Guild Wars 2

I’m a long time Guild Wars 1 player.

The things that made Guild Wars 1 a great game are completely absent here. Because of that, people who love Guild Wars 1 often come to Guild Wars 2 expecting the same thing…and rightfully so. It’s a sequel.

I came here NOT expecting the same thing, because I did a lot of research before the game started. I knew it would be more dynamic, that there’d be less skills over all, and that many of them are tied to a weapon. I knew that build wars was done. It was more about your reflexes and how you play.

If you try to play this game like Guild Wars 1 (or like WoW for that matter), you’ll probably not enjoy it. If you play this game like a new game, then you might well enjoy it.

This game has plenty of good things about it and plenty of bad things….pretty much like every game. Me, I find the bad things aren’t as significant to me as the good things and I have a blast.

You should try to find a guild of like minded players. It’s the best way I’ve found to enjoy the game.

minbariguy.7504:

Hawkian.6580:

While the enticement theory you’re referencing is definitely in effect, it’s pretty misleading to call it a sales pitch. They already have your money, right?

By the way, guess what just popped up on my Facebook page? An advertisement for Guild Wars 2. Here’s the ad copy (bold emphasis mine):

Buy the new Heroic Edition of Guild Wars 2®, one of the most highly acclaimed MMOs of all time. Free DLC every two weeks, an ever expanding world, and never any subscription fees. Now for a limited time buy it at our lowest price ever and come see why Guild Wars 2® is “the new king of fantasy RPGs.” Offer ends 10/6.

No, that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch at all, does it?

/sarcasm

EDIT: For the sake of clarity, that sarcasm wasn’t directed at you, Hawkian. It’s more just an expression of my general feelings towards ANet at the moment. Apologies if it seemed like I was giving you an attitude.

Of course it’s a sales pitch. When does a company that’s selling a product not make a sales pitch? Why would you expect the marketing department of a company not to make a sales pitch.

Companies pitch their products in an attempt to get people to buy them. Is that somehow wrong?

Valanga.5942:

Vayne.8563:

(in fact I know they have, I talked to a dev in game recently and unless he was lying, they have numbers).

I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who said that…

You people don’t know the difference between annecdotal evidence and eye witness testimony.

I don’t know a guy who spoke to a dev. I spoke to a dev.

I know he was a dev, because he had the Anet icon by his name. I don’t have one of those and I can’t get one.

If someone told me he spoke to a dev and I reported what he said, that’s hearsay. If I spoke to a dev directly, I’d be considered a direct witness.

All you can do is call me a liar, which is fine. But I don’t know a guy who spoke to a dev. I spoke to one myself. Big difference.

minbariguy.7504:

Vayne.8563:

I’m not trying to hard. You’re not allowing for time. Between the time I posted the first thread and the time I posted the second, I had a conversation with a dev in game. Surely this isn’t that hard to understand.

And these things aren’t mutually exclusive anyway. I think you’re trying too hard to disprove me.

Edit: Saying someone is looking at the numbers and responding to them has nothing to do with them iteration systems to see if other things work. But what might cause them to iterate and try something else is low numbers.

It doesn’t mean it’s the ONLY thing they look at and it doesn’t mean they do it all the time. I think you’re just a bit confused.

I’m not trying to disprove you, Vayne. I just said that your feelings for Living Story were perfectly valid. I have absolutely no problem with you whatsoever. I happen to like your optimism and passion for the game, even if I do not share it.

I just feel as though when people try to explain why they don’t care for Living Story, your first instinct is to try to dismiss their feelings. You don’t seem to be able to accept that anyone could legitimately dislike Living Story content.

And I can’t understand why.

I’m not dismissing anyone’s feelings. First of all, my feelings about the living story is that they come out too often and have too many achievements associated with them. That’s my opinion. I like the idea of the living story and I like some of the content, but I don’t like the way the game attempts to pressure players. So I’m not all raving about the living story.

What I’m against, what I’ve always been against is the ridiculous hyperbole, or the use of language to make stuff seem much worse than it is. Such as when someone says, there has been on actual content added to this game. That’s complete crap. Of course there’s been actual content added to the game. It’s content that poster doesn’t like but the phrasing is misleading and I’ll call someone on it every time.

Expressing your dislike for the living story is one thing. But saying it in a way that dismisses everyone else’s opinion that likes it is something else. In other words, by saying stuff like there’s been no actual content, someone is implying that people who are enjoying it aren’t actually experiencing content.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I’m entitled to call someone on how they express it.

Thunderscape.3859:

Vayne.8563:

I didn’t miss any points, I can assure you.

I’m saying that other people complained in the opposite direction to your complaints. Are their complaints legitimate or not?

You’re making it sound like the entire game’s population all shares one set of values. I assure you this isn’t the case.

It is you who missed my point.

I don’t mind that you defend the game with all your might. But use logic.

Were the complaints valid? Yes.
Does that invalidate anything of what i said? No.

I gave a much more diversed, and fun way to get gear. Where is your opinion on that? Those complaints were solved. And i did not say the best course of action is to remove ascended. So i don’t know why you are talking about old complains that were attended to…

Also no, i did not make the “entire game’s population all shares one set of values”. Do you see that in the title? imo -> In my opinion.

Vayne please…. we all know, if by some bizarre mistake of programming Anet opened a portal to another dimension and killer aliens come out of it to end mankind…

You would say: “But guys its innovative! No other company as done this. We should all be proud that we have new things to do, like run for our lives and scream in fear. I find it quite enjoyable! I know that GW1 didn’t have a inter-dimensional-portal with killer aliens, buts a its a new era! We gotta keep up with the times. So stop hating!”

You keep saying the complaints were valid. Which ones? The ones that agree with you or the ones that contradict you. You’re making it sound like the people who wrote stuff similar to you had valid complaints. I’m saying there were also complaints that had different even opposite opinions from some of theirs. I’m asking a simple question. Were those opposing complaints valid?

You have no idea what I’d say because it’s 100% clear to me you don’t get me at all. However, after refusing to answer my actual question more than once, I’m pretty sure that most people reading now get you.

minbariguy.7504:

Vayne, I really, really think you are trying waaaaaay too hard here. And it feels to me like you are starting to circle back on yourself. For example, you wrote:

Vayne.8563:

I guarantee you that if players weren’t logging in in increasingly larger numbers, Anet would not have added three teams to the living story team.

They didn’t look at the numbers, say this isn’t working and ramp it up.

This seems to imply that ANet doesn’t do anything if the numbers don’t support their actions, which presumably is intended to nullify any argument that Living Story isn’t working.

But in a different (yet very similar) thread, you wrote:

Vayne.8563:

I remember reading a blog post where Anet told everyone that they experiment, try things and sometimes throw out entire systems if they seem not to be working. This means everything they do is actually up for grabs. What they were doing didn’t seem to be working, so they made a change.

Sooo…which is it?

Does Anet experiment and throw out systems they find not to be working, or do they not even put a system into the game unless their metrics show that it will be successful?

Isn’t it just possible that the reaction to Living Story has not been as positive as they would like? And that, like the experimental systems that you yourself mentioned, it needs to be changed or thrown out?

Again, I have to state that if you (or anyone else, for that matter) happen to like the Living Story, that is perfectly valid. But you should also acknowledge that people who don’t like Living Story have their own perfectly valid reasons as well.

I’m not trying too hard. You’re not allowing for time. Between the time I posted the first thread and the time I posted the second, I had a conversation with a dev in game. Surely this isn’t that hard to understand.

And these things aren’t mutually exclusive anyway. I think you’re trying too hard to disprove me.

Edit: Saying someone is looking at the numbers and responding to them has nothing to do with them iteration systems to see if other things work. But what might cause them to iterate and try something else is low numbers.

It doesn’t mean it’s the ONLY thing they look at and it doesn’t mean they do it all the time. I think you’re just a bit confused.

I actually enjoy doing events and map completion. I know…I know…it’s weird, but I do. I do events I have no need for the rewards for, if it’s something my character would do. Because I tend to immerse myself in my characters.

In fact, different characters might choose to do different events. Some of my characters don’t have any desire to help someone make a profit, but they’d sure as hell help protect the innocent. Other characters have other priorities.

I like jumping puzzles as well…and dungeons to some degree, particularly fractals. I did my first level 34 fractal today, and had a blast.

That said, it might very well be who I was doing this stuff with, rather than the content itself. In an MMO that’s harder to separate out.

Thunderscape.3859:

Coffee.7058:

This game has NOTHING to do with gw I, so put aside those notions/nostalgia.

1 daily? Come on, if you don’t have time to finish a daily then you do not have a place in any game as dailies might take you an hour if you play with your feet.

I am not going to address your other inane suggestions as I want to save some lols for later hehe

The notion is just one. Its called Guild Wars 2. I don’t want a carbon copy of GW1 mind you. But at the very least i would expect guild wars in my Guild Wars 2.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thundascap pls

On topic:

Dailies

I can’t say I have the same problem. More often than not, my daily gets done without looking at the requirements. Of course, this would vary from person to person, ranging from how they play to their mindset, but all in all, I think calling it a ‘chore’ is a bit out there.

Ascended

I don’t have any particularly strong feelings about these.

However, rings, amulets and accessories can be gotten through Laurels(and ecto’s for accessories), or Gold and Guild Commendations.

Backpacks and infusing are the only thing you need to do Fractals for.

As for weapons, I can see your PoV, so we’ll leave it at that.

In terms of alt-unfriendliness, I agree with you.

As for the rest, I’ll comment later.

Sure!

And yes… guild commendations. My small guild of friends is dead long ago thanks to that decision ;_;

Vayne.8563:

So ALL the complaints for ALL those months were legitimate. Does that include the complaints that there wasn’t enough vertical progression in the game, and that people didn’t have stuff to work for?

Just curious.

Ah Vayne, sorry but you missed the point by a long margin there.

First:
The complaints are worse

Second:
The implementation of the ascended gear was not the worst part of it. It was HOW it was implemented. As i discribed in the ascended section.

I didn’t miss any points, I can assure you.

I’m saying that other people complained in the opposite direction to your complaints. Are their complaints legitimate or not?

You’re making it sound like the entire game’s population all shares one set of values. I assure you this isn’t the case.

It is you who missed my point.

Sirendor.1394:

Sylv.5324:

Sirendor.1394:

Well, vayne, you and your guild just keep playing Guild Wars 2 the moment a couple of new MMORPGs hit home (early next year), I’m sure they’ll keep the game up for you guys alone, cause that’ll be about all the players they have active at that moment.

The fact that you’re gloating about it shows that you’re more interested in being vindictive than anything else. Instead of just moving on to a new game, you WANT this one to die. You WANT the fun of other people who are happy to be damaged just because you didn’t get your way.

There is always some peel-off when new games come out, just like some of those players return. The nice thing is that the lack of a sub model means it’s free for people to play a new game for a while, then come back, or play both games— and many people I know are playing, for example, both GW2 and FF, especially during the lull in content or while it’s a LS expansion they’re not that into and so they have more time right now to split between both games.

But they’re all intending to play the hell out of GW2 during Halloween, XMas, and whatever LS installment they like.

Not really, I was kind of sardonic because Vayne may think this game is going the right way, but for a big share of players it is not. I don’t particularly wish this game to die, it would actually be nice if it came back with better ideas, I would play in that case, but this grindy/zergy/farmy mess isn’t really what I call a game. I’m just being realistic in the fact that GW2 will have to act fast or they’ll be knocked down by the next big hit, which hopefully has less of the dreaded zerg/grind/farm in it. I still have some small hope that the game isn’t finished yet, but it’s diminishing with the day.

What makes you think I think the game is going the right way? I’ve already said, many times, I’m against vertical progression in principle, and I’m not a big fan of grind, particularly achievement point grind. I think living stories come out too often and have too many achievements attached to them. The people who play all the time will burn out and stop playing if it keeps up for much longer. I told the dev I was talking to this as well, which is when he brought up how good the concurrency numbers have been.

Sirendor.1394:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

So if I can find a handful of negative posts I’ve written then what would you say. Maybe mindless doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Vayne’s posts are anything but mindless. Even when he’s wrong, his arguments have substance to them. I don’t often agree with him. There are times I think he derails threads by getting into kittening contests. In those circumstances, he argues about the letter of a post, rather than looking at the spirit. I think he just likes to argue. Calling him a fanboi is just people trying to belittle his arguments to support their own — which is either a cheap tactic, or the mark of a weak or nonexistent argument.

That said, Vayne, a handful of negative posts is not all that much, given the total number of posts you’ve made.

Be that as it is, his posts may not be mindless, but he is barely ever right and drags so many things into the discussions that they are totally off-topic. So that’s why I come to the conclusion just to ignore what he says. Sure he has arguments, but the general consensus overcomes them.

I’m barely ever right? lmfao

I’m not sure you’re qualified to judge that. You don’t like the game as is, so your perceptions of the game are filtered through your dislike. I like the game and so the stuff I say is filtered through my perceptions.

I never tell anyone their opinions are wrong…only that I disagree with them. But many of the things that I’ve said and have been challenged on, have been proven over time. And when I do get proven wrong, which does happen, I own up to it.

Mind you, a person with an ax to grind and a narrow mind isn’t likely to prove me wrong because most of the time all they’re doing is stating opinion as fact.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

So if I can find a handful of negative posts I’ve written then what would you say. Maybe mindless doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Vayne’s posts are anything but mindless. Even when he’s wrong, his arguments have substance to them. I don’t often agree with him. There are times I think he derails threads by getting into kittening contests. In those circumstances, he argues about the letter of a post, rather than looking at the spirit. I think he just likes to argue. Calling him a fanboi is just people trying to belittle his arguments to support their own — which is either a cheap tactic, or the mark of a weak or nonexistent argument.

That said, Vayne, a handful of negative posts is not all that much, given the total number of posts you’ve made.

Ah but if you take the number of posts that I’ve made that people argue with that just ups my post count, you’d find that it might be 100 posts arguing one point, rather than 100 different points.

I believe what I believe (just like everyone else). And I don’t believe what I don’t believe.

Because people want to “call me out”, my post count in those threads goes up by a disproportionate amount. Why do I answer back then?

Because other people lurking are watching too, and if someone is trying to belittle or make my points look less, I’ll defend them…not so much for the person trolling me (which is often what it is), but for the people reading who might think there’s no response.

I never let the trolls get to me (and there are are couple). But I do answer them, pretty much because it was how I was raised, I think. lol

So ALL the complaints for ALL those months were legitimate. Does that include the complaints that there wasn’t enough vertical progression in the game, and that people didn’t have stuff to work for?

Just curious.

maddoctor.2738:

Vayne.8563:

maddoctor.2738:

Vayne.8563:

Lord Kuru.3685:

If the Living Story were bigger — with whole zones changing permanently: say, Orr is repopulated, trees are now growing everywhere, etc (kind of like the evolution of Southsun Cove) then people who missed out on the process of this happening would at least get to see and explore a whole new Orr.

As it is, most of the Living Stories leave very little trace in the open world when they are done.

But it’s doubtful Anet is bold enough to toss aside the personal story (which would likely have to change drastically if the world were truly to change) and allow such major changes.

I think you’ll be surprised with what will change. Remember, there are more big project teams than living story teams, and most of the stuff we’ve been seeing is from the living story teams.

The other content isn’t available yet…because it takes longer to create.

No, the “other” content isn’t available yet because they haven’t decided how to give it to us, paid expansions or free living story. Until they do it will all be living story fillers.

I don’t believe that other content is finished. They are delivering things as they’re finished. For example, the Tequatl fight wasn’t designed by one of the living story teams, it was designed by a team that worked just on that. It was ready and they delivered that battle through the living story.

Not “finished” but certainly they have already started on some sort of Expansion-content that includes loads of new zones and the next Dragon. Guild Wars : Factions was released one year after the original release of Guild Wars, and I’m positive they didn’t make it in 1 month (it’s unreasonable to even think it)

I don’t even want to think that they haven’t started working on an Expansion due to the Living Story.

Oh, I agree with that. But then, they have far more bugs to fix here than they ever did in Guild Wars 1. And some of those teams are working on other stuff (the wallet, ending culling, LFG tool are examples). In other words some are working on content others on quality of life upgrades.

maddoctor.2738:

Vayne.8563:

Lord Kuru.3685:

If the Living Story were bigger — with whole zones changing permanently: say, Orr is repopulated, trees are now growing everywhere, etc (kind of like the evolution of Southsun Cove) then people who missed out on the process of this happening would at least get to see and explore a whole new Orr.

As it is, most of the Living Stories leave very little trace in the open world when they are done.

But it’s doubtful Anet is bold enough to toss aside the personal story (which would likely have to change drastically if the world were truly to change) and allow such major changes.

I think you’ll be surprised with what will change. Remember, there are more big project teams than living story teams, and most of the stuff we’ve been seeing is from the living story teams.

The other content isn’t available yet…because it takes longer to create.

No, the “other” content isn’t available yet because they haven’t decided how to give it to us, paid expansions or free living story. Until they do it will all be living story fillers.

I don’t believe that other content is finished. They are delivering things as they’re finished. For example, the Tequatl fight wasn’t designed by one of the living story teams, it was designed by a team that worked just on that. It was ready and they delivered that battle through the living story.

Zeph.5927:

Vayne.8563:

Sirendor.1394:

Vayne.8563:

Nice opinion piece…which is pretty much just that. A very long opinion piece, but you blow it at the end.

You say this could be avoided,. but you don’t really know that. It’s pure conjecture. I’m not sure you’d said anything here that hasn’t been said in countless threads.

Guys, don’t listen to what he says. He posts on any post that has criticisms on the way Anet handled their game (criticisms with a good foundation!) and he always defends Anet, not even looking at the arguments the criticizers give. Sad.

Hey guys, don’t listen to what he says, he doesn’t have a clue about me. If you’re going to ignore the negative posts I’ve made, you have no right to call me out for defending what I like about the game.

Oh look, he doesn’t agree with me, so therefore he’s a mindless fan boi.

Not even close.

Lol. But you ARE a mindless fanboi. All of your posts prove it. You disagree with ANYONE who criticizes this game in anyway (even when it’s good, constructive criticism that we need), and defend it to the death, all while trying to make everyone else seem wrong. If that’s not a fanboi, then I don’t know what the hell it is. You really need to stop sucking Anet’s kitten for once and open your eyes to the COUNTLESS flaws, bugs, glitches, and overall bad things that are present in this game. White knighting a game as hardcore as you do actually hurts it more than it helps it. Devs see people praising their terrible game and think “Oh, nothing’s wrong…we don’t need to improve or fix anything. Carry on!”

Seriously dude. Enough with the fanboi orgasms you have all over these forums. It’s extremely pathetic to watch.

So if I can find a handful of negative posts I’ve written then what would you say. Maybe mindless doesn’t mean what you think it means.

I guess you haven’t read my posts.

I agree this game has some issues, but it is far and away the best MMO for my specific play style.

This game has issues. Other MMOs are intolerable to me. So I speak up when I see something that’s just painfully one-sided.

As you might imagine I don’t get a huge amount of fan mail. lol

Daywolf.2630:

Vayne.8563:

But the deliberate combination of factors to make leveling a cooperative instead of a competitive feeling creates a completely different dynamic than any game I’ve ever played.

EQ1? Yes, quite there in many respects. Not just referring to the open-world raiding system, but even in multi-group dungeons, where groups relied on other groups to keep everything in check. Sure, they weren’t zerging the same MOB, but it was very difficult to say survive Karnor’s Castle (KC) without other groups helping to keep control of the castle, and often using communication to do so.

Such competitiveness still exists in this game, no all encompassing system can truly provide complete hand-holding to make everything “fair”. Doing the FE boss event shows such an example, where players will intentionally one-hit pre-event mobs denying others of a share in the event success XP. Some classes even using huge knock-backs seemingly to deny melee types of a hit on a mob, beyond just the FE example.

But I’m not trying to point out everything wrong with the game, I could easily mention some well known hot button issues, but all games have such issues. I do think that JP’s and level adjustments are a credit to this games development, something that down the road can remain a lasting impression as something done right in this game.

Except for one problem. In EQ 1, you could wait on a boss for ages, it could spawn, someone could dive in and tag it and you’re group was screwed out of credit for it. There are plenty of stories like that (and it doesn’t happen here).

Don’t you remember groups competing in EQ 1 to tag a boss that spawned so rarely you had to call friends at 2am to wake them up if it spawned?

Sirendor.1394:

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

Karizee.8076:

There’s actually more people playing now than at launch. Sorry your guild failed.

vayne, is that you?

Well, vayne, you and your guild just keep playing Guild Wars 2 the moment a couple of new MMORPGs hit home (early next year), I’m sure they’ll keep the game up for you guys alone, cause that’ll be about all the players they have active at that moment.

Bet me. People said the same thing about other games as well. SWToR, Rift, TSW, they’re all still doing okay. Guild Wars 2 will do fine.

First of all, most of the games coming out, they’re pay to play. A lot of people do play this game because it has no monthly fee. Secondly, most of them are more typical standard MMOs. I’ll never play another game with the trinity again. I think it’s a joke.

But mostly, you underestimate how many people like this game. Games don’t need millions of players to do well.

You know what will happen? A game will come out, a bunch of people will check it out, and most will end up coming back. Why? Because hype is always better than a new game.

Me and my guild are one guild among many. It’s only 130 people, it’s not even a big guild. There are guilds that are much bigger.

And of course, with all the games out now, not one of them is good enough to draw them away. Rift, Lotro, DDO, WoW, TSW…and those people are still here playing.

You may not like the game, and that’s fair enough. But you have no clue what anyone else likes. Why not just admit it?

Sirendor.1394:

Vayne.8563:

Nice opinion piece…which is pretty much just that. A very long opinion piece, but you blow it at the end.

You say this could be avoided,. but you don’t really know that. It’s pure conjecture. I’m not sure you’d said anything here that hasn’t been said in countless threads.

Guys, don’t listen to what he says. He posts on any post that has criticisms on the way Anet handled their game (criticisms with a good foundation!) and he always defends Anet, not even looking at the arguments the criticizers give. Sad.

Hey guys, don’t listen to what he says, he doesn’t have a clue about me. If you’re going to ignore the negative posts I’ve made, you have no right to call me out for defending what I like about the game.

Oh look, he doesn’t agree with me, so therefore he’s a mindless fan boi.

Not even close.

Knote.2904:

Temporary Content is an absolute joke, it’s a kick in the balls to both players and the people that designed the amazing content.

There should be nothing temporary about the living world updates aside from the events that introduce the new content………. who in the world would think that’s a good idea?

Dailies are also something I despise, it’s the main thing that slowly killed MMO’s off for me, one “day” at a time.

Rift atleast let you store 7 dailies at a time so you could take a break and knock them out in a power gaming session.

Vayne.8563:

Skan.5301:

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

… to the real efforts the company has made to fix things and learn…

Uh..what real efforts have they made to fix things?
The small scale skill balances? Or the massive grindfest they recently introduced?

Enlighten us on what you believe they’ve fixed because I would really like to know. You’ve got the stage.

Edit: Cactus beat me to it.

List of things they’ve fixed…

Culling, Ascalon Catacombs, Tequatl, most of the waaaay too easy bosses, not getting good enough drops for fighting champions, the account wallet, preview on the trading post, the necro to make it viable in most forms of the game….

I’m sure there’s more….maybe you’re just not paying attention.

When it takes a whole year just for that, and with some of those being things that should’ve been fixed on release, it’s not much.

I listed a handful of things off the top of my head, that’s not everything they fixed. If I can think of that in 30 seconds, I guarantee you there’s a lot more.

Why pretend I made a comprehesive list, when it’s obvious I didn’t. Nice try.

Rattus.1462:

So I am to assume that all that time I spent in outposts in GW1, there was no hint at some form of persistence and that trade and other activities would just come to a grinding halt when I left. Furthermore, GW1 had a huge player base.

Farmville has a bigger playerbase than Guild Wars, but it’s not an MMORPG. Hell, COD has a big playerbase too. Playerbase doesn’t decide your genre of game.

More to the point, outposts are LOBBIES. Can you cast skills, use spells in outposts? Nope. Even in Outposts you fight in, like LA during the mission to get to Nightfall, it’s an instance of LA which didn’t exist.

Games that have lobbies are known as lobby games. There are many of them. I’ve seen none that I would call an MMORPG.

If you can play in outposts, why can’t you use your skills there?

I can solo Orr and I think most people can. It involves maybe changing your skill use, and perhaps your runes/sigils and armor.

The same thing sorta happened in Guild Wars 1, the first time you played through. Each new area you got to required you to up your game. This is no different. Maybe you don’t remember, OP, but I do.

And you learned and got better. There is NO profession in this game you can’t solo Orr on. Absolutely none.

You might however have to rethink how you do things.

Anyway, if you join a guild and make some friends, you can probably get someone to go along with you.

Lord Kuru.3685:

If the Living Story were bigger — with whole zones changing permanently: say, Orr is repopulated, trees are now growing everywhere, etc (kind of like the evolution of Southsun Cove) then people who missed out on the process of this happening would at least get to see and explore a whole new Orr.

As it is, most of the Living Stories leave very little trace in the open world when they are done.

But it’s doubtful Anet is bold enough to toss aside the personal story (which would likely have to change drastically if the world were truly to change) and allow such major changes.

I think you’ll be surprised with what will change. Remember, there are more big project teams than living story teams, and most of the stuff we’ve been seeing is from the living story teams.

The other content isn’t available yet…because it takes longer to create.

Time Glitch.2460:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

First, I am not leaving. I play every day and do most of the LS content.

I am in 3 guilds, 2 of which are dead. I have had friends in my 2 dead guilds start asking me about what is going on in GW2 because they heard about all the new content and where thinking about coming back. So I tell them about all the great updates we have had, but then I have to tell them, “sorry, it was temporary so you missed out”.
It’s a real downer. None of my friends has any interest in returning once they find out they missed so much content that they will most likely never see again. Telling them there is new content every 2 weeks makes no difference it seems.

Has anyone else experienced this with their friends? Opinions? Is LS really a reason not to return?

I have to agree with this.

I have had a hard time justifying coming back to this game because I feel like since I missed something, I’ll never be able to “catch up”. It’s like I might as well not even bother because everyone’s got all this cool stuff and gear that I don’t.

And it gets worse the more temp content they add. “Better play it now or it’ll be gone forever!” The fact that it has a time limit also sucks. During those 2 weeks, I might only be able to play over the weekends. Bye bye any achievements or cosmetic items I might want, because they’re designed to take 2 weeks to get.

kitten temporary content. It’s a terrible idea for any game, especially an MMO.

There are very few achievements that are designed to take two weeks to get. Most of the stuff you can get in two days.

Xcom.1926:

Vayne.8563:

Xcom.1926:

Vayne.8563:

I don’t care if you believe me. The conversation happened. It’s not relevant to me whether you believe me or not. The fact that my own observations back up what he said is another matter.

Anyone with eyes can see people logging in and playing on patch day. Multiple overflows all over the place. Even if people only play for a week, and stop again for a week, there’s still high concurrency for that week.

Or did you think overflows spawned all by themselves for no reason?

Overflows happen on T1/T2 servers. Ocassionally T3 servers but that is about it.

About the dev you spoke to. Usually in most MMOs the higher ups only have that type of info. So in GW2’s case it would be Mike O’Brien or Colin and maybe the higher ups in NCSoft. They don’t share that type of concurrency info with all Devs, only a select few. This is the case not just with GW2 but most MMOs. The info is too sensitive to share with everyone.

I’m telling you what he told me. It’s pretty obviously what he’s been told. Why would he lie?

Developers do try to paint the best picture of their game, it is just natural. We don’t know exactly what that developer said or the context of the convo. But if he said “Population goes up during patch day”, I believe him. If he said “Concurrency is going up since launch” I absolutely don’t, since Izzy already said there was a post launch decline. It really depends on the context. “Concurrency gone up since last month” I would also believe as an example of context.

Once example is this:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/view/news/read/24266/Erickson-Denies-Declining-Sub-Numbers.html

An SWTOR dev said sub numbers weren’t declining, the next month or so EA said it declined. Yes I don’t believe developers because if you know anything about statistics you an mold it to fit your pretty little definition.

Okay, except that, as I said, he wasn’t painting the best picture of the game or the company. He was pretty casual. He was also pretty negative about certain things. So you can’t then go and say suddenly he finds this company line he wants to spout after talking some stuff down.

It doesn’t make any sense.

Join a party. A solo person trying to hit the threshold for loot is at a distinct disadvantage in an invasion. Say need a party in chat, and someone will invite you. You’ll get more drops.

From Wikipedia and yes, even though I know Wikipedia isn’t the final be all end all of all information,. it can be helpful to clear up how most people see things.

Here’s the first paragraph of the MMORPG article.

“As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and take control over many of that character’s actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players, and by the game’s persistent world (usually hosted by the game’s publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game.”

The number of players and the games persistent world. Guild Wars 1 didn’t have enough players, but even if you think it did, it didn’t have a persistent world.

You can make up your own definitions all you like, but to communicate we have to agree on certain aspects. I don’t know anyone who believes Guild Wars 1 had a persistent world.

In the Guild Wars 2 FAQ, there’s a question about is Guild Wars 2 an MMO, and the answer is yes, it has a persistent world.

I’m not even sure why this is being discussed. The only people who call Guild War 1 an MMO are people who are using their own definitions of what an MMO is.

Xcom.1926:

Vayne.8563:

I don’t care if you believe me. The conversation happened. It’s not relevant to me whether you believe me or not. The fact that my own observations back up what he said is another matter.

Anyone with eyes can see people logging in and playing on patch day. Multiple overflows all over the place. Even if people only play for a week, and stop again for a week, there’s still high concurrency for that week.

Or did you think overflows spawned all by themselves for no reason?

Overflows happen on T1/T2 servers. Ocassionally T3 servers but that is about it.

About the dev you spoke to. Usually in most MMOs the higher ups only have that type of info. So in GW2’s case it would be Mike O’Brien or Colin and maybe the higher ups in NCSoft. They don’t share that type of concurrency info with all Devs, only a select few. This is the case not just with GW2 but most MMOs. The info is too sensitive to share with everyone.

I’m telling you what he told me. It’s pretty obviously what he’s been told. Why would he lie?

Skan.5301:

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

… to the real efforts the company has made to fix things and learn…

Uh..what real efforts have they made to fix things?
The small scale skill balances? Or the massive grindfest they recently introduced?

Enlighten us on what you believe they’ve fixed because I would really like to know. You’ve got the stage.

Edit: Cactus beat me to it.

List of things they’ve fixed…

Culling, Ascalon Catacombs, Tequatl, most of the waaaay too easy bosses, not getting good enough drops for fighting champions, the account wallet, preview on the trading post, the necro to make it viable in most forms of the game….

I’m sure there’s more….maybe you’re just not paying attention.

Cactus.2710:

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

Yet no one reads the things I post offering what the company is doing to make amends… They are so blinded by their hate and fury that they can’t see straight, where I’m patient and see through it all to the real efforts the company has made to fix things and learn like all of us do: FROM OUR MISTAKES!

Can you please list the significant situations where ANet has learned from their mistakes and materially corrected them?? I’m really curious which things you believe deserve such designation. Please be specific.

They did a one time only event, back in November, it was a disaster and they never repeated it. And they said they learned from that mistake.

The originally brought out ascended gear only in the fractals and admitted that was a mistake and learned from that.

They’re coming out with more permanent content now (the new dungeon path, Tequatl).

I’d say they’re learning something. Maybe not everything though. lol

I’ve played even more than Galtrix and I’m not bored. Of course, I make my own entertainment and have a great guild.

Galtrix.7369:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Yet the game is still a success for you. Since you have played the game, and tried out all content (I assume).

How many hours is that? 60+?

money well spent i would say. Worse games out there that only give 5 hours total game time and sell for $60.

I played about 3000 hours of GW2, and I can happily say I should’ve spent my money on a game that would’ve given me 5 hours of gameplay. That game would’ve left me with some type of happy ending or a fulfillment of playing.

Guild Wars 2 was fun for the first few hours until I hit 80 and then the fun just slowly dissipated until it vanished and was replaced with work. No feeling of fulfillment. No feeling of joy. No feeling of accomplishment.

Then you didn’t stop playing in time and it’s your own fault. You can’t fault a game company for you doing something you don’t enjoy. If you stopped when you were starting to not enjoy it, you’d have gotten your money’s worth.

I think in some ways, the game has improved since launch. I think in other ways, the game has gotten worse since launch.

Over all, I’m still enjoying myself, but I’d prefer that some of the post launch changes never happened. However, I do enjoy most parts (not all) of the Living Story.

Is the game boring? I don’t know. I’m having too much fun with my guild to figure that out. lol

I don’t know. I’ve been saying we have more players now than we did in November, before the exodus of people who hated ascended weapons and vertical progression. I played the game then and now, and my observations back it up.

In November, pre-fractals, I was hardly ever on an overflow. Server caps were raised and I’m on overflows a lot more. There are often multiple overflows. I know this from trying to party with guildies and several of us having to move to get together. This rarely happened in November.

As I keep saying, the game LAUNCHED with a lot of people and a lot of people left quickly. Which is the reason Anet panicked and started vertical progression.

dcypher.2590:

Vayne.8563:

dcypher.2590:

Vayne.8563:

Xcom.1926:

Vayne.8563:

Unless you want to call the devs liars, you can. The devs have said straight out concurrency is on the rise. I believe them from my own observations.

Some people are coming back, some people are new from the free weekend, and of course, some people have left. No different than any other MMO.

They said it was a rise after the post launch slump. So the player base could have gone down 60% post launch and from there on in it stabilized. We won’t know exactly what the number is.

No. they said it recently and the dev I spoke to said it’s been a consistent rise, particularly on patch days. People are playing.

I’m not talking about an old quote. I’m talking about a conversation I had with a dev (wearing his Anet tag) just a few days ago. The same dev said the dragons in Arah story mode look dorky. lol

You should know better, really. None of that is enough evidence that the player base and concurrent player numbers are any bigger. Until we have factual numbers, your statement is just speculation, just like lower numbers being speculation. A chat with someone who from a PR standpoint could very well be biased does not mean anything really.

Except that everything else he was saying wasn’t PR bullkitten, and that makes a difference. This guy wasn’t spinning stuff. He’s not in PR. This guy was talking down more stuff than up and when I mentioned the living story coming too often, he told me about the response they were getting to it.

So you can believe what you want, but I was the one who spoke to him and if he was doing some PR job on me he did a lousy job of it. I didn’t come away from talking to that guy thinking this was an amazing game or company.

Well, I could tell you that I spoke with Obama yesterday and he told me that aliens colonized mars. Trying to use that as proof to support an argument would be rather dumb, though.

I don’t care if you believe me. The conversation happened. It’s not relevant to me whether you believe me or not. The fact that my own observations back up what he said is another matter.

Anyone with eyes can see people logging in and playing on patch day. Multiple overflows all over the place. Even if people only play for a week, and stop again for a week, there’s still high concurrency for that week.

Or did you think overflows spawned all by themselves for no reason?

Daywolf.2630:

Vayne.8563:

Things don’t right don’t necessarily equate to things done first. Just saying.

Well, quite true, but part of GW2’s selling point or marketing hype seemed to be the originality factor. After some 2k hours in the game, having leveled all the classes, mastering all the crafts, I’ve just come to the conclusion that originality was a weak point for the game design, not so original. The esthetics of the game are fairly original, but the underlining systems are not so much “things that are done right” but more "things re-done " etc. And in that, some of the things listed here were added to first-generation mmo’s and contributed to their decline.

Doesn’t spell doom for the game, but for many it means the expectation has fallen short from it’s original intent. But I listed two points that I see as meeting any such expectations, two points that contribute to an opinion thread. Unfortunately though, for some, throwing everything into a recipe including the kitchen sink, doesn’t necessarily result in a palatable dish.

I’m sorry but I think you judge too harshly here.

Originality doesn’t only mean something that uses nothing that was ever used anywhere else. It’s the combination of all the ingredients put together in the right way that make this game what it is.

I’m sure some game somewhere did away with mob tagging and maybe another (though I don’t know of any) allows everyone to rez each other and maybe another has the downed state (though no MMO has it).

But the deliberate combination of factors to make leveling a cooperative instead of a competitive feeling creates a completely different dynamic than any game I’ve ever played.

It’s like saying Shakespeare used all the same words as writers that came before him. They’re just words. It’s how you combine them that makes all the difference.

dcypher.2590:

Vayne.8563:

Xcom.1926:

Vayne.8563:

Unless you want to call the devs liars, you can. The devs have said straight out concurrency is on the rise. I believe them from my own observations.

Some people are coming back, some people are new from the free weekend, and of course, some people have left. No different than any other MMO.

They said it was a rise after the post launch slump. So the player base could have gone down 60% post launch and from there on in it stabilized. We won’t know exactly what the number is.

No. they said it recently and the dev I spoke to said it’s been a consistent rise, particularly on patch days. People are playing.

I’m not talking about an old quote. I’m talking about a conversation I had with a dev (wearing his Anet tag) just a few days ago. The same dev said the dragons in Arah story mode look dorky. lol

You should know better, really. None of that is enough evidence that the player base and concurrent player numbers are any bigger. Until we have factual numbers, your statement is just speculation, just like lower numbers being speculation. A chat with someone who from a PR standpoint could very well be biased does not mean anything really.

Except that everything else he was saying wasn’t PR bullkitten, and that makes a difference. This guy wasn’t spinning stuff. He’s not in PR. This guy was talking down more stuff than up and when I mentioned the living story coming too often, he told me about the response they were getting to it.

So you can believe what you want, but I was the one who spoke to him and if he was doing some PR job on me he did a lousy job of it. I didn’t come away from talking to that guy thinking this was an amazing game or company.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

Skyline.3480:

ProxyDamage.9826:

Don’t look at this as an “I quit!” post. I didn’t, not yet. I’m hanging around (with rapidly fading enthusiasm, I admit) to see what happens for now.

You are wasting your time son. This game will never be what you or I wanted it to be.
They made a choice long ago to follow this path and there’s no coming back from it.

I can predict one thing with certainty though, call me crazy if you must. The game will not die. It will become more and more similar to conventional MMOs. More vertical progression will be added, new levels and gear tiers. New grindy elements and features will be added, to the point the game will be unrecognizable.
Yes, it will loose many players in the process but in the end it will remain a popular game. A game I won’t be playing.

See I don’t think so. I think it’s still on a moderate progression path…and they intend to stay that way..that is the gear progression is going to be relatively minor stat-wise compared to other games. You won’t need the gear to run dungeons.

That’s my prediction anyway.

I wish I could believe that. What happens when the gear grinders get their Ascended Weapon or two and cry about nothing to work for? That’s how it started last year. And, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s already starting up again.

What I expect is for ANet to stick with the plan for skill progression that was announced in July. This system has been announced and has presumably been worked on, so they won’t waste that effort. However, I also expect that if it doesn’t work, all bets will be off. Since I don’t expect it to, I hope that the delay (we still have not seen Ascended Armor and the skill system has yet to debut) will be enough time for Wildstar and ESO to debut, and the gear grinders will do their inevitable moving on.

I don’t buy it. First…least year at this time, we didn’t have the living story or the achievement point grind. That’s created the stickiness that Anet was lacking before they came out with ascended gear. As long as that works, and it works for enough people, it doesn’t matter if a FEW people complain.

People seem to be under the impression that forum complaining is what caused Anet to introduce ascended gear. I say that’s not true at all. I think Anet looked at the metrics, the data gathering tools they had and tried to figure out why people weren’t logging in. They’re apparently quite happy now with concurrency numbers and so as long as that continues (and with the living story I don’t see why it shouldn’t), there’s no reason to keep adding gear tiers.

They added ascended gear for a reason. But that reason is no longer something they need to concern themselves with.

Sollith.3502:

Majic.4801:

cutting-edge FPS-style combat

First of all that’s not even what the main site says about it’s combat; this is nowhere near an actual “fps-styled” action combat system.

Secondly, even the way they state it on their website is sort of misleading. If they had an official option for a combat mode in their options or something, then it might actually be at a point where it could be considered “action-oriented,” but until then it’s nothing close to as fast paced nor as tactical.

I know you are being sarcastic here, but it really irritates me when people seem to think of GW2 as an action combat game. Also, you don’t have auto-targeting in action combat games; you have to figure out the most optimal angles, distancing, timing, etc. for yourself.

In comparison to an action combat game GW2’s combat is actually pretty slow and a lot closer to GW1 or other more traditional MMO combat systems with the exception that they removed a lot of the pointless rooting (and even removed it from some areas where they should have kept it…) and added a dodge.

It’s all relative, isn’kitten It’s not an action combat game compared to COD, but it is an action combat game compared to WoW and Guild Wars 1.

When you look at MMOs, most of them have static combat. Skills that you can’t generally cast while moving. In most MMOs you need to target your foe, but most skills in Guild Wars 2 don’t require targeting. You can hit if you hit.

There’s even a third party program that allows you to have a crosshair in the center of your screen and play it more like skyrim.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

guys, really, this game has seen 18 Content Updates. Now Content Updates are not necessarily full scale Expansion Packs. But when one takes into account the fact that this game is largely a Free To Play game with a Cash Shop, one has to understand that Content Updates are generally how the large majority of Expansions are going to be handled. Other Online Games utilizing the free to play model use the exact same Content Update System as opposed to straight Expansion Pack Releases because it is cheaper to produce several smaller content updates over the course of several months as opposed to a single large scale expansion pack. This is especially true in games that utilize the kind of voice acting that this game utilizes (though I personally only know of only one other MMORPG that utilizes voice acting in it).

Actually even most free to play games come out with expansions. Lotro has. DDO has. Perfect World has.

Your argument is that this is cheaper for the company to do than selling a million copies plus of another box?

That makes no sense. The traditional way developers increase interest and revenue in their game is to come out with an expansion.

Draco.2806:

I think you aim too high. The variety of gear is rather abysmal to begin with.

Vayne.8563:

I think there’s probably more attention to detail in this game than any other MMO I’ve ever played.

You should really try World of Warcraft. The Options menu alone would be a small booklet if printed out.

World of Warcraft had 8 years to fill in details. There’s more in the game now than there was when we started. But when I say attention to detail, there are so many little details this game has. The ambient dialogue, that gets louder as you approach the people talking. The little side areas that seem to have nothing unless you know where to look. The flute music by Gwen’s grave.

Do you remember when WoW was one year old…there were many of today’s details missing. Filling that stuff in takes tons of time.

But the kinds of details you’re talking about are quite likely different than the details I’m talking about.

Majic.4801:

GUILD WARS 2: THE LIVING WORLD™
Come See What You’ve Been Missing! *

Welcome to Tyria! Guild Wars 2 brings a rich, vibrant world of adventure and fantasy to life. Stunning, award-winning artwork, cutting-edge FPS-style combat, personalized storylines and innovative cooperative gameplay mechanics combine with a dynamic, living world to offer a compelling, immersive, ever-changing experience that will keep you coming back for more, over and over, again and again. And now, for a limited time, you can play the fastest-selling MMO in human history, absolutely FREE!

.

* NOTE: New players cannot actually see what they’ve been missing, because it’s gone now, removed from the game. Please be advised that most of the new content added since launch is no longer available. But don’t worry, there will be new content that will be available for brief periods before it is also removed. Say, have you ever looked into Zen Buddhism? Guild Wars 2 is like the embodiment of impermanence, an explicit embrace of the transience of all existence. While we cannot guarantee all players will achieve satori or any other form of enlightenment, we do offer a gameplay experience, or lack of gameplay experience, which no other online game can offer, or not offer. So what are you waiting for? Download Guild Wars 2 today, forget about the past and celebrate the ephemeral, nihilistic insignificance of our shallow, transient being in a way never before possible outside a monastery!

How could prospective players not see the obvious value proposition?

I don’t know. One would think new players will have the same content we had when we were new, which was plenty. I don’t see new players having the time to keep up with the living story and level their character.

Maybe new characters are not the people that have the biggest problem.

I don’t really like SAB until I’m doing it for a while, and then I love it. I particularly like tribulation mode. It’s sooooo trolly. Like Anet is just trolling us, but it makes me laugh.

Daywolf.2630:

Um… JP’s. Otherwise, most everything else I can contribute to having been done well/badly in other games already. I mean as far as core systems or content design in the game. I think JP’s are fairly original though, I think. It’s a good concept.

Oh and there is the level adjustment, makes a themepark a little more interesting. Though conceptually, it seems a derivative to a skill based sanbox system. But credit where credit is due.

Things don’t right don’t necessarily equate to things done first. Just saying.

Im Mudbone.1437:

Vayne.8563:

Xcom.1926:

Vayne.8563:

I’m sure, in the fullness of time, something will be done. It took WoW a very long time to get to their solution. I’m not thinking this is a number one priority for Anet.

Well the market is different now, ANet doesn’t have 8 years to come up with a solution. I don’t even think they have 1 more year. Some games like ESO have the solution before launch. To me it should be a priority, because getting new players into the game should be the number 1 priority.

Listen to you. ESO will be out in like a years time. And it’s going to be flawless at launch and everyone will love it, and it won’t be buggy and it won’t have any problems, so everyone will go there.

Anet has time because all MMOs need time to find their feet. And ESO is going to be subscription and console. I’m not thinking this is going to be a major issue for Guild Wars 2. A lot of people won’t pay a sub for any reason. I think people are putting too much into ESO. It’ll be another SWToR if I don’t miss my guess. It’ll never live up to the hype any more than GW 2 did.

They have other things to work on. Lists of them. If they get that stuff down, the game will be in a much better place to hold into people in the future. The first thing they have to get going is the China launch, because that’s most important. Then with the cash from that, you should start seeing some more improvements.

But I don’t believe the sky is falling. All this stuff takes time. They just came out with an LFG tool and that was, in my opinion, more important. Other things will be be added as time goes on, but this whole, they must do this now or they’re in trouble thing is just not true in my opinion.

Sorry but you are misinformed about ESO it will MOST DEFINITELY BE on PC and only JUST RECENTLY being considered for console. BETA here and can’t wait for release no matter how long it takes, simply awesome game, Bethesda rules and will GLADLY PAY.

People use to say Anet ruled and many people said they would pay for this game before it launched. Many people also said they’d pay for SWToR before it launched and Bioware was as highly regarded as Bethesda…except Bethesda isn’t actually making the game. Maybe I’m not as misinformed as you think.

I also know that Bethesda did interviews with Skyrim which said that they expected 90% of their Skyrim sales to be console sales. So if you think that they didn’t intend to come out on Console as well, I don’t know what to tell you. And by making it console friendly, it’ll probably kill the PC aspect.

At any rate…come back to me in 2-3 years and tell me how your expectations were met. Until then, it’s all just guesswork. But those I’ve heard talk about ESO are saying the very same stuff the GW2 fans said before launch, and the very same stuff the SWToR fans said before launch.

You can’t know how the game will go until the game is live.

Edit: I NEVER said ESO wouldn’t be available on PC, that’s you interpreting what I meant when I said it would be done for console.

You know…I forgot to add something to my list.

Skritt, Quaggan and Kodan. Really cool side-races that I really like. I especially like Skrittsburgh. lol

Assyrian.4827:

Some just don’t get it.
As long there is LS there will be NO expansion as you know it.

Right, because you said so.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

Isn’t a changing world what the MMO community has constantly asked to see? If the events of the LS stayed in the game and were always there, wouldn’t people be complaining that the game is stagnant?

Now the rate of the LS may need adjusting and I could see how it would be nice if there was some way for people to see ‘re-runs’ or something of the past cinematic scenes or missions to catch up on the lore.

Perhaps these re-runs could offer different rewards so people would still have an incentive to do them while people who were able to do storylines during their ‘first run’ as it were could show off they were there with that

It also seems more like the story itself gets monthly, rather than bi-weekly updates. Scarlet’s story really hasn’t advanced this whole month with the Teq upgrade.

Every story doesn’t have to advance every month. I don’t get this whole thing. It’s like a soap opera. Different storylines will be active at different times. We’re back to Scarlet in 3 days time. It took time to find her hideout. Frankly taking time off from a story and continuing it later is actually more interesting than a linear story told in order….at least to me.

And the LS IS changing the world. The Not So Secret Jumping Puzle, The karka queen, the moa races, the Scarlet invasions are all permanent additions, the new Teq battle… in a few days time there’s a permanent new dungeon path.

People want a thousand things all at the same time. What developer can afford to do that?

The changes are supposed to be gradual, so that when you look back after a couple of years the world will be different…which is after all, how worlds actually change…even in real life mostly.

Xcom.1926:

Vayne.8563:

Listen to you. ESO will be out in like a years time. And it’s going to be flawless at launch and everyone will love it, and it won’t be buggy and it won’t have any problems, so everyone will go there.

Why are you changing the subject? I was talking about their mega server tech and that is it. That is their solution to not seeing people in the world. The game could have 100k players playing it and the world will feel full because it is basically one merged server. I never said anything about how good or bad ESO is. In fact, I think it will be bad, I prefer WildStar.

I was talking about their tech. I was also talking about WoW’s tech when it comes to seeing people in low level zones. Not sure why you went off on a tangent?

If you knew anything about how China works with MMOs, it won’t even represent 10% of ANet’s revenue. China represents 60% of WoW’s playerbase but represents 15% of their revenue.

Regardless, I don’t see how China means anything to this discussion. Unless they let Chinese players play on NA/EU servers.

First…their mega server may be the single biggest issue in ESO. I’m not so sure how that’s going to affect the lag/multiplayer aspect and until we know it, it might not be the best idea in the world. I guess we’ll have to see on that.

And yes, it’s very important. You’re making the argument that this new game is coming out and if Anet doesn’t do something soon it will be too late. I’m making the argument that these new games are going to disappoint and Anet won’t be in trouble.

I’m saying you’re making it sound like the sky is falling and I don’t believe the sky is falling. Is it possible you’re right? Sure. It’s entirely possible…but I don’t believe it.

You missed my point in the China thing. It will make a difference but not in the way you think. More money means more people can work on development. More money can be spent on more teams. If it’s successful there will be enough people to work on all this stuff. That’s why I brought China into it. Anet is going to need a big cash influx to shore up the game, because as much as they got going on..the game still needs a lot of work.

Draco.2806:

Ah. Thanks.

I have no problem with having different things for different people to do in the game. In fact, it’s kittening amazing. It was one of the big and juicy promises prior to release. That’s how it should be done.

The alternative is forcing every player to do a bunch of things they don’t necessarily want or aren’t even any fun – and that’s where the game is now, and where it’s heading.

WoW, for example, has its famously horrible leveling grind. You can argue you “don’t have to do it” – and you really don’t, just go ahead and run around the starter zones – but it’s a futile argument because of the overall design. GW2 now falls victim to the same fallacy (and the same argument to defend it) – and the way you acquire Ascended gear is easily the most egregious example… so far.

It’s disappointing. It’s a broken promise.

I almost agree. I’d certainly agree if people would stop using the word promise. Statements are not promises

I remember reading a blog post where Anet told everyone that they experiment, try things and sometimes throw out entire systems if they seem not to be working. This means everything they do is actually up for grabs. What they were doing didn’t seem to be working, so they made a change.

I’m not sure promise is the right word, and as long as people keep using it, I’ll have to say that a statement is not a promise.