Guild Wars 2

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. And you know, I’m not caring about the number of zones, per se.

I’m actually more interested in the amount of playability and replayability.

Face it…Factions had a lot of zones, but people did finish it in a couple of weeks. In fact, I recently ran through all four Guild Wars 1 games in a week (skipping most of Prophecies through a run). It’s possible.

A lot of zones doesn’t mean a lot to do. A lot of times in games you finish a zone and never go back to it.

Anet seems to be implying there’ll be a lot to do in these zones. I’m thinking sections of zones are actually off limits until you open them through game play. With the way the mastery system is shaping up, and the nature of the zones, I’m not sure that getting a few zones instead of a bunch of zones is necessarily a bad thing.

If they give my guild a ton of stuff to do, that would be worth a whole lot more to me than more zones. But of course that’s just me personally.

phys.7689:

Ashen.2907:

Wethospu.6437:

No really cares that to get decent bag space you have to do stuff like mules, guild banks and keep items on mails?

I don’t do any of those things and have what I would consider, “decent,” space. I would love more, but its a product for which I would expect to pay. So far the cost has outweighed the potential benefit for me. When that changes I will buy more.

I really do not understand how, “I want something so I guess I better pay for it,” became a foreign concept (this is not directed at you Wethospu).

probably because they did pay for it.
Now, i know they need to earn money, but you guys need to stop acting like people didnt buy the product.

and before you say that didnt pay for 2 years of development, please note the last two of these threads were started by new players, who have actually paid within the last month or so, for the game. They actually have gotten very little of the content that was created since the game started, due to most living story disappearing, and the fact that new content costs money if you werent around when it came out. Combine that with an upcoming expansion, and the argument that they should pay in bank spaces, for development that they never got to experience is a bad reason.

Banks space effects how you play the game from day 1, they have a valid complaint if the initial bank space is a problem.

Sure but quite a few of those players got the game with the additions for $20 or some even $10. So you’re saying a person who buys the game for $10 should have free access to everything including bank space?

I wonder what percentage of those new players bought the game at full price.

There may or may not be an RNG problem, but no one in my guild seems to have experienced it, at least no one I talk to.

Of course, no one in my guild expects to get a precusor drop and only a few have. But we all get periodic exotics, a handful of rares every day.

People expecting to get a precursor are fooling themselves. Anyway at least that complaint should vanish when the expansion comes out.

I guess the difference between them, particularly if you were doing PvE wtih heroes, most of the time you set your build and you could just go around and do anything you wanted if that build was good. I remember going AFK and letting my heroes handle stuff in the middle of hard mode dungeon fights, if the phone rang. And it was fine, because they were specced well for that dungeon.

The skill in Guild Wars 1 comes less from your build (though builds can be important) and more from how you actually play. What skills you’ve chosen, however, do come into play at higher levels.

Not having enough condition removal will certainly screw you over in the Silverwastes. So will only have a melee weapon if you happen to be in the middle of four terragrifs.

It’s just a different thought process altogether.

But I could see where someone coming from Guild Wars 1 might be disappointed by the changes.

The short answers to your questions are as follows.

There will never be as much customization in Guild Wars 2 as there was in Guild Wars 1 by design. Guild Wars 1 was called Build Wars for a reason and while many loved that play style, many abandoned the game early because they didn’t. Also the amount of customization in Guild Wars 1 made the game far too hard to balance. This game was simplified to have a broader appeal. The skill here comes less from choosing skills and more from your actual ability to play your profession by using self-combos and active dodging, and positioning.

One thing you can do here that you couldn’t do in Guild Wars 1 is to change skills and traits any time out of combat, which means that you can respec for different bosses in the same dungeon. You couldn’t do that in Guild Wars 1. But Guild Wars 1 definitely had far more build options. No one could argue that.

To your second question, the new profession Revenant will have an energy bar of sorts. Not exactly the same as the way it worked in Guild Wars 1 but reminiscent of it. The thief also has initiative which works similar to an energy bar.

Energy is not a major part of this game and never will be, because more people prefer dynamic combat than having to watch a meter, having it run out and not be able to do anything.

I know it sounds implausible, but I believe it’s true.

This is, of course, all just my opinion, in case that needed to be stated.

Generally I agree with the writing tips, but I don’t agree with all the specifics. A lot of it comes from your audience.

You postulate for example, that an author uses cliffhangers because they’re insecure about their plot. I think that that type of serial writing has a place and for some it’s an actual style choice.

Here’s the issue. There are a lot of people who read books and are readers and don’t need to be hit over the head with stuff in order to get drawn in. Readers appreciate nuance. But gamers aren’t all readers and many gamers don’t recognize nuance at all. They barely pay attention to what’s going on, unless it involves loot and killing. Sometimes you’re writing for a group of people who aren’t all readers and the lowest common denominator will reach the maximum number of people.

Years ago, I wrote a serial for a role playing game website, and I chose that format because the idea was to get those readers back to that page to see what happened next. My audience were looking for something fast paced, action-oriented. It’s by far my least favorite piece of writing, but it was effective and successful.

I do agree with most of your post, however.

I think it’s human nature to want to be part of something larger. When someone asks am I the only one to do something, what they’re really asking for is validation.

Because if you were the only one doing something out of all the people in the world, there’s probably a reason for it.

If no one else was coming back to the game the OP might question his decision to come back. By asking he’s asking for validation.

The question sounds silly if you’re following the forum or playing the game, because we see people coming back all the time, but you know, it’s not that big a deal to ask something like this…even if my first reaction was a bit more acerbic.

OP, every business decision involves weighing countless inponderables.

I’m sure that Anet knows what steam is, considering Guild Wars 1 is on steam. They made a decision not to list Guild Wars 2 on steam. One has to assume they had a reason or perhaps many reasons for doing this.

It’s entirely possible that steam has items in their agreement that Anet chooses not to abide by. In which case they can’t use steam.

I’m absolutely certain that the decision not to use steam was discussed by Anet and perhaps NcSoft. If they thought it would be advantageous to use steam they would have.

tfcgeneralkmk.9508:

ever thought they want new players to be able to do the dailys also , imagine if all the daily event / bosses were from lvl 80 zones the new player would then be forced to either do that or if they are high enough to have unlocked pvp and WvW they could do that

don’t like the zerg on the event dailies then don’t do that one anet gave us 4 PvE options anyways plus 4 PvP and WvW options as well or just not do the daily that day just get your logon reward and do something else

New players get different dailies than 80s anyway so on days when it’s an 80th level zone, new players usually get Queendale dailies.

Gandalf.3516:

You’re comparing them again…while telling people not to compare them.

compare
estimate, measure, or note the similarity or dissimilarity between.

Also GW1 is an MMORPG. They just deviated from some of the more traditional ways of doing things in certain areas, but it is still an MMORPG.

BOTTOM LINE, people compare things, including GW1 and GW2. It’s fine if you don’t like it, but don’t expect everyone to stop just because you don’t like it. It’s pretty cut-and-dried.

Even Anet says Guild Wars 1 isn’t an MMRPG. The idea of an MMORPG is to have a persistent world. Not a lobby game where you go into areas with 8 people. They’re different games. According to Anet Guild Wars 1 was a CORPG. If you want to argue it, argue with them.

Gandalf.3516:

The only reason people say not to compare GW1 and GW2 is because they’re tired of hearing why one is so much better than the other. But it is completely reasonable to compare them on some level. It’s a natural thing to do. Even you compared them in a post above.

There are probably as many people who think Guild Wars 2 is better than Guild Wars 1. Do you have any idea how many people tried Guild Wars 1 and left because of pathing or the inability to jump. It may sound crazy if you’re a Guild Wars 1 fan, but there are many who tried it, found the limitations too great, and left.

Guild Wars 1 was a better game if you liked making builds. That was the big advantage it had. Making builds. But what percentage of the playerbase enjoys that aspect of gaming? Surely more people enjoy just running around and killing stuff. For those people Guild Wars 2 might be the better game.

For people who want a marketplace instead of standing around in Spamadan Guild Wars 2 is the better game. For those who want a true MMO where you can run into people in the open world, Guild Wars 2 could be a better game.

It’s not so cut and dried as you think. Bottom line is, one of the games is an MMORPG and one of them is not. There’s not much reason to compare them even if people think there is.

Fernling.1729:

I’m guessing they have some pretty big things to reveal. I can’t imagine Arenanet would fly in a bunch of youtube/fansite people without providing them some things to share. It sounds like hype is the exact outcome anet expected from doing something like this.

I’m guessing we will see something about the new specializations. Maybe something about how the living story will work post expansion. Condition rework or seamless world(hot zones for now) in the works would be pretty cool too.

I guess people were saying not to expect much at the convention when they announced the expansion too.

The people who attended already said not to expect to much. Why would you think that they’re lying?

Gandalf.3516:

BrunoBRS.5178:

i for one prefer GW2, but both games are so different it’s quite silly to compare them in the first place.

Not at all. Guild Wars 2 is a sequel to Guild Wars. Comparing them is only natural.

Lord of the Rings is the sequel to the Hobbit, they’re completely different works and comparing them isn’t all that useful either.

punkinkatt.4823:

100% map complete! Done!

Gratz! I’m so glad you did it!

Simplest answer is often the best answer. Collections were made for collectors, not for people to buy crap off the marketplace. If you buy stuff off the marketplace to fill in a collection, particularly for the rewards offered, then you really can’t blame anyone else for making you feel any particular emotion.

The rewards are listed. The prices appear before you buy. You made a conscious decision not only to go for something not worth it, but then to come here and complain about it.

I’m farming the mats for god skull weapons and almost have enough for the entire collection, which I’ll craft myself. Even that’s not necessarily a straight forward decision because I could sell the mats and make profit from it, instead of filling in the collection.

Of course, I’m a collector so the actual act of getting that stuff is fun for me. If you don’t like jumping puzzles, don’t do jumping puzzles. If you don’t like collections, don’t do them.

I wish people would stop with the hype train. The hype train is the single biggest thing that will lead to disappointment. No one will ever deliver the level of stuff some people are hoping for.

There won’t be much new or deep in the new stuff. But there’s a big difference between Anet telling us something is good and a bunch of guys who played it saying it. That’s what the event was about.

Not about giving them new info. It’s about letting them play the demo and getting people excited about that.

There’s a hype train that’s running along at lightning speed and there’s Anet with a pick up truck staying within the allowed speed limit.

Don’t expect too much tomorrow. You WILL BE disappointed.

I’m in the top 500, maybe even the top 400 and I could care less about this.

OP this thread is based solely on your expectations which you created in your mind without any evidence that that would happen.

Costumes in Guild Wars 1 were like outfits here and they were sold through the gem store there. Reasonably, one would assume they would be sold the same way here.

I didn’t get a unique armor set for defeating the Underworld in the first Guild Wars 1 game.

You’re taking your expectations and trying to make them sound like they’re reasonable because to you they are. But they go against what’s already been done.

Your support of the gem shop is completely 100% not related to this issue. If you like the game and choose to support the game, that’s a personal choice. You support it for what’s out at that time, not what you think they sorta might maybe do in the future. That’s not a reasonable position.

If you don’t like what the company is doing, you’re certainly free to stop supporting them. But past support doesn’t entitle you to make policy. You either like the game and support it or you don’t. That’s up to you.

ProtoGunner.4953:

Same here, I usually run well, but the game crashes from time to time @Teq. It happened again yesterday.

I remember GW1 crashed once or twice in 6-7 years of my active time there. GW2 crashed about 50 times until now. Just want to point it out.

I had probably about the same amount of crashes in Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars 1. So it could be the way the game interacts with a specific video driver, or a specific component within a system.

There have been complaints about this game, pretty much continually (as one would expect on a game forum) but population complaints are not generally among them. Most population complaints are about too many people at events, rather than not enough people.

Not the first time it’s been suggested. I suspect a very very small number of people actually need this but it certainly wouldn’t hurt if it were in the game.

There is an easy mode for jumping puzzles. It’s called having a mesmer friend. Works with most of them.

I can usually one shot the Aetherblade jumping puzzle on my mesmer and from there, I can portal up guildies who don’t like to jump.

Lifestealer.4910:

timmyf.1490:

Orangensaft.7139:

i dont see any reason that speaks against releasing it as outfit + armorsets

That’s because you don’t understand how their armor mesh/models work. Neither do I, in fact. So I just have to believe them when they say it’s a lot more work to make armor than it is outfits.

“more work” is not an excuse to cut corners and be lazy as a corporation.

More work is absolutely a consideration when making something new. If you make a new suit of armor that takes 5 times as long as an outfit, that means you can only make 20% of them.

That means that you’d need five times as many people to buy the armor as to buy the outfit to break even, if that were the ratio.

What you call lazy, some would call a good business decision.

People throw around the word lazy often when a decision is made they don’t like. It’s an easy (even lazy) way to try to make a point.

I’d have waited the 8 minutes and started fresh, to be honest. You didn’t have to jump right in and rush. Once it ends the timer has to start again and you get the full time.

I can understand why people want instances, but in this case, you could have just waited and got credit for everyone.

I’m a pretty big Star Trek fan but I don’t think it’s appropriate to have anything referencing Spock in this game. If it was done it would have to be obliquely because the owners of the copyright do go after commercial interests that reference their IP.

Prophet.6257:

Vayne.8563:

dietzero.3514:

You were a white knight, Vayne. More a biege knight now.

Holy kitten! I love that. Or how about an offwhite knight.

But on topic, I think that if this was really an issue we’d have seen far more complaints about it since launch.

Considering how complaints are often met on these forums I’m not surprised it would be drowned out by others and by flaming.

It didn’t stop complaints about the trait system. It didn’t stop complaints about the NPE. It didn’t stop complaints about the personal story changes. It didn’t stop people complaining that there was no expansion coming.

There’s zero evidence that complaints don’t get aired on these forums. Most posts on these forums are complaints. The fact that there are more negative threads than positive is evidence of that.

If bag space were a major issue, we’d have heard about it like all the other issues we’ve heard about.

dietzero.3514:

You were a white knight, Vayne. More a biege knight now.

Holy kitten! I love that. Or how about an offwhite knight.

But on topic, I think that if this was really an issue we’d have seen far more complaints about it since launch.

Mirta.5029:

Lifestealer.4910:

Because this thread indicates the population right?.. This thread has simply be bombarded by the white knight crusade, nothing more.

“I mean I know that forums tend to not represent majority of the population, but more often than not people go to the forums when they’re displeased with something.”

by the way, most people commenting here, I don’t see them white knighting like crazy all over the place (except Vayne, sorry Vayne but it just so happens that you’re quite the figure).
If it was an actual problem you would expect people complaining in game and being rallied here (at least that’s what we did in Wildstar, plus topics like NPE, traits and SAB also prove that something that is actually problematic will get unbelievable amount of responses).
As it just so happens I haven’t seen anyone in game complain about this on map chat, in my guild or anything like that (even though lots of things get discussed, starting from the new black wings, finishing with racism. Map chat tends to be a very chatty place) and the general consensus of this thread is that the bank space is fine.

As for me being a white knight, and I’ve said this before, there are dozens of complaint threads I don’t post in at all. So if your definition of white knight is a person who defends anything Anet does, that wouldn’t count me. I’m a vocal critic of the changes to the PS, the new trait system, and cash box RNG. But there are things I find unreasonable and I will say so. If that makes me a white knight, so be it.

That said, I don’t really think I’m white knighting in this thread. I simply pointed out how it is in a game like Lotro, which is a free to play game, and since the topic of the post is the bank space is worse than F2P games, I’d consider that to be evidence.

In general though, there are far more complaint threads I don’t post in than I do.

Instances seem to lag more than the open world. I spend more time in the open world and see very little lag comparatively. Certain instances I’ve been in do lag.

No idea why though.

Camera is changing on March 10.

What you do is what you want to do. The game won’t force you to do anything. If you like dungeons, you run dungeons. If you want a legendary, start working towards that. If you like skins, go unlock some. If you like PvP or large scale PvP, play those.

You can up your crafting and make ascended gear, you can go for achievements. There’s no “typical” end game here. You get to choose your own.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Vayne.8563:

Six. 15 characters

You don’t have to do the 15 characters thing. If your post is less than 15 characters just add spaces after it. It will register as 15 characters.

Tks

Six.

You’re adding 2+2 and getting 22.

Guild Wars 2 has talked about a ‘soft’ trinity since before the game ever launched. Taunt mechanic is just a reversed fear. Nothing more. It’s a control effect. Instead of running away from you, your target runs toward you.

In almost all other games, taunt mechanic is an aggro control mechanism that you can keep going indefinitely.

This is definitely not what was described. I haven’t seen any true tanking stuff, and doubt it will be added to this game.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

11. GW1 has no dailies. GW2 does.

Not strictly true:

• when you reach level 10 in Pre-Searing, you get a daily quest to help levelling towards the Legendary Defender of Ascalon title.
• There’s 4 Zaishan dailies: Mission, Bounty, Combat and Vanquish

Huh. Never even heard of this. Thanks.

They were added about five years after the game released, so for the first five years or so, Guild Wars 1 had no dailies. The Zaishen quests were added because as the point in time they were, everyone has already done everything many times over. Pretty much like Guild Wars 2 is now for many of us.

So Anet added Zaishen Quests. The daily in Pre actually came much later than that.

That said, I like the Zaishen dailies far more than I like the dailies in Guild Wars 2, but I think they server a different purpose.

phys.7689:

once again, i am truely amazed at the amount of posters who have a complete lack of perspective here.

He is a new player.

This means he is not wearing the best gear for each level
This means he has no traits at all
This means he doesnt know little tricks, like how to get bonus exp
this means he doesnt know if he plays X spvp battles and selects a certain track he will get a book, which it turns out can be used to level him once
This means he cannot join dungeons, and when he can, it wont take him 10 minutes without being carried. Most groups these days wont even let him play.

this is a NEW player, and apparently the game is very bad at retaining new players, his complaints may give some insights into why. Interestingly enough NPE doesnt really help most of his complaints.

Actually no one knows if the NPE retains players more often, but then we see his types of complaints fairly infrequently. You believe something so you’re using this one post to back up what you believe.

And yes, soloing champions can be hard when you start, but you know, expecting to be able to do something when you just start a new game isn’t really that legit a complaint, particularly since there are far more complaints about how easy the game is than how hard.

Yep, in Australia, same problem. Sanctum Sprint was one of my favorite minigames. Now it’s unplayable.

Worblehat.8697:

Punkinkatt, speaking as a very similar player to yourself (100% PVE, only doing PVP content like WVW grudgingly due to the gating mechanisms in this game), I’d advise that you consider what you’re trying to gain by map completion. If it’s just the gold star and Been There Done That title, by all means, keep at it. With care, odd playing hours, and as many weeks as needed for your server to rotate through all three colors, you’ll get there.

However if your goal is a legendary, I’d advise giving up now and never going back. Legendaries also require the Gift of Battle = WVW rank 14. That’s about five months of doing the easy Master of Ruins/Land Claimer type dailies. During which time you will inevitably get ganked periodically by groups you never see coming. Totally not worth it.

It’s not really much of a loss anyway, ascended weapons are just as good and vastly easier to get (though still quite grindy; such is the nature of GW2).

I’m sorry but this is just bad info. You can buy ranks in WvW with laurels and badges of honor, without doing any WvW at all. You never have to WvW even a little for a gift of battle or level 14, because you get so many badges of honor with achievement point chests (and laurels aren’t that hard to come by either).

The real issue here is that the OP wants to get those skill points at a specific time. I tried and I was killed. I guarantee you those skill points aren’t camped 24/7. They’re not even camped all day prime time every day. If you can’t get them one time you can get them another.

The problem is it’s frustrating and people want it done on their schedule. That’s just not possible with WvW.

[quote=4831901;Mirta.5029:]

OP, it’s absolutely okay to hate this game. I hate lots of games that other people enjoy. Nothing wrong with it.

I like this game because it was designed for my general demographic. I enjoy exploring. Aside from the fact that you can level in PvP (which others have said), it’s entirely possible that there’s nothing wrong with the game or your opinion, they simply don’t match.

But since I can level in the open world at better than an hour a level (much better actually), I can’t really see the issue here.

My guess is there’s an incompatibility between this game and your needs as a gamer. But I don’t think that means there’s necessarily something wrong with the leveling process, per se.

The ascended amulet can only be purchased for laurels, so at least get that. If you run Fractals you can get ascended rings for free. If you do guild missions you can get ascended accessories for guild commendations…which is the cheapest way to get them.

Lazuli.2098:

Vayne.8563:

In case some people don’t realize it, there are private PvP rooms now set up just to get dailies done. They usually say Dailies, No Trolling or something like that. Even though I’m mostly a PvE player I often end up getting dailies there because its’ faster and cooperative.

Today 3 people let me kill them for my daily player kills, I capped a point and won on a guardian all in one game, without PvPing at all. Just saying.

Was it fun?

Strangely yes. It was fun for me to see the community coming together to overcome specific issues in a cooperative manner. That’s fun.

And I met some cool people there, so that was fun. But more than that, it was fast. With the old achievements, getting interrupts wasn’t fun for me, and neither was dodging, but I did them anyway to get them done.

I’m not sure achievements were particularly fun for me (except the jumping puzzle ones because I love jumping puzzles).

On the other hand, getting my entire daily in ten minutes gives me the rest of my playtime complete free.

In case some people don’t realize it, there are private PvP rooms now set up just to get dailies done. They usually say Dailies, No Trolling or something like that. Even though I’m mostly a PvE player I often end up getting dailies there because its’ faster and cooperative.

Today 3 people let me kill them for my daily player kills, I capped a point and won on a guardian all in one game, without PvPing at all. Just saying.

People who think this is greedy should play Lotro for a while. You have bank space per character, which you can upgrade. You have shared bank space (which is the default in Guild Wars 2) which you can pay to upgrade and then you have a seperate bank space for outfits which you can pay to upgrade.

I think people need to get out more and see what’s out there before saying this is worse.

phys.7689:

i think what this shows, is that the overall item system, isnt very intuitive for newbs. This maybe because they now give you a lot more stuff early on.

Well, it’s not like we’ve seen a barrage of these complaints either. There is however a strong point to what you say.

I help new people all the time and there are tons of things people save that they don’t know they don’t need, including stuff that drops from events that are finished that have no cash value and nothing can be done with them.

Guhracie.3419:

Astral Projections.7320:

Guhracie.3419:

Astral Projections.7320:

Guhracie.3419:

Astral Projections.7320:

Guhracie.3419:

I’d like to, once again, air my major issues with the NPE, and share how it continues to impact my gaming.

It introduced another power creep. In both progression CDI threads, one thing that was stated over and over again was that a power creep was unwanted. There were tons of suggestions for other systems of progression, but it was nearly unanimous that adding power imbalances to the game wasn’t a really fun option.

Snip

Power creep? I must be missing something. How does the New Player Experience cause level 80s to be stronger?

By doling out skills in small chunks, and later in the experience. I thought that would be fairly obvious.

EDIT: I’m using Nike’s infamous “Moa test” from the CDI threads. If at level 80, you can kill a moa faster than you could at level 1, that’s a power creep.

Hmmm. Power creep is a term in MMOs that mean successive expansions/content of a game have increased levels and more powerful gear, such as WoW’s player’s need to get better gear with each new expansion, causing old content and maps to become outdated and too easy to play in. For example, dungeons that originally required a full team become so easy with the player’s increase in power that they become soloable. The traditional meaning has nothing to do with how skills are handed out while leveling.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/06/the-soapbox-the-problem-with-power-creep-and-progression/

Power creep refers to vertical progression. Having access to more of your abilities does make you more powerful. This post (particularly the last paragraph) is what I was talking about, and I just spent an hour dredging through Nike’s post history to find it- it was a plainswurm and not a moa. Having access to 1 weapon skill is much weaker than having access to all 5. Thus, it introduced a power creep that previously didn’t exist.

/shrug. In that case all games have power creep, as you are now defining it. All chars start off with minimal skills and unlock more skills as they progress. Guild Wars 1 had this all along and Guild Wars 2 also had this since the beginning as you had to unlock weapon skills by getting new weapons and restarting the learning of them from autoattack. Utility, elite skills and traits didn’t unlock till later levels also.

However, that’s not the way that term is defined (google it) which is why I asked.

By the way, you might want to read up on the definition of vertical progression also.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/05/mmo-mechanics-comparing-vertical-and-horizontal-progression/
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/strangesands/122012/24271_What-is-Horizontal-Progression-Really

Yes, all games have a power creep, even GW2 prior to the NPE. Which is why I stated it introduced even more of a power creep.

Okay I have a question then.

There have been for a long time, people on these forums asking for progression. Is there a way to give people progression without power creep?

I mean in Guild Wars 1 we were all far far more powerful after the Eye of the North skills came in with technobabble and pain inverter. When Nightfall came out before that, necros were far more powerful with necrosis. But without that advancement, how do you appease the people who play to see progression?

shifted.4086:

Alright im bored of replying but I got some good tips so thanks. most of you guys suck though

Still Anet should give way more bank space. I mean god kitten , maybe appreciate that I’m buying and playing your game. Bank slots really can’t be that much of their shop revenue, and it’s definitely the single least fun thing you can buy from it.

It might have had something to do with how confrontational your OP was. There was stuff you didn’t know, but instead of asking you basically came here and said I’m not spending any money on this game because the company is greedy.

Now if you were playing this game for a long time and realized this was probably unreasonable, you might very well respond the same way.

ShelBlackblood.7826:

Vayne.8563:

But there are people with low IQs. You’re probably a smart guy and smart people don’t realize that most people are average.

snip

Vayne.8563:

There’s this thread right now on reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2vqowu/new_player_with_some_questions/
This guy is level 15 and doesn’t know what to do. He just doesn’t. Now I’m not saying he’s not intelligent. I’m saying he could be quite smart, but he’s from other games that give you very clear breadcrumb trails. This game doesn’t.
So any help you can give players that aren’t as quick as you are isn’t a bad thing. Frustrated people do leave games.

His post is from 12 days ago. Seems like the allmighty NPE couldn’t help him with his confusion, right? Maybe just maybe, instead, it was because of the NPE that he got confused in the first place. You know they greatly decreased the EXP you get from your personal story quests, also, they disabled portal for new players. Even if he wants to level up in another starting area, he can’t. And I also don’t think the player on reddit is dumb or anything. I see him as a (exaggerated) victim to the NPE system. When I started the game right after its relese, I never heard someone complained about the “beginning is too complicated” or “I don’t know what to do”. Our screens weren’t half this overstuffed than today. I really wonder what the problem might be if it isn’t the NPE.

Vayne.8563:

These changes weren’t meant for you and an experienced player can travel through them very quickly.

Nope, they removed many starting area quests. Even an experienced player is now forced to do certain tasks to complete a heart, since 2/4 options do not work anymore.

Vayne.8563:

We cater to people for the game to exist and continue. That’s why the average/lowest common denominator has always been catered to. Games that are aimed at only the highest percentage of the population tend to be ignored by the rest of the population..but MMOs today are too competitive to not try to get everyone they can get. You end up with a niche game, which is fine, but then it gets updated less, because it’s a niche game. It becomes a vicious circle.

Ah yes, I remember some players who thought the recent living story updates were too hard. I hope they know these aren’t solo-musts. They can always open a group with “z” and find someone who can help them. Or look for guilds that are especially friendly to beginners. This is GUILD Wars 2, you know…

What I can’t explain here again, is your theory about “if it’s too hard you will end up with a niche game”. On what evidence do you write this? During Living Story Season 1, which was really not that easy compared to todays content, most of my friends played and enjoyed the game, now only two of them are still active players. Same goes for Tequatl, the strategy behind the battle makes lots of people curious and even if they fail, they are hyped to try it again. If we assume you are right, that would mean that for the first year of Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet was constantly working against their present target audience. Why making Tequatl stronger, or create the 3 worms or even think about enemies like Liadri or Kezurak? That is, according to ArenaNet, NOT what gives them CASH.

What’s next? Removing jumping puzzles or adding auto-portals? Making NPCs stronger in dungeons, so that a 5man group must only hit “1” to get through? Or will they flash up every skill you have on 1-5 for when it’s the best time to use it?

Everyone can now dodge if they can distinguish a red circle from a normal floor. But why does almost nobody today help their teammates when they are lying on the ground? This NPE system doesn’t help players at all. Learning by doing and idle curiosity are the natural enemies of it.

“If it doesn’t blink like crazy it must be impossible!”

In this case my use of the word “too hard” means too hard to understand or too hard to get into, because we’re talking about the NPE. That type of too hard you’re referring to is a different type of too hard and that too can ruin a game for other people.

But if you lower the bar to entry level and give people more time to learn, it’s entirely possible that more people will stay with the game. Some of those people may never do a dungeon, or PvP. They may just bang around in the open world doing events. But they still might spend money in the cash shop and support the game, even if they’re just buying outfits and bank space. And supporting the game means the game continues.

Ashendale.2165:

Ashendale.2165:

Astral Projections.7320:

Well, since we don’t know the numbers, it’s always possible that in spite of the veteran’s complaints about how it’s affecting them that it’s doing what it was intended to do, retain new players longer. That’s one possible reason why ANet hasn’t changed the NPE in spite of numerous posts by non new players.

Ok, fair enough.

But what I and other people have been advocating is the OPTION to chose which way you want to level up.

It would be better than throwing people away. As you said, the people that go may justify the people that it retains. I’m not a manager, but if I could effing easily retain both groups, would it not be the right approach to take?

Edit:

Vayne.8563:

Really this is what it’s all about. Are more new players staying than old players leaving over the NPE.

I think that people who hate it really hate it…but I think their feelings about it make them believe they’re greater in number than they are (just my opinion here). In other words they dislike it so much that they can’t conceive of that not being the most common reaction.

I don’t think most older players love it. I think most older players don’t really give it much thought one way or another (again my opinion).

But the real question has always been how the NPE affects the players that say came in on the $10 sale, again as compared to how many people will actually leave because of it.

You’re absolutely right, it may be a matter of perspective. They refuse to even let us see the numbers, over proving either faction right or wrong. Proving either faction right would either force them to take action and correct/add option, or demonstrate they don’t give a hoot about what old player-base may think or want.

I don’t know what company publishes retention numbers anyway. I don’t know how much the expansion announcement would have made those metrics useless because hype brings people to the game anyway.

You’re saying that we want this argument solved, so Anet should start telling us business information. All they really need to do is say yes it’s working.

But I don’t think that the changes are as fundamental as most people are claiming, particularly on the second character you level through. Yes, I can see where it might be a bit inconvenient, but from the start, this whole thing has worked itself up into a feeding frenzy. It’s also been fused with frustration about the trait system. If that issue didn’t exist, I’m absolutely convinced we wouldn’t have that same amount of people who are discontent. And that system is changing. And the story thing is changing. That’s a decent percentage of people complaining.

Sure, though. I’d love to hear from Anet, particularly since Colin did say he’d tell us.

What the OP is saying is he doesn’t want to open bags on a low level character, because those bags are worth more on a high level character. My advice to the OP is to make a story character, get him bags and use his bags to hold that stuff temporariily until you’re the level you want.

Only a tiny tiny percentage of players starting a new MMO hold every bag that get in hopes of raising it’s value and in this game it wouldn’t matter that much and seems like overkill.

But playing that way is a choice. It doesn’t mean you don’t have enough bank space. It means you’re doing something that wasn’t really intended to do by the game and it’s not enough bank space for you.

Open your bags, sell your crap you won’t have that problem. If you choose to play differently you have to find work arounds. That’s always been true.

OP, the game is out for 2.5 years and I’ve seen this complaint maybe 3 times. It might very well be your opinion, but it’s not a popular opinion and it’s not an opinion that has stopped people from spending money on the game.

So if you don’t want to spend money on the game because you’ve arbitrarily labeled it greedy, that’s quite okay. There are lots of people who don’t spend money on this game, and you’re entitled to that opinion.

It won’t change anything because, as I said, we’ve barely heard this complaint in 2.5 years and believe me, this community is not bashful. If they don’t like stuff they let you know.

So don’t spend money if that’s how you feel. But it won’t change the game.