Guild Wars 2

EazyPanda.6419:

Would love to see the people who are complaining play other F2P games like Dragon Nest or Maple Story. =) Now those are P2W games.

Each skill reset costs what? 10USD?
Each durational skin costs 10 USD for 90 days; or
Skin gives stats so to min-max you’ll need to buy skins anyway. (And because without skins you’ll be ugly in game, hence no-one will party you)

Pet system, which costs 10USD monthly to actually keep your pet alive, oh and extra costs for actual functionality of course.

Oh, and items which lets you ‘safely’ upgrade your weapons, because if not, It will break when you upgrade them. The costs scales with the number of upgrades you have on your weapon, obviously. Only 3$ per upgrade at +6 , and only 40$ per upgrade at +12!

Oh and of course, 10 USD to add upgrade slots to your weapons to let you spend more money on upgrade items.

But take note, after the 3rd highest level, even these item can’t help protect your weapon, so if you really do intend to min-max, you’ll have to gamble
Rest assured we’re here when you need to make your new weapon after you broke your +13 weapon.

You’ll need to spend 5USD to unlock the 10 Upgrade slots we have for your character as well, otherwise you are limited to 3 slots. =) You’ll need to renew this every month of course.

and of course the Gachapon/Altea Box (BL box equivalant) for Mounts and Wings!

Oh and that extra dungeon pass for you to do more dungeons per week? You totally need those as well! And more then 5 selling slot on the Trading post? If you subscribe, you will get unlimited slots! Only 9.99$ per month for the premium experience!

Oh and did I mention after we raise the level cap, all your gear will become obsolete, and you’ll need to spend the same amount of money you have spent on the previous level cap? It’s fine, we only raise the level cap every 6 months or so. =)

I, honestly, don’t know why anyone would even consider playing a game like that.

No game is worth over, about, $30 per month total, anyway.

Even that would have to be for a more-or-less perfect game.

…and if you have to pay for everything, so it just becomes a case of who paid the most wins, why even bother?

Just to prove you have more spare cash, or something?

Games like that don’t deserve anyone’s custom, at all.

^ Newer players are allowed to state an opinion, or their “first impressions”.

I don’t happen to agree with all of them, in this case, but that’s where discussion comes in.

Jana.6831:

Tigaseye.2047:

People who “can’t control their feelings”?

No one can control their feelings, they’re just feelings…

Of course you can control your feelings – if you can’t then you better be locked away as you’re a danger to mankind or yourself.
Something reminds you of something you don’t want to be reminded of: a) You complain about that and blame everybody else = feelings escalate or b) You remind yourself that they’re your personal feelings and that no one really is to blame for that = feeling goes away after a while.

I had enough alcoholics in my family as well – the reason for me to never become one.

ETA: “Had” because 4 of them died and the rest stopped drinking alcohol = it is “cureable” (people can stop to drink and I guess the urge to drink goes away eventually).
ETA²: And I don’t think that a few virtual items that are gone with a right click trigger alcoholism.

No.

You can (hopefully) prevent yourself from acting on your feelings (if that would be a bad thing to do).

But not acting on them is a totally different thing from, somehow, preventing yourself from having them, in the first place.

Feelings just happen.

What you do with them, after that, is somewhat controllable.

Although, the poster I was responding to obviously didn’t manage to control his behaviour, when responding.

He just spoke (or wrote) straight from the feelings part of his brain, without running it past the “Is this an acceptable way to talk to someone?” part, first.

Which was somewhat ironic, to say the least and that was the point I was making.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Pixel words hurt ):

Thing is “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”.

That is an old saying that, I’m pretty sure, predates WWII by some margin.

Us running around insulting people, who have done nothing wrong, in 2015, won’t bring back those poor, dead soldiers, will it?

In fact, it just makes us look like their particularly shallow and unpleasant descendants, who weren’t even really worth fighting and dying for.

Be kind.

Make their sacrifice seem slightly less pointless.

technophebe.7631:

It bewilders me that anyone could read a short article on an MMO site and think that they could make any sort of informed critique of skilled professionals working for a multinational corporation whose jobs and careers rely on them making good decisions!

…and yet, often, they don’t make good decisions, do they?

Assuming you categorise “good decisions” as decisions that maximise customer retention and profit.

They make totally baffling ones (at least, on the face of it), that can only really be explained via them prioritising their own, purely personal, preferences.

For example, Blizzard’s decisions in WoD, which caused at least half of their playerbase to leave.

That was all totally predictable, they were warned it would almost certainly happen and yet, they still did it.

Tommyknocker.6089:

mauried.5608:

The basic problem is that most MMO players have no concept of how much it costs to run an MMO and expect the game devs to keep adding more stuff for players to do while the player base wants it all done for free.
You only have to read all the posts about what the Devs should be doing to make this game great, but NEVER have I seen anything about offering to pay more to play it.
Far too many players living in economic fantasy land.
Would you be happy if GW2 was P2P like WOW with the same monthly sub?

They had the choice at launch of making it BTP so the fault is theirs if it is not working out financially for them. They instead made it a F2P game with a cash shop, but in return they nerfed the rewards we get in the core areas by a large degree. The esport direction does not interest me in the least, nor does having to live my life by their clock in their new version of Mario Wars 2.

IF I had to pay a sub at this point to help with making new content, it had better be a small amount. Although lately all they have shown me is less and less of what I like to do.

Well yes, the fault is theirs, in a way, but trying to make sure something remains profitable, in a capitalist world (even if you have to change a few things), isn’t a crime…

I do agree with you, in general, though.

Games companies need to choose, once and for all:

Do they want to cater to a small subset of hardcore gamers (which perhaps their owners and devs, also, are) who want exclusive rewards and ever shrinking (or never growing) accessibility and rewards for “the masses”?

Or, do they want to maximise profits?

Because, I really don’t think this flip-flopping approach is going to fly for much longer…

If they wanted to do the former, they should have stuck to that from the start and not got greedy, or floated their companies on the stock exchange, frankly.

Rather than trying to have their cake and eat it too, by using casual players to fund hardcore activities and then acting all shocked and surprised when casuals, finally, got tired of being used.

If they wanted to do the latter, then good.

But don’t then do the dirty on the casual majority, by flopping back to the hardcore side all the time, having happily taken the casuals’ money…

Not just talking about Anet, here – Blizzard are equally, if not more, guilty of this type of duplicitous behaviour.

Well, what a surprise.

Attempting to cater to a vocal minority, whose main “agenda” is demanding that things are taken away from the majority, isn’t a big money spinner.

Who could have ever predicted that…?

Mostly, because women, who play games, tend to like to play female characters, so it feels like they are in the game themselves, so will tend to choose a female human, or Norn.

…and some men, who play games, either like to look at females, or (less frequently) identify more with females.

Having read the thread, I think there are actually a myriad of possible reasons, but these are probably the most common ones.

Seriously, don’t let it ruin your Christmas.

In fact, just don’t do it.

The more you do it, the more Anet will think you like it and the more of them they will continue to make, in future… :/

Compulsory PVP?

You can’t do that to people – many will just leave in dismay.

Gems are the way (beyond the initial purchase price) the game is funded.

How would they continue to fund the game without them (or something like them)?

Merry Christmas!

The thing is, if it’s something you don’t actually need, is it wrong to require a lot for it?

People don’t have to sell their precursors for it.

They could just keep them, or sell them and buy several items from the gemstore, instead.

So, why are they doing it?

Because they all have a particular liking for snowflakes?

Or because they regard it as some kind of status symbol?

The former I would have a lot more sympathy for, but the latter just seems kind of shallow.

I do think the game needs more accessible things in-game, but it’s a non-sub game and this is how non-sub games work, unfortunately.

Basaltface.2786:

Because of people like you that cant controll their own darn feelings we all cant have no nice things? Yea… right get triggerd m8.

Trust me on that one… if i play a game the last thing i think about is your family´s history and your eventual displeasure with an archievement.

People who “can’t control their feelings”?

No one can control their feelings, they’re just feelings…

Even you have feelings – it’s very clear you had some pretty strong ones writing this, for example.

…and you didn’t control them, or even go against them, to try to be kind, or fit in with society better, did you?

You just said exactly what you felt.

How ironic.

Sorry to hear about your relatives.

I do, kind of, know what you mean…

I, obviously, don’t think they mean it to be upsetting, or set a bad example, though.

I think it’s just supposed to be a very exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek, reference to overconsumption at Christmas.

As opposed to a reference to alcoholism – which is, obviously, an ongoing and ever-present problem and not related to seasonal stuff, specifically.

Other than the fact that, as a recovering alcoholic, you might be even more inclined to fall off the wagon at Christmas.

But, yeah, I do empathise, even though I don’t really know what they could reasonably do about stuff like this, without making a very bland game?

Sounds nice, but how do they continue to fund it?

There’s even a little joke in-game, about how humans are better funders of Wintersday, than the other races, if you’ve noticed?

Pretty sure Anet are making a satirical reference to the funding of the game, in general.

They probably felt they could afford that kind of generosity, when the game was brand new and they had just received $millions from people buying it.

But, then, as time went on, they (or their accountants) realised that the money from those initial purchases wouldn’t last forever.

Remember sub games?

Where you just paid to play a game; not for every individual reward?

There again, unless you’re a “real” raider (which most people aren’t and never will be), you can’t always rely on getting much, even if you do pay a sub…

Imagine a game, where all its customers had to pay a small sub, but they all got treated fairly and no one let the vocal minority steamroller over the majority, at every turn…

Now, wouldn’t that be nice?

Congratulations.

So sorry to hear about your situation, it must be extremely challenging to deal with.

Really good to hear that you can still enjoy (most of) the game, though.

Hopefully, they can look into making all parts more, potentially, accessible for people with sight problems, in future.

Especially if small changes/additions would help a lot.

Don’t worry about it – just enjoy Christmas.

Donari.5237:

Bit of hyperbole, Tumult? I count 8 sympathetic, empathic replies that don’t say the JP is easy or talk about their own great skill at it. Whatever issue you see with the less helpful replies, turning that into there is “no sympathy or empathy here” and saying the players are the problem ignores the immediate evidence of helpful sorts in this very thread.

He said "To everyone saying “it’s easy”…".

So, he’s addressing his comment to them, specifically.

He didn’t say everyone was saying that.

The forums aren’t empathetic, though – I can totally agree with that.

But, I say that in relation to what is my normal experience, in every day life.

In every day life, in my culture at least, most (almost all) people show empathy.

So, even if “only” 30% of people, on a forum, don’t show it, it will read like a place full of unempathetic people, relative to real life.

Especially if they tend to be a high proportion of the ones commenting a lot.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I like seeing the occasional recognition of skill

In my case, I’m pretty sure it would be a “recognition” of me forking out $3K for a top of the range laptop and/or switching to an EU server.

Pretty sure it’s not just lack of skill stopping people (who are trying – I’m not, personally) doing this and that is the problem.

In a regular, offline, platform game (from which this stuff, clearly, takes its inspiration) neither of those things would be an issue.

So, it really would just be a recognition of skill and/or perseverance.

Tom Gore.4035:

Oh look, it’s thread # 9994 about “mandatory” festival jumping puzzles.

You’re right, they’re not mandatory, but then nothing in the game is.

As long as you don’t want to play a game.

Maybe casuals and people with physical issues, or whatever, should just shut up and sit in DR, buying stuff from the gemstore and playing the harp?

Would that be acceptable?

Coulter.2315:

Tigaseye.2047:

TBH, I think all this is just demonstrates why they just need to accept that some people are more naturally gifted and/or younger and/or more able (or less disabled) and/or more willing/able to put in the time required and/or have better hardware and/or better internet and/or live nearer the servers, or whatever and just make different servers, in games, with different levels of difficulty.

Is this what it has come to? Putting people who struggle at the children’s table and giving them no respect?

Frankly just because some people come on the forums and wave whatever inconvenience can’t be argued with on the internet and demand their shiney does not mean we should start segregating people… Some people may find it harder and some people may not complete it – that is life – but we should not disrespect them by excluding them from the same game as everyone else.

I’m not disrespecting casuals, or people who struggle, as you well know.

No one said anything about excluding anyone, or putting them at the “children’s table”, or anywhere else.

That’s your take on this – not mine, or anyone else’s that I have ever heard.

Or, more likely, it’s an attempt to try to make the suggestion look bad, or disrespectful; as you don’t even want casuals to have fun, on a server you would have nothing at all to do with…

If anything, this suggestion is more about including more people and catering to people’s different needs, properly.

It’s not my fault that some hardcore players, or would-be hardcore players, seem to want everything on hardmode, all the time and for there to be no easymode (or even medium mode) options, at all.

Or that, if there are, despite their constant protestations against them, they insist that people should get no rewards from them.

I didn’t make them selfish, dictatorial and antisocial.

They just are.

So, the only answer, IMO, if the games devs are determined to cater to these people (which they seem to be, despite it being patently wrong to do so), is to at least offer people alternative difficulty settings.

So, we can all just get on with doing our own thing and play the game in peace.

Without this constant, unending war, which is threatening to drive me (for one) from ALL games (not even just MMOs), forever, it’s so utterly sickening.

No one should have to plead for a game they can play, or fight with other players’ bad and utterly selfish attitudes, constantly.

I’m not even really a casual myself, but I simply can’t stand it, for much longer and would happily take playing with just casual players, simply to get away from the total psychos.

I fled from WoW because of all this and now it’s happening here, too.

Also, people would be totally free to choose which server difficulty they wanted to play on.

No one would force them to play on a certain mode and they would be free to transfer, at any time, if they wanted.

So, no “children’s tables”.

You can argue and make derogatory metaphors all you want, but people are being driven away from games here and some of these people are the main funders of games.

No one should want that.

TBH, I think all this is just demonstrates why they just need to accept that some people are more naturally gifted and/or younger and/or more able (or less disabled) and/or more willing/able to put in the time required and/or have better hardware and/or better internet and/or live nearer the servers, or whatever and just make different servers, in games, with different levels of difficulty.

I proposed/supported this idea, in WoW and it was really the only area where most of the hardcore and the casuals could agree.

There’s a good reason why vintage games were made with different levels of difficulty…

You didn’t have to do them all – you just picked the one you felt you would be best suited for at the time and then, could always progress/switch to the harder/less hard one, depending on how you felt while playing.

If they did this in online games, it would mean we could also avoid the type of players we didn’t get along with.

Instanced grouping, in games that had it, could try to put you with people from the same types of servers, as well.

No harder content, like “real” raids, should be barred to the easier server people, if they wanted to do it; but anyone who chose the harder servers would not be able to enter any lower difficulty version of them (like LFR, in WoW, for example).

This is because some of these type of players tend to disrupt easier versions of instances and spend their time complaining and/or bragging.

They also tend to reduce the difficulty level for others, by outgearing them and/or knowing tactics too well.

The few people, who had chosen the easier difficulty server, but had still done the harder versions of the raids, would still be welcome in the easier versions, however.

I know the raid difficulty thing isn’t relevant here, yet, but still.

In the case of something like this jumping puzzle, an easier version, or a different activity altogether, could be offered on the easier difficulty server.

You could then gain the same achievements/items, with less difficulty/effort.

However, if you then decided to transfer to a harder difficulty server, you could no longer use/display any rewards/titles you had gained on the easier server there, without redoing them (or the relevant part(s) of them) on the harder one.

I’ve probably made it sound more complicated than it would actually be, to implement and I realise not all of this is relevant to this particular game, at this point in time, but yeah.

I know they want us to all try to play together happily, but I think it’s safe to say it would make for less stressed players and would retain more of them, more of the time, if we didn’t even have to try to.

Tommyknocker.6089:

I would find this discussion funny if it were not for the posters that are being serious!

GW2 used to have a much more helpful community (not perfect) that, up until recently, liked to help it’s fellow players. Not it seems the motto of the game is “stick it to em, for they are lazy and deserve to be spit upon”. Pathetic. And all it would have taken is for their to be more than one path to completion.

I know.

It’s the inevitable outcome of the direction Anet have taken.

The game has now been taken over by the “usual suspect” MMO kids.

All you can really do, is put your case and then leave the game, if/when it becomes totally unbearable.

It’s a shame, because you may have already invested, quite heavily, in the game and it is unlikely that the teenage gamers, who play a lot and resent anyone else having alternative access to anything, will have invested even half as much.

But, what can you do?

In my case, it’s definitely once bitten, twice shy, when it comes to funding non-sub, online games.

Because, even if the new direction does happen to suit me, in parts, I don’t feel comfortable funding games that only provide content for a certain type and demographic of player.

Especially a type of player that, almost certainly, doesn’t contribute much, in terms of either money, or a nice, friendly, atmosphere.

Their own parents should be expected to pay for their “exclusive” content type games – not random people on the internet.

If they could play nice and share, fair enough.

But they can’t.

echo.2053:

Palador.2170:

echo.2053:

Pepsi.8907:

a) unable to complete JP due to physical disabilities

Then how do they play the rest of the game when its just basic movement skills in JP I wonder?

They can take their time in most other places, including most other JPs. I’m betting they take fall damage traits and go with tankier stats, too.

traits don’t really help with require keypresses which is what people are trying to be argued here.

Sure there are legitimate issues for people for which I would not doubt if they contect anet directly would be helped out, but we all know what really happening here is people trying to ride their coat-tails for free passes which is pretty gross.

No, what’s gross is you assuming that is what people are doing.

You must be very cynical, because it didn’t even occur to me.

Necrotic.7820:

Sorry but in order to be able to do that you would have needed to buy the game three years ago. Back when they were called Town Clothes you could have swapped out head gear, gloves, top, pants and boots. Anet decided removing functionality and options to improve clipping was a better thing.

If they produce armour and weaps that clip through chars’ body parts and/or other parts of the same set, that is not OK and people have a right to be less than impressed.

As all that should really have been tested before release.

However, if they allow people full freedom to experiment with a large variety of armour pieces, it is only to be expected that some pieces won’t work with others.

Therefore, it would have been better to allow us (far) more freedom, IMO.

ATM, there just isn’t enough variety, at all.

Dawdler.8521:

Wolfeng.3784:

I don’t care about looking about panties, she could be wearing a shorts under, anything is better than the void.

Its GW2. Obviously she should be wearing another skirt under.

But yes, I agree its unfair censoring. GW2 already has armour that shows about 3cm of a buttcrack so its basicly an AO game right there.

Yeah and a game with underboob armour has no logical right to suddenly get all shy about showing (pretty modest) underwear…

Especially as you can go on the beach and that strips your char down to her underwear, anyway.

I’m guessing it’s more of a technical limitation thing?

Coulter.2315:

Tigaseye.2047:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tigaseye.2047:

I used to be good at jumping, in offline games.

I have no reason to believe I’m not still at least passable.

Problem is, online games are not like offline ones and them trying to pretend they are, against all the evidence to the contrary, is really not working, for me.

Maybe if I had a $3000 laptop, instead of my reasonably new, but less expensive “gaming” one and I lived on the same continent as the server I play on, it would be OK?

But, in my current location, with my current laptop?

Nope.

I could also turn all my settings down, but I don’t want to.

Why play a beautiful game, just to spend all your time looking at rubbish graphic quality?

Or, for significantly less you could get not a laptop. And considering WP plays on the NA servers (I believe) and has a whole series of the Jumping Puzzles, it seems like that is probably your biggest issue, though ISP is still a valid complaint.

No, I don’t do desktops for games.

Internet should be OK, my end, as they upgraded the broadband a couple of months ago.

Made no difference to the game.

I even tried reducethelag, before that and again, made absolutely no difference.

A guildie said it was to do with the old game engine and how it distributes stuff between only 2 cores, but I’m certainly no expert on all that.

I’m not complaining about any of that, here.

Just saying that me+JP+online games don’t mix and I don’t think I’m alone.

So you don’t like jumping puzzles and don’t do them – this is sensible. The OP should do the same thing.

Well, it helps that I don’t really care about the reward.

Whereas, he probably does.

I don’t, generally, do stuff in games for the rewards.

But, if all they ever produced was jumping puzzles and/or they kept locking stuff that I really did like behind them (and it wasn’t available elsewhere), even I would complain.

sephiroth.4217:

lol, nice sig tigaseye

lol, thank you!

I thought your comment was hilarious, when I read it on the Emperor’s New Shoes thread, so decided to add it.

I was thinking of asking you first, actually, but hoped you wouldn’t mind.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tigaseye.2047:

I used to be good at jumping, in offline games.

I have no reason to believe I’m not still at least passable.

Problem is, online games are not like offline ones and them trying to pretend they are, against all the evidence to the contrary, is really not working, for me.

Maybe if I had a $3000 laptop, instead of my reasonably new, but less expensive “gaming” one and I lived on the same continent as the server I play on, it would be OK?

But, in my current location, with my current laptop?

Nope.

I could also turn all my settings down, but I don’t want to.

Why play a beautiful game, just to spend all your time looking at rubbish graphic quality?

Or, for significantly less you could get not a laptop. And considering WP plays on the NA servers (I believe) and has a whole series of the Jumping Puzzles, it seems like that is probably your biggest issue, though ISP is still a valid complaint.

No, I don’t do desktops for games.

Internet should be OK, my end, as they upgraded the broadband a couple of months ago.

Made no difference to the game.

I even tried reducethelag, before that and again, made absolutely no difference.

A guildie said it was to do with the old game engine and how it distributes stuff between only 2 cores, but I’m certainly no expert on all that.

I’m not complaining about any of that, here.

Just saying that me+JP+online games don’t mix and I don’t think I’m alone.

Coulter.2315:

Tigaseye.2047:

I could also turn all my settings down, but I don’t want to.

You know you can turn them back up after doing it, right?

Yeah, of course I know that.

But, I have this thing where I don’t do anything I don’t want to do, or don’t feel I should have to do, in games.

I don’t particularly want to do jumping puzzles and I don’t like looking at unnecessarily bad graphics, so it’s just something I don’t think I’ll be doing.

I’m not a circus poodle, so I don’t jump through hoops for treats.

Kal Spiro.9745:

I suppose the difference is that I truthfully see no difference between the game we started with, the one we had before HoT and the one we have now including HoT. There is just more content, some of which is harder than others and some of which requires more people. It’s all the same game that I enjoyed before.

It seems different, to me.

I either like, or don’t mind, most of HoT, in small doses.

Partly because I’m in no rush.

But, I can see it’s different and has a different feel to the original game.

It’s definitely more intense and if you’re in any hurry, it must feel grindy.

Or certainly would, to me.

I used to be good at jumping, in offline games.

I have no reason to believe I’m not still at least passable.

Problem is, online games are not like offline ones and them trying to pretend they are, against all the evidence to the contrary, is really not working, for me.

Maybe if I had a $3000 laptop, instead of my reasonably new, but less expensive “gaming” one and I lived on the same continent as the server I play on, it would be OK?

But, in my current location, with my current laptop?

Nope.

I could also turn all my settings down, but I don’t want to.

Why play a beautiful game, just to spend all your time looking at rubbish graphic quality?

Only do what you enjoy, or can at least tolerate (and that doesn’t take you long, in the latter case).

If a part of a game feels grindy to you, don’t do that part.

I know that doesn’t help much, for now.

But, if you and others don’t participate, or don’t participate much, in those grindy activities, the devs should at least, hopefully, get the message for next time.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Zenith.6403:

Kal Spiro.9745:

So you’re not a gamer, why are you even here? Playing a game for 10k hours seems just fine by me if I was willing to do it for 10k hours in the first place. There’s nothing in this game, though, that takes even remotely that long.

- I am a gamer. I’ve played lots of games during my life. Most of them were good experiences. 20-40 hours of high-quality content for a fair price. It used to be that developers would strive create an experience or a challenge for players to face. These days there’s a talk of “player retention”. What a bizarre concept. It sounds like some drug dealer wanting to hook up his customers so they come back for more. All the “dailies” and achievements are just there to hook you up once the game has lost its appeal. Sometimes it’s hard to see what the core of the game is with all the fluff. What if there was no items? What do we need them for? The slot machine effect, that’s what. Reinforcement for player to keep on playing indefinitely. Minimum effort for maximal player retention.

Is this what “a game” means to you?

A gamer would not consider 10k hours playing a game they like/love as a waste of time. So maybe you just don’t actually like this game, in which case the previous question stands. why stick around if you consider the game to be nothing but a chore? You’re not doing anyone any good by it.

What is “this game”, though?

The game it was, when it first started, the game it was just prior to HoT launch, or the game it now is in HoT?

You could like, partially like, or dislike, one, two, all, or none of those options.

…and if you like one, or two options, you might still want to stick around, in a way, even though you don’t like the third.

So, it’s not as simple as saying “If you don’t like the game, leave.”.

It’s a really pretty effect, but I’m not going for it.

It’s a lot of work/gold for snowflakes, at the end of the day and I doubt I’ll be sitting there, in April to October, wishing it was snowing on me alone.

By then, we’ll have something else to worry about, anyway.

I think alternative scarf options would be good.

We, obviously, have the stripy wool version, ATM, but it would be nice to have lighter-looking versions, with different patterns, for warmer seasons/situations.

For example, animal prints – a leopard print one and a tiger/zebra print one (depending on dyes used).

You could probably even use the same base model and just change the pattern and the texture slightly.

lol, yeah, the outfit has had problems, from the start.

It looked far better when they first released it, with a slimmer skirt.

But then people noticed that their characters’ legs were clipping right through it, so they made the skirt far more bell shaped, to try to avoid that happening.

Problem is, that didn’t look as good and ruined the line of the skirt.

TBH, I think it would have been better to just leave it alone, if that was the alternative, but they probably didn’t want to deal with all the future complaints.

I don’t know if the issue you describe was caused by that change, or not?

Quite possibly it either was, or was made more noticeable by it.

Elden Arnaas.4870:

re: Why on earth is this reportable? – The OP, Gaile, and most of the other posters in this merged thread are talking about people deliberately spamming spoilers in map chat. (for the purpose of griefing) Not someone who accidentally types in local or map chat instead of whisper or party chat.
Like Gaile said, CS will make individual judgements per report.

Yeah, I would hope it would be considered on a case by case basis and the main concerns would be intent and context.

I would hope, for example, that someone just, innocently, mentioning something during a mapchat conversation wouldn’t be punished.

As that isn’t trolling.

But, if someone is, intentionally, randomly (and especially, repeatedly) posting spoilers, that is clearly a trolling attempt.

So, they could presumably act on that, if they wanted to.

I think the whole thing with spoiler trolling, specifically, is kind of silly, personally.

It’s just revealing a movie plotline, after all and people say far worse things to people, all the time.

So, it would be kind of ridiculous, if a bunch of people got banned for this, while they often don’t seem to get banned (or not for long), for saying rude and unnecessary things, directly to people.

But, despite that, if you are saying things for no other reason than to, intentionally, try to upset people, you are a troll, pure and simple.

…and trolling is against the rules.

Whether it’s trolling about a movie plot, or something far more personal.

+1

Couldn’t agree more.

Even an ingame poll is dangerous, though, as many people (especially young males) do just seem to end up following the pack and will, no doubt, vote according to that.

As opposed to constructing their own true, original and unbiased thoughts.

In my opinion, it is important that games devs remain above all that and follow the basic principles of morality.

In other words, while they should listen to the community, they shouldn’t listen to anyone whose main desire is to derive pleasure, by removing things from other people.

Schadenfreude should not be involved in game design/changes and yet, it so often seems to be, now.

Unfortunately, it’s a non-starter, for me, as with my fps/lag, I already struggle with normal jumping puzzles/getting to vistas.

I, literally, can’t tell where I’m going to end up, most of the time, lol.

So, I’m not even going to put myself through it.

But, thank you anyway, professor.

Baconomics.8674:

1. First of all, you’ll never achieve something if you give up. If I hadn’t gone back to it, I would have been in the “grumble grumble stupid impossible jump puzzle, wtf anet grumble grumble” mindset. This won’t get you very many places in life.

While this is true, if people are actually concerned about getting places “in life”, it would probably be best if they spent less time playing time-consuming parts of games; not more.

Then they could take that time they saved and do something with it, IRL.

Well, it’s obviously up to you, but I wouldn’t delete max level characters, personally.

Unless, maybe, I had enough levelling scrolls, in the bank, to be able to reinstate them, if I changed my mind.

Even then, I doubt I would, as I tend to get attached to the individual characters and have probably taken time designing their appearances, etc..

But, if you really have no attachment to them and could easily re-level those professions, if you ever change your mind, then maybe you should?

Werdx.2059:

Pepsi.8907:

Just for that I’m tempted to sell my 2 stacks of 250 a copper each…
posts like these makes me sick…
some people are:
a) unable to complete JP due to physical disabilities
b) unable to complete JP because their hand coordination is just not on par
c) truly truly truly hate JP

They can’t create game in favor of people with disability.You have WoW for that,and see where WoW has gone after nerf-ing everything to the ground.If they start making content for people with disability,we would have nothing to play.Some people cant do content at all,due to their issues.Some people cant do Fractals or raids due to their disability…Some people cant do heart because of disability…this game is not meant to be for people with disability.

I feel sorry for those people,because i had to take care of them for one year,and i got to know lots of people in person,but that doesn’t give me for right to ask for MAJOR change,to mess up other people’s game.

People with disability have other game to play,that suits them.

I do not play JP because i do not like them.We did not have jumping in GW,so they decide to make up for big,big,big big failure.

Just for the record, they didn’t ask for a change to the game.

Threatening to sell stuff for a few coppers isn’t a request for a redesign.

WoW didn’t “nerf everything to the ground”, either.

WoW openworld is easy, but that is because the emphasise has been on endgame, for a very long time now and levelling dungeons seem easy, due to heirloom-geared players.

Even if you’re not in heirlooms yourself, those players are effectively carrying you.

As for endgame WoW dungeons – they are not easy until you and/or most other players in the group outgear them.

Same for raids.

They did make LFR too easy, in WoD; but that was, clearly, in an attempt to appease some of the (unappeasable) “hardcore” players, who disapprove of LFR.

Not in an attempt to help disabled players.

That was, obviously, the case, as they also removed most of its rewards.

If they had been trying to help disabled people, they would have made it less challenging, but left its rewards alone.

…and the whole thing was a huge mistake, on their behalf.

Losing half your playerbase is not a good thing.

People need to actually know what they’re talking about, before commenting, rather than just regurgitating totally biased and inaccurate propaganda, they read online, from (perpetually) disgruntled elitists.

I don’t care about spoilers – I don’t watch stuff like that for the (normally, fairly predictable) plot.

If people worried about the plot of films, no one would ever watch the film of a book they’d already read.

I get lag and fps issues.

Much as I loved jumping, in (offline) platform games, where you could tell exactly where you were jumping and stopped moving when you got there, I do not enjoy trying to jump in online games.

I just don’t think online games are the correct venue for precise jumping, unfortunately.

Not that I’m going for the shoulders, personally, but still.

Vargamonth.2047:

In fact, GW2 combat has always been marketed as a fast paced action based one (“Combat in Guild Wars 2 is flexible, fast-paced, and dynamic. You’ll achieve victory through timing, dodging, and quick thinking, not immobile number-crunching”, directly copied from the web) which doesn’t exactly sound like a warm welcome for mechanically unskilled players.

…and yet, what did we actually end up with?

Berserker>skip>stack>melee and (most) people dropping ridiculously, like flies, if any of that attempt to avoid playing dynamically went “wrong”…

Showing most of them were either asleep, or had no talent for “dynamic” gameplay, at all.

I, honestly, don’t know which is worse?

A, supposedly, dynamic game, which ends in people just standing still, on top of each other, hitting 111111?

Or a game where the casuals are (still) funding the hardcore, while not having much to do, themselves?

Both seem wrong, to me.

What is interesting, though, is that some of the people, who like the new direction, also liked the old cheesing?

I don’t get why the same person would like both, as they seem contradictory?

Unless they just claim to like everything Anet produces and everything the players end up doing with it, regardless.

Harper.4173:

Tigaseye.2047:

I agree with you, to an extent.

I hated the Zerker skip>stack>melee bs in dungeons.

It felt empty, soulless and extremely boring.

You were told that it was optional and that you could avoid groups that did that.

But even groups that didn’t state they were speedrunners, often actually were (at least to an extent), or were teaching speedrunning to newbies.

So, this new content suits me better in some ways – although, the Zerker meta is still prevalent in the raids…

But, what I’m concerned about, here, is not the cheesers of GW2 losing some of their cheese; especially, as they still have, at least somewhat, cheesy raids to “enjoy”.

It is the people who, genuinely, needed the game to be less challenging, for some reason.

Maybe they can’t play much, or have disabilities that affect how they can play and/or for how long, in one stretch, or whatever.

Or maybe they can, physically, play it, but they find it stressful and that stress affects them negatively.

I’m just concerned that they may have paid a lot for an xpac that they really can’t enjoy much of, at all.

Are you telling me that people were forcing others to speedrun? When everyone was free to make their own group with their own rules that they wanted?

Also the zerker meta is dead – no longer is it optimal for all party members to be zerker – certain roles are now required. Stop misleading people.

A glass meta will always be the norm – if people consider that zerker meta = glass meta then yes – the “zerker” ( glass) meta is here and will be here forever.

Nobody likes to take more time than they have to.

I’m not “telling” you anything, Harper.

I’m (clearly) saying, to the person I answered and to people in general, that some groups were actually speedruns, or teaching speedrunning, even though they didn’t advertise themselves as that.

I was in several “everyone welcome” groups that turned out to be speedrun teaching groups.

When, all I (and everyone else in the group) wanted, was a regular, fun (yes, I know fun is subjective, Harper – you have mentioned that a few dozen times, already…), anything goes group.

I, also, never said it was the only “meta” in raids – just, still, one of them.

I did say we should just ignore each other, because our conversations are pointless.

Plus, this is all old news and nothing I haven’t said already, anyway – as you well know.

Assuming you have a memory.

Obtena.7952:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Obtena.7952:

I think your objections don’t make sense because Anet warned people HoT would be more challenging. I won’t debate with you if it’s overly hard or if getting level 2 masteries are a ‘grind’, but you absolutely can’t complain that you got HoT, and then were surprised that ‘hard’ content prevented you from doing what you assumed you would be able to. Anet put up the red flags; you ignored them.

The flags weren’t red. They were more like grey. There was so much vagueness as to what the term was actually referring to (and some things weren’t announced beforehand, anyway) that even cautious people were having a hard time knowing if it would drastically alter their playstyle.

Even if it was vague, that should have gave a cautious buyer reason to pause. You walk into a building if there is smoke and not fire, even if a fireman tells you it’s on fire? Then you walk in and complain you got burned because you weren’t 100% it was on fire because you didn’t see fire? Then blame the fireman because he was ‘vague’ and didn’t give you enough information which made it a hard decision for you to go into that burning building or not?

Sure …

Well, I know this is just an analogy, but it isn’t life and death, is it?

They were risking losing money; not their lives.

People (who were looking) may have seen some signs, but wanted to continue to enjoy more of the game they loved, so decided to take a risk.

After all, it was either that, or consigning themselves to (at least) two more years of playing the same content; or leaving the game entirely.

Games are a difficult thing to judge, without playing them.

Someone can tell you something, but it’s hard to work out whether it is OK for you, or not, without playing it yourself.

Not to mention that casual players, or even players that are not full-on hardcore, are just less likely to be spending the necessary time to search-out indepth information, about games, all the time.

…and no one is standing at the door of the game itself, telling people the game is far harder, or more intensely time-consuming.

It’s more a case of you being expected to find the correct room(s), in the local fire station and only then you might see some signs on the walls, that may vaguely indicate if the building, you are thinking of entering, is possibly on fire, or not.

Casual players are less likely to do this, as they are often too busy doing other things – quite often, other things that enable them to get the money to help (continually) fund the game, for the more hardcore types.

Who either can’t afford to fund it, or simply don’t need to – as they make far more gold, in-game, by playing the TP (and/or formerly, by cheesing dungeons), than the average casual does.

That is why any game worth its salt should try to cater for casuals, too.

Especially a game that, clearly, set itself up as casual-friendly, or a form of casual-friendly anyway, in the first place.

Whether they may, or may not, have ever said that in actual words.

TBH, I don’t think all casuals would have been happy with its over-emphasise on crafting, or its extremely loose understanding of balance, or its odd ideas when attempting to correct any balance issues, or its dungeon-cheesing…

In fact, I’m not even what I would call a “casual” and I never have been.

But, there is no doubt in my mind that it wasn’t, originally, intended for the traditional idea of hardcore players and was intended to cater for the kind of players, the games that were, tended to ignore.

So, of course this U-turn will come as a shock for some.

Vague warning signs, at the fire station, notwithstanding.

Wolfey.3407:

Here’s a box image for the pre-order….

Can anyone show me where on the official preorder box where it says or advertises casual?

Or do you guys mean that you were duped by a streamer or your best friend because THEY said it was for casuals?

Why would it be written on the preorder?

No one said that.

Tithian.4915:

As a self proclaimed casual player (very few achievements, erratic schedule, hardly any farming done), this is what I believe is the issue:

Over three years in Tyria, people fell into a farming pattern that was easy, efficient and fast. You pretty much needed gold to get anything you wanted, and farming it happened at “on demand” content such as dungeons. So people got all their shinies essentially by having no roadblocks whatsoever. Open world content is also (with some exceptions) extremely easy, even things like Orr. As a result the zerker-meta appeared, where you stacked attack attributes, stacked on each other, pressed 1111 and won while half asleep. And they could no-life it for as much as they wanted, and 2 days later they’d have their reward.

Fast forward to HoT and finally people are starting to see some resistance. They need to play the actual game content to get rewards, tied to specific currencies. More things are now account bound, meaning you have to earn them instead of converting gems or farming 1 specific place (CoF1) for gold and buying them outright, hence all the complaints about “time-gates” and “grinds”. People are actually complaining they aren’t done with the content 1-2 months into the expansion, so they can get back to their familiar farming patterns (which ironically many of them are now defunkt, hence even more cries for “ruining my favorite content”).
The content is harder, so you actually have to think about your build, or (god forbid!) your defenses and survival. And people look at the rewards at the end, and they feel compelled to get them no matter what. Newsflash: If you feel that way, you are probably less casual than you think.

To be honest, I love it. Going into a map and having to adapt to the environment, makes me feel like I am in a living world, instead of a themepark. HoT is the right direction towards building a persistant world, instead of a series of activities in a carnival. The carnival is still there (old world), but now we have something other than sheer tedium and mindless famring. But in the new content, the world is moving in its own pace and it’s your option to join in on not (i.e. timed metas). Could they have done a better job in providing variety? Sure, but this is a decent start.

If nothing else, HoT is the most Anet-like content they’ve produced in years. Their motto was all about a “living world”, right? Well, we got it.

I agree with you, to an extent.

I hated the Zerker skip>stack>melee bs in dungeons.

It felt empty, soulless and extremely boring.

You were told that it was optional and that you could avoid groups that did that.

But even groups that didn’t state they were speedrunners, often actually were (at least to an extent), or were teaching speedrunning to newbies.

So, this new content suits me better in some ways – although, the Zerker meta is still prevalent in the raids…

But, what I’m concerned about, here, is not the cheesers of GW2 losing some of their cheese; especially, as they still have, at least somewhat, cheesy raids to “enjoy”.

It is the people who, genuinely, needed the game to be less challenging, for some reason.

Maybe they can’t play much, or have disabilities that affect how they can play and/or for how long, in one stretch, or whatever.

Or maybe they can, physically, play it, but they find it stressful and that stress affects them negatively.

I’m just concerned that they may have paid a lot for an xpac that they really can’t enjoy much of, at all.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Arewn.2368:

Nowhere was this game marketed as being for-casuals

It was, actually.

Yeah, I heard it was, as well.

I don’t carry around a cache of GW2 quotes, but I’m sure I’ve seen at least a couple, with words to that effect.

…but, even if it hadn’t been, when you set the scene with one thing and a establish a playerbase who like that, any dramatic changes will inevitably cause issues.

Especially as it tends to be the casuals who fund the hardcores.

How can you possibly expect them to do that, now?

WoW went through all this years ago and it was the reason for things like LFD and then LFR.

But, even then, some of these hardcore players will still complain.

As they only want stuff for themselves, while the majority pay for it.

All I can assume is lot of them are still kids, or not that much more than kids and they’re used to their parents buying them stuff.

But, maybe their own parents have had enough of that? ;D

So, they just treat the other, more casual players, like they would their own parents.

They need money from them, but they don’t want to spend time around them.

They, also, often have other demands – like, full-on, succeed or die, capitalism in a game that is, effectively, funded via socialism!

The irony is lost on them…

Again, because they’re probably, mainly, so young.

It’s really unfair and quite frankly, I’m surprised people, who don’t do/enjoy any of the harder stuff put up with it.

They’re not their kids, afterall.

They, or their own parents, should pay for the game.

Or they should have to tolerate the needs/preferences (and just general presence) of the other players, who do pay.

No, Harper.

I wasn’t exaggerating and I’m not being “alarmist”.

You’re misunderstanding/projecting/being disingenuous, again.

Always hard to say which.

I’m trying to stick to the facts in my replies and answer your points, as simply as possible; as I do not enjoy these strained interactions we always tend to have.

On that basis, I think it’s better if we just ignore each other, from now on, because our “conversations” never seem to get us anywhere…

Draknar.5748:

Things that people claimed weren’t casual friendly pre-HoT:

Fractals (3 mini dungeons plus a boss?! I don’t have time for that I play 20min a day, I’m casual!)
Dungeons (I can’t get into a group because I don’t have zerk gear and I don’t speedrun! I’m casual!)
World completion (why do we have to do WvW for world completion, I’m casual, I don’t like PvP!)
Story-mode finale (I need a group to finish the story?! what the heck Anet! I’m too casual for that!)
Living Story S1 (these LS events are timed?! You’re saying I can’t do all of the achievements within the 2 weeks if I only play 10min a day?! I’m casual, wtf ANET!
Living Story S2 (wtf Anet, I didn’t log in when these were released because I’m super casual, and now you want me to grind gold so I can trade for gems? I’m casual! I don’t have the time nor money to do this!)
Dailies (Whoa, Anet, look at how long it’s taking to do these dailies! And I have to do it to get laurels?! I’m only on for 2min a day! I can’t possibly get all of this AP that you are forcing me to get! Make it casual friendly!)

I think a lot of people think that casual friendly means everything needs to be able to be completed quickly or easily. A casual player does not imply a bad player, it implies someone that plays at their own, typically slow, pace. Being able to do things at your own pace: that’s the definition of being casual friendly.

In GW2 you can do literally everything at your own pace (minus holiday events, as those are time limited). That is casual friendly. Raids is the only area that I would say has the biggest obstacle to casual players, and that’s getting a 10man group together.

I’d love to hear what exactly in GW2 you couldn’t do at your own, casual, pace.

If something takes a long time, it doesn’t mean it isn’t casual friendly, it just means it will take longer to complete, but it can still be 100% casual.

People claimed crafting legendaries wasn’t casual, but I can assure you I crafted two from scratch, casually, over the course of 2 years. Some days I felt like working towards a requirement, some days I didn’t. I dictated the pace I completed things. THAT IS CASUAL.

No, that is just what “casual” means to you.

To someone else, it might mean only enjoying quite straightforward, uncomplicated and/or easy to understand things, that don’t require a lot of (or any) research to complete.

To someone else again, it might mean nothing too challenging, in terms of (physical) gameplay.

To someone else again, it might mean no group content, or only queueable group content.

To someone else again, it could mean nothing that takes too long, in a single chunk of time.

Or any combination of the above (and probably quite a few more…).

…and then, you have to take into account other likes and dislikes someone might have.

Like only liking PVP, or hating PVP.

Or liking, or disliking, dailies.

Or only liking instances, or only liking openworld.

So, it’s really not that simple.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

this isnt WoW

WoW is actually more casual-friendly than GW2, now.

Problem is, it’s now only very casual-friendly, or very hardcore-friendly and nothing in between…

MCHarris.5648:

Seriously there is no winning in these situations and it should just die, if its made casual people will call it boring yet if its made hardcore people moan and complain about it

There is.

It’s called a balance, or a mixture, of both.

Not all casual, but not all hardcore and ideally, quite a lot in between the two, too.

As a lot of players are neither fully casual, or fully hardcore, but a bit of both.

Obtena.7952:

No one fooled you … you just made assumptions that you were a better player than you thought you were.

Wow.

I don’t think it’s him making the assumptions, around here…

Hakuryuu.8634:

You’re complain about grinding for COMESTICS. They’re entirely optional, and no one force you to do so. No one is going to crap on you for not having one. You won’t die without it. You choose to commit to the grind yourself, and even though ANet has been a kitten lately, don’t stab yourself and blame it on them.

The thing is, though, that if this is putting people off even trying for any of it, why even bother to add it, in the first place?

Are there really enough whales to carry something like this, alone?

…and even if there are, should Wintersday be about that?

I haven’t done any of the Wintersday stuff, yet and I’m reading this thread and thinking “I probably shouldn’t even bother, then.”.

Surely, the aim with something like this should be to encourage as many people as possible to (happily) participate and harvest, just a little, real money from as many of them as possible?

Rather than to put most people off even bothering and then try to harvest as much time and/or gold and/or real money as possible, from just a few intense grinders (gold sellers?) and/or whales, all the time?