Guild Wars 2

Eidolonemesis.5640:

Players are the ones paying into Guild Wars 2 to help Anet’s employees pay their bills and keep the game afloat soooo why should players not be entitled to relive such an epic experience in some way, shape, or form?

Because something called “opportunity cost” exists. You and a minority of other players may want to see time and resources spent on such a thing, but if Anet could make more money by creating something entirely new then it makes financial sense to do that instead. By your own argument, players (all players, not just a minority) keep the lights on and the servers humming for Guild Wars 2. Perhaps they can find a way to appease everyone, and they may be planning on that. I wouldn’t expect it as if you’re owed it, though. You’re only setting yourself up for disappointment there, given how MMOs typically work.

I’m not a veteran player and I think you’re approaching the persistent, virtual world of an MMO with incorrect presuppositions.

Harper.4173:

…snip…

You’ve just provided perfectly good [and existing] solutions to your “problem.” I still don’t see the need for a profession filter. As I’ve said, if you’re just that picky about group composition, then you should be running with a pre-made group. Period. You’re attempting to shoehorn the LFG tool into a “problem” it was never meant to fix.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

Yea, one could argue that, yet that is besides the point, even if that were Anet’s intent to fulfill the true definition of ‘history’ when it came to Living Story Season 1 to line up with their vision of a truly living, breathing world. You see, if Anet continues with their literal vision of a living, breathing world, then that means Living World Season 2 and every other Season after it should end in the same way Living World Season 1 did.

I didn’t say Anet has a literal, complete vision of a living world. I do think they’re attempting to maintain something that at least resembles one, however. There are always limits to what you can do in a virtual world at any given time. Engineering a world includes trade-offs, just like engineering anything else.

With that being said in mind, if I were to agree with what you’re saying that the way Living World Season 1 ended, never to be repeatable again, and should therefore remain that way… Going by that logic, shouldn’t the same thing technically apply to all Storylines that are completed, never to be repeatable again for the sake of fulfilling the true definition of ‘history’?

Has any story that has affected the open world to the degree of S1 been completely repeatable? I don’t think so, though I could be wrong. I’m open for examples if they exist. I’m not against them recreating S1 for new players, even if it’s on a smaller scale. I just don’t see the full-blown experience happening again, and I’m okay with that. Like I said, it comes with the MMO territory of an evolving virtual world. That’s something that just makes sense in the paradigm, so it never rustled my jimmies much.

I kind of see it as an actual “living world” thing. When we’re born into our real life world, we don’t go back and replay history to experience it for ourselves (though one could argue we tend to get our own versions of it with history repeating). Instead, we learn about the past through writing, discussion, art, environmental features, etc and move forward from there. In a way, it helps to give the game world a persistent feel.

Aside from that, there’s the game system aspect where it’s probably just impractical to completely recreate S1. I missed out on it too, so I kind of just “aww shucks” it and try to glean what I can from NPC dialogue and the like. I’m content with that. MMOs tend to evolve over time, and experiencing these types of events are the reward for sticking with it. One of these days, I’d like to get into an MMO from the very beginning and just see it through ’til the end.

Yenn.9185:

Torenn.2598:

If people are that picky about their group composition, why don’t they just go on guild/friend runs where coordination would likely be much easier?

Because that’s not always possible. Your play time may be different than guild/friends, or they may already have done the path. Also, organizing 4 other friends/guildies when you’re short in time to run maybe 1 or 2 paths, well, could take time. PuG is still the fastest way to get a group at your most convenient.

Point being it simply doesn’t make sense to be picky when pugging. Pugging, by it’s very nature, has a random element to it. Even if you were allowed to filter professions, you still wouldn’t be able to filter player skill. The only way to control that is by playing with people you know. A profession filter will not necessarily help the situation. You could try to make a better case for a skill-based matchmaking system, but even they can be off at times.

If people are that picky about their group composition, why don’t they just go on guild/friend runs where coordination would likely be much easier?

More fitting loot containers would be okay, but please don’t give me any more bags. I’m tired of double-clicking everything in my inventory as it is.

Lampshade.7569:

It took me 12 seconds total to open a new tab, go to youtube and find a walkthrough for a specific dungeon. Five more seconds to find the cutscenes.

Including cutscenes in dungeons probably isn’t the best design idea, but you can’t fault people for wanting to watch them in context in story mode. The “YouTube it” response misses the point. And while I do think people are better off creating their own groups that explicitly state they are watching cutscenes, it’s kind of a shame they even have to do it. If I decide to enter a story mode dungeon, I’ve already taken into account that some people may be new or want to watch the cutscenes. It kind of goes with the territory, so I set my expectations accordingly.

I remember people bellyaching about cutscene watching even at release. It sucked because I wanted to watch them, but usually skipped them so I didn’t have to hear the whining.

Character height always seems to give me trouble. The slider doesn’t give me a decent perspective, so my human females end up being just a little too tall. Then when I’m standing next to a male NPC, I look like Amazon Woman.

Gaile. I’ve heard dealing with gaming forums on a regular basis will drive a person to such things.

Voting on forums tends to just create echo-chambers, honestly. Probably not the best thing here if they’re looking for feedback. Just look at sites like Reddit where posts that disagree with the hivemind tend to get buried, regardless of the quality of the post.

I like the suggestion. I wonder what the official impact of the airplane mode was in terms of player count and the like, given the bellyaching. Surely they capture that data.

Prototypemind.4026:

The number of subscription-based MMOs that don’t have a cash shop as well is rather miniscule, so finding one without the other isn’t by any means going to be the norm going forward. More likely B2P or F2P with cash shops attached will be what most games offer their players.

I don’t mind a cash shop as long as they don’t go overboard with it. From what I remember of playing WoW, you could buy mounts and pets and things but the bulk of the content was available as part of your subscription. I haven’t played in a while, so perhaps that has changed. That’s really disappointing if it has.

I still prefer a monthly subscription fee to a gem store/cash shop. It keeps me invested in the game and I don’t get the feeling that certain things were designed to be just annoying enough to push me towards purchasing a convenience item. GW2 is pretty good with this to the point where it doesn’t feel slimy, but still. The subscription fee does limit how many MMOs I play at any given time, but I tend to focus on one at a time anyway since they’re all huge time-sinks.

I’m very much a newbie to GW2, so last night I decided to take some time on my level 19 engineer to play around with this combo field/finisher stuff in a secluded area of the map. I didn’t pay much attention to it up to that point.

I have some of the turrets and mines unlocked, and I usually run with a rifle. So first I threw down some napalm and tried tossing a mine in the middle of it. Detonated the mine and had three stacks of might. The light bulb came on. Then I tried detonating a mine in the middle of the water field from my healing turret. AoE heal. Awesome. Tried detonating another mine immediately after using my toolbelt ability for the healing turret. Timing seemed to be a little trickier to get down, but produced another AoE heal. Oh boy, this is going to get addicting. I ended up experimenting last night for more time than I care to admit, even with the limited abilities I have unlocked. The flame turret stealth effect didn’t seem to activate unless I dragged a mob within range, though.

I was honestly thinking the engineer class was just kind of “meh,” but this opens up a ton of possibilities. There’s so much more to learn now! I realize this is basic stuff, but it actually has me pretty excited to level the class.

The differences are basically:
1. Base direct damage mitigation (with no boons or anything)
2. Aesthetic/lore

Conditions aren’t mitigated by armor at all. Attribute bonuses are the same for all armor types, only varying based on the slot, level, and rarity. It wouldn’t look right seeing a warrior fighting in a cloth dress in battle. The skimpy plate outfits actually fit the aesthetic. They’re skimpy, but still look warrior-y compared to the dresses.

Don’t use the $100/8000 gem option. Just make two 4000 gem purchases instead. The 8000 gem option is hosed for some reason.