Guild Wars 2

Yes! I do this as well

I never post on the forums, but if any time is the right time to start voicing my opinions, it’s now. With that being said, my goal is never to belittle the devs or come here with the sole intention of screaming. I want to be heard. People are more likely to listen to civil, rational thoughts than tantrum throwing. Remember, the devs are people too. They make mistakes just like the rest of us, and they have feelings too. And I want to be able to allow them the courtesy of not feeling attacked. It’s simply not fair to them.

That’s not to say that I’m not extremely upset about the recent update. Because I am. Guild Wars 2 was my first MMO. What made me want to play was the fact that it wasn’t like Warcraft, or whatever other generic MMO you can think of. I saw how much freedom the players were given to learn and experience the game however they wanted and at their own pace, and I genuinely liked that. When I first started playing, I came in with no previous knowledge, unlike many other players who came to GW2 from other games. I had to learn everything. And I liked the way I could learn. The in-game hints gave me all the help I needed to understand what each function was for and how to use it properly. And if I still felt confused, I always had the wiki up in a new tab if I needed to read further. It gave me a sense of pride to be able to say that I truly taught myself and learned everything from the bottom up. So I find these new changes to the leveling system very disheartening. I feel, both as a veteran player and from the perspective of a newcomer (because I was in their shoes once too) that the incentive and the satisfaction of leveling is being stripped down to bare bones. If I were just starting the game for the first time now, I don’t think I’d be able to want to stick with it for very long. Players need their basic skills right away in order to even stand a chance at surviving and putting up a fair fight. The extreme amount of level gating is only going to hinder new players. They won’t be able to really understand their mistakes or learn to play better if they are not allowed to make the mistakes and see why it doesn’t work. The level gating for dungeons still stands as a very valid level gated experience, and they truly are a reward for players who have proved that they know what they’re doing enough to join a group and go into that kind of gameplay. But now, with the level gating being effective as advanced as level 40, new players are less likely to feel welcome in dungeons because they aren’t even allowed to have all the skills they need to succeed in the instance.

But enough talk about the negative. I do want to sincerely applaud the devs for addressing the trading post. I love the new setup, I find it so much more visually appealing and convenient. This is something we’ve needed for a long time, and it’s great to see follow through on it. It’s a step in the sight direction. I just hope to see more steps in this direction, as opposed to more things following the path of the rest of the changes.