Guild Wars 2

I remember when WoW listened to the vocal minority on the forums who wanted harder raids so Blizzard released the Cataclysm expansion which caused their 12.5 million subscribers to drop down to 9 million over the course of a year. Now they’ve learned from their mistakes with their new expansion but have only gained back about a million of those subscribers. The damage has already been done and they will most likely never get back to that 12.5 million mark because of it. Are you reading this ArenaNet? Are you paying attention?

E Tan.7385:

Leiloni.7951:

We need a word from an ArenaNet dev on this topic. We need some explanation as to their thoughts with Ascended gear and their future goals. We need clarification on this topic. You have an almost 100 page thread and we’re not making any progress until ArenaNet engages with us in this conversation. Please.

Lol, they are too afraid to answer since they clearly want to turn GW2 into a gear grind game. Even if they annonced that like a freaking snake.

They are probably internally assessing this as we speak. They did not anticipate this volume of negative reaction to it. They had tunnel vision this whole time, listening to all the “Why isnt this like WoW? I quit” threads and thinking that its how we all felt. They’re dead wrong and went too far and too fast in the wrong direction. Now they’re trying to figure out how to backtrack on it or have their PR guys put a spin on it that will somehow calm us all down. But there’s no color of paint you can apply to a steaming pile of crap that turns it into anything other than a steaming pile of crap.

ninja sloth.2658:

I’ve been spending all my ingame gold, and some real life cash for transmutation stones to buy/craft a set of exotic armour that looks just the way I like, and now this?

And now they want us all to do it again with the new gear. It seems they want more of our money just like every other game company and they don’t seem to care about the negative results as long as the next quarterly report satisfies their stock holders. Forget about the long term. They’d rather skin the sheep instead of shaving it every so often. What a lazy, greedy, heartless move on ANet’s part, selling out to appease a fickle vocal minority of WoW trolls.

Bubbles.2507:

From GW2 manifesto

“Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun;”

Screw me for believing this amirite?

Yep screw all of us who bought the game just because of our belief in their own manifesto.

showatt.9413:

Tyr.1965:

showatt.9413:

Tyr.1965:

showatt.9413:

Accept the reality; Gw2 was dying slowly when they thought this up.

It is WAY too early in the game’s life to say it was dying slowly. How do we know that people werent just taking a break and waiting for the new content to come out? There is no subscription fee. People will come and go. So now we should come to expect major overhauls to the game’s design philosophy everytime ANet gets nervous that activity is starting to dip?

Compare the amount of people that’s playing this game to the launch.

Swtor actually lasted for 5 or 6 month before it starts struggling for breath.

Gw2 is struggling in 2 month, and since this is a game that has no sub….

So yeah. Expect major changes whenever the popularity of this game crushes.

How is it struggling? How do you know it’s struggling? Are you judging this by the constantly high/full population on EVERY SINGLE SERVER??

Lol do you actually believe the server status reflect the actual population of a server?
There was a time when the server is full on tarnish coast and the entire orr map is contested.

Sorry, but I’m pretty sure Anet twink with the sever status to stop people from fotm server rolling.

Did you put on your tin foil hat while you typed up that response?

showatt.9413:

Tyr.1965:

showatt.9413:

Accept the reality; Gw2 was dying slowly when they thought this up.

It is WAY too early in the game’s life to say it was dying slowly. How do we know that people werent just taking a break and waiting for the new content to come out? There is no subscription fee. People will come and go. So now we should come to expect major overhauls to the game’s design philosophy everytime ANet gets nervous that activity is starting to dip?

Compare the amount of people that’s playing this game to the launch.

Swtor actually lasted for 5 or 6 month before it starts struggling for breath.

Gw2 is struggling in 2 month, and since this is a game that has no sub….

So yeah. Expect major changes whenever the popularity of this game crushes.

How is it struggling? How do you know it’s struggling? Are you judging this by the constantly high/full population on EVERY SINGLE SERVER??

ArcTheFallen.7682:

No, you guys have no loyalty. Whether someone betrays you are not, you should still be loyal if you are say you are loyal. Whether the people who left were loyal to begin with, they’ll continue to play if it’s a good game and that’s what Anet is working on. They are going to give it a chance at every corner and come back at new releases. But for you “loyal” fans who are leaving after this one release. Overtime, the people who leave and comeback will overrule how much you’ve put into the game.

The same crowd that ANet is now catering to is the same crowd that left WoW for Rift and SWTOR and AoC and WAR and Aion and when all those games turned out to not be better at delivering WoW without being WoW, all those players went back to……drumroll please… WoW!

And guess what will happen with GW2? The exact same thing!

showatt.9413:

Accept the reality; Gw2 was dying slowly when they thought this up.

It is WAY too early in the game’s life to say it was dying slowly. How do we know that people werent just taking a break and waiting for the new content to come out? There is no subscription fee. People will come and go. So now we should come to expect major overhauls to the game’s design philosophy everytime ANet gets nervous that activity is starting to dip?

Crackbone.5710:

Creslin.1758:

Crackbone.5710:

jboynton.7894:

Crackbone.5710:

HTXL.2598:

Crackbone.5710:

jboynton.7894:

Crackbone.5710:

Lordrosicky.5813:

They lied to us for years.

/Thread

Or, they fully intended to go the route they had “promised” only to find out it wasn’t going to meet the needs financially.

What would you have them do? Just allow the game to crash and burn?

Reality has a way of being a kitten when it comes to lofty ideals meeting a market driven economy.

GW1 was f2p from the start and had multiple expansions. That game was successful enough to warrant a sequel. This game is doing fine.

This isn’t 2004.

The market is a ton more competitive now. Furthermore, GW2 isn’t GW1. Not even close. The design of the game is completely different across the board.

This is a real MMORPG. People expect mechanics that will keep them engaged in their characters.

You can’t get by with MMOG mechanics in a MMORPG in 2012. There has to be a carrot or a reason for folks to keep playing.

And horizontal progression gets older faster than vertical.

Precisely.

Pulling all of the emotion out of this debate, you really have to consider the “Why.”

Why add vertical progression? I assert that it’s because their current model of horizontal progression isn’t retaining customers as they hoped it would. Furthermore, they likely had this entire model in their backpocket if the numbers stacked up this way.

It’s simple, Either you want Guild Wars 2 to be around as a healthy and profitable game for ANet and NCSoft for the next 3-5 years, or you want outdated mechanics from 2004.

They are, in my opinion as ANet has figured out, mutually exclusive, and it’s coming home to roost now as Ascended Gear.

Sorry man, but NCSoft’s financials just don’t mimic what you’re posting. Frankly put, the game had a massively successful launch and continues to be successful to this day. The problem is, that the suits who make the decisions get jealous of Blizzard. Period.

You cannot compete with WoW. This has been proven time and time again. The only thing that will kill WoW is Blizzard.

My interpretation of the numbers is far different than what the marketing speak out of NCSoft was.

Those numbers are far below what they should be for a title of this quality and size.

I want to be clear about something here :

I am not stating that a gear grind is the RIGHT way to do things. There are plenty of other ways you can add in character progression that’s more fun and more engaging.

However, the advantage to gear is this :

1. It’s quick. Same stats, marginally better, with a gated content slot. Easy to put it into the game, takes relatively little balance if the increases are largely the same across the board.

For whatever reason, and you can debate the why, I have my opinion, and you have yours, but, ANet clearly needed something “Quick.” If time wasn’t of the essence here, they would’ve gone a different route.

May I ask what you are basing your assertion that GW2 is essentially in a downward spiral on? Please do not say XFire.

This move.

Give me another logical reason that you would completely alter the core philosophy of all of your marketing and game design less than 3 months after the game launched.

It’s simple, the only reason you would do something like that is because the current model isn’t working. The blog post said as much. “We’ve listened to player feedback.”

This is a calculated move. ANet knows that this move is likely going to alienate a certain percentage of their players, however, it’s likely to open up the game to more players, who will stay longer and play more, and put more cash into the shop.

It’s not that difficult to decipher.

It’s not going to bring in as many people as it pushes away and the people that it does bring in won’t stay for long because that crowd has no loyalty.

OdinBudd.5298:

Holy cow, you would think this gear has already been released and tested with all the QQ going on in this thread. Does anyone think that waiting to see what it is, THEN QQ’ng would be a good idea? I understand the desire to not want a gear grind. I am also 100% in this boat and have no desire to get on that carousel of fail. But… I am also willing to wait until this new gear is released before slamming a game I have enjoyed so much, so far.

If it looks like crap and smells like crap, it’s crap. How far does the crap have to be shoved up your nose before you admit that it stinks?

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Tyr.1965:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Tyr.1965:

Crackbone.5710:

There has to be a carrot or a reason for folks to keep playing.

Let the carrot be fun, instead of more stats. Why can’t they just release the new dungeon with the new mechanic but NOT make the gear any better than exotics? They are blatantly trying to appeal to the WoW crowd that only plays to constantly upgrade their gear.

What if I told you the carrot was fun and it had more stats?

The fact that it has more stats forces every competitive player to acquire it in order to reattain equal footing with everyone else, like it was before they decided to introduce this. Success should be defined by skill, not gear. With this new dungeon, they’re making it about gear. If you don’t have the gear, you won’t be able to complete the dungeon. If you don’t have the gear, you won’t be equally geared with the players that do have it in WvW. The mindset of a PvP’er is to gain any edge they possibly can to achieve victory. They will go after this new gear because it has a stat increase over what they’re using. Now they have to do PvE to get the gear they need to PvP. Even this wouldn’t go over well in Warcraft.

PvP already has its on realm that cannot be pierced by PvE content. WvW and PvE should not be affected by it, it will not be a significant factor in anything..

There is no PvP gear in this game. It’s just gear. Right now, everyone is wearing exotics. You can get those exotics from a ton of different places. Now they’re introducing a new set of gear that is more powerful than exotics and you can only get it from one particular dungeon. Thats a problem.

Crackbone.5710:

Tyr.1965:

Crackbone.5710:

There has to be a carrot or a reason for folks to keep playing.

Let the carrot be fun, instead of more stats. Why can’t they just release the new dungeon with the new mechanic but NOT make the gear any better than exotics? They are blatantly trying to appeal to the WoW crowd that only plays to constantly upgrade their gear.

I’m not disagreeing with you on this one.

There are other ways to do this that would be more fun and a better overall way to accomplish the same goal.

The problem is, time. Things like you are suggesting take time to put together, time to balance, time to create.

Gear is the simplest and quickest way to get it done.

They’re releasing an entire new zone, event, and dungeon a few months after launch. The gear is just one small part of it. The work is already done. Why does this gear have to have a stat increase over exotics? They even said why in their blog about it: to give the “hardcore” players a new carrot on the stick to chase. Too bad that once they get this new gear, they’ll be quitting the game again and crying on the forums until ANet gives them the next carrot. It never ends with that vocal minority locust swarm.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Tyr.1965:

Crackbone.5710:

There has to be a carrot or a reason for folks to keep playing.

Let the carrot be fun, instead of more stats. Why can’t they just release the new dungeon with the new mechanic but NOT make the gear any better than exotics? They are blatantly trying to appeal to the WoW crowd that only plays to constantly upgrade their gear.

What if I told you the carrot was fun and it had more stats?

The fact that it has more stats forces every competitive player to acquire it in order to reattain equal footing with everyone else, like it was before they decided to introduce this. Success should be defined by skill, not gear. With this new dungeon, they’re making it about gear. If you don’t have the gear, you won’t be able to complete the dungeon. If you don’t have the gear, you won’t be equally geared with the players that do have it in WvW. The mindset of a PvP’er is to gain any edge they possibly can to achieve victory. They will go after this new gear because it has a stat increase over what they’re using. Now they have to do PvE to get the gear they need to PvP. Even this wouldn’t go over well in Warcraft.

Crackbone.5710:

There has to be a carrot or a reason for folks to keep playing.

Let the carrot be fun, instead of more stats. Why can’t they just release the new dungeon with the new mechanic but NOT make the gear any better than exotics? They are blatantly trying to appeal to the WoW crowd that only plays to constantly upgrade their gear.

wouw.5837:

Tyr.1965:

HTXL.2598:

There’s no subscription, you’re not paying a dime, and you’re complaining?

Many of us have already paid out more money per month on gems than we would have on a subscription fee in other games.

well, that doesn’t make any difference, people should be happy A-net gives any FREE content, ther don’t hve to do it and just put everything in the gem store. ( new map for just 2,99!)

Well, actually, they do have to release free content if they want to stick to the manifesto they used to sell this game and not anger the majority of their player base… oh wait…. too late

showatt.9413:

FooKFiGhTeR.8153:

pregnable.1954:

FooKFiGhTeR.8153:

Skimmed through this thread as far as I can see this is all speculations.

First and foremost this isn’t a gear treadmill, and GW2 do not require a constant

number in their gamer population. This game is meant to be played by setting goals

and going for it. That is why its not a sub based game in the first place. The devs don’t

even require to bring in a new tier so early on in the game stage but the fact they do

means they got alot more stuffs installed.

If a minority of the population are still in denial and hate the changes or progression

however its called. It might be the time to take a break and maybe come back to Tyria

in a couple of months.

WvW uses pve gear.

Have spent my fair share in WvW and trust me the amount of damage you input isn’t a factor that is just based on a couple of stat points. If your finding yourself in 1v1 situations in your world, your just doing it wrong.

That’s the honest truth right there.

Having the biggest zerg or the greatest coverage is always gonna win you the game no matter how good ur gears are.

WIthout the pvp factor, the new gear is essentially for PVE. So what’s wrong about being able to kill stuff faster?

When their zerg outgears your zerg, you’ll die faster. We’re not talking about 1v1 in WvW. We’re talking about 50v50. lol

HTXL.2598:

There’s no subscription, you’re not paying a dime, and you’re complaining?

Many of us have already paid out more money per month on gems than we would have on a subscription fee in other games.

Memento Mori.5217:

I want GvG
I want PvP and Wv3 ladders/elo system
I want “cool” skins
I want more skills like gw1 was
I want bug fixes

I DON’T want more %stat…

This! They couldve added so much more to the game before ever introducing this outdated gear system that has already failed in other games.

fixit.7189:

Only a small portion of the populace wants them to break the manifesto. This thread is a perfect example; the nays far out number the yays.

I want to see a real personal response from the Devs about this rather than a pre-written blog that was more than likely created weeks ago.

Tell us why you are going back on the manifesto. Is it a monetary decision? NCsoft breathing down your neck to gain more revenue? A design decision to make this game similar to that other game and it’s countless failed clones? What do they really think and what is their response to this massive thread?

They wont have a response other than pushing this content live and silently telling us to deal with it. Too bad for them that the way I deal with it is with my wallet.

Not only is it a gear treadmill but its gated content that’s reliant on RNG in order to get the gear needed to progress. Too bad WoW ain’t worth the money; at least they actually do the gear treadmill right.

Monis.2634:

Here is where my confusion over this outrage is. Fractals is a dungeon which is designed to increase in difficulty after subsequent runs. Meaning that you run it, get all your rewards and goodies and all that good stuff. Then you’re taken back to the start and have the option to run it again, but this time it will be a bit harder than before. As far as we know, nothing about the rewards change, it’s just difficulty that’s going up here. So as far as I can tell, going deeper in is nothing but bragging rights. It’s a challenge for the people who want it and are willing to put in the extra effort for it and it’s still a cool new dungeon everyone else can still play through. I really do not see how this is so offensive.

Because of the gear being better than any other gear in the game. Thats why. We have no problem with the dungeon getting harder. That would be awesome if there wasnt this issue of vertical gear progression being added to a game that was marketed as a horizontal gear progression game.

Webba.3071:

Leiloni.7951:

Webba.3071:

This seems the most likely explanation. I can understand why they are doing this, but it is sad.

What, the earnings report that said GW2 is making tons of money and is NCSoft’s biggest earner worldwide? Yes, it makes sense to change a core aspect that is the backbone of your companies revenue…

Well, exactly. If that is indeed the case (could you link that report, I’ve not seen it myself) then it is extremely strange. I assumed that such a monumental backflip could only be the result of a problem in urgent need of addressing. Is it not the case?

That report probably only covered box sales so now theyre looking towards the next report having the gem shop show some serious revenue gain. Too bad that’s not going to happen at this point thanks to this “new” direction they’re going in.

bcbully.7289:

We’ll be talking about this one for years to come.

The day that ArenaNet decided to kill its own game.

raahk.2786:

You might as well have just told us that your promises about the game were bogus straight off.

But then we wouldn’t have bought the game.

Just remember ArenaNet: you can shave a sheep plenty for its wool but you can only skin it once.

Let today mark the day that they decided to kill their own game in the prime of its infancy. How sad. All the potential squandered, and for what? To please a small percentage of the player base that can never, ever be pleased? Didn’t the ArenaNet founders used to work for Blizzard? Why are they trying to be like Blizzard?

If the entire purpose of this new gear is to help us make progress through the new dungeon, why does it have to have slightly higher stats than gear already in the game? Why can’t it just be the same stats but with the addition of the new resistance stat? They could have easily stuck to what they said they were about in their own manifesto instead of going back on all of it just to implement a gear treadmill so the WoW kids will have something to gobble up unreasonably fast and then quit again.

What about the hardcore WvW players who are now being forced to do PvE in order to PvP? Any stat increase has to be sought after because other players will do it to gain an edge as well do don’t say we aren’t forced, because we are if we want to remain competitive.

It’s quite sad that they’d spit on their own manifesto so soon all because they’re trying to please the WoW crowd. If the hardcore players have run out of stuff to do, why can’t they just take a break and come back when there’s new content to explore? It’s not like there’s a subscription fee. Their entire sales pitch was the manifesto and now they’re contradicting it? Bait and switch. I’ll think twice before spending another dime in the gem store, as I’m sure many others will.

I was a hardcore raider in Warcraft for about 7 years. I’ve crafted 4 legendaries while grinding my way through 13 tiers of gear. I raided 4 to 5 nights a week for hours on end in the race for server first boss kills. The game turned into a second job for me and I got so caught up in chasing the next carrot on the stick, that I forgot what it meant to simply play the game for fun as the main incentive.

Guild Wars 2 has provided such a refreshing alternative to traditional MMO’s and I really hope the developers stick to their manifesto for years to come. They can still create tons of new content that is fun and engaging. Let that be the carrot on the stick, not the illusion of gaining more power through gear.

bcbully.7289:

Tyr.1965:

All I know right now at this point, is that the freakin blogpost cant come soon enough. Good lord.

They better call in David Axelrod on this one.

I’d rather have Morgan Freeman come in and explain all this new gear business to me. Somehow, everything that’s convoluted suddenly makes sense when Morgan Freeman explains it.

All I know right now at this point, is that the freakin blogpost cant come soon enough. Good lord.

tkalamba.2541:

Its going to be exactly like in GW1. The Ascended gear was required to survive against the Mursaat. Now it is required to kill the karka… the enemy the new content revolves around… watch, the blog post will likely say this.

If its like that, then it will be ok. It will be a new set of gear to grind for progression within a new dungeon. It shouldnt offer an advantage over current gear anywhere else in the world.

MrLee.6892:

Erasculio.2914:

MrLee.6892:

Just because YOU don’t like something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist. What about all the players who DO want it? Don’t you think they should have something they want also?

Maybe YOU shouldn’t play MMO’s?

Grinding is assuming you are no better than a horse chasing a carrot dangling from a stick in front of its face. Doing content you do not enjoy and in which you do not have fun just because it gives a shiny reward in the end is the same as lowering yourself to the level of a mindless animal.

I don’t know why so many players, who love traditional MMOs, fall for it. GW2 was being different in that it was dealing with their players as human beings. It appears players don’t want to be treated as human beings and instead see themselves more as mindless animals, but I’m still surprised that ArenaNet changed its mind so soon.

Grinding is bad. It’s bad design, and the fact it sells – or used to sell, considering how almost all recent MMOs have failed – doesn’t change how it’s bad design.

heh I had to LOL on this one!

So what are the point of Dungeons then? I take it you don’t like to run dungeons?
Thats all they are is a grind! A grind to get the gear you want. All of you complaining and who run dungeons are already doing the gear grind but you don’t even want to admit it. Just in this case you are grinding for looks and not stats.

If you don’t like dungeons then what do you do? Level alts? (Grinding levels?)
You like to craft? (Gotta grind for mats).

Next time you call people mindless animals maybe you should take a look in the mirror.

It comes down to the incentive to grind. As it is now, people grind dungeons for different cosmetic looks. They could just as easily get the same quality gear through various other avenues. They grind dungeons because they WANT to, not because they are FORCED to like other MMO’s.

Azarul.2064:

I have no problems with another tier level as long as its as easy to obtain as the exotics are now. The people saying go back to WoW are just idiots also, sorry but its true. In WoW without the highest tier you are at a big dissadvantage in high in raids. In GW2 its not like that, someone in all yellows can easily do just as good as exotics.

We’re saying “go back to WoW” because its a more logical option for the vertical progression addicts than trying to force this game to be more like WoW.

MrLee.6892:

Tyr.1965:

MrLee.6892:

Yes another person who gets it! GW2 is supposed to evolve!! Even though some people think this is ok.

This is an MMO! Things change good or bad. You have to accept it or leave. (And if you leave there isn’t one MMO out there that will have gear stay the same thru out it’s lifetime).

Why does the game have to evolve towards vertical progression when the game’s horizontal progression is the very thing that made it evolve past every other MMO on the market?

I swear the people defending this decision are probably the same crowd that cried on the WoW forums for change then jumped shipped to GW2 and are now crying for this game to become WoW. Stop ruining games with your flakiness.

Stop wanting the game to stay the same and never change. Go back to single player games if you don’t like it.

Changing the game’s entire philosophy all for the sake of change itself is a good way to alienate the majority of the player base that has been supporting ArenaNet since Guild Wars 1.

It sounds like you dont like the fact that this game doesnt offer vertical progression. If you don’t like it, why don’t you go back to any of the other MMO’s on the market?

MrLee.6892:

Tyr.1965:

Rizla.1023:

They give you something to work towards and you all take a temper tantrum. Nice to see the kinda people i’m playing along with.
What if this was in at launch would any of you complained that there was an extra tier of gear? NO!!!!!!

Actually we would because we don’t like vertical gear progression. Go back to Warcraft if that’s what you want.

Grow up and stop using the “Go back to Warcraft” crap. EVERY MMO uses vertical gear progression. At least I can’t think of one who doesn’t besides Guild Wars 2.

Just because YOU don’t like something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist. What about all the players who DO want it? Don’t you think they should have something they want also?

Maybe YOU shouldn’t play MMO’s?

Every OTHER MMO uses vertical gear progression so ArenaNet made an MMO that breaks that mold. Why does GW2 have to conform to your outdated definition of what an MMO should be? What about all the players who expressly support this game just because it breaks the mold??

MrLee.6892:

Yes another person who gets it! GW2 is supposed to evolve!! Even though some people think this is ok.

This is an MMO! Things change good or bad. You have to accept it or leave. (And if you leave there isn’t one MMO out there that will have gear stay the same thru out it’s lifetime).

Why does the game have to evolve towards vertical progression when the game’s horizontal progression is the very thing that made it evolve past every other MMO on the market?

I swear the people defending this decision are probably the same crowd that cried on the WoW forums for change then jumped shipped to GW2 and are now crying for this game to become WoW. Stop ruining games with your flakiness.

piitb.7635:

It’s probably not going to affect WvW no more than legendary weapons do.

So ascended gear is just as rare as legendary weapons? lol

One of the bigger contributing factors to this game’s success is the simple fact that it is NOT Warcraft in all the crucial ways. All the people that flocked here to escape that gear treadmill drudgery are the backbone of this game and always will be. We want to have fun. Our incentive for playing is purely to have fun. Feeling forced to grind out new tiers of gear feels more like a job than a source of entertainment.

If you prefer the vertical progression gear treadmill, please go play one of the countless other MMO’s on the market that offer that instead of trying to change this game. Let this game be the alternative, a place for the rest of us who don’t like having our credit cards charged just so we can be forced to endlessly grind through tiers of gear.

It really needs to be a solo instance. Between the charr, the norn, and the griefers, the actual challenge is coming more from dealing with the people instead of the puzzle itself. Not to mention, the lackluster camera in this game.

You shouldn’t feel bad about continuing to support Anet. They only made the best MMO ever and didn’t tack on a subscription. If you’ve got some extra cash to wipe your nose with, you might as well send it Anet’s way.

Guild Wars 2 is like fine wine; when you first open it up, you shouldn’t immediately start chugging. You gotta let it breathe and savor it over time. This isnt the boxed wine swill you’re used to getting from other MMO’s, where the only option is to chug it just to get past the horrible taste. Both wines will get you just as drunk, but they have to be approached and enjoyed differently. If GW2 is too rich for your tastes, I’m sure Pandacraft would love to sell you its boxed wine swill for $15 every month. Cheers.

Aww and here I thought it was a newfangled hipster word. What a load of kittens. (am I doing it right?) :P

I’m new here ankittenep seeing “kitten” being used on these forums as some sort of slang term that’s seemingly unrelated to actual cats. What does it mean?

I just purchased the game yesterday after watching Angry Joe’s review of the game on Youtube and I must say, it’s worth every penny and then some. ArenaNet took everything I secretly hated about MMO’s and made it right and fun.

Other companies cajole their player base into staying subscribed to over-hyped, lifeless worlds with outdated engines and mechanics, forever chasing the proverbial carrot on the stick in hopes of “getting your money’s worth.” But that never happens because you keep paying to play a game you already bought once.

Guild Wars 2 does away with all that noisy jazz and focuses on delivering the epic gaming experience and box price of a single player RPG, with all the social elements and endless content of a MMO. Its truly the best of both worlds with none of the negative elements of either.

I will say that there is room for improvement. MMO’s are continuously updated and improved upon, but Guild Wars 2 is going to deliver that same cadence of quality content without charging you the subscription fee along the way. For years now, I’ve been waiting for a game to come along and truly redefine and revolutionize the MMO genre and its finally here: Guild Wars 2.