Guild Wars 2

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Windsagio.1340:

You’re just wrong, Steven.

First you have the ability to request ‘zerker’ or ‘meta’ or ‘heavies only’ as you wish. It’s possible people will ignore your wishes, but you have the ability.

Now, lets say they ignore your LFG message. There are really 2 possibilities.

1) You don’t notice, no harm no foul.
2) You do notice, and if even 1 other person agrees with you, you kick them.

Honestly though, I think you’re making this problem for yourself by being so militant about it. Don’t go borrowing excuses to be outraged.

~~

As to my personal position, I think it’s a dumb request (to be frank), but I’m more interested on trying to get people to try to look at it from a developers point of view rather than a “I want it! MEME!” point of view.

Everyone knows you want it, and everyone knows why you want it. The question we have to ask is, why would arenanet want it enough to justify the development costs and server load?

Look pal,

I pug FOTM 50 a lot. Most of the time I don’t ask for Zerk. Occasionally I do. When people aren’t full zerk, you can tell. But you can’t tell which person is a mix and match, or if it’s multiple people etc etc. So you sigh and say, well, this is the cost of not having a GHIW tool and this is the cost of pugging.

Things don’t have to be this way! GHIW! Free groups! That’s Anet’s incentive! This is an MMORPG! Give people the tools to make it easier to either join up with those filthy Zerkers, or avoid them at all cost!

The ONLY thing this would do make it easier for people to prevent lying and cheating, and yes, take up some developer resources. Why is helping people stop the liars and the cheaters a bad goal? Why is allowing people more power to find like minded players a bad goal?

Liars and cheaters? I hardly think gear ranks high in that category. You can tell quickly enough if a player cannot pull his own weight on a five man team. The game is plagued with enough elitists, why encourage them?

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

I do not care for pings. I have so many builds and gear to choose from…

I run speedrun zerk meta on some chars. And I will join
l80 Zerk Meta (Speedrun / EXP /xk AP/ Ping Gear) but I prefer not to ping,

I run zerk non meta on some.
l80 Zerk (Speedrun / EXP /xk AP/ Ping Gear) but I prefer not to ping,

I run non-zerk meta on some.
((Partial) zealots/valkyrie(/soldiers/clerics/cavalier/knights) armor)
I run non-zerk non-meta on some
I run hybrids (sinister(/carrion/rampager))
I join: l80 EXP (xkAP) I will not ping

I also run full condi’s (rabid/dire) and I do not join with those.
Not for dungeons with any full condi. I would kick somone with a full condi build myself, or leave. Last time 2 or 3 condi players is quite a while ago, but still…. It wil turn out to be annoying and sometimes way to lengthy as well.

I expect people to be honest about their joining a party, it’s a matter of good faith.
I kick naggers, whiners and people who make my run “not-fun” if I need to.
I kick trolls and block them and if needed I report them,

I kicked 4 people in 900 days of playing this game for being annoying…
I seconded at least 50 ppl’s kicks due to gear. Generally only in zerk(-meta) parties , I will kick scepter guardians, necro’s and mesmers quite fast, as I do shortbow rangers.

In l80 exp I’ll tolerate anything as long as it does dmg. even mace guardians. A zealot mace guard is something different then a clerics i know but I still hope people strive to efficiency. I sometimes play (partial) zealot necro/ele/guard and IMHO they can fit in zerk parties as well. but even though it would work I will not do so.

I kicked/ seconded at least 100 ppl for leaving party/ excessive AFK / the need for long phonecalls without any warning, but if someone asks I do not mind them being AFK and I’ll go on 4 man-ning the dungeon, reasons I do not object to are babies, phonecalls, food on (the) fire, toilet, door, and so on.
I do object to having to wait.

I do not care for a gear check, ANY good party with decent buffs and good (dungeon) gear will always outperform a l80 zerk without buffs, meta dungeon weapons / utility and food.

This is pure contradiction. On one hand you kick necromancers and rangers but state a good party will outperform a zerker? My necromancer performs very well in dungeons and I’m glad the players on my server are not as short-sighted and judgemental as this poster.

Way too many drawbacks for this idea to happen. And by providing a reason “people will kick you now if you dont ping gear” is lame. I have ascended zerker gear and avoid groups that require ping on join. I play how I want and I’m very good at it. I shouldn’t have to open my equipment tab to prove it.

Tachyon.5897:

How about a character creator like that of Black Desert Online?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TP4L1vHfpk

Unreal how much customization can go into a character. You can basically make any hair-style you want. That’s next gen stuff.

Ashen.2907:

Vix.6730:

Milennin.4825:

And before anyone says you don’t need Ascended gear: YOU ARE WRONG. Of course you need Ascended gear, why else is it there? Why else have they have given it better stats than Exotic gear? .

Aside from high end fractals all post-80 content is geared towards exotics. Whether you care to accept this fact or not is your problem.

It isnt a fact. Actually it is false. There is an entire section of the game where not having ascended gear means facing opponents with better stats than yourself.

PvP? Spvp? WvW? Nope. Not a requirement. The stats will not tip the balance of a fight, the skill of the player will. The coordination of a group will. Ascended provides a marginal increase.

jokke.6239:

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Semune.1952:

I have a level 80 guardian, but I don’t know if I want to play it because it feels like that class has an identity crisis. I made it at first because I thought it was a tank, I think I’m still confused as to what it’s supposed to be…

What classes are good right now? I realize that people are going to say play whatever I want to, but, I really don’t like spending hours leveling up a character only to find out nobody wants them in their groups because they’re useless. Should I stick to my guardian? (If their role is a healer, I don’t want to bother with it).

There is no Tank or Healer in this game. It runs on a soft trinity of Damage/Control/Support which Guardian can do all of.

Semune.1952:

I think the classes that look the most interesting to me are the mesmer, necromancer, and warrior. Are any of these 3 considered really good, any of them considered really bad?

Yes they’re all good. They all excel at slightly different aspects/areas of the game. What specifically are you looking at doing? That will give people a better idea of what may be a good fit for you.

I agree, but he asked for classes that people want in groups.
You might aswell wear a sign that says “kick me” if you roll a necromancer, sadly.

Necromancers can do great damage of you spec them right. I found it to be a strong, viable class.

Milennin.4825:

And before anyone says you don’t need Ascended gear: YOU ARE WRONG. Of course you need Ascended gear, why else is it there? Why else have they have given it better stats than Exotic gear? .

Aside from high end fractals all post-80 content is geared towards exotics. Whether you care to accept this fact or not is your problem.

Sounds like you need to step away for a bit, OP. Besides sounding very cynical you’re also highly judgemental of a player you have no inkling about. Honestly I find it insulting you would attempt to bash this player on a public forum because they’re working to understand a new game.

Hopefully you were not clamoring for an expansion because a lot more players will be joining our ranks soon. Some need a little more time to come around than others.

Bump. Awesome thread!

With all due respect to Anatoli, the Flameseeker Chronicles took a nose dive after Rubi Bayer left. Where Rubi wasn’t afraid to critique GW2 for its shortcomings and praise its strengths, Anatoli’s writing sounded more like an Anet press release with some first person reporting sprinkled in.

I like most of your points OP. Most, if not all, will never see the light of day however.

Your remark about the woman introducing Mike and Colin was spot on. It sounded like they were trying to address a gathering of toddlers. Their perspective of the convention attendees and playerbase in general has been way off for quite a while now (See the NPE).

sazberryftw.3809:

First of all, they didn’t announce every feature. I’m pretty sure what they mentioned isn’t the be-all end-all.

• Yes, they told us about going into Maguuma, but they didn’t say, “and no where else”.

“I do want to be clear, we are not being coy today, we’re not saying, “Oh, here’s a tease of Heart of Thorns, but there are other things.” Our players were very patient waiting for today, and we announced every major feature of Heart of Thorns today.”
- Mike ’OBrien

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/9340/Our-PAX-South-Interview-With-Mike-OBrien-and-Colin-Johanson.html/page/1

Don’t expect anything more than what’s already been revealed. You can expect to hear more details about said features.

To the OP – next time they troll your map call them out in map chat. Give their name and guild tag and commumicate why they are trolling.

You can also take it one step further and reasearch the guild by looking up the tag. There’s a good chance they have a site. Find out who the leader is and report their members.

runeblade.7514:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Now that the HOT is out of the bag, we’re able to update this thread with more details. With the introduction of the new account based mastery system for end-game progression and growth in PvE, we’ll also be re-evaluating our other systems of character progression to ensure they match our over-all pillars and goals for Gw2.

In doing so: we’re going to be removing the current trait unlocking system currently on live and replacing it with a more simplified system that supports where skills-traits-specializations are going in the future. We’ll go into more details between now and the release of HOT on how skills, traits, and specializations will work in the new Gw2 world.

Thank you for all your passionate feedback on this topic – it not only helped our dev team lead to this decision, but has played a large role in helping us define how to build our exciting new account based mastery system for end-game progression in PvE as well.

I like current trait unlocking system. It could use more work, but not enough for it to be removed completely.

A few minor additions would be enough to satisfy the masses.

Satify you, correct? Because the “masses” hate it, which is why the system is saying adios.

Large numbers of guild mates is meaningless if they don’t interact with each other and show a genuine feeling of comraderie. I’m having more fun now with a guild of 40 than I did with one constantly at the limit.

It starts with the leader, followed by the officers, if applicable, and most importantly the members.

Inviting every Tom, kitten and Larry to your guild to fulfill some egotistical fantasy of leading 400 players is dillusional. Instead, focus on a core number. Cultivate those members, and you’ll find a much more rewarding experience.

Obtena.7952:

It’s a little premature to claim it’s a small expansion without seeing the content.

Colin has already stated in the Pax announcement we are getting one region comprised of three layers. Playable content wise, the release will be small. But as another poster said we are paying for a fix.

It’s been 2.5 years since the personal story mattered. If Anet wanted to scrap it all together be my guest. An expansion was very much needed, and I’m excited to hear a playable demo will be at Pax East. Go Heart of Thorns!!

roamzero.9486:

Fairest way would be to make the xpac available for a month or two only via direct purchase, and then introduce it into the gem store.

You’d still have gold farmers attaining the expansion for free, which Anet does not profit from. You have to consider ROI. As another poster said, digital download through a separate page is the best way. We’re not talking about a lot of money here, maybe $30- $35.

Thanks so much!

I know the details are out there, but would still like to watch the Pax announcement. The Twitch channel doesn’t have it. Work ran late last night, didn’t get up in time

Challenging group content: raids with a twist.

I’d much, much rather prefer a one-time credit card or Paypal payment. This ensures Anet recoups their investment, rather than accepting gems from gold farmers.

Bluestrike.6154:

Actually happier bout new profession, something totally new instead of a new race with the same old professions

I feel the same way. I still haven’t made an Asura or Sylvari. A new profession is good.

MrDark.8632:

To add: An ArenaNet employee running with the zerg while tagged does not mean anything. As they have previously said, when they are tagged it means they’re working. They could’ve been gathering feedback/reports on how the map is currently being played.

Not necessarily. Anet is pretty open with letting employees play during off-time (lunch breaks, after work, etc). Additionally, I struck up a conversation with a support rep during the Marionette defense late one night. It was slow for them, all work caught up, allowed to game a little.

And I thought this was going to be a crowd funding idea for GW1, of which I’d happily give $60 for.

Jeremy Soule makes incredible music, but DirectSong is an absolute horrible company to deal with. Their support is scarce, and ETA’s for shipments are non-existent.

Eirdyne.9843:

Ahh, that makes good sense. I mostly play the games I do through word of mouth by friends. I don’t usually trust much what developers says, especially Anet, because they only say their plans. They aren’t playing the game, they’re making it. So Devs usually have a wildly different idea about their games than the players and their experiences with the game.

Not quite true. One of the lead designers was a part of my guild. Out of respect, his in-game name will remain anonymous. Initially he didn’t say much of anything but as time rolled on he became more open and vocal. Not all Anet players have the company logo above their heads. Many play on alts after work. The developers have never been the problem, its upper management.

Since this is a vanity-based game I second the call for more hair styles. I’ll take it one one step further and ask for the ability for human females to have tattoos.

What made me buy GW2? The friends I made in GW1. About 30 of us moved to GW2. Sadly they left when the game became stale. Hopefully the announcement can change this.

Liz.1497:

woah, really? Everyone I know and talked to (and this seems to be the general consensus on the forums as well) seems to be incredibly excited and happy about the announcement. I mean clearly you’re entitled to your own opinion, but I’d be surprised if there are a lot of people out there that share it.

I was happy to hear about the PAX announcement too. At this point we can bet it’s an expansion is some form, but to see an advertisement in-game was immersion breaking and distressing. Stick the ad on the loading screen, character select screen, fine, that works. But in-game? What’s next, The Goodyear Pact Blimp? Trahearne offering us a 20% discount on the Deluxe Bundle? Where is the line drawn between production and marketing?

I guess all of social media, word of mouth and whatever print ads you’re running for PAX wasn’t enough – you have to bombard players in-game too? Shameless advertising. The trailer was done in very bad taste. A nice kick to the groin for those players still around to enjoy your content.

PAX better be worth our trouble.

Aetheldrake.6395:

Creativewild.6319:

Aetheldrake.6395:

you really want to know why they trademarked something new?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/trailer-point-of-no-return-begins-january-13/

maybe if anybody WATCHED THIS, you’d see there is a giant mordrem rose…

and??? I don’t see the point, can you explain?

heart of thorns

giant mordrem rose

you do the figuring

Because you can’t? Again, it’s been in the game since November. Moving on.

monepipi.5160:

Why remove animations??? also please give the more feminine walk animation back. This is ridiculous. I picked a FEMALE character not a MALE or BUTCH character

I believe Anet removed the animations due to GamerGate. Bugs get fixed espesically when they’re acknowledged. Design changes gone wrong take much much longer to reverse, if they ever get reversed at all. The removal of the female animation is just more water under the bridge. Another example of how this once proud and wildly popular franchise was ridden off the rails by short-sighted decision makers.

I know this might sound harsh, but the removal of the animation served nothing but to annoy and infuriate an already uncertain playerbase. Please bring back the animations.

I’d spend the necessary gems on this hair style and the dress. Even if Anet released the dress as an outfit, still worth it.

Why the discussion on this? Amyone can buy enough gems to convert to gold for precusors. Heck I spent $40 on gems to finish my savings for Dawn. To buy the precusor outright would be very expensive (was around $200 when I was saving).

Vlad Morbius.1759:

darkace.8925:

“…we’re setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe.”

ArenaNet: perpetually planning to prepare to iterate big things that may or may not make it into the game.

This, two plus years of this, is anyone really surprised that so many people are jaded, apathetic or flat out cynical? I wish I could attend Pax just to see how this will all go down.

Right? Anet made this bed and has to sleep in it. Upon hearing the news of the announcement I was hopeful and excited. But now? Hesitant.

Now if the announcement was, “Join Colin and Mike as they unveil GW2’s first expansion, and find out which continent players will have a chance to revisit 250 years after the defeat of the Great Destroyer.” That alone is enough to get me back on board.

cesmode.4257:

If an expansion means the end to living story…(for good..it wont come back)… I will return to Guild Wars 2.

Right now, Im too far gone. As long as living story is in the game, I will not be Sad reality for me because this game had such potential for me.

This seems to be the consensus on MMORPG.com, give or take a few white knights and uber-casual players still trying to make their first level 80.

I feel bad for the OP. Due to the fact Anet stonewalls their playerbase, there wasn’t anywhere for the OP to go for official news and updates. +1 Community.

mtpelion.4562:

The loot system in GW2 is superior to other MMO loot systems specifically BECAUSE it is tied to the Gold Standard.

This means that you CAN play the type of content you want and convert your time into nearly any item in the game, as opposed to games where you must grind away at specific tasks until RNG decides to reward you with a specific item that you want.

I understand that this concept is foreign to people who emigrate here from the inferior products that we’ve all played in the decades before, but the system really is pretty wonderful.

Wrong. The loot system in GW2 has been silly and laughable since launch. At times GW2 feels like a trip to Chuck E Cheese for my son. Every game gives you tickets. The games are old and dull but they give tickets. The more tickets you get the better the prize. So you’re going to play the games again and again.

So rather than enjoying the challenge of battle and relish the thrill of victory you’re in it for the gold. There’s only two challnges Anet has delivered when I’d be happy not to collect a reward, Tequatl and the Marionnette event.

Mordalus.8146:

Acquisition of these weapons should take legendary skill with a legendary questline and not be based on legendary RNG and legendary grind or legendary opening of the wallet. And where is the precursor crafting that we were promised?

Very well said for all your points. I’m guilty as charged of the wallet. Upon realizing my chances of getting a precursor were slim next to none (while conducting regular world boss tours among other runs) I was faced with a choice: convert gems into gold or spend a ridiculous amount of time grinding and hoping. There was nothing legendary about the aquisition of my legendary.

Vayne.8563:

Interesting opinion OP. I can see where you’re coming from. The only one I’m not sure about is 3.

I’m not sure that depth and breaks should even be listed together really. They’re different things.

But it’s a pretty fair list of the five things about the game I like the least. I suppose in all fairness there are more things I like than dislike but there are definitely things I dislike.

My own list would look like this.

5. The way the personal story was changed in the NPE.
4. The introduction of Ascended Gear
3. Lack of strong guild features (among them inability to send a message to everyone in the guild)
2. The New Trait System
1. The Communication Policy

The lack of guild features is befuddling to me. With all their talk of community and social and playing with your friends the guild aspect of GW2 suffered the worst.

I can forgive Ascended armor, traits and even the NPE as these became projects after launch in one form or another. But guilds were abandoned at launch and remain so. A few cheap bounty missions and challenges have little to mend this wound.

Sagat.3285:

You should take off #4 some specs and weapons are ignored due to lack of efficiency, fix the existing instead of piling it up. Get out of your comfort zone and see why no one uses them.

You’re missing the point. The OP is alluding to greater variety. If not with new weapons than expanding current ones. My warrior has been stuck with the same five sword skills he’s had since creation. A few more would go a long way. If you’re answer is to simply grab a hammer, guess what?! Same five hammer skills since creation. Get the point?

To the OP – great list and explanations as to why. There’s a lot of things that Anet has done right, but the thibgs they have done wrong weigh heavily.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Astral Projections.7320:

Is there really any reason to make public who the forum specialist are since they mostly are there to report back to ANet? I don’t see why someone needs a tag for that. Having a tag opens up possibilities of them being constantly harassed about being white knights and ANet toadies. Imo, it would be better not to have people publicly labeled as being “semi official” when they have no official function other than collate information and report or linking official posts (which anyone can do).

That is a really thought-provoking comment!

What do others feel about this? I’m very interested in feedback on the subject of making specialists public or not.

I agree. No designation is the clearest and easiest way to avoid future problems.

I’ve heard nothing but great things about WoW’s garrison from friends. To each his own.

Farzo.8410:

This playerbase is a wild one.

Colin Johanson alone can smile into the camera and holy hell people will speculate about anything and everything.

Considering how little Colin and Mike O’Brien communicate with their dwindling playerbase all we’ll have to go on is facial expressions and eye contact.

pdavis.8031:

As far as the “trapped in a single moment in time”, the whole world is pretty much trapped in a moment of time, or at least in a time loop. As much as everyone would love to see LA rebuilt, until the Living Story moves time along, LA isn’t going anywhere. We saw the same thing with the Queens Pavillion, before it became the Pavillion. Before it was a giant hole, and construction site, then the patch came, and overnight it was transformed.

So unless you are doing the PS, or the LS, the game is trapped in (almost) the same exact time frame as when the game first launched. That’s why we don’t see Orr being cleansed, can fight the same world bosses repeatedly, do the same dungeon paths, etc.

Very good point. I hope the powers that be look at the big picture when deciding on their next move and realize not much if anything has changed in the last 2.5 years. It’s time to shake things up in a big way. I for one would love to see Orr cleansed and become a relative peaceful realm. The enemies driven back into a place we haven’t discovered yet.

As for the dungeons, that’s a tough call.

Vayne.8563:

Immensus.9732:

Ive sunk over 1000 hours into the game and every single one of it is worth it, but then i hit a wall. Do i think the game needs endgame after 1000 hours? Yes, theres only 3 types of end game for co-op/online games that makes them last. 1. Competition (see mobas)
2. Gear treadmill (see wow, diablo, borderlands) 3. sandbox and freedom (see minecraft, EvE online). Gw2 has none of them and is strugling on keeping at least the competition part. thats why i think it could have been a perfect co-op experience with new game every 5-6 years rather than MMO.

I think the MMO genre is too new to say what will and won’t work longterm anymore. Years ago, when MMOs weren’t main stream you might have been right.

But I suspect there are enough people now who are achievement point hunters and people who like to play dress up with different alts that could carry a game like this indefinitely.

A lot of people would leave, but in my opinion the numbers left behind would be enough to fund the game.

And because the genre is new and growing and changing, we won’t know if this will work until it’s actually tried.

Vayne, Vayne, Vayne you’re better than this! The MMO genre is new? Try 30 years new, but if you want to nick pick and go all “commercial MMO” you’re still circa 1997. Technologically speaking that’s a lifetime. Most of us don’t even have cars that old.

I do agree with you, however, in that there are enough achievement vultures and daddy dress-up fans to keep the lights on in GW2. Similar situation with the original Guild Wars albeit under different circumstances. I play my monk regularly and my guild is still finding new faces.

No word on what the announcement is. No leaks or rumors. It’s anyone’s guess right now: it could be something trivial like Season 3 of Living Story or something very much needed like a full blown expansion. We’ll see!

I hope they did away with the idea as well. It serves no logical purpose other than to empower white knights.

Good post OP. It’s a little late in the game to overhaul a reward system when there are other areas that need immediate development. The time and resources needed to overhaul dungeon rewards lacks the ROI in my opnion.