Guild Wars 2

They’re not going to work on autoloot, because they just put AOE looting in. The solution will work for most people. Autolooting is simply not going to happen.

You can now enable group looting in your options and bind it to a different key.

Problem solved.

I play every profession except thief and ele (I have them but not at max level). Necros and Eles were the big winners, followed closely by guardian. The only profession that did “badly” (and it’s not particularly a problem for me, but a lot of people are moaning about it) is the ranger class, which is one of my four mains. I played my ranger today and didn’t see much of a difference to be honest.

Most people are looking at Guild Wars 1 from the point of view of four products not one. Though Guild Wars Prophecies was a good game, it took many years before the game really came into it’s own.

That is to say, a lot of people liked Nightfall and Eye of the North more than Prophecies. Not everyone, but a lot.

Nightfall didn’t come out until a year an a half after Prophecies.

Guild Wars 1 WAS a great game. But some of the things that made it great, also made it niche…and it was niche. It was never a household name.

A lot of the stuff you see in Guild Wars 2 is an attempt to deal with the shortcomings of Guild Wars 1. As an example…the skill system.

Guild Wars 1 had to very big problems with skills. There were too many of them, and with the dual profession system it was literally impossible to balance skills. People complain about the inbalance in Guild Wars 2 but they never had to deal with the permasin, or even sabway. Guild Wars 1 had serious balance issues and less skills meant more control by Anet, which is what they wanted. But there was another problem.

Many people couldn’t figure out how to make a decent build. There really were too many skills and not everyone is capable of making a build. I’m a guy who loved to make builds. That’s what I did half the time. Make new builds. But at the same time I was doing an enjoying this, other builds were ruining the game for me, particularly because if you didn’t run Build A you weren’t going to be finding a group to do the Underworld. Everyone only wanted specific builds so they could do speed clears. It was pretty obnoxious.

So Anet lost a lot of people to the inability to have a build that worked. The solution was tie skills to weapons and introduce less skills at start. This way when they do finally have an expansion and they add skills, there’s more of a chance to keep it balanced and even a total noob can play a build because his weapons have the skills he’ll basically need.

Guild Wars 1 was a great game for a small percentage of the audience. Frankly I think Guild Wars 2 will improve a lot in the years to come, but it’s going to take another six months to a year before it’s the game it should have been at launch.

emikochan.8504:

Since 3day headstart, just passed 1000 hours, and got my first precursor drop XD

Thankyou game.

Hey that’s really cool. Gratz!

JustTrogdor.7892:

I do believe that video game/Internet addiction is referenced in the new DSM-5 (2013) as a condition for further study. I’m sure this doesn’t apply to most here but it is being considered as an actual diagnosable disorder.

Sadism and masochism used to be in the DSM and they removed them as a disorder. Something being in a book doesn’t make it fact, even the DSM.

There are probably people who are addicted to video games. However, it’s far more likely to me that there are people who are depressed or anxious and they’re SELF-MEDICATING with video games.

Considering the damage some prescription meds do to people, I’m not sure video game addiction is the big problem here.

Treat the depression, and you’ll have less people addicted to video games.

Erasculio.2914:

ArchonWing.9480:

I thought that was so 2001, but I guess I was wrong.

You are wrong.

It’s rather obvious that you are wrong, too. You are basically claiming that it doesn’t matter who the players are, and that’s completely nonsensical. Just look around this forum – a large number of topics are about what should be rewarded in game, about whether challenging content is good or not, and so on. And the differences in opinion often are due to different backgrounds. Borrowing a comic strip someone linked here last week:

You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the web. Taking a comic, which is making fun of a stereotype doesn’t strengthen your argument.

Are you saying there aren’t younger people who aren’t skillful, because I know a bunch of younger people who aren’t skillful. I also know people who work full time have a family and are skillful. And I know some older players who are VERY skillful.

This comic proves what I said about your first post. It’s a comic. It’s not life.

I agree, I’d like to see some changes explained.

See if you’d listened to me for the past two months, you’d have boycotted the boxes, and you wouldn’t be here complaining.

No one ever listens to me. lol

Gee, I guess I can’t do the dungeons I did with my ranger now. They suck. /sarcasm

Rangers isn’t much worse off now in dungeons than they were before. Particularly because the best pets to use in dungeons for anyone who’s not running with a group of zerker warriors, are spiders, which are ranged.

It’s the old, omg I’m playing with people who are so interested in effiicency they don’t want me. And that hasn’t changed since before the patch. The elitists and speed runners didn’t want you a week ago and they don’t want you today.

And the rangers in my guild will still run with the guild, and they’ll still get the same groups.

So what exactly has changed for a ranger? Honestly, it’s not as much as people think. I’m not killing stuff significantly slower, and yes, I main a ranger.

seshat.9652:

Guild Wars 2, is a fun game when you start playing it, but ended up being a game to do nothing on. If you want to spend hours on end, farming for skins.. talking with friends, or even killing stuff for the fun of it, then its an ok game to do that on.

If you want real progression, upgrades, content that improves, events that give real rewards, dungeons that give real rewards.. and anything else you normally play a game for.. gw2 is not for you.

It’s not for me, anymore.

Anything else YOU normally play a game for. But what percentage of the playerbase is that…that remains the question.

It’s a different type of game for a different type of player. The problem is there are myriad games for players like you but there are no MMOs for players like me…except Guild Wars 2.

I am hoping that will change.

Mercurio.4970:

I think what was meant is : Anet’s vision for this game has changed to TEMPORARY holiday shinies and cash shop gamble boxes as “content”. It has also proven to be very profitable; much more so – but for a TEMPORARY period; until the fanbase finally realizes what’s up and leaves ANET’s rep as a dev is in the mystic toilet.

Don’t expect ANET to change anything until most of the payer base has left for greener pastures, then the recruitment emails and promises of actual content will start flooding our inboxes once again. I think most of us have been here before, in other games.

All pastures are greener from the distance. There are so many MMOs that have worse cash shops than this. I think there isn’t even a chance of greener pastures for many of us until second quarter next year…and even that’s debatable.

But there are people like me who have absolutely no other MMOs they can play, because this one suits our play style. The RNG cash shop stuff sucks….but I don’t have to buy into that.

joshisanonymous.5270:

Vayne.8563:

You see, this is the kind of thinking most people do, and it’s flawed.

YOU had a problem with an addiction to an MMO, so you assume anyone who plays an MMO all the time has an addiction to MMO. Guild Wars 2 is the LEAST addictive MMO I’ve ever played. I’m not addicted to it. I’m enjoying it.

A lot of the reason I’m enjoying it is my guild. They’re fun to hang out with. But I assure you, I do a lot more with my day/time than just play Guild Wars 2. You’re simply making assumptions about me based on your own experience. My experience is completely different.

I play Guild Wars 2 because I have a LOT of free time, but also because I’m largely home bound. I also watch TV, read, play with the dogs. Guild Wars 2 works for me, because I can play in very small increments. I don’t have to play for hours at a time, and very rarely do. I sit down to relax for a bit, play a bit, take a break, play some more later. Logged in is not the same as play time, as I’ve already pointed out.

Everyone has different life circumstances. As an example, I’d MUCH rather visit a national park than play Guild Wars 2. Except that visiting a national park isn’t an option for me. I also read a book a week, follow several TV shows, and spend time with my wife.

Judging people without knowing them or their situation, particularly based on your own experience, will often lead you to false conclusions.

Just to be clear, I wasn’t judging you. The whole point of my post was to say that it makes me concerned that you might be playing so much for unhealthy reasons. I don’t know if you are or aren’t, but that possibility is where the concern lies.

If I’m making any assumptions here, it’s that I think my experience is not unique, but even just taking a cursory glance through a peer-reviewed article database brought up plenty of articles on the topic so I doubt that even this assumption is poor.

But again, I’m simply talking about the possibility of a problem, nothing more.

Okay…but you’re expressing concern and then in the same thread quoting my name. I’ve had a long and relatively successful life. I’m quite happy with where I am, and what I’ve done and I’m doing.

Don’t be surprised if you express concern and then name someone that they’d respond in this manner.

joshisanonymous.5270:

Draconus.9786:

I always enjoy reading the excuses people use to justify sitting in front of a computer playing a game ten hours a day, everyday. If I was retired I would have many hobbies. If I was rich, I certainly wouldn’t spend all my time on a game. If I worked from home I would actually focus on my job. I don’t know just seems way unhealthy to have any good reason. I personally felt like I had to many hours logged with 450. Well don’t want to be super negative because that’s not good either. So to each their own. It’s not my life so as long as you are enjoying yourself more power to you friends. Just don’t be afraid to expand your horizons.

Basically, this. My concern when someone has and /age (or /played) that amounts to 12 hours a day is that they’re not playing that much because it’s the activity they feel makes their life more enjoyable than any other but because they simply can’t stop. I once spent two years playing an MMO literally every moment I wasn’t at work, in school, or sleeping. At one point I didn’t leave my apartment for an entire week and mostly just ordered pizza when hungry (because cooking would subtract from game time). Obviously, some part of me enjoyed the game, but I was miserable. And I’ve always regretted it desperately because there’s so much I wanted to do and could’ve done during that time but didn’t.

So, maybe it’s just me, but the shocked response is not so much, “You’re a loser, get a life,” as it is, “I’m concerned that you’re not really that okay with playing so much.” Case in point, Vayne sounds rather defensive even when responding to the person I quoted, who I thought was making his point as delicately as possible. That causes concern in me since, if one is really satisfied with the amount of gaming they do, they wouldn’t get so angry when someone else simply says, “To each their own, but don’t you have other hobbies you want to make time for?” (Sorry to pick you out Vayne, but you’re the only one in the 3,000 hours range who’s responding a lot.)

You see, this is the kind of thinking most people do, and it’s flawed.

YOU had a problem with an addiction to an MMO, so you assume anyone who plays an MMO all the time has an addiction to MMO. Guild Wars 2 is the LEAST addictive MMO I’ve ever played. I’m not addicted to it. I’m enjoying it.

A lot of the reason I’m enjoying it is my guild. They’re fun to hang out with. But I assure you, I do a lot more with my day/time than just play Guild Wars 2. You’re simply making assumptions about me based on your own experience. My experience is completely different.

I play Guild Wars 2 because I have a LOT of free time, but also because I’m largely home bound. I also watch TV, read, play with the dogs. Guild Wars 2 works for me, because I can play in very small increments. I don’t have to play for hours at a time, and very rarely do. I sit down to relax for a bit, play a bit, take a break, play some more later. Logged in is not the same as play time, as I’ve already pointed out.

Everyone has different life circumstances. As an example, I’d MUCH rather visit a national park than play Guild Wars 2. Except that visiting a national park isn’t an option for me. I also read a book a week, follow several TV shows, and spend time with my wife.

Judging people without knowing them or their situation, particularly based on your own experience, will often lead you to false conclusions.

HiddenNick.7206:

Vayne.8563:

Every other MMO I’ve played has goals. This is one of the few MMOs I’ve played that really has none. Or at least your goals are yours.

How is that a good thing? Because it’s different? That’s your argument?

No, my argument is other MMOs, the way they stand don’t work for me, because they’re telling me you need to do this, then do this, then to this. I prefer less structure.

See, some people want a more structured experience and some people want a less structured experience. And there’s nothing wrong with either.

But since most MMOs are structured out the kitten, it’s nice to have a game for the rest of us. I don’t think this is so hard to understand.

Nick.6972:

If this game was called “Guilds” “Tyria” or “Attack of Zhaitan” you can be sure I would have quit this game months ago and I would not be here posting on this forum.
What annoys me the most is that the game I loved and supported for many years turned into this I don’t even know what, but certainly it’s not a sequel.
So yeah, I’m waiting till September.

Completely irrelevant to what I said. There are a gazillion complaint threads to post in, every single comment in every single thread doesn’t have to be turned into a complaint.

My advice is if you’re mostly into PvE, then consider Tarnished Coast. I can’t really comment on PvP or WvW, since I don’t really focus on those.

Nick.6972:

Back in GW1 days, I used to play regularly at least 2 hours daily.
Mostly I logged in just to play 2 or 3 UW or FoW runs daily, with no objective whatsoever, I didn’t grind, I just enjoyed the instance, the complexity (which admittedly eventually disappeared), the teamwork, and the idea that you could _ up everything for everyone extremely easy.
GW2 fails to deliver me the same experience.

/age in GW2 is 450 hours
I ABSOLUTELY HATE laughable easy content.

Every single thread is an excuse for you to post how much you hate the game. Every thread. Why bother? We all KNOW you hate the game. That’s not what this thread is about.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

There will always be those people who say the people with more hours than them have no life blah blah blah. It’s amazing what people can do if they don’t need that much sleep, don’t have children, don’t have your life. Everyone is different and everyone has different spans of time they can play in. Don’t be so ignorant and think that these people don’t have any lives, sometimes they probably have a bigger social life than you outside of the game.

But back to the point of the thread. /age 1229h

Oh yeah, once the kids are grown and on their own, your whole life changes. Particularly if you have insomnia, which I do.

The more I think about the topic though, the more I wonder what validity it has. Without knowing how much someone has PLAYED and how much someone has just logged in, it’s relatively meaningless.

Achievement points would be a better indicator of time spent, or some specific achievements maybe, like Dungeon Master.

But seeing how much you stay logged into a game doesn’t really reflect how many hours you’ve played it.

Meglobob.8620:

Thanks for the answers, just read the reviews on Amazon for the 1st two books and they pretty much agree with what you both said…

Ghosts of Ascalon seems to be rated the best, so I will give that a go and consider the other 2 later…

Cheers…

Let us know what you think.

While solo is viable, I’d actually recommend you join a casual leveling guild if you’re leveling a new character. Leveling is more fun with people…to me at least.

There WILL be events you can’t solo, most of which are labeled group events. Some group events can be soloed, but not most of them.

There are probably less people in the middle zones now and more in the starter zones.

Is it worth coming back? Everyone has a different opinion. Some of us have never left.

Deamhan.9538:

30..wait, you meant character age.

JJBigs.8456:

For real. Saying computer gaming is worse than people who spend all day watching TV or partying in clubs like paris hilton or doing sports or relaxing on beaches or whatever honestly makes no sense. to each their own

I agree to a certain degree.

From a single person perspective, gaming is better than watching TV for a couple reasons.

-It gets you thinking; and
-It has social qualities (talking with other people).

However, unless the other person/people are gaming with you, TV is still spending time with those who are in your life. If they don’t game with you, then you are not spending this time with them.

Gaming Vs Clubs. I’d say it’s cheaper to game but with the way some people throw money into these Cash Shops, I think the clubs would be cheaper for them. Socially, interacting with people face to face is better than over TS or ingame chat.

Sports? No contest. Going out and playing a sport is, in all ways, better for you than gaming.

I game with my wife…probably half the time I play she’s also playing. We also watch tv together, and go out with the dogs together. (Me and my dogs play backyard cricket lol).

But Guild Wars 2 is my main hobby.

JSmooth.7654:

Vayne.8563:

I can almost guarantee you, not giving people something to DO will lose more people than giving them something meaningless to do.

He is saying, give people something better to do on a slower time table.

I know what he’s saying. I’m saying to make GOOD content takes long enough where there won’t be anyone left to do it by the time it comes out.

They need to do the same thing Rift did. String people along with busy work until the good stuff comes out.

Edit: It should probably be pointed out too that some people’s awesome content means less than nothing to something else. I love the Fractals. I think they’re a lot of fun (though I don’t grind them). There are other people in my guild who prefer the living story to fractals.

Some people like this kind of stuff.

Meglobob.8620:

I am considering buying all 3 books, is each a individual story or are they connected?

The fantasy books I like to read are by:

David Gemmel
George R. Martin
Terry Pratchett
Robert Jordan
Raymond E. Feist

Is the writing in the same league as those?

I feel very much disconnected from Guild Wars lore/story, especially as I never played GW1, so would love to get to know the lore more over a good story…

I don’t feel the writing is in the same league as actual literature, because it’s written for a gaming audience. The focus, particularly in Edge of Destiny is too much on action, and less on story. I thought Ghosts of Ascalon was better written.

I’ve only just started Sea of Sorrows, and it’s good so far, but you know…it’s hard to tell from a couple of chapters.

And though I didn’t think Edge of Destiny was well written (I disagreed with some of the decisions the author made), it was still a fun read.

I just wouldn’t expect a lot of depth, that’s all.

Curunen.8729:

Ah now I get it – so people with hundreds/thousands of hours have a lot of time spent either afk, waiting for other people or chatting ingame.

I tend to play solo or loosely grouped most of the time, so my time ingame is nearly always spent actively doing something.

Edit: So it’s quite a lot to do with usage patterns – leaving your machine on and leaving the game open in the background or something.

This is quite true. Due to the nature of my real life situation, I often don’t get blocks of time to play for hours on end, But I do get 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there. And sometimes I do get to play for hours on end, but it’s relatively rare.

But I don’t log out every time I go AFK to do a chore. The exception would be WvW, where I do log out during prime time to make room for someone else to get in.

Draconus.9786:

I always enjoy reading the excuses people use to justify sitting in front of a computer playing a game ten hours a day, everyday. If I was retired I would have many hobbies. If I was rich, I certainly wouldn’t spend all my time on a game. If I worked from home I would actually focus on my job. I don’t know just seems way unhealthy to have any good reason. I personally felt like I had to many hours logged with 450. Well don’t want to be super negative because that’s not good either. So to each their own. It’s not my life so as long as you are enjoying yourself more power to you friends. Just don’t be afraid to expand your horizons.

Judgmental much? What you would do is completely irrelevant, since everyone is different. No one has to make excuses to do something they enjoy, particularly if they’re working hard in other areas. This is in your head.

Never judge someone until after you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. This way, if they get kitten ed off, they’re a mile away and barefoot.

serialkicker.5274:

Vayne.8563:

3335 Hours over the past 9 months. Mind you, quite a bit of that time I’ve been on the forums at the same time. lol

Woah there Vayne, have you ever reboot your computer since gw2 release? hehe

Not too often. lol

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

LordByron.8369:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Try to deny the grind in a MMO is just silly, because there is no way around it. The grind or in general, the progression of yourself is the reason why you keep playing a game.

you know that works only if the game itself has a boring gameplay?

Grinding is the reason why you keep playing a BAD game

Then why there are 7 million ppl playing WoW? It is a grind too. Same goes for diablo.

WoW came out at a very specific moment in time, 8 years ago. With very little competition. There are probably as many people paying for a WoW sub to hang with their friends as there are people who actually enjoy the game. Many WoW players I know are bored and pay anyway. If a game like WoW was released tomorrow, it would probably take quite badly.

Anyway, Blizzard has HUGE amounts of money to advertise. I don’t see Guild Wars 2 commercial with William Shatner, Chuck Norris or Mr. T. A better question is why have 1.7 million people left WoW over a very short period of time.

Torpian.9142:

I’m reluctant to defend the game, though I do enjoy it. The last time I defended the game I received a warning from a moderator and a threat that my account will be locked. I realized it’s not up to me to argue with the slew of naysayers. Moderators seem to encourage the negativity here. I’m surprised Vayne hasn’t been perma banned and people like Nick and Dante aren’t given some kind of special forum status.

I’ve never had a ban, but I’ve sure had a lot of infractions. I still think they need to make an achievement for that. lol

HiddenNick.7206:

Draknar.5748:

You do know there are WvW ranks, passive unlockable abilities, and unique titles to be achieved strictly from playing WvW. Is that also not enough recognition?

But I can’t win in any way! I know that there is sPvP but I don’t play it. Either way it’s the only part of the game that has a goal – be the best.

Draknar.5748:

Have you ever played an MMO in the past that allowed for 2000+ hrs that wasn’t repetitive in some way and involved some kind of grind? Please enlighten us to what game you’ve poured thousands of hours into that had absolutely no grind and that GW2 should use as an example of how to do it right.

I’m not saying that Gw2 is most grindy of all games… Here it’s just pointless. And you never feel achieving something.

Draknar.5748:

GW2 should be given the credit for doing something different. Many seem to hate it, but I sure as kitten think its a breath of fresh air from the garbage that has been coming out in the MMO genre. Constant re-hashing of the same basic “WoW” format content, but with different lore.

I don’t care what format the game is. I really don’t. And will never give credit only for doing something different.

Draknar.5748:

Everyone wants to recapture the nostalgia of past MMOs, but when presented with something similar to what they enjoyed in the past the nostalgia disappears or is never experienced at all because everyone remembers why they quit those games in the first place.

I think that is at the heart of the problem with new MMOs. At this point, most MMO players are likely in the 10-15,000+ mark in terms of hours played across all MMOs in their lifetime. It’s why they get bored easily when a new one comes out that is even remotely similar to what they’ve played.

I don’t play any other MMO. I don’t know if there are any better games in this genre. But right now the game has no goal. And that’s the problem for me.

Everything in this game is more or less: do it a thousand times because it’s “fun”. When it aren’t. And a goal could change that.

I don’t know why people here are trying to tell me that the problem is on my side when at the same time you acknowledge that the game has no goal! You all sound more or less like this: “The game has no goal… But it’s a good thing! And you should be happy about it!”. That kind of arguments just makes me sad.

Every other MMO I’ve played has goals. This is one of the few MMOs I’ve played that really has none. Or at least your goals are yours.

Are you saying this one game for players like me should become like other games for players who have a bevy of games to choose from.

That makes ME sad.

Yeah I’m thinking less people who play thieves spec into condition thieves than direct damage thieves, and most won’t change that. This just gives some people who want it another option.

JJBigs.8456:

You guys know there are such things as rich people, who dont have to work, who will have more money than you “40 hours” people will ever have. Ofc im not one of them but they do exist. There are also retired people etc. There is many many other loopholes or ways to play with or without having a job. Also if you say “get a gf” thre are people who get out of a 4 year relationship, who want to take personal time off so they arent looking to date at the moment. There are lots of people who actually have mental issues, and are able to play 48+ hours at a time without getting bored or needing sleep, are those people somehow inferior? I dont think so, in fact ive had many friends as such. The list can go on..

I’m married. My wife is my best friend. She plays too.

Unfortunately, most of my real life friends (not all) are 10,000 miles away in NYC where I lived most of my life. But I still do have friends. Some of them even play Guild Wars 2. lol

Pretty good comments all around OP. I agree with most of this.

Unfortunately, the world boss thing will end up being like temples though. No one wants to do temples because they’re too hard. If you make the world bosses harder, you’ll have a kittenstorm on the forums. People want their easy loot. Not me, but it’s not an easy change for Anet to make. Maybe after they redo the loot system.

The rest of it, pretty much spot on. Good job.

Raine.1394:

I have to agree with Vayne on TC. I just did a mad dash from Ebonhawke up through fireheart rise on one of my newer characters today and I ran into other players throughout. Not huge numbers everywhere, but the world felt populated and I didn’t feel alone. And, this mirrors my general experience on TC—it’s why I moved there.

Active, populated servers make a huge difference in quality of life. If you are experiencing low pop syndrome, try guesting on TC and check it out yourself.

If you keep agreeing with me, we’re both going to get a complex. lol

Just got it on my kindle…looking forward to reading it!

dukefx.9730:

Read my post again!

I wasn’t commenting on your post. I can’t because I don’t know the veracity of it. For all you know, there may be more builds out there on the alpha server and no one has figured them out from the incomplete patch notes yet.

Arcturus.5846:

You know, I actually have no idea the purpose of this new condition. To discourage moving? Even if the damage is minimal, what is the purpose of the additional DoT? You’re either in…

1) Damage is significant enough that players would try to los and remain stationary.
2) Damage is insignificant that players will just ignore it.

In PvP it adds thought and strategy. Someone has to figure out if it’s worth moving or not. The very idea that some people won’t even notice in and others will and have that moment if indecision will change the way people play…which I suspect is the idea.

As the game stands now, many say it’s too simple. Adding a bit of complexity (and admittedly that’s all it is) isn’t a bad thing in my opinion.

Vahlen.9508:

^ This, they’ve literally killed anything the warrior had. Yes, they were OP in PvE but with the massive dps nerf the GS received and overall general dps nerf the class is left in a situation where they bring nothing to PvE or PvP.

This patch is a joke if the note are true, I hope they aren’t but if they are it’s the best indication we’ve gotten so far the Anet is completely out of touch with their game.

One hand sword was buffed. Warriors could faceroll everything before in PvE. If you really think that’s balanced or fine, you probably shouldn’t comment on game design.

It’s not fine and it’s not working. OP is OP.

The idea of the balancing patch was to make it so that people used different builds, and that not 90% of all warriors would continue to run a great sword. The idea was the encourage more build diversity.

I’m pretty sure that will happen a bit, but it’ll probably take another three or four patches like this to really make a difference.

Lisa.6102:

opps so slow …lol Vayne answered most of it

Sorry…I swooped. Timing is everything….still good point about the different servers and guesting.

You can meet up almost immediately…right after the tutorial.

Every racial city has a portal in it to Lion’s Arch and everyone starts right in front if their racial city.

Once you explore the city and find the portal to Lion’s Arch, you’ll be surrounded by portals to each of the five starting cities. Go through the same portal and you’re in a starter city and a gate away from a starter zone.

You can do any zone you want when you start this game, by going through to Lion’s Arch.

Dante.1508:

Great post OP, totally agree. Its pretty hard not to see why this game is falling apart at the seams.. You pretty much wrote what i wrote a few months ago, and nothing has changed, i very much doubt it will until the game dies badly (worse than now i mean).

Anet know these issues exist and like it bleak and grindy.

The small group that pick apart you’re P.P.S is really all they’ve got, they know these issues exist they just blindly ignore them, possibly because they are paid too.

I know the issues, I don’t blindly ignore them. But the game is hardly dead. No game that updates every two weeks can be called dead. What is YOUR definition of dead.

Because in mine, dead games don’t have updates.

Vahlen.9508:

Judging from the preview notes I think it should be pretty clear that Anet doesn’t even play their own game anymore. Warriors are going to be in a worse state than they were before the patch, and nothing of interest was added to any of the other classes that were hurting……….nothing is going to change with this patch.

You can’t really know that until you see how it plays out…but I’m personally excited about some of the necro changes.

killcannon.2576:

Anywho, I’m not arguing for vertical progression. Just progression. Whatever form that may take.

Yep, I think there needs to be some form of progression in the game, which is why I brought up alternate advancement. Many games use some form of it, without resorting to making the game about gear.

Basically I don’t want to be a coatrack for greatness.

zBluRrYz.1347:

Vayne.8563:

zBluRrYz.1347:

The Boxes, Chest, Coffers etc that they make people buy with money (i.e, you can only get RICH coffers for Cash) are imo a huge scam. The drop rates in them are still terrible. They should have other contents that the normal coffers don’t have. More minipets, different skins, etc etc. I think ArenaNet is being abit greedy with them, but people keep buying them.

See if they put stuff in those coffers that other coffers don’t have, THEN they’d be even more greedy. At least this way people who don’t spend money have a chance at weapon skins.

But everything is purely asthtetic so it wouldn’t cause an imbalance. So i think it’s fine if people want to pay for things like that

They still need to put new skins in the game for people who don’t want to pay too…because in this game, winning is getting cool looking stuff. lol

killcannon.2576:

Vayne.8563:

killcannon.2576:

Vayne.8563:

killcannon.2576:

Lol, I love all the people saying “Introduce gear progression and people will leave” or “GW2 was built with no gear progression as a selling point”. That argument was dead 7 months ago with the introduction of Ascended.

snip

It doesn’t matter what the casuals, hardcores, elites, or baddies think. There will be progression simply because it keeps people playing more hours of the day.

And in the end, that’s what MMO publishers want.

Eric Flannum has said straight out in interviews that the game wouldn’t contain vertical progression. There are two examples of it that people commonly post. He was wrong, obviously but he did say it.

“We will not be retaining the level 20 cap. [from GW1] We will announce the exact nature and level of the Guild Wars 2 level cap early next year but let me state that our philosophy of allowing players to play the game without grinding their life away is something that is unchanged from Guild Wars 1.” – Lead designer Eric Flannum

“It’s more of a badge system, so this is something that we did in Guild Wars 1 as well. Our basic philosophy is that you should never complete a piece of content and get something you don’t want. So it’s going to be the case where you go through and are guaranteed to get a piece of gear that you didn’t have before, and that you’re going to want.” So, you’re guaranteed to get a piece of gear every time you do a dungeon? “Yes.”"Sweet."——Eric Flanum from an interview with PC Gamer about dungeons.

Eric Flannum:
Our goal with our crafting philosophically is that you’ll never make an item that is a throwaway item. You’ll always be making something that is going to be valuable to someone. Whether it’s for yourself, whether it’s to put on the auction house, whether it’s a consumable that people want, there’s never a time when you’re just making something to increase your skill and then you’re just going to vendor it or chuck it or whatever else you’d do with it afterwards.

I seriously would never, ever, quote that guy for truth.

Game was released with vertical progression. Fine<Masterwork<Rare<Exotic; levels; tiered trait system; content blocked by level.

And last, but certainly not least, I found this while I was googling Mr.Flannum

Vayne
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Hunter View Post
“They also said the wouldn’t add vertical progression. What are we supposed to believe at this point?”

Actually they never said those words. They said other words. They said that Legendary weapons would equal exotic weapons in stats. I’d love to see there they actually said there words there would be no vertical progression. A lot of things that are said during game production changes anyway. As the energy example I always give. Anet has always said it was a company that iterates, which pretty much means things change. Or maybe you missed the word iteration in every single post they’ve ever made on their blog and just about every interview they’ve given.

They try stuff all the time and if it’s not working, they change the stuff. That’s pretty much what iteration means. So if they see this isn’t working, they’ll change it. If they see it is working they probably won’t. What they had before wasn’t working for various reasons. They changed it. I’m pretty sure there’s something in the TOS that says they can do that, but I haven’t gone back and read it.

They’ve changed something you really care about and you’re angry. I get that. But they never said, there will never be any vertical progression in Guild Wars 2. I’m pretty sure there always planned it for paid upgrades for example.*

You know for a fact I know they’re an iterative company, because I’ve pointed that out many times. And no, I’m not particularly upset with vertical progression.

But in previous arguments on these forums, other people have pulled quotes out about vertical progression, when I was arguing that the manifesto didn’t mention vertical progression at all. I never bothered to verify the quotes, I just assumed that people actually used good quotes. Remember, I’m the guy who was defending Anet for their decision to add ascended gear.

You’re so good at finding quotes, surely you’d be aware of this.

I can’t find a quote by Mr. Flannum stating there would be zero vertical progression in the game. If there is one, someone is lying somewhere. Either Ascended was planned before release, making any quote stating there would be no vert progression a lie, or Ascended wasn’t planned before release, making that statement a lie.

Regardless, there has always been vert progression in game. It’s just not a treadmill.

How many times have I said those very words about it not being a treadmill. Honestly, you’d think I lost my fan boy tatoo or something. lol

RedSpectrum.1975:

Whats tmrw’s patch?
being a nub right now

A big one, the start of the Sky Pirates content and a major skill update.

Erasculio.2914:

Vayne.8563:

3335 Hours over the past 9 months. Mind you, quite a bit of that time I’ve been on the forums at the same time. lol

That’s more or less 12 hours per day, each day, for every week, during all those 9 months.

Do you, like, work or something?

Yes, I work taking care of a disabled person 24/7 pretty much, so we’re more or less home bound. Thanks for taking an interest.

It gives me plenty of time to play (particularly because we’re often up late nights, and because distraction is a much better way to deal with chronic pain than medicine).

killcannon.2576:

Vayne.8563:

killcannon.2576:

Lol, I love all the people saying “Introduce gear progression and people will leave” or “GW2 was built with no gear progression as a selling point”. That argument was dead 7 months ago with the introduction of Ascended.

People won’t leave, it will make people stay and play the game. Example? The current game.

GW2 has never said it would not contain gear progression. Never.

It doesn’t matter what the casuals, hardcores, elites, or baddies think. There will be progression simply because it keeps people playing more hours of the day.

And in the end, that’s what MMO publishers want.

Eric Flannum has said straight out in interviews that the game wouldn’t contain vertical progression. There are two examples of it that people commonly post. He was wrong, obviously but he did say it.

“We will not be retaining the level 20 cap. [from GW1] We will announce the exact nature and level of the Guild Wars 2 level cap early next year but let me state that our philosophy of allowing players to play the game without grinding their life away is something that is unchanged from Guild Wars 1.” – Lead designer Eric Flannum

“It’s more of a badge system, so this is something that we did in Guild Wars 1 as well. Our basic philosophy is that you should never complete a piece of content and get something you don’t want. So it’s going to be the case where you go through and are guaranteed to get a piece of gear that you didn’t have before, and that you’re going to want.” So, you’re guaranteed to get a piece of gear every time you do a dungeon? “Yes.”"Sweet."——Eric Flanum from an interview with PC Gamer about dungeons.

Eric Flannum:
Our goal with our crafting philosophically is that you’ll never make an item that is a throwaway item. You’ll always be making something that is going to be valuable to someone. Whether it’s for yourself, whether it’s to put on the auction house, whether it’s a consumable that people want, there’s never a time when you’re just making something to increase your skill and then you’re just going to vendor it or chuck it or whatever else you’d do with it afterwards.

I seriously would never, ever, quote that guy for truth.

Game was released with vertical progression. Fine<Masterwork<Rare<Exotic; levels; tiered trait system; content blocked by level.

And last, but certainly not least, I found this while I was googling Mr.Flannum

Vayne
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Hunter View Post
“They also said the wouldn’t add vertical progression. What are we supposed to believe at this point?”

Actually they never said those words. They said other words. They said that Legendary weapons would equal exotic weapons in stats. I’d love to see there they actually said there words there would be no vertical progression. A lot of things that are said during game production changes anyway. As the energy example I always give. Anet has always said it was a company that iterates, which pretty much means things change. Or maybe you missed the word iteration in every single post they’ve ever made on their blog and just about every interview they’ve given.

They try stuff all the time and if it’s not working, they change the stuff. That’s pretty much what iteration means. So if they see this isn’t working, they’ll change it. If they see it is working they probably won’t. What they had before wasn’t working for various reasons. They changed it. I’m pretty sure there’s something in the TOS that says they can do that, but I haven’t gone back and read it.

They’ve changed something you really care about and you’re angry. I get that. But they never said, there will never be any vertical progression in Guild Wars 2. I’m pretty sure there always planned it for paid upgrades for example.*

You know for a fact I know they’re an iterative company, because I’ve pointed that out many times. And no, I’m not particularly upset with vertical progression.

But in previous arguments on these forums, other people have pulled quotes out about vertical progression, when I was arguing that the manifesto didn’t mention vertical progression at all. I never bothered to verify the quotes, I just assumed that people actually used good quotes. Remember, I’m the guy who was defending Anet for their decision to add ascended gear.

You’re so good at finding quotes, surely you’d be aware of this.

zBluRrYz.1347:

The Boxes, Chest, Coffers etc that they make people buy with money (i.e, you can only get RICH coffers for Cash) are imo a huge scam. The drop rates in them are still terrible. They should have other contents that the normal coffers don’t have. More minipets, different skins, etc etc. I think ArenaNet is being abit greedy with them, but people keep buying them.

See if they put stuff in those coffers that other coffers don’t have, THEN they’d be even more greedy. At least this way people who don’t spend money have a chance at weapon skins.

I was under the impression that it wasn’t a percentage and that some foods did indeed give 10% and some only gave 10 points extra.

I’ll have to check this now, but it’s what I was led to believe by others.