Guild Wars 2

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Well, at least parts of Molten Facility and Aetherblade Retreat are still in the game (as Fractals).

Altered versions of them that you may or may not get. Let’s pretend I wanted to run Aetherblade retreat. I can run fractals for a week and get neither of the fractals for it. Maybe I don’t enjoy dredge or hillside (I do, but that’s another matter).

I mean playing a fractal is another form of RNG. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. I don’t like to trust my free time to RNG. If I’m walking into a dungeon, I want to know what I’m getting.

I play Fractals when I have lots of extra free time.

It all goes back to the temporary content issues. If Marionette, Nightmare Tower, and Escape from Lion’s Arch, Aetherblade retreat and Molten Facility, dragon ball, the festival of the four winds, the pavillion and SAB were somehow still in the game, we wouldn’t likely be having these conversations.

Olvendred.3027:

Once you’re at level 80, you’re generally getting a lot more drops than you were when levelling, and you’re probably not equipping any of them. The vast majority are salvaged or sold. So loot drops equate directly to gold. When an ele, a warrior and an engi are in a party and kill a mob, they will each be rolling on different loot tables. At present prices, the engi will tend to get less valuable loot, than the warrior, who will tend to get less valuable loot than the ele. The more mobs they kill, the more pronounced the difference (that’s how RNG works).

The thing is, it doesn’t matter how players change and the markets shift. Cloth prices may drop or leather may rise. Rare pistols may suddenly be valuable, while rare greatswords are dirt cheap. Whatever. At any point in time, there will be some classes who have a loot table stacked in favour of more valuable loot, while other classes have loot tables stacked in favour of less valuable loot.

No matter what build they play, if they’re harcore famring or happily soloing map completion. They will get unequal loot just because of the class they’re playing. People won’t stop playing the classes they like, but they will be punished for it in terms of loot.

Well the article said that while leveling you’ll get more appropriate drops. That doesn’t necessarily translated to at 80 you’ll get more appropriate drops.

Mesket.5728:

Vayne.8563:

Mesket.5728:

Vayne.8563:

Mesket.5728:

Vayne.8563:

Mesket.5728:

Even though I agree conceptually with what the OP says… I disagree that the patch itself isn’t an issue.

Some changes they are proposing are bad. Simple as that. They will impact the game in a wrong way (I’m looking at you loot by profession). It’s concerning that they implement things like that (and others in the past). It shows we know more of the game than they know, no matter how many “statistics” they want to mention. I don’t buy it anymore. It’s simply wrong, in theory, in math, in practice.

I really hope they get their heads into the game and do things positive for the players or at least be honest and confess they have plans for the future that don’t include us vets.-

Sorry I don’t judge if something is bad or good till I’ve tried it and played it. I know some people think it’s bad. But no one really knows…and won’t likely know for some time.

“I’m going to kick you in the crotch…” Do you need a test to know its bad?

Some people can do math in their heads faster than others that’s true, but those people already explained a thousand times why even on paper those changes are bad. Besides, it’s not only this time they are including things without proper analysis or not being honest with the real intentions behind the change.

If I had a nickle for every time something was supposed to be good on paper turned bad, I’d be pretty rich. I’ve also had experts and people in the know tell me how bad something was that worked out.

Logic can only take into account known facts. There are too many unknowns here. The system is too complex. For example, what if it’s only for leveling and once you hit 80 it doesn’t perform that way anymore?

Then you will have a lot of lvl 80 medium and heavy wearer players cursing they didn’t get enough Wool, Cotton and Linen while leveling and now need to spend a lot of gold in the TP.

Like I said, its not the only change that it’s bad… how can you justify things like the Silver fed o’matic? You need to do elementary school math to realize how bad it is… and you only need 5 minutes. How can a dev propose, program and get approved with something like this is beyond logic. That is the true problem, not the change itself.

The silverfed salvomatic has nothing to do with the update. If I wanted to point out every flaw in any game during a two year period, I’m pretty sure I could go on for a long time. Look at pretty much any MMORPG forums. For the record though, the silverfed salvomatic was ridiculous.

However, there are lots of things I can justify. I’ve leveled on a mesmer. I find that leveling on a warrior or guardian provides far more loot per hour than leveling on a mesmer. Even with the change, leveling on a mesmer isn’t likely going to net you as much as leveling on a warrior or guard. You get credit for more things. You get credit for more events. You get more hits, more damage, more kills and thus more loot faster.

Sorry, the amount of straw in this straw man argument stopped me. Seriously… if you can’t see the relation between all patches and the lack of knowledge on their own game then you can’t see the real issue.

I can see the real issue. The issue is people are judging something before seeing it. That’s the real issue.

I read the math, I believe the math, therefore the math must be right. There’s no possibility the math could be wrong.

Except for one thing. The people doing the math…they didn’t see the patch either.

Five months ago we had a feature patch. Two months ago, Anet provided us with an entire zone which is still there. Now we have another feature patch.

While I would love for every single feature patch to rewrite the game and making it totally amazing, I don’t feel that’s realistic. I don’t feel it’s a fair expectation.

Five months. During that time China launched. I’m pretty sure even devs have to sleep at some point.

There are a lot of good changes in this patch, even if they don’t go as far as we want. But it’s quite a few changes considering it’s been five months.

Anyway we still have two days to go and I’m happy to wait for the patch notes to see stuff like bug fixes, etc, which also accompany the patch but don’t usually get listed in the blog.

Mesket.5728:

Vayne.8563:

Mesket.5728:

Vayne.8563:

Mesket.5728:

Even though I agree conceptually with what the OP says… I disagree that the patch itself isn’t an issue.

Some changes they are proposing are bad. Simple as that. They will impact the game in a wrong way (I’m looking at you loot by profession). It’s concerning that they implement things like that (and others in the past). It shows we know more of the game than they know, no matter how many “statistics” they want to mention. I don’t buy it anymore. It’s simply wrong, in theory, in math, in practice.

I really hope they get their heads into the game and do things positive for the players or at least be honest and confess they have plans for the future that don’t include us vets.-

Sorry I don’t judge if something is bad or good till I’ve tried it and played it. I know some people think it’s bad. But no one really knows…and won’t likely know for some time.

“I’m going to kick you in the crotch…” Do you need a test to know its bad?

Some people can do math in their heads faster than others that’s true, but those people already explained a thousand times why even on paper those changes are bad. Besides, it’s not only this time they are including things without proper analysis or not being honest with the real intentions behind the change.

If I had a nickle for every time something was supposed to be good on paper turned bad, I’d be pretty rich. I’ve also had experts and people in the know tell me how bad something was that worked out.

Logic can only take into account known facts. There are too many unknowns here. The system is too complex. For example, what if it’s only for leveling and once you hit 80 it doesn’t perform that way anymore?

Then you will have a lot of lvl 80 medium and heavy wearer players cursing they didn’t get enough Wool, Cotton and Linen while leveling and now need to spend a lot of gold in the TP.

Like I said, its not the only change that it’s bad… how can you justify things like the Silver fed o’matic? You need to do elementary school math to realize how bad it is… and you only need 5 minutes. How can a dev propose, program and get approved with something like this is beyond logic. That is the true problem, not the change itself.

The silverfed salvomatic has nothing to do with the update. If I wanted to point out every flaw in any game during a two year period, I’m pretty sure I could go on for a long time. Look at pretty much any MMORPG forums. For the record though, the silverfed salvomatic was ridiculous.

However, there are lots of things I can justify. I’ve leveled on a mesmer. I find that leveling on a warrior or guardian provides far more loot per hour than leveling on a mesmer. Even with the change, leveling on a mesmer isn’t likely going to net you as much as leveling on a warrior or guard. You get credit for more things. You get credit for more events. You get more hits, more damage, more kills and thus more loot faster.

It was really nice to kill stuff and spend X amount of time instead of X-Y amount of time. Necros have relatively poor AOE for events too. Do you really think anything a necro or mesmer can do with one of their weapons equates to a guardian staff for farming?

As I said there are far too many variables to know until we see it. I can tell you this much. Leveling a mesmer, I’m pretty certain I made less than half of what I made leveling a guard.

Mesket.5728:

Vayne.8563:

Mesket.5728:

Even though I agree conceptually with what the OP says… I disagree that the patch itself isn’t an issue.

Some changes they are proposing are bad. Simple as that. They will impact the game in a wrong way (I’m looking at you loot by profession). It’s concerning that they implement things like that (and others in the past). It shows we know more of the game than they know, no matter how many “statistics” they want to mention. I don’t buy it anymore. It’s simply wrong, in theory, in math, in practice.

I really hope they get their heads into the game and do things positive for the players or at least be honest and confess they have plans for the future that don’t include us vets.-

Sorry I don’t judge if something is bad or good till I’ve tried it and played it. I know some people think it’s bad. But no one really knows…and won’t likely know for some time.

“I’m going to kick you in the crotch…” Do you need a test to know its bad?

Some people can do math in their heads faster than others that’s true, but those people already explained a thousand times why even on paper those changes are bad. Besides, it’s not only this time they are including things without proper analysis or not being honest with the real intentions behind the change.

If I had a nickle for every time something was supposed to be good on paper turned bad, I’d be pretty rich. I’ve also had experts and people in the know tell me how bad something was that worked out.

Logic can only take into account known facts. There are too many unknowns here. The system is too complex. For example, what if it’s only for leveling and once you hit 80 it doesn’t perform that way anymore?

What if you took out a mini Jennah, and she took out a mini Logan. A miniature mini. How awesome would that be?

Mesket.5728:

Even though I agree conceptually with what the OP says… I disagree that the patch itself isn’t an issue.

Some changes they are proposing are bad. Simple as that. They will impact the game in a wrong way (I’m looking at you loot by profession). It’s concerning that they implement things like that (and others in the past). It shows we know more of the game than they know, no matter how many “statistics” they want to mention. I don’t buy it anymore. It’s simply wrong, in theory, in math, in practice.

I really hope they get their heads into the game and do things positive for the players or at least be honest and confess they have plans for the future that don’t include us vets.-

Sorry I don’t judge if something is bad or good till I’ve tried it and played it. I know some people think it’s bad. But no one really knows…and won’t likely know for some time.

Let’s keep at least one thing in perspective that people seem to have forgotten. While it’s not an expansion, it’s also just five months since the last feature patch, during which time China was launched.

All things considered, the real problem was people getting hyped for it.

I’m sure this update represents a tremendous amount of work. If I did this much work and people had no appreciation for it, I’d be demoralized.

Probably wouldn’t make me want to write more code. But that’s just me.

Nerelith.7360:

SLthethird.3562:

One last thing I’d like to know: If you’re one of those who plans on migrating to another game soon, which one are you moving to? I plan on clearing out some time for Kingdom Under Fire 2 after seeing Angryjoe’s interview.

Trying Archage Open beta, Loved the Closed Betas… so have high hopes. Trade runs were fun. Getting a glider, Open world mass PvP, Pirates…etc… Create your own class type of character developement.

I think that while I Like Gw2, I may simply have reached a point where I crave new content. This is the point where I usually anticipate an expansion,… and yet, they are commited to Living Story.

Some people love Living Story, …I am not thrilled with it. I do hope the game is around for sometime.

I’m really leery of Arch Age. I have a feeling, a strong feeling it’s going to become pay to win. The problem with most sand box games is that most people aren’t good at sand box games, and they suffer from a lower population. Eve has really done well with 500,00 subs and still had to close offices.

Iason Evan.3806:

Vayne.8563:

I’m definitely excited about the better frame rate at large events.

That’s not a feature though. Just a hotfix. Some of the things that have gotten blog posts are like going to a movie theater for a sneak peak at a trailer. No thanks. Do I appreciate the changes? Yeah! Do they need blog posts? I think a lot of them would have been in the patch notes 1 and a half years ago. When they finally fix the myriad Mesmer issues that have been around forever it should just be in the patch notes because that’s where fixes go.

Actually I wouldn’t call making changes to client and server side a “hot fix”. It’s far more than that. It’s optimization.

Edit: I believe that it’s probably a lot more work than most people think it is.

I’m definitely excited about the better frame rate at large events.

Traveller.7496:

Andred.1087:

Yes, there are people who are happy with the game, and they’re all playing the game quietly. Forums account for a small minority of the player base in any game.

People keep saying this, but there’s no base to it. How do you know people in-game don’t have grievances or complaints? Maybe they just can’t be bothered going to the forums to write them out. I would rather say that the forums are a representation of the playerbase, with both negative and positive feelings. Also, I feel like ANet has shown concern and willingness to communicate over forum threads, so it can’t be “just a vocal minority” in their opinion. If it was, they could just brush it aside.

Sure, there are a lot of happy people, I’m not doubting that. But with critique comes progress.

Who says you can’t critique and be happy? Why do people feel that’s mutually exclusive?

I make suggestions sometimes, but I’m still mostly happy.

You know the real problem with this patch.

It’s not that it’s not what people asked for, because just about every change in the patch was asked for at some point. Nor is it that the changes are mostly bad, because most of them seem to be good.

The problem here is a simple one. Over selling. You put something on your website that says FEATURE PATCH, which is good, right. Let’s people know you’re doing stuff.

You spread out the feature patch over three weeks, making people wait for it, when most of it is just the kind of stuff you’d expect from patches all along, or they’re fixes to things that people wanted in the game ages ago.

It’s the PR that caused most of the current issue, not the patch.

If you came up to us, like a person instead of a company trying to promote, and said to us, look, we have a patch coming out, a lot of long overdue updates that we’ve been working on, we’re just playing catch up, so don’t expect too much…and this patch would have gone over a lot better.

This is particularly true because the last feature patch brought us the wardrobe and the mega server, huge changes.

This could have been better handled and given you a lot less grief if you’d lose the whole we need to promote or people won’t love us attitude. They’re appreciate honesty.

Now if you have a reason behind the spread of information, like this keeps us visible on MMO sites, which is good for the game, telling us that’s what you’re doing makes you look good, not bad.

I’m not unhappy with the patch myself. It’s pretty much what I expected it to be, without all the specifics, but this is the type of thing I was expecting. But others were expecting a lot more.

And part of the reason for those heightened expectations is that you oversold the patch. Overselling can be as damaging and not selling enough.

Ohoni.6057:

I agree with this. And those who tried it, got frustrated, and left the game because it wasn’t what they were used to didn’t.

Anet is trying to increase the update of new players. they’re not trying to make it easier for you. The more new players the better it is for everyone…even if they do nothing but hang out in Queensdale.

But there’s no reason to believe that people will like this new model better. It might work better for no one. It might work better for some but worse for others. Are the people this new system would appeal with the people who ever would stick around with the game? I just feel that if the game had originally launched like this I probably wouldn’t have kept playing, far too slow to get going, far too similar to other games. It seems that they’ve stripped out a lot of the game’s soul in the early levels and pushed almost all character progression back into tens of hours into the game. I’d never make it without moving on to something else.

If they were making changes that were guaranteed to be accepted by more new players than it cost them then ok, I’d put up with it (although ideally it could be something you could disable and revert to the old model if you preferred it), but I really see no reason why this would actually work.

1. The downed state was part of the initial character creation story instance. If at one point during the final battle the character was downed and an npc gave some directions verbally on what to do, that would have helped. The recent LS end boss battle where the npcs shout up to you what the boss is going to do at the beginning was helpful. It gave me a little heads up for what was about to happen.

The first several characters I made, I would ALWAYS die during the boss fights. I didn’t know how to dodge, I didn’t know their telegraphs by heart, I would just get downed at some point and sit there figuring out my moves until someone else killed the boss. It didn’t bother me at all.

Apparently Anet tested a bunch of things on people who have never played the game and this is the solution that worked the best. Of course it may not work for everyone. NOTHING is going to work for everyone.

That’s why there are tool tips for some people and this for other people and trial and error for other people. It’s called closing the gaps and it’s what you do. You figure out what’s wrong and you make a change to correct it.

The sad thing is there’ll always be something else that needs correcting, no matter how much you do.

SLthethird.3562:

Beldin.5498:

Stooperdale.3560:

Aivirth.7123:

around next year, with games like everquest next, black desert and skyforge i see little to no reason to keep playing this game

Didn’t people used to say the same thing about ESO and Wildstar?

Yeah .. but those games have been released now .. and like always the killer games are
those that haven’t been released yet

Btw.: what is Skyforge .. never heared about that one .. is Archeage already out of
the next Killergame list ? ^^

So, what I’m seeing throughout posts is that the game’s lifespan is likely quite long, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll want to keep playing. So many people will leave the game for other MMOs that the player base will get small and only the most hardcore players will stick around. The end result being a very long lifespan for the game, but one in which so few players are around that it stops being fun.

Par for the course in this genre, I suppose. In a game where there is no end, no place in which the game says “Great, you did everything we have! Feel free to head on over to some other game now!” things will of course be left in the dust for the next game of its type. I’m not immune to the effect; I plan to check out Kingdom Under Fire when that comes out myself.

That may be the problem with MMOs as a concept. There’s infinite game, but it can only exist as long as people keep playing it. You can go back to Skyrim or Dead Rising or Dynasty Warriors whenever you feel like it, and the most you’ll miss is some slight anxillary stuff, like achievements or co-op were the servers to go down. MMOs, on the other hand, never return once they’re gone. In the end, only the very best few MMOs remain on the map for more than a year or two. Or perhaps the luckiest ones.

A sad fate for many a good game, huh?

Except that now, with the mega server, even if the population is low at least the PvE game will go on indefinitely. It just don’t require millions of people.

Anyway, I don’t think it’s as bad as it’s being made on the forums. People have been saying this game is dying since 3 months after launch.

My guild has doubled in size in that time.

Ohoni.6057:

Those of us who have been playing for 2 years are pretty much blind to the problems in the leveling up process at this point.

But all of us who have been playing for two years had the same system starting out and managed it just fine.

I agree with this. And those who tried it, got frustrated, and left the game because it wasn’t what they were used to didn’t.

Anet is trying to increase the update of new players. they’re not trying to make it easier for you. The more new players the better it is for everyone…even if they do nothing but hang out in Queensdale.

Because some of those players will buy something at some point, just funding the game. MMOs are a numbers game. If you can increase the amount of people who start the game and remain in game, you’re better off.

There are a lot of games that have this problem. The experience with leveling up is so annoying, they need to fix it, or they lose people. Even WoW completely redid their starting quests at one point for precisely the same reason.

If you’re still here, it’s less likely you had a problem with this. But a lot of people aren’t still here…and some of those are because they game was just to hard for them…as crazy as that sounds to us.

It’s not just the trait system and the downed state though. That’s the thing. People are taking this out of context.

There’s a whole bevy of changes that work together to make the entire experience more friendly. I’ve never found it hard, but I followed everything there was about this game for years.

There are people in my guild who even next to max level didn’t realize the 4 skill in the downed state revived you when there were no enemies around and you hadn’t rallied.

There are people in my guild who really didn’t get how traits worked. But it’s more than just that.

People have complained on these forums about the tutorial system (or lack thereof) for a long time.

I’m guessing you don’t spend a whole lot of time on the player helping players forum, because the questions that get asked there are quite basic sometimes. And for every person who posts a whole bunch simply won’t. At least that’s what seems to be the case historically on most forums.

Raina.8642:

I’m pretty sure downed state was stolen from Call of Duty (whether thats its original incarnation I’m not sure). All they need is a hint that pops up. You are downed. Kill an enemy to rally off them, or heal yourself to full HP using Bandages.

Would be funny seeing people trait double damage when downed and killing themselves because double damage is OP!!!

EDIT: New dungeon speed clear challenge. Lupi all downed challenge!!!!

Downed state was originally in Left for Dead. But I’m pretty sure most MMO players never played that.

laokoko.7403:

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

BlueZone.4236:

Chrispy.5641:

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

They didn’t sell as much as NA/EU in China. They clarified the 4 million was probably an estimate of characters created.

http://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/487745928137154560

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

They only sold (activated?) 1+ mil in China (only quoting the relevant part):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2erxzu/kongzhong_2q14_earnings_over_1m_cdkeys_activated/

They gave some details about GW2 China during the conference call.
- over 1M activated copies

Okay then….guess I’m wrong about that part, but doesn’t that just make it worse that three million of us are playing catch up to the 1 million player minority because these things are ‘saved’ and ‘unreleased’ until the feature pack?

(was using IGN as reference, but IGN never updated their article. Checked Massively, and they did. Guess I know who’s more reliable now! also, I pretty much never read twitter or reddit posts.)

I don’t think this makes particular sense. Something that’s programmed into the china server can’t just be snapped into the US version of the game. It requires work and testing to get that stuff to work.

If it requires that much work and testing, then it means that each version has different code. Even if slightly different, that’s a bad thing. I really doubt that Anet was that foolish when it came to programming the China version, because it would mean that for now on, we either get half the features, or they have to work twice as hard to get the same features in each version. That’s not just foolish, that’s just plain dumb.

Right, but Anet dont’ have a choice. Foreign game studio can’t just go to China and release mmorpg there. They have to cooperate with other domestic china company by law.

Simply put, Anet really dont’ have full control on what goes on in China. Another company(publisher) is working with Anet to release GW2 in China. ANd since they are cooperating, some features might be included/excluded because the local publisher wanted it that way.

It’s true. Some features they have in China they’d hate here. Really hate.

Chrispy.5641:

Vayne.8563:

Chrispy.5641:

BlueZone.4236:

Chrispy.5641:

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

They didn’t sell as much as NA/EU in China. They clarified the 4 million was probably an estimate of characters created.

http://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/487745928137154560

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

They only sold (activated?) 1+ mil in China (only quoting the relevant part):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2erxzu/kongzhong_2q14_earnings_over_1m_cdkeys_activated/

They gave some details about GW2 China during the conference call.
- over 1M activated copies

Okay then….guess I’m wrong about that part, but doesn’t that just make it worse that three million of us are playing catch up to the 1 million player minority because these things are ‘saved’ and ‘unreleased’ until the feature pack?

(was using IGN as reference, but IGN never updated their article. Checked Massively, and they did. Guess I know who’s more reliable now! also, I pretty much never read twitter or reddit posts.)

I don’t think this makes particular sense. Something that’s programmed into the china server can’t just be snapped into the US version of the game. It requires work and testing to get that stuff to work.

If it requires that much work and testing, then it means that each version has different code. Even if slightly different, that’s a bad thing. I really doubt that Anet was that foolish when it came to programming the China version, because it would mean that for now on, we either get half the features, or they have to work twice as hard to get the same features in each version. That’s not just foolish, that’s just plain dumb.

They have to have some different code, because they’re different games. For example, stuff unlocks in China at different levels that it unlocks in the US. I’m sure that there are many individual differences, even though they have the same engine. Some of those were implemented just for the Chinese market and were never meant to port over.

saalle.4623:

Yeah i must say even though in 90% time i defend this game and developers…..this patch SUX.It was waste of time and no1 cares for any of this features.I hope Season 2 LS starts soon cause that 1 ep will be best update that this game had for past month.

I don’t think you can say no one cares about these features. Different groups of people care about different features, but I’m pretty sure working on the client and server side graphics to make big events run smoother benefits everyone.

And plenty of people like the crafting changes and the minipet change. And some like the account bound commander tags and the colors. It’s very hard to say no one likes these changes.

Chrispy.5641:

BlueZone.4236:

Chrispy.5641:

The final thing is this China release that everyone’s talking about…
Its good that time went into developing the Chinese version. Its great that it wasn’t just some copy and paste job, and new features were made so the game was easier to understand for them. Its amazing that as many copies were sold in China as Guild Wars 2 had in its entire existence in North America and Europe. Its very not awesome that the Chinese development/release happened at the expense of Non-Chinese players, and that much asked for features/content, like actual expansions to the Professions (weapons and skills), or Precursor Crafting, either got postponed, or never happened to begin with, and instead, we’re playing catch up to China, even though we’ve been more loyal, and have been around longer.

They didn’t sell as much as NA/EU in China. They clarified the 4 million was probably an estimate of characters created.

http://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/487745928137154560

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

They only sold (activated?) 1+ mil in China (only quoting the relevant part):

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2erxzu/kongzhong_2q14_earnings_over_1m_cdkeys_activated/

They gave some details about GW2 China during the conference call.
- over 1M activated copies

Okay then….guess I’m wrong about that part, but doesn’t that just make it worse that three million of us are playing catch up to the 1 million player minority because these things are ‘saved’ and ‘unreleased’ until the feature pack?

(was using IGN as reference, but IGN never updated their article. Checked Massively, and they did. Guess I know who’s more reliable now! also, I pretty much never read twitter or reddit posts.)

I don’t think this makes particular sense. Something that’s programmed into the china server can’t just be snapped into the US version of the game. It requires work and testing to get that stuff to work.

Also, I doubt there are three million people playing. Three people bought the game. It’s likely there’s closer to an equal number of people.

China was getting released. That’s a big influx of people and cash, even if it’s just a million. By logic that’s what the company HAD to work on. That’s their bread and butter. So now, we play catch up, because some of that stuff fixes some of our problems. It still has to be ported over and tested, which still takes time.

I’m guessing they didn’t have this ready for us until a lot more recently.

gobax.6185:

I know it is not that easy to fix things. But why spend resources on making changes that are not needed at all rather than putting those resources into better use which actually benefits the game. If they are playing they can easily see these stuffs.

Warrior change for example. Nobody is crying about gs warriors in pvp yet they nerfed it while not changing hammerbow which is the one needed tweaking.

Smart loot. I know you guys already heard enough of this.

Mesmer reworks sure the buff in scepter is good. But it still doesnt make them any better in pve.

New leveling experience. Gw2 said so themselves that the game starts at 80. Thats why they make it easy to reach 80. We dont need new leveling experience. We need more things to make us stay in game when were 80.

Okay this is where I have an issue with what you’re saying. You’re saying they’re making changes no one asked for. And I really have to disagree with this. Mostly because so many of the changes we see have actually been asked for quite frequently.

For example, we know PvPers have asked for PvP specific rewards. We know that players have asked for account bound commander tags and commander tags in color. It was part of the CDI. We know that people have asked for minipet slots. We know people have complained a lot about frame rates in zergs..that’s in the patch. You can’t tell me you’ve never seen anyone ask for performance enhancement. There are often people on the crafting forums asking for crafting improvements, including the UI. The ability to search the wardrobe is a much needed improvement. These are things people have asked for.

As for the new leveling stuff, I’ve seen time and time again questions on reddit and on player helping players that show that these changes were asked for. There were actually several big threads on tutorials. People do find the game challenging and leave when they can’t figure it out. How many people? You tell me. I bet Anet has a pretty good idea, though.

And they did testing to get even a better idea. So what changes are they implementing that haven’t been asked for exactly?

Master traits unlock at level 60. Grandmaster traits unlock at level 80.

I’m sure part of the problem is that the China launch took a huge amount of work and everyone is playing catch up. Pushing the devs to work harder and harder isn’t actually going to get us new content faster. It just means more burnout, which affects the speed at which stuff is released.

Even without the extra pressure, game development and specifically MMO development is just brutal at times. Like it’s almost always crunch time.

People want what they want now, without really understanding why they can’t have it on their schedule.

Kythan Myr.4719:

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

The Feature Pack announcements will continue next week and some of them will definitely contain information that’s relevant to those of you who’ve been playing the game for long. We won’t tell you about them until the articles are live though, to keep the element of surprise!

So, today we find out that veteran players get to see our finishers and minis in the wardrobe. Surprise!!

Hope more “surprisingly relevant” stuff comes this week. /sigh

Seriously, how could this “feature” patch get any better?? They don’t seem really all that invested at keeping us around.

In all fairness, this is one of the more requested features. The minipet thing is a big deal to some people…mostly vets. It’s not that easy to remember that just because I don’t care about something doesn’t mean it’s not great for other people.

ketchup.2783:

This is the kind of thing that you put in as filler in your resume. If they left it out of their blog, it might be a nice surprise for a the people who leveled up again as a beginner. Still, it might not be so pertinent to be mentionable anyway.

I mean, if you want to take it further, some or gw2’s dungeons are way too hard and complicated for people who don’t consult an outside source. Maybe give them hints on how to do them too or nerf them.

They didn’t blog about this specifically. They used this as an example of the sort of layering they’re doing. They’ve revamped the entire system.

Nerelith.7360:

gobax.6185:

Bad. Anet is becoming worse every patch. They keep on saying they listen, but with the changes theyre doing, they are proving otherwise.

They do not lie. They do listen. But what they hear doesn’t change their plans. Everything is about two things.

1. Living Story
2. Gem Store

As long as what anyone says is about how great and awesome those two things are, they pay attention.

If you bring up anything else. They listen.

You don’t think so? Remember when they were removing glory they were also going to remove ranks and they decided not to because of the PvP feedback on it. Or the fact that EoTM even had an open alpha server with it’s own forums.

I think they do listen. They don’t obey. The filter what’s said through what they plan on doing. There’s no other way to do it.

The game definitely has it’s ups and downs. If you’re a dungeon runner, it’s generally bad. Probably the same for a PvPer. WvW seems to be a mixed bag, but needs more attention.

Open world PvE is where the game is centered right now, and there are people who love it and people who can’t stand it.

There are things that are worse, there are things that are better. Dyes are account bound is better. Crafting is getting better. Collections are getting better.

The new zone has new bosses, new creatures and new mechanics. I happen to like the zone particularly. Obviously some people don’t.

The bottom line is, the community is deeply divided on just about everything.

Even how to make the game better.

No one knows. And Anet is not likely to answer.

Telemin.7380:

Vayne.8563:

Nick.6972:

Was this what Arena Net thought would be perfect for veteran players?

Apparently you’re not aware at how much some of this has been requested. It’s a pretty big thing for a lot of people. Not me, mind you, but a lot of people.

But as it has been said many times on these forums, the majority of the player base does not frequent the forums. It has been requested, yes. They listened, yes. But for the majority of the player base that does not frequent these forums, will it help retain them?

I can’t answer that question. I don’t know the answer.

Theoretically, however, Anet might have some idea how many people collect and use mini pets. Because this is a casual game filled with fluff items, one might gather that a lot of people enjoy that sort of thing.

I’m less big on fluff items myself. I’ll never wear a panda hood or a quggan backpack. Not my thing. But you know, people obviously like this stuff because I see it in game quite frequently. Will it stop people who want more dungeons from leaving the game?

Not likely.

Nick.6972:

Was this what Arena Net thought would be perfect for veteran players?

Apparently you’re not aware at how much some of this has been requested. It’s a pretty big thing for a lot of people. Not me, mind you, but a lot of people.

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

Zardul.3952:

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

Tachenon.5270:

Vayne.8563:

It sure indicated the game has a lot of enemies, just like WoW does. Which doesn’t mean everyone who posts their gets what the devs are trying to do. This is what I keep saying.

snip

Changing the game to try to capture many of those dissatisfied people could very well lead to the people already here being dissatisfied.

I get what you’re saying. It’s like Justin Bieber. It doesn’t matter how many people make fun of him or profess to hate him, what counts is the gajillions of hits his videos get on youtube.

So, looking at it from that perspective, GW2 is the Justin Bieber of MMOs. Or is trying to be. Or something.

Yeah!

I don’t agree with all of them, but I’m still largely happy with the game. And I think people who play like me mostly are…and we’re sort of the target audience…at least the PvE’ers are. I can’t talk about PvP.

So how does this quote from you come off as an opinion in your eyes…

vs

me saying “I think a lot of people dislike Living Story” come off as trying to state opinion as fact? Just rebutting what you previously mentioned to me.

Easy. If you list the features that were listed for the game in PvE they appeal to a specific demographic.

So look at MMOs over all and their features. There’s the raids and hard content MMOs. THere’s the sandbox do anything you want MMOs. There’s the living breathing world, themepark MMOs.

They’re trying to appeal to the same type of players that like games like Skyrim. The devs even said something along those lines. They’re looking for people who want to be in the open world, not locked away in instances.

How do I know this? Because that’s what they come out with. They don’t make an instanced raid, they make the triple threat. They don’t make more dungeons (and that they won’t be focusing on that annoys some people but not me), they make more dynamic events, like in Dry Top.

How hard is it to understand that I like what the devs are doing, therefore, the game is probably aimed at my demographic? I’d think that was pretty clear cut.

im going to banish those statements u made with a few words.

2 years of development. and to show for those points u just made can be counted on 1 hand.

Skyrim had its first expac with a year+ updates+ no gated gemstore stuff..

just saying

You didn’t banish anything. The type of player. Not everything exactly congruent. That is to say a game where you run around in the world, not doing ultra hard challenging instances to get the next tier of gear.

If you don’t realize by now that Anet is focused on a living/breathing world is more or less a priority, I’m not sure what to tell you.

The problem here is that Arenanet may be focused on one group of players, and thats fine. More power to you guys.

We are simply stating our opinions, and you are either shooting down those opinions or claiming that we are trying to pass them off as fact.

I simply think the game took a huge nose dive in the recent year. I think LS is garbage, and I think the game would have been better served by sticking to their guns early on, and possibly pumping out an expansion full of meaty content. But again, thats just my opinion and thats not where we are in the game today. Hence, why I do not play, hence why I do not whip out my credit card for Arenanet anymore.

Its all opinion.

But there are facts within those opinions. For example, the Living Story is Anet focuses on, so all we get is the living story. Last year in the living story we got among other things:

A new dungeon path. New fractals, new world bosses (Karka Queen and Triple Threat) plus the Tequatl Revamp. We got a new jumping puzzle, new events, actually several new events and even a zone seriously changed by the story. We got, temporarily a huge amount of content that’s no longer there as well). Now we have a new zone (Dry Top) with new bosses, new creatures, new mechanics, new rewards, a new weapon set….and that’s part of the living story too.

You act as though the living story delivers nothing but the living story. It’s been leaving stuff behind for a long time, including an entire new WvW zone. Like it or not, Edge of the Mists is a big big zone, and it was added through the living story. It’s still there.

You are so bent on trying to discredit the living story, you’re not even paying attention to what the living story brought with it.

I’m so amused when people say I hate the living story crap we need a new zone. I hate to break it to you guys but we just got a new zone.

cesmode.4257:

@ Vayne:

“Easy. If you list the features that were listed for the game in PvE they appeal to a specific demographic.

So look at MMOs over all and their features. There’s the raids and hard content MMOs. THere’s the sandbox do anything you want MMOs. There’s the living breathing world, themepark MMOs.

snip
"

You missed my point entirely. You being able to spit out an opinion vs my opinion. You saying the game is doing well, and you claim that as opinion. I say that I think a lot of folks dislike living story, you say that Im trying to claim it as fact.

This is my opinion. You can’t tell me my opinion is wrong. And an opinion is not a fact, it is an opinion, which is the viewpoint of something to which you derive from your experiences and outside influences. Neither right or wrong. Just opinion.

Its funny, I had this similar debate with a RL friend of mine over what constitutes a good movie. We were debating District 9. He said it was a phenomenal movie, for XYZ reasons. I said, great thats your opinion. I said that my wife and I nearly walked out of that movie(the only one we considered walking out on). I listed my reasons that formed my opinion. I thought it was a horrible movie.

I then performed an experiment. I looked up grosses for that year with domestic movies(United States). District 9 was ranked 27 with 115 million. I asked him what he thought of GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra(150 million ranked 18). He called that movie atrocious. I asked him about 2012(movie) ranked 15 with 166 million. He said it was scientifically inaccurate and he disliked it. Asked him about Monsters vs Aliens, ranked 9 with 198 million. He simply did not enjoy this one. Public opinion, in terms of sales in the MILLIONS would disagree with my friend. Does that make his opinion any more or less WRONG, or does it make his opinion of a movie fact? No.

So when I told him my reasons for disliking District 9, and then backed it up with what could be considered public opinion in terms of gross domestic sales, I came to the conclusion that I had formed a GOOD opinion, based on primarily on my own experience but backed up by the sales..that I disliked the movie and thought it was bad.

Taking that into this discussion. Considering my experiences with GW2, my viewpoint on the development direction of this game, and the equal amount of negative posts on these forums and other gaming site forums, as well as chatter in game that I have personally witnessed, I come to my own OPINION saying that I think people dislike XYZ or whatever the subject is.

Stop trying to tell me what I am doing. Im stating my opinion, not claiming it as fact.

Dude it’s about language. That’s ALL it’s about.

This game is dying. That’s a statement stated as a fact.

I see less people playing. This is also a fact, from your point of view. It’s factualy that you see less people playing.

But it doesn’t necessarily lead to a misleading conclusion.

I like a game the way it is, so it’s extremely likely targeted to my demographic. If not, why would I like it? That’s not an opinion. It is an educated and logical conclusion based on the fact that the stuff Anet is saying/doing I get. I understand it. There’s no other way to say it.

I don’t like everything. I don’t like the trait changes, but even then, I understand why those trait changes were made and how it fits into what they’re trying to design.

Clearly other people don’t. That’s why I made the comment I made.

But in the English language, saying the game is dying is stating something as a fact. I think the game is dying. I perceive the game to be dying is also a fact. It’s a fact that you think it…but it’s not a fact that the game is dying.

The stronger the statement you make the more logically you should try to phrase it as an opinion or you’re going to get backlash, not just from me. From people who disagree with you.

You temper stronger statements with softer language to make them more acceptable. And you then have less far to go to defend anything you might say.

If you say this game is dying anyone can so no, it’s not.

If you say, I think this game is dying. No one can say you don’t.

If you want to continue to state things as facts that are just your personal observations, get ready for people to come at you, because that’s human nature.

Zardul.3952:

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

Tachenon.5270:

Vayne.8563:

It sure indicated the game has a lot of enemies, just like WoW does. Which doesn’t mean everyone who posts their gets what the devs are trying to do. This is what I keep saying.

There are many people who don’t like this game because it’s missing dueling or open world PvP, but those were never really on the table. They certainly weren’t central to what Anet was talking about.

It doesn’t matter how many people hate a game, if the people who like the game as it is sold is enough to ensure the future of the game.

Too many people want to turn this into a cookie cutter MMO, and that’s what some people are trying to protect. Many already think it’s gone too far in that direction.

The people who want specific things, are likely to be disappointed if they don’t get those things.

But you know, because anyone can log onto those sites, anyone at all, even a WoW fanboy who hates this game can post an negative review. People can even post reviews who’ve never played the game before.

At the end of the day, we have a reasonable idea of how the game is doing from quarterly reports. It’s doing fine. That’s how it’s doing.

Changing the game to try to capture many of those dissatisfied people could very well lead to the people already here being dissatisfied.

I get what you’re saying. It’s like Justin Bieber. It doesn’t matter how many people make fun of him or profess to hate him, what counts is the gajillions of hits his videos get on youtube.

So, looking at it from that perspective, GW2 is the Justin Bieber of MMOs. Or is trying to be. Or something.

Yeah!

I don’t agree with all of them, but I’m still largely happy with the game. And I think people who play like me mostly are…and we’re sort of the target audience…at least the PvE’ers are. I can’t talk about PvP.

So how does this quote from you come off as an opinion in your eyes…

vs

me saying “I think a lot of people dislike Living Story” come off as trying to state opinion as fact? Just rebutting what you previously mentioned to me.

Easy. If you list the features that were listed for the game in PvE they appeal to a specific demographic.

So look at MMOs over all and their features. There’s the raids and hard content MMOs. THere’s the sandbox do anything you want MMOs. There’s the living breathing world, themepark MMOs.

They’re trying to appeal to the same type of players that like games like Skyrim. The devs even said something along those lines. They’re looking for people who want to be in the open world, not locked away in instances.

How do I know this? Because that’s what they come out with. They don’t make an instanced raid, they make the triple threat. They don’t make more dungeons (and that they won’t be focusing on that annoys some people but not me), they make more dynamic events, like in Dry Top.

How hard is it to understand that I like what the devs are doing, therefore, the game is probably aimed at my demographic? I’d think that was pretty clear cut.

im going to banish those statements u made with a few words.

2 years of development. and to show for those points u just made can be counted on 1 hand.

Skyrim had its first expac with a year+ updates+ no gated gemstore stuff..

just saying

You didn’t banish anything. The type of player. Not everything exactly congruent. That is to say a game where you run around in the world, not doing ultra hard challenging instances to get the next tier of gear.

If you don’t realize by now that Anet is focused on a living/breathing world is more or less a priority, I’m not sure what to tell you.

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

Tachenon.5270:

Vayne.8563:

It sure indicated the game has a lot of enemies, just like WoW does. Which doesn’t mean everyone who posts their gets what the devs are trying to do. This is what I keep saying.

There are many people who don’t like this game because it’s missing dueling or open world PvP, but those were never really on the table. They certainly weren’t central to what Anet was talking about.

It doesn’t matter how many people hate a game, if the people who like the game as it is sold is enough to ensure the future of the game.

Too many people want to turn this into a cookie cutter MMO, and that’s what some people are trying to protect. Many already think it’s gone too far in that direction.

The people who want specific things, are likely to be disappointed if they don’t get those things.

But you know, because anyone can log onto those sites, anyone at all, even a WoW fanboy who hates this game can post an negative review. People can even post reviews who’ve never played the game before.

At the end of the day, we have a reasonable idea of how the game is doing from quarterly reports. It’s doing fine. That’s how it’s doing.

Changing the game to try to capture many of those dissatisfied people could very well lead to the people already here being dissatisfied.

I get what you’re saying. It’s like Justin Bieber. It doesn’t matter how many people make fun of him or profess to hate him, what counts is the gajillions of hits his videos get on youtube.

So, looking at it from that perspective, GW2 is the Justin Bieber of MMOs. Or is trying to be. Or something.

Yeah!

I don’t agree with all of them, but I’m still largely happy with the game. And I think people who play like me mostly are…and we’re sort of the target audience…at least the PvE’ers are. I can’t talk about PvP.

So how does this quote from you come off as an opinion in your eyes…

vs

me saying “I think a lot of people dislike Living Story” come off as trying to state opinion as fact? Just rebutting what you previously mentioned to me.

Easy. If you list the features that were listed for the game in PvE they appeal to a specific demographic.

So look at MMOs over all and their features. There’s the raids and hard content MMOs. THere’s the sandbox do anything you want MMOs. There’s the living breathing world, themepark MMOs.

They’re trying to appeal to the same type of players that like games like Skyrim. The devs even said something along those lines. They’re looking for people who want to be in the open world, not locked away in instances.

How do I know this? Because that’s what they come out with. They don’t make an instanced raid, they make the triple threat. They don’t make more dungeons (and that they won’t be focusing on that annoys some people but not me), they make more dynamic events, like in Dry Top.

How hard is it to understand that I like what the devs are doing, therefore, the game is probably aimed at my demographic? I’d think that was pretty clear cut.

Offair.2563:

I am still a happy gw2 player, although i highly dislike the directions developer is taking. Take WvW for example, such an awesome and potential game mode bleeding to death since they dont do anything with it. Sad times. This game could easily be the bomb of all MMO’s with its great combat system but all is going to be lost to the living story temporarily content.

No more temporary content in the living story. But yeah, WvW needs more love for sure.

Tachenon.5270:

Vayne.8563:

It sure indicated the game has a lot of enemies, just like WoW does. Which doesn’t mean everyone who posts their gets what the devs are trying to do. This is what I keep saying.

There are many people who don’t like this game because it’s missing dueling or open world PvP, but those were never really on the table. They certainly weren’t central to what Anet was talking about.

It doesn’t matter how many people hate a game, if the people who like the game as it is sold is enough to ensure the future of the game.

Too many people want to turn this into a cookie cutter MMO, and that’s what some people are trying to protect. Many already think it’s gone too far in that direction.

The people who want specific things, are likely to be disappointed if they don’t get those things.

But you know, because anyone can log onto those sites, anyone at all, even a WoW fanboy who hates this game can post an negative review. People can even post reviews who’ve never played the game before.

At the end of the day, we have a reasonable idea of how the game is doing from quarterly reports. It’s doing fine. That’s how it’s doing.

Changing the game to try to capture many of those dissatisfied people could very well lead to the people already here being dissatisfied.

I get what you’re saying. It’s like Justin Bieber. It doesn’t matter how many people make fun of him or profess to hate him, what counts is the gajillions of hits his videos get on youtube.

So, looking at it from that perspective, GW2 is the Justin Bieber of MMOs. Or is trying to be. Or something.

Yeah!

You’re so cute.

No, what I’m saying is that not every type of product is necessarily going to reach a wide audience. Guild Wars 2 probably should have stayed with it’s core audience in the beginning, but not worrying about what some people think and by not doing the whole ascended gear thing. That caused a lot of really loyal people to walk away from the game…many for good.

So then Guild Wars 2 had to rebuild with people who didn’t quite get it. The die hards, many, had left, and were replaced by people who came from other games that hadn’t followed the development of this game for years.

I’m not blind. I see the shift in the game. I understand, or think I understand, the reason some of the decisions are made. I don’t agree with all of them, but I’m still largely happy with the game. And I think people who play like me mostly are…and we’re sort of the target audience…at least the PvE’ers are. I can’t talk about PvP.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Vayne.8563:

HHR LostProphet.4801:

I’m talking about an ideal setup here, so ofcourse, the local currencies should be added to the wallet. It should in fact work like the Geodes work now, with the difference that the events aren’t time gated and that you can buy better rewards with Geodes.

As for the oldschool quest sytem, the current system is good if you have one set place, but you can’t connect multiple places in one quest, and that’s the way I want to use this type of quest.

You know, making Mawdry in some ways feels more like an old school quest and it’s definitely interzone. I wonder if we won’t see more stuff like this as opposed to traditional quests.

I do like the way they’ve set up the Mawdry crafting, so I’m fine with that.

I’ve said all along this quest needs less immediate, more involved types of quests. But I shy away from traditional type quests.

Ideally it would be interested to see Pact quests eventually, that cross the entire world. Of course, some of the Living Story stuff is doing something like that now too, so I guess it’s starting.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

I’m talking about an ideal setup here, so ofcourse, the local currencies should be added to the wallet. It should in fact work like the Geodes work now, with the difference that the events aren’t time gated and that you can buy better rewards with Geodes.

As for the oldschool quest sytem, the current system is good if you have one set place, but you can’t connect multiple places in one quest, and that’s the way I want to use this type of quest.

You know, making Mawdry in some ways feels more like an old school quest and it’s definitely interzone. I wonder if we won’t see more stuff like this as opposed to traditional quests.

Illuminati.2431:

Vayne.8563

So tell me? What difference does it make?

Do you know there are entire sites devoted to hating WoW? Entire sites. There are probably more people who hate WoW than have ever played Guild Wars 2.

Reviews are well and good. Some of them mean something and some of them mean nothing. There are lots of people who don’t like chess. Probably far more people who don’t like chess than like it. Does that make chess a bad game?

Anet came out with a very specific goal. They’ve had to move the goal posts from the goal several times, mostly for people like you.

And people left this game because they did. You know the whole vertical progression gear thing? That’s anathema to this community.

But some people wanted it and left the game and complained there wasn’t enough of it. And OTHER people went and played the game and left because there was too much of it.

The people who want end game, a specific type of end game, who’ve come to this game are not going to like the game, even though the devs were quite clear that end game wasn’t going to exist here.

I’m not stressed about reviews on MMORPG.com because not everyone is going to like a game. Take a look at some of the WOW reviews sometimes.

This isn’t a site devoted to hating Guild wars2, it a site where people can share their opinions and thoughts about ANY mmorpg. And the fact that the first page is only flooded with negativity towards the game, and that the same goes for any other generalized mmorpg forum, kind of indicates the fact that maybe the unsatisfied players aren’t a small minority anymore.

It sure indicated the game has a lot of enemies, just like WoW does. Which doesn’t mean everyone who posts their gets what the devs are trying to do. This is what I keep saying.

There are many people who don’t like this game because it’s missing dueling or open world PvP, but those were never really on the table. They certainly weren’t central to what Anet was talking about.

It doesn’t matter how many people hate a game, if the people who like the game as it is sold is enough to ensure the future of the game.

Too many people want to turn this into a cookie cutter MMO, and that’s what some people are trying to protect. Many already think it’s gone too far in that direction.

The people who want specific things, are likely to be disappointed if they don’t get those things.

But you know, because anyone can log onto those sites, anyone at all, even a WoW fanboy who hates this game can post an negative review. People can even post reviews who’ve never played the game before.

At the end of the day, we have a reasonable idea of how the game is doing from quarterly reports. It’s doing fine. That’s how it’s doing.

Changing the game to try to capture many of those dissatisfied people could very well lead to the people already here being dissatisfied.

Guhracie.3419:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Pandaman.4758:

Alfwyn.8704:

And you really shouldn’t buy all the traits. Unlock the ones that are easy for you by doing stuff, buy the ones you need and don’t feel like unlocking the other way.

That advice only really works on veterans who have already experimented with all the traits for a the profession in question; you can’t really tell someone on a new character, playing a class they’ve never experienced before, to “buy the ones you need”, because how can they know what they need without trying it first? A lot of traits only sound good on paper and tend to turn out to be rather lackluster when actually used.

Anet claimed they made the change to encourage more experimentation and build diversity, but it seems like such a backward way to go about it: limiting options to encourage diversity.

I think you are missing the point. Many players only use a ‘zerker’ build in PvE and WvW (although there are many useful builds). This way, just unlock what you need for your build and move on.

Trait unlocks were billed as being there to encourage build diversity, and here you are, encouraging everyone to use a cookie-cutter build.

I agree with this completely. Ultimately the trait update makes experimentation far less likely, which is bad for the game over all.

Zardul.3952:

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Blaeys.3102:

I’m still very happy with the game – as are many in my guild. There are things we would love to see done or added, but in the meantime, we are having fun.

On a related topic – am I happy with the forums? Not so much. The ridiculous infighting between the same small group of players (in almost every thread of significance) pretty much buries any legitimate feedback and makes informed discussion difficult.

Hai.

snip

Now, when a particular someone chimes in on every post that I seem to make and spits out his usual banter of “well not everyone thinks the way you do…” for every single argument, and thus tries to convert me to fanboi-ism, thats where the infight starts.

I keep a skeptical and critical eye on the game and provide feedback from someone on the outside(currently not playing) looking in. I think this feedback is as valuable as someone that is playing and enjoying the game because my prespective is one of someone who WOULD come back if certain changes were made, and I bet my fat paycheck there are many of us in that boat.

I assume you’re talking about me. I don’t comment on every post you make. Far from it. But just like you’ll call Anet out when you feel they’ve done something wrong, I’ll do the same with forum posters.

Forums are all about communication. If someone says, the game is dying with no actual proof, you’re kitten ed right I’ll call them out. But a lot of your posts are reasonable and I just move on.

If I’m answering a post, I’ve seen something in it I disagree with. I’m pretty sure that forums are here to discuss stuff. Not just let people say something you disagree with and not say anything.

Oh dear, I didnt mention you! Why would you think that?

Lately, you’ve been climbing all over my posts. I think you’ve missed me during my absence.

Regardless, one does not need proof when he/she says they think the game is dying. Its their opinion. Its my opinion that LS is crap and that more people would get more out of the game if development was spent elsewhere, and not on LS. And when I say this, I base this on in-game chat, the multitude of disapproving posts and threads here, the enormous volume of negativity toward the game on other gaming websites and forums. For me, and combined with my own personal experience and opinion, its enough for me to form an generalized opinion. And I am entitled to just that.

I need no proof for my opinion. None.

And herein lies the problem. People feel free to post opinions worded as fact, and then someone comes to the forums and says “Is anyone happy with the game?” Why do people have to ask this question?

Because opinions worded the way you word them often sound like you’re trying to state a fact. Saying “the game is dying” isn’t really a statement of opinion. And more, not everyone will see it as a statement of opinion.

If more people posted opinions as opinions, threads like this one might not have to be made at all.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/view/forums/forum/1398/Reviews-Impressions.html

have a look at those reviews,

its the same on all the other sites that review gw2.

these are all opinions too. but for the majority. you’ll see a pattern arise.

So tell me? What difference does it make?

Do you know there are entire sites devoted to hating WoW? Entire sites. There are probably more people who hate WoW than have ever played Guild Wars 2.

Reviews are well and good. Some of them mean something and some of them mean nothing. There are lots of people who don’t like chess. Probably far more people who don’t like chess than like it. Does that make chess a bad game?

Anet came out with a very specific goal. They’ve had to move the goal posts from the goal several times, mostly for people like you.

And people left this game because they did. You know the whole vertical progression gear thing? That’s anathema to this community.

But some people wanted it and left the game and complained there wasn’t enough of it. And OTHER people went and played the game and left because there was too much of it.

The people who want end game, a specific type of end game, who’ve come to this game are not going to like the game, even though the devs were quite clear that end game wasn’t going to exist here.

I’m not stressed about reviews on MMORPG.com because not everyone is going to like a game. Take a look at some of the WOW reviews sometimes.

Actually a lot of people believe (and I agree) that it’s easier to get credit for tagging mobs.

There’s a damage threshold when you’re attacking something to qualify you for loot. If you’re in a party it’s the party’s damage threshold, not yours.

I’ve run up to an event with other people from my guild in my party, got a couple of hits and qualified for a reward. That doesn’t usually happen if I’m not partied.

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Blaeys.3102:

I’m still very happy with the game – as are many in my guild. There are things we would love to see done or added, but in the meantime, we are having fun.

On a related topic – am I happy with the forums? Not so much. The ridiculous infighting between the same small group of players (in almost every thread of significance) pretty much buries any legitimate feedback and makes informed discussion difficult.

Hai.

Well, until Arenanet either bans me completely from the forums(and thus the game Id imagine…), or figures out a way to keep inactive player accounts off of the forums, I am free to post my displeasure on the forums and express much concern over the future of this game.

By the way, it is only through folks that provide feedback, suggestions, harsh criticisms that anything ever gets done. Otherwise the fanboi populace will nod and agree that all is well with the game, and not much changes.

Be thankful there are people like me on the forums.

Now, when a particular someone chimes in on every post that I seem to make and spits out his usual banter of “well not everyone thinks the way you do…” for every single argument, and thus tries to convert me to fanboi-ism, thats where the infight starts.

I keep a skeptical and critical eye on the game and provide feedback from someone on the outside(currently not playing) looking in. I think this feedback is as valuable as someone that is playing and enjoying the game because my prespective is one of someone who WOULD come back if certain changes were made, and I bet my fat paycheck there are many of us in that boat.

I assume you’re talking about me. I don’t comment on every post you make. Far from it. But just like you’ll call Anet out when you feel they’ve done something wrong, I’ll do the same with forum posters.

Forums are all about communication. If someone says, the game is dying with no actual proof, you’re kitten ed right I’ll call them out. But a lot of your posts are reasonable and I just move on.

If I’m answering a post, I’ve seen something in it I disagree with. I’m pretty sure that forums are here to discuss stuff. Not just let people say something you disagree with and not say anything.

Oh dear, I didnt mention you! Why would you think that?

Lately, you’ve been climbing all over my posts. I think you’ve missed me during my absence.

Regardless, one does not need proof when he/she says they think the game is dying. Its their opinion. Its my opinion that LS is crap and that more people would get more out of the game if development was spent elsewhere, and not on LS. And when I say this, I base this on in-game chat, the multitude of disapproving posts and threads here, the enormous volume of negativity toward the game on other gaming websites and forums. For me, and combined with my own personal experience and opinion, its enough for me to form an generalized opinion. And I am entitled to just that.

I need no proof for my opinion. None.

And herein lies the problem. People feel free to post opinions worded as fact, and then someone comes to the forums and says “Is anyone happy with the game?” Why do people have to ask this question?

Because opinions worded the way you word them often sound like you’re trying to state a fact. Saying “the game is dying” isn’t really a statement of opinion. And more, not everyone will see it as a statement of opinion.

If more people posted opinions as opinions, threads like this one might not have to be made at all.

cesmode.4257:

Blaeys.3102:

I’m still very happy with the game – as are many in my guild. There are things we would love to see done or added, but in the meantime, we are having fun.

On a related topic – am I happy with the forums? Not so much. The ridiculous infighting between the same small group of players (in almost every thread of significance) pretty much buries any legitimate feedback and makes informed discussion difficult.

Hai.

Well, until Arenanet either bans me completely from the forums(and thus the game Id imagine…), or figures out a way to keep inactive player accounts off of the forums, I am free to post my displeasure on the forums and express much concern over the future of this game.

By the way, it is only through folks that provide feedback, suggestions, harsh criticisms that anything ever gets done. Otherwise the fanboi populace will nod and agree that all is well with the game, and not much changes.

Be thankful there are people like me on the forums.

Now, when a particular someone chimes in on every post that I seem to make and spits out his usual banter of “well not everyone thinks the way you do…” for every single argument, and thus tries to convert me to fanboi-ism, thats where the infight starts.

I keep a skeptical and critical eye on the game and provide feedback from someone on the outside(currently not playing) looking in. I think this feedback is as valuable as someone that is playing and enjoying the game because my prespective is one of someone who WOULD come back if certain changes were made, and I bet my fat paycheck there are many of us in that boat.

I assume you’re talking about me. I don’t comment on every post you make. Far from it. But just like you’ll call Anet out when you feel they’ve done something wrong, I’ll do the same with forum posters.

Forums are all about communication. If someone says, the game is dying with no actual proof, you’re kitten ed right I’ll call them out. But a lot of your posts are reasonable and I just move on.

If I’m answering a post, I’ve seen something in it I disagree with. I’m pretty sure that forums are here to discuss stuff. Not just let people say something you disagree with and not say anything.

phys.7689:

Noah.9654:

They say that only unhappy people write reviews. After reading the recent post about how satisfied the entire (forum) community is as well as reading through all of the whining from forums, I decided to actually make a post about how thankful I am for ANet and GW2.

A little bit of background: before starting this game in May/June, I was helping the development of a Pokemon MMO. The game was made on a faulty system and as such, no matter how much we tried or how good of programmers we were, the game would always have bugs. Our community knew that and still played because we all enjoyed the great sense of community we had. Nintendo of America then shut us down after a year and a half of work.

I decided to try a new MMO and Guild Wars 2 caught my eye because I assumed that it would be a community-based game…..since it has ‘Guild’ in its name. The deciding factor to buy the game was because I really wanted to get Bonetti’s Rapier. I really love rapiers and there aren’t many games that allow me to both use one and magic. The combination of magic, a rapier, and a pistol is what made me choose Mesmer as my class.

Skip to the part where I started reading the forums and about how the Mesmer class was ‘garbage in all game modes,’ how there were a ton of bugs, no endgame content, PvP—Skyhammer in specific—was somehow flawed, and something about only wanting players who attained some non-existent ‘skill’ to be able to play. To put simply; the forum community was not happy.

However, I always was. I founded a great guild of people who have very similar lives as I do. I found that sense of social community that I was longing for. I think that the Guilds in Guild Wars 2 is the best part of the game. Even if the game itself is flawed, you still have a great community—friends—that you can play with. Everything you can do in the game is so much better if you do them with your community/friends whether is be PvE, PvP, of WvW. I think that was what ANet was striving for and I think that it is absolutely brilliant!

TL:DR – Great job on an awesome community game, ANet. Keep doing what you’re doing.

Loving your guild is nice, but anything you do with a bunch of friends is good, even sitting around doing nothing. While your guild is doing well with the gw2 system, trust that many more guilds have died than thrived. This suggests that it is not so good at it seems at keeping guilds together, and you just probably found a bunch of cool guys. Thats cool, you can take them into other games later

Every game I’ve played, including Guild Wars 1, had more guilds that died than lived. If that was the qualifier to show whether an MMO was good or not, there would be no good MMOs.

Guilds die for all sorts of reasons. Very often they’re not game related. Of course, sometimes they are.

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

So back to the topic at hand, if this thread is any indication, it seems like lots of people still are happy with this game. That should answer your question OP.

Conversely, I would say there are as many unhappy folks too. No way to tell, not even based on this thread.

So the question will most likely remain unanswered, OP. And since the game has no subscription numbers to report at quarterly meetings with investors, there is really no way to know the health of the game and its player concurrency.

Could be healthy and popular, could not be. Who knows.

The title of the thread is Is ANYONE happy anymore? Not are some people happy and some not. The implication is that there are so many negative posts on the forums it seems like no one is happy.

It seems like more than half (maybe even well more than that) seem to be happy. Therefore the OP’s question is answered.

The percentages we’ll obviously never know, but this thread should at least show that the amount of negativity we’ve seen on the forums isn’t necessarily representative of the population at as whole. It might be, but you certainly couldn’t draw that conclusion from this thread.