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IMO, GW2 is the best game ever played

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

@Vayne.


Systems and Rewards Supporting the Living World

To make playing in our open world worthwhile, we’ll make it rewarding enough for players to spend their time there across all levels. It’s extremely important that we stay true to our philosophy that you should be able to play Guild Wars 2 the way you want to play the game in order to reach the most powerful rewards.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/

Strange, this doesn’t support your theory.

Guild Wars 1 anti farming code: from the wiki
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Anti-farm_code

you should be able to play Guild Wars 2 the way you want to play the game in order to reach the most powerful rewards

He did show me the link to the skele’s, still seems more like a band-aid solution more than a policy.

You should be able to play the game you want as long as it affects no one else. I’ve already explained elsewhere why that affects other people.

Farming can ruin the game for other people. Anet is right to limit it as a play style. The harder core farmers, who care only about farming, will likely leave. This won’t make the game weaker in my opinion.

Give us something to do.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Even at launch, WoW had much more personal flavor to it, the game had a personality of its own. GW2 is just… flat. Nothing changes, nothing is different. It even goes as far as the music, I’ve yet to hear a soundtrack that’s unique, or with a flair unique to the area. PvP is all the same game mode, just a different map. It’s just, boring. :/ I love GW2, don’t get me wrong, I’m just taking a break already, after six months.

I don’t remember WoW at launch having personal flavor. I remember WoW at launch going down every single day for 12 hours at a time. That’s what I remember from WoW at launch.

If you really compare, I mean go back and look at what was on offer, you’d realize Guild Wars 2 at launch has FAR more content than WoW did.

Whether it’s got personal flavor or not is very much a matter of opinion. I never saw personal flavor in WoW at all.

I'll be trying out GW1

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Guild Wars 1 has pretty slow pacing compared to Guild Wars 2…which isn’t necessarily a down side. The stuff you unlock to make yourself more powerful happens a lot more slowly. The builds are more complex, and you need to know more to play. This is particularly true if you’re starting with Prophecies, the first of the games, which I did.

I’d say the slow pacing and high learning curve of the game threw a whole lot of people off.

Guild Wars 2 is much easier to learn…and still has issues in that area. Guild Wars 1 is much tougher to get into.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

@Clay

Hopefully you’ll see this when you wake up.

One of the things you’ve said before as part of your theory about why Guild Wars 2 might fail is that other MMOs, many others have failed. So let me ask you a couple of questions.

1. How many of those other MMOs that failed, started with a Buy to Play model? This is an important distinction because trying to go pay to play is a disaster waiting to happen for any MMO…and Rift did it and remains viable, so not even all of those failed, but most did. However, none of them, to my recollection, were buy to play, and that makes a difference.

2. How many of the MMOs that failed tried to mimic WoW in most particulars. I mean SWToR was basically WoW in space. Rift was called WoW 2.0. The problem is, there is only so much of a market for that kind of game. Guild Wars 2, while being a fantasy MMO, doesn’t really mimic WoW in most particulars. There are no raids, there is no trinity, there are no traditional quests, there is no monthly fee…the list is almost endless, down to the graphic style. So Guild Wars 2, arguably isn’t competing with WoW at all.

3. How many of the games we’re talking about have actually “failed”. What does the word failed mean? SWToR had major issues and had to let go a lot of people, that’s true. But they’re coming out with a paid expansion now. Did SWToR fail? Rift certainly didn’t fail. Aion didn’t fail, though it’s lost a lot of traffic. On the other hand, it was successful for many years now.

You’ve pointed also to the success of Eve, which remains a cult game. That’s been building player base for a long, long time…but it didn’t start with a huge player base.

All you really have is that some games with a monthly fee had to go free to play, most of which are still making money. Not quite failure anyway.

So this is what Guild Wars 2 has going for it.

1. It IS a sequel and those who enjoyed PVe at least in Guild Wars 1 seem to enjoy Guild Wars 2 as well.

2. This is a buy to play game from the start. It doesn’t suffer from the P2W aspect that many if not most free to play games suffer. In fact, it’s in its own niche which means, for now, a whole lot less competition.

3. The release was timed well. With only Pandas as competition, Anet managed to find a very nice window in which to launch the game. By the time a real competitor actually launches, there will be an entrenched, loyal fan base. It doesn’t have to be a huge one even for a game to be successful.

4. Some people really REALLY like this game. People like me who don’t like other MMOs. One of the great lines of the much maligned manifesto is “If you love MMOs you’ll want to check out Guild Wars 2 and if you hate MMOs you’re REALLY want to check out Guild Wars 2”. That line resonated with me and remains true to this day. I saw the potential of the format, but never before found an MMO I can like. I’m willing to wager I’m not alone in that boat. There are a whole lot of people out there who hate WoW, so by extension they’d hate WoW clones. It’s just logical. Are there enough of us? I believe there are.

Time, of course will tell.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The one overwhelming thing that people say about the manifesto being broken is about vertical progression which is never mentioned in the manifesto at all or even implied by it. The other thing people refer to is the “grind” in the game. The manifesto was clearly talking about killing stuff to level, or not having fun things to do while you were leveling. It was talking about leveling grind.

Of course it was implied unless you’re going to claim that many many many people misinterpreted it and arenanet chose to not correct the misconceptions when they would have known 100% that buzz on the game was being built up for months and even years prior to release on the back of such interpretations.

There was nothing implied about it. It stated EXACTLY what it meant. I most games you have to play for a long time to get to the fun stuff. You won’t have to do that in Guild Wars 2. Anyone who even has passing familiarity with English wouldn’t try to reinvent that that paragraph meant.

There were two other interviews where vertical progression WAS talked about, but those things have zero to do with the manifesto. I’d have a lot less problem with what people were saying if they’d quote those interviews and leave the manifesto out of it.

Give us something to do.

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

How much content did WoW have at the 7 month mark? Content takes time to build. There’ll be more content, but it’s going to take time.

By the time you’d played WoW for 7 months, you spent the price of the game, plus at least that price again in monthly fees. I’d say you’d gotten your money’s worth out of Guild Wars 2.

By the time this game is as old as WoW, at the rate it’s going it’ll have more content. But no game could match an active seven year old game’s level of content at launch.

I’m afraid you’ll just have to be patient.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

But, anyways, you agree that forums are a good way to gather useful information about a game, but if the majority of forums are negative, that doesn’t reflect on the success of the game?

Fascinating. Please tell me how that logic works again…

Because people only post when they aren’t playing; usually when they aren’t happy about something. That’s a good indicator that you made a personal relations snafu (ascended gear). Happy players generally aren’t posting (and some don’t even know the forum exists, or care it does). That being said the general tone of the forums will always be negative.

I truly wonder.. if Arena Net rand a script that would count each unique poster and compare it to each unique player.. would it even hit 1%?

(I’m too lazy to search for it, but Arena Net already posted a similar spiel to what I wrote. You aren’t worth the effort of me searching for it).

Anyway, I’m off to rest. Keep up your crusade of … whatever the hell makes you tick.

You can keep believing what you want, but feel free to take a look at this:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/riverside-inn-f2p916.html?pp=20&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1

This was as official of a forum for GW1 as any. I linked to 6 months after GW1’s release. Personally, I don’t find the majority of the threads nearly as negative as they are now.

The whole market though has changed in the last 7 years and one other big thing you’re not taking into account.

Guild Wars 1, as I pointed out earlier, was a niche game. Not a mainstream game. Niche game players not only tend to support each other, but they tend to hit VERY hard on people who say things against the game. Much harder than main stream games.

I posted a negative thread on that site and it was removed completely. There’s no reference to it at all. So by that standard, how do you know how many negative threads weren’t closed and removed by moderators.

Even if they weren’t, the much smaller niche player base is never going to be as vocal or negative as a large mainstream database.

After all, the mob mentality needs a mob to work.

My opinion, the next thing getting nerfed.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

anet’s strategy, rather than to make everything as good as the op, they just nerf the op so the game stays stale and restrictive

Because making everything up to the OP would mean rebalancing every single hostile NPC in the game. That would only really work for PvP.

The races of GW2 -- Elves, dummies!

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Actually, I wouldn’t even want to play a game with elves. I can’t stand them. And I’m not alone.

In fact, mmorpg.com has a column called “No Elves Allowed” about all the things that are traditionally in MMOs that the writer just can’t stand to see any more of. Ever hear the term “played out”?

Fantasy is a very very broad catagory. It’s long past time it’s expanded beyond elves and dwarves. I’m so glad they’re not in this game (and that Anet killed off the dwarven race in Guild Wars 1).

Each alt is more boring than the last

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Different people will enjoy leveling alts. I do. I enjoy it a lot more than some of the level 80 content. For example, I don’t enjoy the dungeons in the game, pretty much at all. I do enjoy Fractals, however.

I’ve leveled 6 character to 80 and I’m taking a break before I start on my 7th. I’m not alone. There are plenty of people who enjoy the open world, instead of “traditional” end game content.

People say stuff like the personal story is the same from level 30 onwards. Except that there are options that you can choose, quite a few, where you’d get different things that happen based on choices you make. Even the biggest fear question you get from the Pale Tree introduces new choices into the game. There are several story instances were you can choose one or the other.

I’ve been through the personal story completely on five characters and the very last time I saw instances I never saw before, and didn’t know existed.

But I prefer the open world stuff. I’m always finding something new.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Proof? It’s funny how the majority of people on a forum about a game don’t represent the majority. That is so logical.

Only if you believe that everyone who is playing is also posting; which is ludicrous at best.

Was.. that your belief?

I think everyone that is posting cares enough about what happened to this game to care enough to post on this forum – and that they bought and experienced the game.

I’m sorry, but is it ludicrous to think that someone who purchased the game and quit’s opinion is less valid than someone who is still playing? If anything, as a business owner, I would want to know why someone quit.

I would be willing to bet that your position in the world doesn’t make you think about things that way. Unfortunately, when you get higher up in the ranks of corporate America, you find out that is one of the questions everyone is asking.

This may be true, but the biggest percentage of the people who join a forum never post to it and this is documented by easily researched numbers. I used to moderate a Guild Wars 2 fan forum, and the numbers were a matter of public record, because the forum displayed those numbers. And this is true of countless forums across the internet. You should do some research before you claim people are making stuff up. I seldom make things up, but I don’t always quote statistics for stuff that’s pretty much common knowledge.

I’ve also moderated Yahoo groups, quite a few of them. In general, around 15% of any forum or online group posts, and 85% lurk. So at last 85% of the people lurking may or may not have strong opinions.

There are many polls from many sources over the years about how many people actually visit game forums. It’s not as much as you think.

So, you’re saying that the people that do visit forums are not a sufficient enough random sample to draw any conclusions from?

Or, do you believe that companies like JD Power are bogus because they don’t ask everyone their opinion?

I’m saying that the people who post have the strongest opinions and if other people had very strong opinions, they might well post more. I’m saying that a very small percentage of people really have strong opinions about gaming. Given that a lot of people are, as stated before, casual gamers, they tend to think a lot less about gaming.

I can’t tell you how many times a week I end up having to explain the term vertical progression to Guild Wars 2 players.

a gambling problem

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

IMO, GW2 will forever be know as the king of RNGMMOs. In few years time, people will recall this being a great game but sadly centred on luck/RNG.

Mark my words ANet.

Not even close. The RNG in this game is 100% for aesthetics. Play another MMORPG, and the RNG applies to better gear as well with no alternate method of obtainment… other than shelling out huge sums of money. That along with aesthetics too.

Wow doesn’t sell gear for money. The players actually earn it.

Gear is not a skin though. That’s one difference between a game that’s pay to win and not pay to win.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Proof? It’s funny how the majority of people on a forum about a game don’t represent the majority. That is so logical.

Only if you believe that everyone who is playing is also posting; which is ludicrous at best.

Was.. that your belief?

I think everyone that is posting cares enough about what happened to this game to care enough to post on this forum – and that they bought and experienced the game.

I’m sorry, but is it ludicrous to think that someone who purchased the game and quit’s opinion is less valid than someone who is still playing? If anything, as a business owner, I would want to know why someone quit.

I would be willing to bet that your position in the world doesn’t make you think about things that way. Unfortunately, when you get higher up in the ranks of corporate America, you find out that is one of the questions everyone is asking.

This may be true, but the biggest percentage of the people who join a forum never post to it and this is documented by easily researched numbers. I used to moderate a Guild Wars 2 fan forum, and the numbers were a matter of public record, because the forum displayed those numbers. And this is true of countless forums across the internet. You should do some research before you claim people are making stuff up. I seldom make things up, but I don’t always quote statistics for stuff that’s pretty much common knowledge.

I’ve also moderated Yahoo groups, quite a few of them. In general, around 15% of any forum or online group posts, and 85% lurk. So at last 85% of the people lurking may or may not have strong opinions.

There are many polls from many sources over the years about how many people actually visit game forums. It’s not as much as you think.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Commercially it is doing well.

But it had to sacrifice manifesto, the credibility of the developers, and the experience of the players to achieve it.

I don’t believe the manifesto has been sacrificed, as you put it.

The one overwhelming thing that people say about the manifesto being broken is about vertical progression which is never mentioned in the manifesto at all or even implied by it. The other thing people refer to is the “grind” in the game. The manifesto was clearly talking about killing stuff to level, or not having fun things to do while you were leveling. It was talking about leveling grind.

No one who takes that paragraph in its entirety could possibly think it is referring to gear grind. If people would stop taking the single word grind out of context, then it would be a whole lot harder to say Anet abandoned their manifesto.

And you know, some of us have been around since launch and we don’t feel that Anet has abandoned the manifesto. This is simply your opinion. It’s already been broken down in too many threads to repeat it here, but for every person who says they broke it, another person says they haven’t.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I can agree with the thought of games such as FFXI in mind. This is a game I used to love, it got a bit old however (for me) and I moved on. However it still holds many subs and just released yet another expansion. (8? 11?) Free to play games like Aion also hold both players who play often or don’t play often, both of which flood the cash store for “fun” things. However that game also offers advantages which by most peoples definition would be for hardcore gamers. But casual gamers use them as well. And that game is still around as well.

With Guild Wars 2 you buy and get what you pay for. You can at any time try other MMO’s, be 100% loyal to this, or leave and come back any time. Any type of player can put money into the pockets of the company. It matters more how cash shop items are sold, what is available, and the want and desire for them. And that applies to no single group. That applies to us all. I would simply say look at the fused weapon skins, to say only casual or hardcore players bought those chests based on their gameplay/style would just be silly.

Totally agree. In fact, you helped make my point. Also I’d like to point out it wasn’t I who brought the term hardcore or casual into conversation.

I think the best virtue of guild wars 2 is the ability to leave for a few months and return without having to grind to “catch up” to other players. The lack of effective gear treadmill is liberating. Even though some can argue that ascended gear began a treadmill none of the content appears balanced around gear (except for agony resistance, which is acquired where its used anyway).

I believe that if Arena Net wasn’t doing well financially, we’d see more gear and skins in the cash shop with talk of an expansion. Instead we are greeted with free content (the living story) and fun holiday events (Halloween, Christina and now this April Fools day game).

I don’t believe GW2 needs any of this:

… most hardcore gamers find this game to not include enough of what they want (gear treadmill, mounts, open world PvP, raids, etc.) Therefore, as more games become available that fill their desired niche they will leave.

Nor does it need the term hardcore pasted all over its forums.

Why did you edit my post to exclude “no gear treadmill?”

You are mis-representing my post. I don’t think that GW2 needs those things either, but GW2 doesn’t think that. They have said specifically that they don’t intent Ascended Gear to be the end of the gear treadmill. They said that they don’t intent level 80 to be the max level forever.

The purpose of the post was to show that ANet tries to give a little to everyone on both sides of the aisle, which doesn’t really appease anyone as most people are firmly on one side or the other. Ascended gear pretty much kitten off everyone.

Thanks for taking the time to not only purposefully exclude parts from my post, but to misrepresent it as well.

I disagree with this part bolded. There is really no proof of this, and people are generally believed to be open to change and change in behavior or moods. Which means anyone at any time can sway to either side. If anything I would say more people are swaying in the middle slightly to either side depending on the games content and theme. But thats an opinion, just like the above stated is. And as is true with that statement and mine, neither can be proven at this point.

You may be right, but looking around the forums, it seems that if you ask about gear treadmill you will get some pretty opinionated responses. Same with open world PvP, mounts, raiding, etc.

I agree people can change their minds, but it looks like our friend Xia is firmly opposed to some of those things. I wonder if he can change his mind?

You do get opinionated responses, but that doesn’t prove anything since it’s the people who don’t respond you need to count there. The people who are arguing about it are obviously very strong in their views. But how many people just don’t care or think about it even. I’d wager most.

Most people don’t think deeply about their gaming experience, nor do they post on forums. I’d wager there are more people playing Guild Wars 2 right now who have never heard the term vertical progression than those who have.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

It may, but it may not. Your point? Casual = limited interest. How can you argue that leads to more money? Oh, that’s right, you can’t.

You are having a tantrum aren’t you? Sorry. We should end the conversation before you get more upset.

By the way, the real money in gaming is now in casual games and cash shops. Its not for nothing failed mmos go free to play. But hey, if you want to believe otherwise its your right.

Proof? Links?

EVE seems to be doing quite well…

Eve is doing well, but last I checked, they didn’t have half a million subscribers. I’m guessing at least that number of people are playing Guild Wars 2 right, not daily but over all. And yes, it’s just a guess.

But if a couple of months ago they hit the 3 million market, and 2/3s of those people have stopped playing, you have a million people left. And more people do come to the game all the time, because we’re constantly getting new players in the guild.

A game can exist quite happily on half a million players or even less, and still make a profit. If Guild Wars 2 keeps getting better (and to many of us it is), then it’ll be here for a long time to come.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

It’s also a particularly silly argument because (unlike a subscription model) prolonged playtime is not explicitly linked to revenue. All ArenaNet expects from any given account holder is that they paid retail or discounted-retail price for the product. Economically speaking it matters almost none at all that the existing casuals keep playing long-term if new casuals are buying copies and replacing them (even if they, in turn, don’t stick with the game that long).

Dedication and “stickiness” will come from a devoted community alongside a stable playerbase in numerical terms. The second half doesn’t have to come from the same group of people sticking with the game forever.

By the way I’m going to try to stop saying “casuals” from now on, it’s starting to feel like a slur. :P

Your post assumes that there is an infinite amount of players willing to continue to buy the game. I really don’t think that is true.

The longevity of players playing the game is linked to revenue from people who want to buy expansions, to continued cash shop purchases, to getting friends to buy the game to play along with.

The sales of this game will continue to fall until the next expansion. That is the nature of the game. Longevity does drive revenue. I never thought that would actually be something questionable.

You don’t need an infinite amount of people willing to buy the game. You just need a steady stream of people, which is not infinite. As the game goes on, and more and more people discover it, they tend to bring more and more people in. The original group playing may have mostly left for all I know, but new people came in. But here’s the deal.

Part of the stickiness of any game is the amount of content. At launch this game has less content than it did now. Arguably, a lot of people left the game in November over the whole vertical progression issue. That’s not going to happen again, because people buying the game after the fact aren’t buying it due to a lack of vertical progression. Certainly they’re not hard-core about not having it. They’re just buying a new game.

These people have a better chance of sticking with it, not just because they weren’t so invested in the first place that they could feel betrayed, but because the amount of content available to them at this point is greater than at launch and will continue to become greater. It’s a waiting game. This is what Rift did.

Rift had a pretty good launch but not much to do over all. Two starting zones. Six races, but most of them were human or elf. Small zones and not enough of them. One raid. People ran out of stuff to do and left. They ran sales and promoted. More people bought the game. Rift is doing fine right now. They have a stable population because the gamer is stickier now than it was when I played it. Most of the people who played it early on ran out of stuff to do they wanted to do. Some stayed, but many many left. And the game is doing fine.

Guild Wars 2 did the same thing. Released too early. Had to fix bugs. Put out some new content. As they move forward and the biggest of the catch up projects are done (guesting, culling etc), then they can produce even more content. More things for people to do who are just starting. They won’t run out of stuff as fast.

So yeah, I think the stickiness of a game like this will increase over time.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

^^

Nappyychappy hit the nail on the head, IMO.

The definition of “casual player” doesn’t lend itself to the kind of dedication and “stickiness” you need to make a game like an MMO live for a long time.

Except when you’re a casual MMO player, then it doesn’t matter what your contrived definition of “casual” is.

You don’t to be a hardcore gamer (read: lots of free time) to stick with an MMO.

Casual doesn’t mean “unskilled” or “idiot.” It just means you don’t have lots of free time.

I don’t think it means unskilled or idiot. I think it means not dedicated or devoted. In fact, that is what it means. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/casual

Casual players won’t show the kind of dedication or devotion to a game by the nature of the definition of casual. That has nothing to do with unskilled or idiot.

Please tell me again how my contrived definition of casual is not like the actual definition of casual?

You can’t use a dictionary definition to apply to a specific usage of the term. Casual vs. hard-core players does NOT use the standard industry definition of the term casual. In fact, you can’t really use a dictionary for any specialized term for any industry.

Mob is a perfect example. By dictionary definition a mob is a group of people, as in a lynch mob. It’s not a single individual, but in gaming parlance you can have a single mob. So what the dictionary says about casual is all but useless in this conversation. It’s one of the things editors learn early in their studies. You can’t look up everything in a dictionary because context matters.

A casual player in an MMO can have multiple definitions but it’s usually used to counter-point the word hard-core. In on one’s imagination can I be considered a hard-core player, but would you call me casual about the game? I wouldn’t. But to most people I’m a casual player. I’m not hard-core, I don’t compete. It’s just a different usage of the word.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

^^

Nappyychappy hit the nail on the head, IMO.

The definition of “casual player” doesn’t lend itself to the kind of dedication and “stickiness” you need to make a game like an MMO live for a long time.

Based on what evidence. It’s funny because I could actually make an argument for the opposite. I’m old enough where I don’t really want to bounce back and forth between multiple games. I’d rather go further in a single game.

The older you are, the less you tend to “bounce around”. That’s a young person’s game. It’s an attention span thing too.

The younger generation grew up with youtube and the internet, but the older generation really hasn’t. It’s the younger generation that tends to game hop. I’m quite happy to buy one game and stick with it, because I don’t want to keep going out and buying more games. And this would be even more true of people who have less time to play. They’d play a game, get a tiny tiny bit done weekly and not run out of content. It’s not the older, more mature people who run out of content, I’m guessing. It’s the content locusts. The people who tend to be younger, and not have a family.

We have a wide range of people in my guild, from 17 up until people in their sixities. The people who are older don’t play MUCH fewer games and stay with the longer on the whole than the people in their teens and early twenties. So if the average age of a gamer now is over 30 (which apparently it is according to studies), there’s less reason for many of these people to run out and continually buy new games.

There’ll be exceptions of course, but I think older people will stay with something they like longer, on the whole and they’ll have a longer attention span.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Of course the game is doing well, Guild Wars 2 is the most seriously taken niche AAA mmorpg for the super casual, ever. This game is beautiful, has a simple UI and even more simple combat system.

As for why they are hiring, well, from what little I know about the company, I read somewhere that it is very small. What I do know is that ArenaNet is behind schedule on things they said would be in game shortly after release. Almost none of that is even being talked about all the while tiny bits of content is being released. In order to make ends meet in the game with new content and old they most likely need to expand the pay-roll.

My honest opinion is that casual is popular now, but slowly dying out. It is most definitely a way to make money quickly, but not a way to make a game last. Game developers will eventually exhaust the consumers with must have AAA games of the month. As amazing as this game is, it also takes a huge step backwards, and the more casuals that it caters to, the more advanced players it will eventually disappoint.

This game is very young, if it wasn’t doing well, we are all in trouble.

Casual dying out? What evidence do you have of this claim? Casual, if anything, is growing. Because the average age of the gamer is growing. People have families, jobs, responsibilities. They are more casual because there are more demands on their lives.

If anything I’d say the casual explosion will last for many many long years.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Why another thread about stuff that we know nothing about. Companies that aren’t doing well hire all the time. Companies that are doing well, lay off people and continue to watch profits skyrocket. We don’t and won’t know the numbers about this game unless ANet wants to tell us. For every argument in this regard, there is a counter-argument.

Actually that’s true for most companies, but it’s not true for MMOs. Think about this for one second. If an MMO isn’t doing well, hiring more staff isn’t going to make it do better. I’ve used as an example the last two MMOs that “performed below expectations” according to what’s said in business journals who follow them. There are articles you can look up if you’re interested.

Every single MMO has certain expectations when it launches. If it performs below those expectations, which are based in part at least on the money spent to bring it to market, then they’ll have to restructure the staff. It’s just logical. If you can’t afford to pay staff on your income, the money has to come from somewhere.

In the case of SWToR, there was an expectation based on Bioware having a certain amount of renown and TSW appealing to more than the niche market it has found. Of the two TSW probably deserved the success more.

Further, how Guild Wars 2 is doing is a matter of public record. If you care to do even the smallest amount of research, you could look up the NCsoft quarterly report that they provide to their stockholders. While Blade and Soul under-performed, Guild Wars 2 was NCSoft’s most profitable game by far. And that’s without even revealing what the cash shop makes.

One last thing. Based on speculation, Guild Wars 2 was predicted by a Korean company, the kind of company to set the expectations to sell 3.2 million copies in the first year of business. It hit the 3 million mark before the half year was up. We don’t know how much more it sold, but I’d be willing to wager that it’s hit the .2 by now, and that means it’s exceed the expectations which were quoted for it. This very likely makes it a successful game. Again this is all a matter of public record.

If an MMO, any MMO, under-performed, particularly after the amount of time and energy and money that goes into it, you don’t start hiring more people to make it perform better. You start to cut your losses, as other MMOs have done recently and in the past.

And we’re not even talking about hiring one or two specific people. They’re hiring artists and programmers…it’s too broad a spectrum of hiring to assume anything but that the game is doing well…surely well enough to hire more people to create content.

Anet has no games other than Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. Are you seriously suggesting the money to pay the new people is coming from Guild Wars 1?

Finally Understand who GW2 Demographic is!

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

im 30 and i dont like the new content. was hoping for a “normal” content update. this doenst fit into an fantasy mmo and i dont unterstand why we dont get any good content that stays interesting like fractals. it took time to devolope this stuff and for me its a waste of time. its lacking more and more…

While I appreciate where you’re coming from, I can say that I’m so sick of “normal” that I’ve been beginning to wonder if anyone was willing to stick their neck out for the sake of creativity, and apply something new and intelligent to this genre.

Pure fantasy MMO’s are a dime a dozen. There for awhile, I thought GW2 was going down that path as well, but I’m glad to see they’ve finally, in true GW style, bucked the system and did their own thing.

Maybe it’s because I’m older than you, and have been around the fantasy video game block more, but to be honest, you just seem to be asking for more of what’s already out there.

That’s fine, if that’s what you want – but do keep in mind that some of us are looking for things more creative, intelligent, interesting, and stimulating that the same old same old, rinse and repeat.

This post made me think. When I was younger I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction…and I still enjoy those types of books. Now, however, I read a much wider variety of books. I’m not so attached to one genre anymore. I like cross-genre stuff, mainstream stuff. The last book I read was a historical drama about building a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Good stuff. Now I’m reading a fantasy novel.

The steady diet of fantasy as I get older has worn quite thin. The only thing worse than fantasy to me is fantasy with elves and dwarves. Vampires are in the same boat. They’re over-played and I can do without them.

Sylvari fill the same “ecological niche”, for lack of a better word, as elves…but they’re not elves. Asura, they’re really not gnomes, but they serve much the same purpose. Charr…well they’re just cool. lol

So yeah, I’m sorta glad Anet killed off the dwarves. lol

What is infinitely worse on bookstore fantasy shelves these days is the proliferation of books that feature hard-bitten, supernaturally-tinged, modern-day heroines who all face supernatural threats while inevitably falling in love with someone dangerous. Oh, and almost all are written in the 1st person style. I have no problem with urban fantasy romance as a sub-genre, but why are they all the same?

At least GW2 doesn’t have any of that… at least as official content.

I wrote some of that stuff for a while, for a living (erotic romance, romantic suspense) and let me tell you, that stuff sells, and sells well. And yeah, it’s very formulaic, because that’s what the readers of that genre want.

It’s a bit sobering to realize that romance actually accounts (or used to anyway) for 60% of all fiction book sales.

Too much work for temporary content.

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I’m sorry but all this holiday/seasonal crap is just a stupid move on ANET’s part. Yes it’s great to get it nailed down, but in a fast paced industry like this it’s important to produce sustaining content to keep the players playing the game. Who gives a rip about Halloween, or Chrismtas, or April Fools if people are quiting and will never see the content ever again. You just made a bunch of content that nobody will give two hoots about 1-2 years from now. Those will be your core gamers and they would have been around had you not had these development dead-ends in the first place.

One thing you’re missing is that Guild Wars 1 players, at least anecdotally DO care about those holidays. The busiest time in Guild Wars 1, the time with most people online and playing were the holiday events. And this isn’t a small jump in the population.

Shing Jea Monastry used to host the Cathan New Year every year. When events aren’t running, there was one zone in Shing Jea Monastary, or once instance of that outpost. Like when a city in Guild Wars 2 has no overflow servers.

On the festival days, there were 90 plus districts, or the equivalent of 90 overflow servers.

You can say what you do and don’t like, but I think you’d be mistaken to say that people don’t care about these events. Some people love them. If Guild Wars 1 is anything to go by, a lot of people.

Finally Understand who GW2 Demographic is!

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The steady diet of fantasy as I get older has worn quite thin. The only thing worse than fantasy to me is fantasy with elves and dwarves. Vampires are in the same boat. They’re over-played and I can do without them.

I feel exactly the same way. I’ve picked up several fantasy novels in the last 10 years, but I don’t think I’ve finished any of them. I occasionally read an old favourite, but mostly I just read other things now. After awhile, they do start to look the same…

On another note, I’m not sure if this thread has got off track or not…

I’m not sure it’s completely off track. I mean the main comment of the thread is talking about Guild Wars 2’s demographic and what they expect. Surely seeing that some of us are actually sick of standard fantasy is pertinent to the topic.

It might well be why the SAB is so popular.

Thank god for crafting!

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Don’t you all know, zombies and undead automatically make the game more awesome and cool (probably more than 20% cooler). They are new and exciting content that hasn’t been seen a thousand times before!

In all seroiusness, the whole undead thing was the biggest disappointment of the entire game for me, even above and beyond Anets gem store obsession.

The undead though, isn’t the end..it’s the beginning. It’s just the first dragon, and now that it’s been vanquished, we can move on to icebrood, destroyers, and branded creatures. It’s not over yet.

Finally Understand who GW2 Demographic is!

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

im 30 and i dont like the new content. was hoping for a “normal” content update. this doenst fit into an fantasy mmo and i dont unterstand why we dont get any good content that stays interesting like fractals. it took time to devolope this stuff and for me its a waste of time. its lacking more and more…

While I appreciate where you’re coming from, I can say that I’m so sick of “normal” that I’ve been beginning to wonder if anyone was willing to stick their neck out for the sake of creativity, and apply something new and intelligent to this genre.

Pure fantasy MMO’s are a dime a dozen. There for awhile, I thought GW2 was going down that path as well, but I’m glad to see they’ve finally, in true GW style, bucked the system and did their own thing.

Maybe it’s because I’m older than you, and have been around the fantasy video game block more, but to be honest, you just seem to be asking for more of what’s already out there.

That’s fine, if that’s what you want – but do keep in mind that some of us are looking for things more creative, intelligent, interesting, and stimulating that the same old same old, rinse and repeat.

This post made me think. When I was younger I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction…and I still enjoy those types of books. Now, however, I read a much wider variety of books. I’m not so attached to one genre anymore. I like cross-genre stuff, mainstream stuff. The last book I read was a historical drama about building a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Good stuff. Now I’m reading a fantasy novel.

The steady diet of fantasy as I get older has worn quite thin. The only thing worse than fantasy to me is fantasy with elves and dwarves. Vampires are in the same boat. They’re over-played and I can do without them.

Sylvari fill the same “ecological niche”, for lack of a better word, as elves…but they’re not elves. Asura, they’re really not gnomes, but they serve much the same purpose. Charr…well they’re just cool. lol

So yeah, I’m sorta glad Anet killed off the dwarves. lol

Each alt is more boring than the last

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I’m not avoiding what you’re saying, Jack, you’re not getting what I’m saying. If you make higher level zones “more rewarding” then people will stay there.

Wrong. You’re not understanding what I’m saying at all. I’m probably going to give up after this time, because you apparently lack the ability and/or willingness to understand, and I’m at work so I can’t be doing this all the time, as fast as I do type:

- First of all note that this is entirely from the level gaining standpoint.

- You use less time to complete events at lower level zones, so they give a good time invested vs experience reward investment… and I’m not saying that this should be nerfed… just that everything going up should be scaled properly.

- Higher level zones are more difficult, so why do they give exactly the same reward? So “people will spread out”? It’s not really happening. Instead I’m seeing the exact opposite problem arise.

- Karma aside, there’s no incentive for people above 16 to actually move to 16+ zones. They simply go to another starter area. That’s what happens to nearly everyone I’ve talked to. And why would they? There is no incentive.

- You put in more time to do the events, you have fewer people to do them with, and yet you still get pretty much the same amount of experience. I’m saying that this experience should be scaled such that doing lower level zones is not a superior choice, but that these choices are on equal grounds, in a time vs rewards analysis.

- Hence, in your “human nature” decision tree, there would not be a superior decision. Simply two options which are relatively equivalent.

I really have to get back to coding, so I’m going to put this off until later. Please actually give a proper response in that time.

People have called me condescending, but you take the cake. Here’s a proper response for you.

I think your logic is out of whack. In the beginning, Orr was the most rewarding place in the game and people were there. Anet is now making other places more rewarding, by making it so the reward is more spread out.

Some people WILL stay in the low zones, of course, that’s a given…until they get bored and find zones they like. As I said before, I like the Harathi Hinterlands so I’m there quite a bit. And guess what? Other people are there too.

You say that what Anet is doing is not working, but that’s not fact, that’s your singular opinion based on your observations, on your particular server. I guess when you’re smarter than everyone else, you know these things.

Me, on the other hand…I have a completely different set of observations, that don’t match yours.

Again, your arguments would be stronger without the personal attacks.

Another month without LFG search

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I don’t know what this thread is about … I’ve been using the LFG tool for months… It works pretty well and I don’t think a.net has anything to add to it.

up until this thread, I didn’t even know about that website, and when looking for a group nobody ever mentioned it. Even talked about with other people over general chat about the need for a lfg tool over the last several month, and still nobody even mentioned this site.

To me, I would say the vast majority of the players do not even know about this site at all. There needs to be one in the game, then the vast majority of the people will know about one, and it will become even easier for everyone to find groups.

Don’t forget the large chunk of us that know about it but refuse to use a 3rd party website for basic MMO features from 2008. I’m glad they are working on it, I’ll finally see a dungeon when it comes out.

Is it really so bad to join a guild…because that functionality has been in game since launch, making it easy for some of us to find dungeon parties without a third party site at all.

hard to find good guilds. Seems like the vast majority of guilds out there are crap.

Also, many of us are in very small guilds where everyone is not on at the same time. We have to look for PUGs to fill partial groups, or to find a group if we are alone.

I can understand that. That’s why some people join a larger guild, in addition to their small guild. Some people see that as disloyal, but I don’t. It’s built into the game.

I actually belong to five guilds, but I spend 90% of my time in my main guild.

Finally Understand who GW2 Demographic is!

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I am 48 and I must agree with Gundam Zephyr. Why be proud of being sloppy? Yes it takes time and I am the last to complain about peoples writing skills but ill thought out and poorly written does not make me want to take the effort to figure out what it is you (not directed at anyone specifically) are getting at. Time away from school is no more an excuse that someone in school making what is basically the same point.

I’m reading a lot of poorly written posts by so-called ‘40 and 50 year olds.’ Did you people actually go to school? I was under the impression the public school system is getting worse, not better, as time goes on.

As for the topic itself, I love the SAB. I’m quite a fan of exploring and platforming. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Super Mario 64 are two of my favorite games ever. SAB appeals to players like me, who enjoy doing things in-game that don’t necessarily get us better loot or achieve specific ‘hardcore’ goals. It’s just a way to blow off steam and enjoy a little bit of what made games like Super Mario 64 so iconic in their hay day.

P.S. I’m 25.

The longer it’s been since you’ve been to school, the less you remember about things like grammar, and sentence structure. People who don’t use the written word often will often not be better at it than people who use it frequently. How about a bit of tolerance?

The way schools teach has indeed changed quite a bit. There are, from my point of view anyway, huge omissions in the current day curriculum. Calling people out for not typing or speaking well, it’s just not cool. Not to mention for many people, English might not even be a first language.

And I just make a lot of typos because I make a lot of posts and don’t want to spend the time constantly rereading them.

What about people who aren’t as educated, people who aren’t as smart, people who don’t speak English as a primary language. What about people who suffer from insomnia and have trouble concentrating.

Tolerance doesn’t mean I’m tolerating someone being “sloppy”. I don’t know anyone’s personal situation here. Maybe they’re on prescription meds and it affects their ability to focus…who knows.

A bit of tolerance goes a long way.

Another month without LFG search

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The information you put on that site is your character name. That’s it. The account name is what you use to log in. I said this in my response. So if you can get someone’s account name from here, how is having a character name worse?

Anyone who wants to hack an account and needs info on how to log in just needs to come here.

Honestly why ignore the part of my post when I did respond do you? As far as offensive, I’m not the one who’s calling people names.

Again ignoring the wood for the trees.
I’ve provided you with a non-standard vector of attack that is the most likely to work and WILL be catching some users of gw2lfg and you’ve chosen to ignore it.

I’ve stated how gw2lfg is a security risk. If you really want to know, read my previous post, and properly this time. If you need more information, Google phishing. I’m done here.

Mungrul, many of us here understand clearly what you are saying when it come to the risk. You can’t argue with a narcissist. Some people love to argue just for the sake of arguing. Players here have expressed very valid reasons why this game should have a built in LFG tool. Just because other games didn’t release with it, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be there upon release. It’s much more wise when we learn from others mistakes.

But, we’ve got to give credit where credit is due. He truly is a champion among champions.

I’ve never said I was against a built in LFG tool. Not once ever. I said people need to be patient, that it’s being worked on, it will get here when it’s working. I said it wasn’t a priority (and I guess Anet agrees with me). If it was a priority, it would be here by now. It’s probably almost here now.

My issue isn’t with having an LFG tool. It’s with the insistence that it has to be now…or yesterday. Or that somehow Anet has failed the public by not having it.

That’s my issue.

Each alt is more boring than the last

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I’m not avoiding what you’re saying, Jack, you’re not getting what I’m saying. If you make higher level zones “more rewarding” then people will stay there. It’s human nature. The game you want is NOT this game, because this isn’t what the devs want the game to be. They want people in the open world…all over the open world.

Most games do reward you more for staying in your cramped little end zone and that’s fine. This is one game I don’t really believe will ever do that. I mean, people stayed in Orr and farmed Orr all day. So Anet introduced DR, and changed some of the events to make them harder. A lot harder. It’s harder for people to make money in Orr, so people stop coming to Orr. Do you think that’s accidental on Anet’s part.

Anet did this to get people out of Orr intentionally. Some people will still go there, for the challenge, but Anet wants to make a living breathing world. They’ve said it many times. That doesn’t mean a world with one or two active zones.

You’re looking for a reward based game. I don’t think this game is going to satisfy you in the long term. I really do understand what you want. I just think it’s not the game that Anet is making.

And since you have your pick of other games, I don’t see what your problem is. Why can’t players like me have at least one game for us?

Another month without LFG search

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I don’t know what this thread is about … I’ve been using the LFG tool for months… It works pretty well and I don’t think a.net has anything to add to it.

up until this thread, I didn’t even know about that website, and when looking for a group nobody ever mentioned it. Even talked about with other people over general chat about the need for a lfg tool over the last several month, and still nobody even mentioned this site.

To me, I would say the vast majority of the players do not even know about this site at all. There needs to be one in the game, then the vast majority of the people will know about one, and it will become even easier for everyone to find groups.

Don’t forget the large chunk of us that know about it but refuse to use a 3rd party website for basic MMO features from 2008. I’m glad they are working on it, I’ll finally see a dungeon when it comes out.

Is it really so bad to join a guild…because that functionality has been in game since launch, making it easy for some of us to find dungeon parties without a third party site at all.

Each alt is more boring than the last

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

@Jack Daniels

You want to know what’s wrong with having people in zone appropriate levels. If you have to ask the question, you miss the point. Level shouldn’t be "so important’.

In a world like WoW’s Azeroth, the world is HUGE. There’s a ton of time and commitment that it takes to make a huge world like that…most of it is sitting empty.

There are different types of players. There are dungeon runners and raiders, looking for an ‘end game’. Tons of them. It’s what they want. So they don’t see anything wrong with people all crowded together in one zone. It’s normal for them.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are a whole lot of people who don’t like MMOs. They dont’ like WoW. Some of those people., however, do like Skyrim. There really is no one place you have to be in Skyrim.

Do you really think there are people that don’t have favorite zones that they like to hang in (Hirathi Hinterlands is one of mine). Do you really think people all want the same thing?

What’s wrong with everyone huddling together in one small area is that the world becomes irrelevant. Small. For some people, boring.

I, for one, love the way you can go anywhere and do anything in this game. I’m not fussed about rewards. I’m not going to go out farming. I’m going to explore the world…and after I explored it ENJOY the world.

You probably think I’m in a very small minority. I think you’d be very surprised. We’re playing completely different games.

What happened to GW2?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The Commodore 64 used the Commodore C2N better known as the commodore 1530 Casette drive. The game Jumpman by Epyx took 18 minutes to load off cassette, but 1 minute for each additional level. It was nuts. I remember when I finally got the Commodore 1541 disk drive, how excited I was. I was able to copy an entire disk ikittenminutes. That was huge. They improved that speed later on with many find upgrades, including the fastload cartridge. In the end we could copy a floppy in two minutes.

I used to sell that stuff for a living back in the mid 80s. Then I moved to the Amiga, which to my mind is the best gaming computer of its time.

Great memories.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Again I’m 51. My wife is my age. We’re both gamers. And though we’re not “hard core” in that sense, we did beat DOA in Guild Wars 1, just the two of us with six heroes. That’s no small feat. I wouldn’t say we’re awesome or anything, but I will say that we can hang with people who are without too much complaint.

There’s a guy in my guild ten years older than me.

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

A game without a subscription will never die.

This is a false statement . it depends on the quality of the game and the financial soundness of the company . Many free games have gone poof over the years

I figured that was obvious. Anyway neither of those apply to GW2 in the first place.

Unless there are serious developmental mistakes this game will be active until Guild Wars 3.

They’ve been making serious developmental mistakes since launch. Doesn’t seem to have had much of an adverse effect. Though it’s hard to tell without subscription numbers to use for a relative comparison. The hiring page is pretty much the only clear evidence that ANet isn’t hurting.

If the game is healthy, maybe they aren’t mistakes. I mean how many people say the Fractals was a mistake. Ascended gear is a mistake. The new super action box is a mistake. For each person who claims something is a mistake, another person likes it.

I think selling stuff in the shop that’s RNG is a mistake…I hate it. But it’s probably making them money. Over the long haul, they’ll probably make more money doing that. They’ll lose some players over it. Is it a mistake?

There have been a couple of mistakes, objectively, like the way the Lost Shores event was run…that was definitely a mistake, but a lot of things that people call mistakes are only mistakes from certain viewpoints.

Another month without LFG search

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The information you put on that site is your character name. That’s it. The account name is what you use to log in. I said this in my response. So if you can get someone’s account name from here, how is having a character name worse?

Anyone who wants to hack an account and needs info on how to log in just needs to come here.

Honestly why ignore the part of my post when I did respond do you? As far as offensive, I’m not the one who’s calling people names.

Again ignoring the wood for the trees.
I’ve provided you with a non-standard vector of attack that is the most likely to work and WILL be catching some users of gw2lfg and you’ve chosen to ignore it.

I’ve stated how gw2lfg is a security risk. If you really want to know, read my previous post, and properly this time. If you need more information, Google phishing. I’m done here.

It’s not a security risk, no matter what you say. Getting player names is as easy as logging into the game and looking around. That’s it.

You can vector all the attacks you want, but you’re being ridiculous.

Another month without LFG search

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

when this is put in game i look forward to hearing ‘’community has dissapeared’’ posts ‘’beacuse of LFG tooL!’’

- mark my words.

By the time that happens, there’ll be a looking for group tool. In case you haven’t heard, Anet is hiring. The game is healthy. It’s doing fine. And looking for group tool is in progress…far enough for them to have mentioned it.

So if like five guys leave because they’re too impatient to wait for it? So what?

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I’m not sure how long they will be able to sustain this though. Their Achilles heel is a AAA MMO targeted to a mature audience. The Disney stuff might be tolerable for awhile but; it’ll get dumped really fast. Your average MMO gamers is over 30 and is demanding mature content.

I’m 51 and I love this content. The average gamer is not defined by one dynamic. I don’t suspect light and happy will get dumped by many people…particularly if dark stuff is being added as well. The fractals are the darker side of things. WvW is not light and fluffy. There’s room in the game for some of this stuff.

Another month without LFG search

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

You didn’t read the rest of my post, you just saw the “insult” and fired off a response.
If you’d read it, you would see how gw2lfg could possibly be a security threat.
And that spelling flame was too easy, I couldn’t resist. I was responding in kind as I found the tone of your post disrespectful and unnecessarily inflammatory, let alone ignorant.

Again, gw2lfg is a third-party site not controlled by ArenaNet. We have no idea of how secure the site is or whether it may be utilised to exploit their users. Hackers are clever if they see that there might be money to be made.

Gold sellers advertise over there, and gold sellers are proven account security risks. While some sellers out there may be “genuine”, the vast majority will attempt to steal your account if you buy through them.

Not everyone is savvy to the ins-and-outs of internet security, and I can guarantee that some visitors to gw2lfg will be clicking through the gold seller’s banner ads. At this point they’ve opened themselves up to malicious software installation.

When they get to the gold seller’s site, they will probably be asked to create an account.
A lot of people will use the same password for the account on the gold seller’s website as they use for the game. It’s a tragedy that people are still so ill-educated about internet security, but them’s the facts.

And you still say gw2lfg being a security risk is an exaggeration?

The information you put on that site is your character name. That’s it. The account name is what you use to log in. I said this in my response. So if you can get someone’s account name from here, how is having a character name worse?

Anyone who wants to hack an account and needs info on how to log in just needs to come here.

Honestly why ignore the part of my post when I did respond do you? As far as offensive, I’m not the one who’s calling people names.

The In Game LFG Tool

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Has anyone used this? Why or why not? How has it worked for you?

Is Guild Wars 2 Doing Well?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

This is for all the people who claim the game is dying.

Star Wars The Old Republic ended up laying off a significant portion of their staff six months or so after launch. TSW ended up laying off a third of their staff, due to disappointing sales.

Anet, on the other hand, is hiring. Here’s the link to their website, which I got by following the shifting news on top of the main Guild Wars 2 page.

http://www.arena.net/

If Guild Wars 2 is doing so badly and the game is dying, why is Anet hiring?

PvE Leaderboards - Latecomers have no chance.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Just another thing to divide the community, par for the course so far. Fix the kitten bugs.

You mean there have been no bug fixes at all. The patch notes of this latest patch didn’t include any bug fixes? Really?

I don’t think that adding leaderboards is work intensive enough to stop other people from fixing bugs. These are unrelated problems.

You mean there are bugs that are as old as launch? You mean that with every patch a batch of new bugs pop up? I don’t care how work intensive leaderboards are or not. They’re fluff, plain and simple, and watch in a couple months if people aren’t saying they are divisive to the community because it will breed some form of elitism. Who the hell cares what joe blow has as achievements, they’re usually used as a personal road map, not an e muscle located somewhere in the lower abdominal area.

Are you truly saying having another coder or 10 on bugs is unnecessary and that this was?

I’m saying they have a team to fix bugs, they have a team to create new content. Both are necessary. And really, I’m not even disagreeing that this is divisive and the game would be better off without it. But you know, I’ve played a lot of MMOs and they change constantly so bugs are created constantly. This is true in all MMOs. So having an extra person on bugs won’t stop new bugs from happening. And too many chefs spoil the broth. Sometimes throwing more people at a problem only slows things down. It’s not always the case of adding people being more efficient.

The problem is for every person who hates these leaderboards, there’s someone who’s looking forward to them. I’m not. I could care less. But some people are. Should they have nothing in the game for them?

gw2lfg trolls

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

And no one has answered me yet about the already existing in game, Guild Wars 2 looking for group tool. Has anyone even tried it?

gw2lfg trolls

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The “playing a different game” remark made me smile.
:-)
I remember LFG spam. That is not the point, though. Lots of players made good use of the tool provided to us. Just because you were never part of that ‘scene’ doesn’t necessarily mean that it didn’t exist.

Anyway, I’m done trying to discuss the need for a proper, safe and controllable looking for group tool in this game.

Nothing to discuss. They’re working on it. It will be in the game when it’s ready. It’s not like Anet said you can’t have it. It’s not like I’m saying it won’t be good to have one in the game.

But they’re not going to rush it, and it’s not going to get here sooner than Anet is ready to release it. I think that’s pretty straightforward.

People who say OMFG it’s been 7 months, what the hell have they been doing make me laugh. This game obviously released early. Anyone with any common sense at all can see it. What they’ve been doing is playing catch up.

Some people simply have no patience.

Just getting back into the game, help?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Find a guild with like minded people. It’s the best advice I can give. A good guild can make a good game, great. For me, having a guild is one of the best things about being in an MMO…as long as it’s a guild that fits your play style.

Another month without LFG search

in Suggestions

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Can you spell exaageration?

I can spell exaggeration. You obviously can’t.

And no, it’s not exaggeration. It should never have been possible in the first place.
This could genuinely balloon into online bullying and harassment, purely because players exasperated at the lack of LFG tools in game have resorted to using one outside the game and therefore out of ArenaNet’s control.

There are also unforeseen consequences.

This trolling is just the first example of someone exploiting gw2lfg.
Other things may follow; for example how secure is gw2lfg? What if someone was able to hack the site and link IP addresses and character names? Is there a possible account security problem here?

You can argue that people should use authentication etc. to protect their accounts, but once a third party starts handling sensitive account information, all bets are off.
What if someone manages to hack gw2lfg and have it logging keystrokes?

I could keep hypothesising for a while here, but I think you should get the gist by now.

Bullying and harassment are not security holes. Saying I can’t spell something because I’m typing fast while doing other things…particularly in a program with a spell checker, shows that you have to resort to personal insult. Could it be because you have no valid arguement? I find that’s often the case.

A security hole is something that threatens security. Like if someone could get your password, and hack your account. How this is a security hole, I can’t imagine, though obviously it can be used for griefing. There are ways to grief people in Guild Wars 2 right now and I don’t know a whole lot of people who call it a security hole.

I mean pretty much everyone who logs on here, has their account name public anyway. I’m not sure how character names make that any worse. You don’t log into a game with your character name, after all.

gw2lfg trolls

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Anyone saying that this game doesn’t need an LFG tool is a moron. It is completely necessary and should be a high priority, instead of this Living Story crap.

7 months later and still nothing? Why do we even bother…

I think calling people a moron because they disagree with you shows a bad attitude. Obviously YOU think this game needs it. I would assume anyone who pugs would agree. But I also believe that a LOT of people who pug are perfectly happy with gw2lfg.com. So it takes the urgency away from the matter.

You really shouldn’t call people names, just because they disagree with you. It doesn’t make your argument any stronger.

gw2lfg trolls

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Ok so you never spent more than 5 minutes in ToA or GoA then. I get it and I understand a bit better why you would think it didn’t work.

It does work across districts (not zones) and, because GW1 is 100% instanced it is perfectly understandable that it would work in the particular instance you’re in only. GW2, however, is a more typical MMO and not hindered by instancing (except for personal story and dungeons) so that limitation would not exist here… making the tool perfectly viable for the task at hand.

No, I didn’t hang around at ToA or GoA. Not my style. I did all that stuff with my guild. and we were in and out. But the fact is, I remember people standing in outposts spamming LFG even just to do missions. If you don’t remember it, you must have been playing a different game.

Do you know how many times I was standing in a mission outpost and people would just add me without asking? The LFG tool was not widely used, and if you think it was…I’m not sure what to say.

That’s why so many people complained over the years about not having a separate LFG channel. If the LFG tool worked, why was anyone spamming chat?

Another month without LFG search

in Suggestions

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Currently there are two groups on gw2lfg.com for any story-mode dungeon.

Two.

Translation: if you didn’t start playing GW2 at launch and unlock all the explorables then, you can forget about ever running a dungeon.

We NEED a LFG tool. I don’t believe even 1% of people who might want to run a dungeon are off using some website to form a group.

That’s a problem with story mode dungeons in general, not the LFG tool. Story mode dungeons are broken and need to be fixed. The reward compared to time spent is dismal. Truly dismal.

The only way I go with people on story mode dungeons is if people in my guild need help. Do you know why people don’t do story mode dungeons? Because there is almost zero reason to.

If you have an LFG finder in game, you’ll have the exact same results.