, that’s gone too. Now we will get a few of those in an expansion.

It looks like ArenaNet doesn’t know which path to follow. Which is a pity, because they already had a successful model in the original Guild Wars. By this time after the release of GW1, they had already released two other full campaigns and one expansion, almost doubling the number of professions and more than doubling the already sizeable number of skills in the original release, not to mention the content updates like Sorrow’s Furnace and the Mission Packs. All that with only a small fraction of the team currently at ArenaNet, and without the massively invasive in-game store they have now.

It’s hard to believe in the expansion when it appears the quality of the product we get has fallen so much.

RegnorVex.4071:

I hate to bring up a WoW example, but after the long and ridiculously boring grind it took to get my wintersaber cat mount, I felt proud of that achievement even though it wasn’t “hard” or “challenging”. People recognized that I got something that they didn’t have because I put in the effort, I maintained the discipline of persistent dedication to the goal, and I received my reward for it.

Isn’t it odd, to say the least, that in a game – something meant to be fun – we restrict the biggest rewards for content that must be endured, not enjoyed?

lordkrall.7241:

They haven’t said anything because they know that if they say something and it even slightly changes between now and when it is released all kitten breaks loose.

Oh, but it can still change, buddy. If they are so far back that they don’t even know if they can implement the specializations the way they think they can, we risk having a scenario in which they don’t manage to finish all specializations by the time the game releases.

How about a release with only a “handful” of specializations, with the rest being released “later”? Sounds familiar?

Nanashi.6297:

Sadly trying to change the game won’t have any success. Save yourself the time and look for a better alternative.

Years ago, soon after release, a lot of grinders came to the forum and said, “we don’t have anything to grind for – because legendary weapons are not enough – and we will leave if ArenaNet doesn’t release something for us!”.

And then we got Fractals, which are almost the definition of grind, and ascended gear, which is massively grindy even by ArenaNet’s own definition of the word.

So yep, if you think offering feedback to ArenaNet won’t change the game, you are factually wrong. I wish ArenaNet wouldn’t listen, since then they wouldn’t have made many of the mistakes that plague GW2.