Guild Wars 2

Hi, Yes another one of those threads.

So…we get ascended gear released to us every so often. Since November 15th, we’ve gotten the Back piece, Ring, Accessory, and Amulet. I believe that is all, correct? 6 months, 4 slots. In games like WoW and Rift, the top tier gear is gated every 4-6 months via new raids. The only difference between GW2 “top tier” gear and WoW/Rift is that GW2 is releasing slots rather than entire armor sets.

So, we go through the motions for the next 6-12 months of acquiring every ascended slot possible. At which point, a possible expansion is announced to be released sometime soon after. All the work we did for those ascended slots will be obsolete when we reach a new level cap, assuming they increase it(they have said they have no problems increasing it). So now, we start the process all over again…just like a WoW expansion.

So, it seems to me that the game gives an illusion of no gear treadmill, yet all the hardwork we do to get the ascended gear will be replaced when the expansion comes out. And I don’t think the first expansion will be terribly long after the last slot of ascended is released. To me, this is a similar model that is used in every other MMO…its just masked differently here.

What do you think?

Honestly, you should be able to complete your daily by doing whatever you want, no matter what it is..not even choosing from a list(which isnt entirely bad either). Out in the world mining nodes? Out in the world killing things? Out in the world discovering places and map completing?

The XP you earn, from crafting, from materials gathering, from exploring, from dynamic events, from dungeoning, etc…that should determine if you get your laurel for the day.

Set it at something like 5000 XP or something…Complete two or three dynamic events, and youre done. Farm a specific monster for a specific material for an hour, you’ll probably be done…takes longer but thats what you want to do! Craft all night? Probably be done in no time. Simply playing the game you’re way, the way it was intended…not checking off items on a list.

Sadly, and happily, my work day has come to a close.

My closing remarks:
I initially scoffed at ascended gear, and to an extent I still do.
I do feel lied to, to this day.
I do think there is a treadmill in this game.
I do like to entertain debates, like the one here.

But, I am turning over a new leaf and I am trying not to get overly PO’d about this game again. If that happens, I would probably be done for good. Ain’t nobody got time for dat.

See you in game tonight folks!

If they simply did the following, most people would be happy:
1.Release fractals as they are today(OK they couldnt see the player gated content on day one until it happened..its a lot better now though, so thats progress).
2.Release Ascended gear with the same stats as exotic/legendary. The ONLY difference is, this gear has infusion slots so that people can eventually acquire this gear(progression) and eventually acquire the infusions(progression). Thus, not creating ANY gear treadmill since the innate stats on the gear itself is equal to that of exotic/legendary. They could have even included the stats you would get from runes or whatever. No stat increase. Just a dungeon-specific gear to allow you to progress into the higher levels.

They keep saying “You dont need ascended gear to play any part of the game, just high level fractals”. Well, if you truely believe that, why give a 5-10% stat boost on the gear? Why not make them equi-statted to that of exotic gear, with one extra slot for infusions?

And to correct you, ascended gear wasnt intended and then scratched. Whiteside said, it was always intended..it was always coming, always on the table. They just chose not to inform us, and knew we would get PO’d…makes no sense to me.

Title sounds like a cool rock song or something…like Van Halen.

I disagree with your builds portion BTW.

A neat suggestion for some linkage of the PVE world and WVW. If youre running around the PVE world, and if your server is getting hammered or some major keep is being attacked…maybe a small message on the screen saying so would be nice. Letting you know…“Hey your keep is being sieged…”

“Oh crap, let me get in there and help real quick”

Vayne, good points..but there are still the “nothing to do at 80 posts”.

A side debate if you will—

So…

They release ascended gear with the Nov 15 patch. A huge backlash came about. I think even Colin and one of the game’s producers said they expected this. In the AMA they had a week or two later with the producer(whiteside is the last name), he said in a direct response to MY very own question I posted, that ascended gear was always intended. Well, if it was always intended and you seemed to have expected the community to freak out like it did, why didnt you launch the game and give us some heads up? Why not give the playerbase a headsup saying "Hey, we are releasing with XYZ tiers, and in a few months adding one more. " It was all hush hush until November 15th patch, or thereabouts. From an outsiders views, yours and mine, it would seem they were responding to the whiners and complainers of “nothing to do”…and added another tier into the game. It seemed this way because there was no mention of ascended gear in any betas, in any interviews, at launch, in the few months after launch. Nothing. They could have avoided that mega thread of 60,000 posts, or at least most of it, if they launched with some mention of ascended…Why wouldn’t they want to avoid bad press? They definately did receive bad press, bad rep, etc…even if the game is still flourishing. It could have been side stepped at least a little.

But it was always intended to be in the game…right?
I dont think so. I think that was a BS line.

I’ll be doing this for the first time tonight, hopefully. After reading this, I am looking forward to it.

I took long for more interesting, engaging, thought provoking, semi-difficult fights. Not one shot abilities, not just 50 adds or just 50 areas of badfloor. Get creative with it.

Problem is, however, once this is put into explorable…people will find the easiest path and run that into the ground…it’ll be one-shot wonders all over the place, like a CoF path 1 or something. So you may like the more difficult encounters, but once this is in explorable and we have a choice, the majority of players and pugs you might group with will prefer speed over diversity. Which stinks…

Thanks.
Did they say what is coming in May 14, other than the southsun stuff?

SneakyErvin.3056:

I agree with OP and it’s a reason I gave up on GW2 dailies and pretty much the game as a whole just recently. Currently I’m not even logging in anymore, I’m trying out neverwinter and find it much more fun and alt friendly.

Sadly it doesnt have much PvP in the way I like, like WvW type of PvP, but my PvP needs are met by playing BF3. I found the NW PvE part and leveling much more fun.

GW2 really needs to broaden their laurel system and let us do dailies/monthlöies on each toon if we like. Make laurels soul bound if needed. Some will say economy will get kittened up… well it already is, and it’s not a big issue.

I’ve been playing NW as well. I like the game more so than I thought. Reading zone chat, I think a lot of other people do too. The one thing people complain about is the cash shop. Its why I might be breaking from that game already…but overall, its a solid game.

stof.9341:

The answer is simple : average party MF in dungeons.

Diablo III failed doing it correctly because even without MF sharing, it was much more profitable farming alone than in a group. In Diablo III, groups take longer to kill mobs because they get more health and more damage the more players there are. In fact, the “not sharing MF” part they did was more like one of the many incentives to group they created than some better system for handling MF.

In GW2, we don’t have such issues. If you want to farm a dungeon, you get a full group because going alone only means taking 5 times longer to kill stuff for the exact same reward.

Blizzard realized this and made improvements. Theres a paragon system. At max level, you continue gaining experience. Every level after(which is a paragon level), you gain +3% magic find and 3% gold find. They said the thought behind this is that you will eventually hit the MF/GF cap..thus not needing any more MF gear. Also in doing so, you can stop gearing for MF and focus on a more useful stat in combat.

Kind of curious how our feedback here gets processed. Any ideas or speculations?
Are there a few people sitting in a room reading our posts, printing out a post and rushing it over to someone like Colin to say “Hey, this guy makes a good point/suggestion”..or do they compile it, and have weekly meetings?

Im really just curious here, no alterior motive.

Anyone have any idea? Does it continue from flame and frost?

Nothing in 4 hours? Simple questions!

Sil.4560:

Or just work it like agony resist.

No to this! This would probably spawn another currency and this game already has too much.
Keep it simple and keep it so that the player does not have to do anything other than play the game.

Verdelet Arconia.6987:

Colin, remove MF from equipments. Make it scaled to total achievement points. Capped at 10,000 achievement points. 100 achievement points = 1% MF

No more dps whining, and long term players get even more rewards. Good way to reward loyalty and effort.

A good idea… i think I support it.

Not quoting to avoid walls of text, but…
@vayne: To one of your previous posts, “Noone can say where the game is headed not even the devs..its an iterative process”. Yes. But that doesn’t mean you have free reign to stray on what sold your customers. Why even bother to have blogs, interviews, webcasts talking about the game. Why even bother telling us anything about the game if you, as the developer, reserve the right to go back on anything you have said and change the game.

The reason they say some of this, is because its supposed to be “stone”. At its core, set.
Again, tweaks are inevitable. Some things change, etc.

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

PlagueParade.7942:

So, if it happens, legendary weapons will become ascended but will there also be other weapons that will be ascended as well? I mostly ask this cause I like quite a few of the skins out there and would like to be able to at the least transmute them to be ascended (no, I would never transmute the stats of a legendary weapon to the skin I would prefer, that would just be a huge waste of gold).

Do you think there will, or should be, other ascended weapons if legendary ones become as such?

Funny, I know theres a video on this site even, where a game designer said legendaries will equal exotics in terms of stats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG4ACZEUa-Y

Watch that interview, specifically at 8:45. Eric Flannum specifically says, and I quote “Legendary weapons, of course, are not any more powerful than the top level exotic weapons. Infact each legendary is based off of a specific exotic weapon, so they are the same level power wise but look a whole lot different”

Here we go again with the debate. Are they going back on this one?

Seriously, if you’re about to flame me, at least watch the video at the specific point so that I can take you seriously when you decide to shoot me down…because you have a developer on camera saying legendaries are the same level power wise as exotics, they just look different. By the way, if ascended was ever intended during development, don’t you think they would have mentioned ascended items, maybe in this interview?

I know the video. And I’ve answered this question at least twice or three times before. It has nothing to do with flaming you.

Anet has said, over and over again, that they’re an interative company. This means things change. Do you have any idea of the list of things that have changed since this game was annouced?

Dyes were originally seeds that you planted and then you had to go to a special dye vendor to grow the seeds. You could only grow one at at time and it took 24 hours to find out what your dye was. They sold plant food in the cash shop to speed this process up. This was removed in favor of the current dye system. Did anyone complain about this? Nope. Because they LIKED that change.

Originally energy existed for skills. As such, people would run out of energy and there would be energy potions in game. Energy was later scrapped for skills, and energy potions along with them. Did people complain? Nope. They liked that change.

Lengendary weapons were originally supposed to be part of a horizontal progression, but not enough people were taking up the hunt for them. Anet looked at it and decided what to do, the same way they changed energy. The same way they changed dyes.

Yes, Anet said all three things, but only one of them gets complained about. I think it’s pretty disingenuous to bring up old interviews in an attempt to catch MMO companies in lies. MMO developers, unlike any other type of game, perhaps, are forced to make changes to the game on the fly. It happens all the time in every single MMO.

You either can live with the changes, or you can’t. But everyone becomes a back-seat developer and assumes they know what’s best for the game better than the devs. Sometimes, some of those people are right. Games like Star Wars Galaxies were absolutely destroyed by some of the changes that the developers made. Other games, however, were saved.

I guess in a couple of years we’ll know which way Guild Wars 2 went.

Dude, we aren’t talking about some Alpha feature or content that was initially slated in the game when they were actually drawing the art. The video I posted was made a mere one or two months prior to release… Not 1-2 years. Its a little bit different context. The video posted was during a time when the game at its core, and most of its systems, were set in stone. Yes, always iterations to these systems, but they are tweaks. Not game changing additions or subtractios. Adding in a new tier of gear is game changing if you are one of those MANY people that Want and thought they had BiS gear.

So you can’t compare something that was initially intended for the game 1-2 yrs prior to launch to something that was “intended” for the game 1-2 months.

Einlanzer.1627:

sorenrye.7238:

I agree with the OP.

Ratty wrote:
MF gear is equal to level 68 blue gear.

Developer wrote:
We agree that this is unintended and we want to change it.

Many people wrote:
It’s selfish to use MF in dungeons

Done, facts, nothing to discuss. I could copy paste several of the earlier posts of the people that denies this, point out the flaws, how they go off topic, etc and so on. But instead I will just give some consolation to the people that have been trying to stick to the facts – there is NO reason to waste any ‘ink’ discussing the points with the ‘opposition’. So:
—-
I have almost NEVER seen so much BS in a single thread in any thread I’ve read on the internet. The only place I’ve seen something similar was in alt.tasteless.humor many, many years ago.

Some people here ignores the posts that totally negates ALL OF THEIR arguments/statements/posts/oppinions/views/etc. They ONLY quote the stuff that they can misunderstand on purpose, and they rant like people with no common sense, no ability to do math and it looks like they are either not too bright AND just here to troll.
—-

Pretty much. I honestly think this thread may contain some of the worst logic and most zealous, reactionary denialism I’ve ever seen in a gaming forum.

The sad part is how easy it would be to fix the issues with MF without any dramatic overhauls by diffusing it in parties.

I made a suggestion:

Take the Diablo 3 model: At max level, each time you level up you gain skillpoints but also additional levels. Each level grants +% of magic find and gold find.

OR, a skillpoint sink. You gain skill points per level at max level anyways. For 20 skill points you can purchase 5% magic find or something(the values can be modified ofcourse).

edited—nevermind. I see you stated which ones

But yeah, very unlucky for me.

Atrem.6528:

snippedp

465 gold is not pocket change bro. If I had that much, or even half as much, I’d feel much more encouraged to go after my legendary full steam. Right now, the precursor is whats holding me back from really focusing on it because lets face it, unless youre some lucky SOB, youre going to spend 400-600 gold on the precursor. Its a fact.

It is a grind for sure. Consider this…endgame. Im returning to the game, and its a mindset Im trying to instill in myself. I feel you man, I have 5 80s but only focusing on 3. I want BiS gear and then just enjoy the game, work toward legendary, and grind for cosmetics. I dont want to spend eons on this stuff. But, it is what it is. I’ve complained until I was blue in the face, been given many warnings and took two months off of the game because I felt lied to. Trying to turn over a new leaf here.

With my previous post here, I want to say that I am slowly returning to the game after a two month hiatus. I do not agree with a lot of the design direction of the game. To name a few, ascended items, guild missions rewarding another form of currency to purchase ascended items(and forcing me to spend 50 ectos and 30 or 40 laurels on an ascended item…)…its breaking away from the “play as you want model”. I want to play as I want, not be compelled to do guild missions and grind for my legendary, but at the same time if I want to keep up with ascended gear, I’ll need to spend ectos…blah blah blah. You know the story. Infact, I think there was a dev on here once saying that they are trying to encourage us to do guild missions, which is why the price of the new ascended items is so high otherwise…I dont want to be encouraged to do anything. I want to play how I want to.

ANYWAYS, I digress, bigtime. Apologies. I am trying to turn over a new leaf here. Play and enjoy the game. Not be bogged down. So while I disagree with recent design directions, I am slowly returning and letting bigons be bigons(spelling?) and hoping that they do not falter with future design decisions.

PlagueParade.7942:

So, if it happens, legendary weapons will become ascended but will there also be other weapons that will be ascended as well? I mostly ask this cause I like quite a few of the skins out there and would like to be able to at the least transmute them to be ascended (no, I would never transmute the stats of a legendary weapon to the skin I would prefer, that would just be a huge waste of gold).

Do you think there will, or should be, other ascended weapons if legendary ones become as such?

Funny, I know theres a video on this site even, where a game designer said legendaries will equal exotics in terms of stats.

Watch that interview, specifically at 8:45. Eric Flannum specifically says, and I quote “Legendary weapons, of course, are not any more powerful than the top level exotic weapons. Infact each legendary is based off of a specific exotic weapon, so they are the same level power wise but look a whole lot different”

Here we go again with the debate. Are they going back on this one?

Seriously, if you’re about to flame me, at least watch the video at the specific point so that I can take you seriously when you decide to shoot me down…because you have a developer on camera saying legendaries are the same level power wise as exotics, they just look different. By the way, if ascended was ever intended during development, don’t you think they would have mentioned ascended items, maybe in this interview?

Hi,
I am slowly returning to the game after a 2 month hiatus. I think I left at fractal level 25 or something. Did they add any new fractals from march up until now? Any new dungeons, other than the living story one which may be going away soon? Any huge changes to dungeons/boss mechanics that they said would come(other than AC)?

Thanks,

mjharrison.3209:

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’re trying something very unique and different with Gw2 […] and constantly adjusting as we see the outcomes and find ways to innovate on what a true online world experience can be.

IMO it’s not worth it. It’s expensive in terms of resources and isn’t particularly engaging. Emergent, player-driven gameplay is the only way to achieve a truly living story in a game. There is more of a living story going on in each of the 50-odd constellations of EVE than in the whole of GW2, and that content is created by players for free.

Obviously the ship has sailed on what kind of game GW2 is, but IMO there is plenty of scope for experimentation with emergent gameplay within the WVW format. After all, it is the dynamic, unpredictable nature of WVW (RVR) that drives its core appeal.

I would partially agree with this.

I agree that GW2, at least in my opinion, has extremely strayed from what we thought, and were preached to, the core concept of the game would be(yadda yadda, grind for cosmetics, no item progression, play how you want to..but I wont get into that..turning over a new leaf here).

I disagree that WvW is the only place to have this emergent gameplay. While I think I read and really liked the idea of traps being placed in WvW(good idea!), the world could still use adjustments. I hope that this living story was just a small fragment of what could happen because frankly it WAS a bit..lacking. I agree, add more events into the game, add more player-interactive story, maybe even design a tool where players can generate their own content(I’m telling you, this alone will bring in hoards of players if done correctly).

Just from previous game experiences and a few suggestions for some living world content:

In some sort of story context…

1. Have some big monster/mob atack a main cities gates(like Divinities Reach, or Black Citadel). Never entering the city itself(thus to prevent lag) but smashing its doors in the outside zone. If adventurers do not kill him in time, he does infact enter the city.

To spread out the player-base and reduce lag, have all cities attacked simultaneously so that the population needs to spread out to defend. Once inside the city, the monster can start killing NPCs(that will respawn over time), etc. If youre clever enough code wise, have him knock down walls, permanently.

This is similar to an event I witnessed in WoW many years ago. I think everytime someone died, the giant mob gained a sliver of health. So if he is destroying everyone, he’s invincible. It forces people to work together, keep eachother alive, rez people. (Ahem, MMO?)

2. Or…yet another WoW experience(or you can even attribute this to Invasions in Rift)…similar to the event we just experienced with portals opening up, dredge and charr coming out…do this but on a grander scale. Not just a few mobs at a clip. Armies, a huge invasion. Warbands of dozens of mobs at a clip running around attacking players and adventurers. You have to kill them, then destroy the portal itself to close it. If left unchallenged, the mobs gain a foothold that needs to be taken out, otherwise it wreaks havoc on the zone.

I don’t think it’ll get more living than that.

Mathias.9657:

I bet their child will only be temporary content.

Boarding school.

Hey,
I logged in last night…To be honest, it was pretty difficult and confusing to find out where exactly I had left off. I spent about 45 minutes running around like an idiot trying to find the fire portals where dred and flame legion spawned because I remember leaving off at that I think. I closed one…but then realized in my achievement tracker that the achievement I just ganed for killing 50 of these guys was not a pre-req down the required achievement “path”, as I’ll call it….to get to the last achievement and unlock the dungeon.

I then turned my focus to the pre-reqs and required achievements(I think I even did them out of order, I did hatchery first than braham), and I got up to the dungeon achievement(last one I believe) within 45 minutes or an hour. I still have to go through the different tiers of lost and found possessions for the refugees and things like that, but I want to get the main achievements done first.

I could see that the idea behind this story is probably pretty neat, although I was a bit rushed for time last night so I didnt pay attention a whole lot to the story. But I do think that there just wasnt enough to it. From where I left off, two main missions, a few cutscenes and dialogue, a bit of travel and youre done. 1-2 hours max. Not including time to go through the tiers of the other achieves.

Hoping that the living stories in the future have different arcs/branches that the player can choose his/her adventure much like the personal stories. That would be sweet.

Im the minority. I think magic find is a good stat. I think its good to acquire a gear set to farm in. I had fun accumulating mine.

Arenanet wants to change this, however. Take a look at the paragon system in Diablo. Hit level cap, then you get 100 more paragon levels. Each level you gain increases magic and gold find by 3% and bringing you closer to the magic/gold find cap. Thus decreasing the need for this gear, and eventually weeds itself out entirely. Each level takes like 3 or 4 hours to complete. In total, it would take a player that plays 3-4 hours a day rougly 3+ months to max it out. Simple, effective.

Its a good system, and another form of progression that I would be OK with (one of the few forms of progression that I would be OK with in this game).

So I can still get to all of the phases in flame and frost up until sunday.

Hrm…to grind or not to grind this weekend?

Do I really want to come back…

@gabby: I just saw that in the announcements section of the forums. Does that mean the previous phases of the living story are inaccessible? Or can I pick up from where I left off in late Feb/Early March?

Yes no? The content going to be removed at some point?

Ah fantastic. So what youre saying is, I can com eback at any time and catch up? This stuff isnt going away at the end of May or something? Will I be able to see and do it all without worry that some patch will remove it?

Hi,
I left the game in early March. I have missed a lot of the living story. Is there any way to catch up on the living story/achievements? Am I able to go through the motions of the living story from almost the start up until now? If so, how long will I be able to do this?

I am considering returning. Being able to catch up with the living story would help sway my decision a bit!

I sort of agree with the OP. The game was always touted as "leave when you want, come back and you aren’t “behind”."

Well, I left in early march, I am patching as we speak and thinking..I missed most of the living story. I didnt experience it. What happened to not falling behind?

Same thing with all of the new currencies in the game…laurels, commendations, etc. Falling behind because I stopped playing for 2 months.

Same thing with gear. I have 5 max level toons, 3 decked in exotics(what one would have thought to be the top tier gear). I thought I could take breaks from the game come back and pick it up again. Well, now I’ll have to farm ascended gear if I want BiS gear. I know I can do all content in exotics. Thats not the point. I wanted BiS gear, and then work on aesthetics/legendary.

I really thought this game was more about aesthetics, builds, WvW, exploration and just flat out playing the game and enjoying it. Not about keeping up with the latest content(living story, guild missions, etc), keeping up with the latest currencies(laurels, fractal relics, commendations), and gear(ascended gear).

I hyped this game so much and it was my last saving grace for an MMO. I just dont know if I have the desire to come back and invest time into it when clearly the developer walks a fine line between cosmetic progression and stat progression, and it kitten es me off.

VOLKON.1290:

OK, I’m going to admit to skimming the original post… aw hell, let me go read it fully first… brb…

OK, back… still not fully sure what I read. But that’s me. Anyhow, guild missions really aren’t comparable to raids or all-time-consuming or anything like that. At least for us we schedule a few time-slots then people that can join in and we get them done. If people miss we try and do it again later so everyone has a chance. Completely different from the raid-job of which you speak and which I have too many years of familiarity with from games past.

So… what’s changed since March… well, probably the biggest is the removal of culling in WvW. You can see everyone. It’s insane at times seeing some hot zerg on zerg action! (No, not the Starcraft porn type. Get your minds out of the gutter!) If you even remotely enjoyed WvW that alone makes it worth a “come back and see”. The April content update should be along soon with I believe the culmination of the Flame and Frost stuff… I think it’s the culmination, unless it isn’t… we’ll see.

Regardless, my inner-fanboy will always say it’s worth coming back. That’s just who I am.

I saw a Volkon on the defiance forums. Was that you?

Hmm.. Disappointing.

Hmm.. Disappointing.Well, are guild missions all they are cracked up to be? Or is it more tank and spank type of fights? Which leads me to another question. Anet said they were going to revise a lot of the dungeon bosses. Did this ever happen? I know they did a few bosses in AC and the one fight in CoF. Did they change any other dungeons?

Hi,
I left the game shortly after guild missions came out. My available playtime dwindled and I did not feel like scheduling my life around a game anymore(ahem raids?). Combined with the fact that nothing is being done about skyrocketing precursor prices(I thought missions would reduce their cost since they can be obtained through missions as well), I left the game. One too many “lies”, one too many grey areas where arenanet had the luxary of walking the fine line and ultimately swaying whichever way the wind was blowing.

I still think that GW2 has/had amazing potential. The game world is absolutely awesome. The combat is great. I love most of the classes. Dungeons are pretty good. WvW was fun here and there. I really did enjoy leveling in this game, and grinding for my legendary(up until the point where it was futile..never going to acquire that precursor).

So… Since early march, has anything changed in game? Im not talking about the super mario crap right now. Fundamentally? Has arenanet made any posts or announcements that might be worth looking into again? Id love to pick up the game again, but not if it is the same as when I left it.

Honest thoughts please. Im not looking for flame posts or trolls.

Thanks!

Normandy.2596:

Hey there guys.

I’ve owned GW2 since release and honestly played it very little. I’m very curious as to how dedicated players spend their time.

How much do you play? What motivates you to play?
-I have stopped playing when missions come out. Scheduling time to play to do missions with the guild is a lot like raids. I am done scheduling my life around a game.

What attracted you to this game over other MMOs?
-The promise of no grind. Also, like many, I was led to believe that there would be no gear progression. I thought this because, for example, during an interview one of the designers and colin referred to legendaries as being only aesthetically better than exotics. Now we have ascended gear, and eventually will have ascended weapons…they must bump it up.

How often do you play with and interact with other players? Are most of your friends people you know from in game, or from real life?
-I absolutely loved this portion of the game, and I knew no one. Very MMO-like. I’ll give it that.

What do you do with your time in game?
-After I was done leveling 5 characters, I do the DEs in Orr, dragon chests, and dungeons. I ocassionally mixed in some WvW or jumping puzzles.

I’m really interested to here the responses and get a feel for the GW2 community, and what the game really is to each individual player.

Hopefully this sparks some interesting discussion

Ive quit the game because of the precursor price and the insanely low chance with the mystic toilet. Havent played since the first week of march. I have close to 1000 hours played too, 5 level 80s. Sad. This was to be my last stint with MMOs, the saving grace for me. I just cant stand MMOs anymore because every game is a grind. This game has the biggest grind of all if you want anything.

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Emosewa.9731:

Dailies are horrible. In every game. The fastest way to make a game go from fun to a job…is adding dailies. And if you add a daily that rewards a currency type that is attainable in no other way…it’s just plain kitten poor design.

Anything that forces players to feel like the MUST log in DAILY or fall behind on their quest for whatever they want is terrible. When I get home from a long day at work, finish dinner, put the kid to bed, and feel like kicking back and watching a little TV or reading a book before bed…but suddenly remember “Oh Crap, I have to log in and get my daily for that stupid Laurel”…I get overcome with a desire to punch someone. Well, ok, not overcome :-)…but seriously, who thinks this is a reasonable way to treat the player base?

I’m sorry…that came out more rant-like than I intended…but the whole idea of dailies just makes me angry.

Give 30 laurels or 40 laurels or whatever you want for the monthly and just give gold and exp and karma for the stupid dailies already. Or 7 for weeklies that can be finished in a single play session.

Dailies. Are. Poor. Design.

/rant off

I agree. It is/was a great way to get people back into the world. But adding a new type of currency, like you said, that is only obtainable through dailies is just plain dumb. I felt the NEED to log in and complete my dailies. It was a job. A chore. Not fun.

I havent played GW2 since end of Feb/early March because I didnt like the insane grinds in the game and because I felt like it was becoming a chore.

Suggestion:
Remove laurels.
Remove commendations
Remove merits.
Allow the items that would be purchased through these means be purchased through karma.
Come up with a conversion rate for each item(laurels, merits, commendations) of item to karma and be done with it. Save your game.

I really wonder what happened to that “play how you want to play” BS they fed us. If I only want to go to frostgorge and farm scales, I wont be completing my daily now will I? I might get two or three parts of it done. Sure you can say “well just go finish up the other two parts real quickly, its easy stop complaining”. That defeats the purpose of “play how you want to play”.

See what I’m saying Anet?

But you can still play how you want. There’s nothing really stopping you from staying in one place and doing what you want. That’s the misnomer here.

I play how I want. I do what I want. If I want to do the daily, I do it. Most of the time it gets done whether I want to or not anyway.

It’s just not that big a deal. Not the deal people make it. Everyone can play how they want but the makers of the game are not required to reward everyone equally for how they want to play.

Suppose I wanted to stand around in LA and just chat with people. I’m still logged in and still playing the game. Should I be rewarded for that?

Saying you can play how you want doesn’t mean you automatically get the same rewards as someone who plays differently. Logically a more efficient player will get more and better rewards than a less efficient player.

I’m a less efficient player. But I still play how I want.

Kudos to you for being able to do what you want and not be tempted by the..carrot.

Im one of those people where if you dangle candy in my face, I want it and need to have it. Otherwise, Im good without it. If you offer me a beer, I want it. Otherwise, Im good without it.

If you offer me daily rewards, I want them. Otherwise Im good without them. This game has too many rewards and currencies. They really need to shrink down the number of currencies in game. If dailys rewarded Karma, and karma was used for a wider variety of things, Id be content.

Emosewa.9731:

Dailies are horrible. In every game. The fastest way to make a game go from fun to a job…is adding dailies. And if you add a daily that rewards a currency type that is attainable in no other way…it’s just plain kitten poor design.

Anything that forces players to feel like the MUST log in DAILY or fall behind on their quest for whatever they want is terrible. When I get home from a long day at work, finish dinner, put the kid to bed, and feel like kicking back and watching a little TV or reading a book before bed…but suddenly remember “Oh Crap, I have to log in and get my daily for that stupid Laurel”…I get overcome with a desire to punch someone. Well, ok, not overcome :-)…but seriously, who thinks this is a reasonable way to treat the player base?

I’m sorry…that came out more rant-like than I intended…but the whole idea of dailies just makes me angry.

Give 30 laurels or 40 laurels or whatever you want for the monthly and just give gold and exp and karma for the stupid dailies already. Or 7 for weeklies that can be finished in a single play session.

Dailies. Are. Poor. Design.

/rant off

I agree. It is/was a great way to get people back into the world. But adding a new type of currency, like you said, that is only obtainable through dailies is just plain dumb. I felt the NEED to log in and complete my dailies. It was a job. A chore. Not fun.

I havent played GW2 since end of Feb/early March because I didnt like the insane grinds in the game and because I felt like it was becoming a chore.

Suggestion:
Remove laurels.
Remove commendations
Remove merits.
Allow the items that would be purchased through these means be purchased through karma.
Come up with a conversion rate for each item(laurels, merits, commendations) of item to karma and be done with it. Save your game.

I really wonder what happened to that “play how you want to play” BS they fed us. If I only want to go to frostgorge and farm scales, I wont be completing my daily now will I? I might get two or three parts of it done. Sure you can say “well just go finish up the other two parts real quickly, its easy stop complaining”. That defeats the purpose of “play how you want to play”.

See what I’m saying Anet?

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?

I dont think the game is dying. While I still hold it to be a great MMO and one with a lot of potential, the developers continue to go against what they touted this game to be, which is turning a lot of people off(myself included). Maybe Ill be back some day, if arenanet gets their crap together.

Go on any MMO/online gaming website or forum. GW2 gets a lot of criticism. Theres a reason.

But no, it isnt dying.

Whiners already won. GW2 has a gear treadmill and a grind.

1-max level, yes. Best MMO out there and might be best MMO ever. After level cap, not so much. Just another generic grindy MMO once youve spend some time at 80.

Why are the cost of precursors rising? I just logged in for the first time in two weeks to check the cost of precursors and The Lover went from a steady 549 gold(insane) to 699 gold(double insane). I thought guild missions giving the chance to reward precursors, and more people doing dragon bosses that the price would go down.

Obviously not the case.

I think this is a good place to quickly throw in my two cents:

to quote: “The goal for this system is to ensure that players always have something to constantly work towards.”

Something to constantly work towards? Sounds like the game is really driving progression based gaming. Again, I feel cheated and lied to. In the months leading up to the game’s release I was so excited because there was no item progression, or any progression system once you unlocked all abilities(which you do before level 10), have 70 traits to spend at max level, and get your max level exotic set. My gosh, with everything released since November 15th, this game went from being great to just another mediocre MMO.

Something to constantly work towards. I wanted to give myself goals to work toward, not Arenanet give them to me. Why do I need to have goals given from Arenanet? Laurels? Fractal relics? Commendtions/Merits? WXP points? The amount of currencies in this game is astounding and they are all given to you with the intent that you have something to work toward, structured by Anet. And I am not even mentioning skill points or anything like that.

Bottom line is, this game went from being semi-unique to becoming like everything else out there. I have no desire to play, at all anymore. Like many before me, I used to “defend” this game to people like myself. Go troll/flame me. I havent logged into the game in weeks because its turning out to be a big steaming pile where I feel the need to stat grind, gear grind, where devs honestly believe they did not go back on their original development plans, where posts like this one will be removed and infracted because its considered “complaining” although I am merely expressing my opinion(oh gosh its negative!) and things are rushed out the door before any real thought is given(fractals/fractal leveling system, guild missions(hey what about smaller guilds! Oh yah, we’ll help them out later)).

This was to be my last go around with an MMO and probably will be.

To make this a non-complaining thread in the hopes it wont get removed I will add some constructive criticism:
1. Change ascended stats to equal exotic stats. Just keep the infusion slots to make them useful for fractals.
2. Any word on legendary scavenger hunt? Community is getting restless. My sole purpose, since I had no interest in grinding fractals or running the raids(missions), was to get a legendary.
3. Really sit down and think about the WvW progression system you are so excited for. Make sure it provides no power to the individual, where two equi-geared and equi-skilled players match up, its anyones ball game.
4. Really sit down and think where the design of this game is going. Many thought it was going in the opposite direction than it is.
5. Player housing…I know its not on the radar, but I wish it were!

Giotto.2607:

Alright. So, I have been playing this game a long time. I kinda feel bored about it. What i feel this game is that this game is just so peace. You can not kill others in the leveling area, can not duel others, even can not check others’ armor. There is like totally no drama!!! But, you know, drama is actually the main thing keep people playing games.

However, those are not the main thing I want to talk about today. Now, here is the big question. Where is the kittening guild wars!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I was interested in this game, it is because I like the idea of “guild wars”. The idea of my guild is better than yours! Your guild is junk! You know, dramas!!!!!! Guild wars 1, at least have GVG pvp. But for Guildwars 2, it’s not making sense to me. Where the kitten is the guild wars?!!!! Why don’t you guys making the game name “Zhaitanwars”! GG!!!!

Sir, while everyone is entitled to their opinion and my distrust and lament for this game and its developer as of late is staggering, what you are suggesting is a troll-esq game. I can tell english is not your native tongue, so I am trying to take your word choice with a grain of salt…but drama in a game? My guild is better than yours? That doesnt sound FUN. And I dont think thats what this MMO, or many others like it, are about. Its about defeating monsters, its about defending castle keeps for server pride. Yes, they need to introduce guild vs guild but not for the reason of “my guild is better than yours”. My opinion, thats a childish view of what the game should be.

Mr Wyman.6028:

I was just out running around in the cursed shores and was doing what I was doing last night, spamming events for the heavy bags, potential rare items, exotics, and potentially anything else thats a cool find. And I realize i am farming events…I also do a lot of farming for different types of the high level cores…. and I think, its really not that much fun doing the same thing over and over and over and over again cause its the easiest way to gather something so you can create something fun. It seems that is what these games are based on though, if you want really anything worth anything you must farm for it.

so back to what I was saying, I was doing this mindless farming of the same ol, same ol, and I was like “this is brainless …” “I consider this entertaining and fun?” and it just got me to thinking, what if they made this so you didn’t have to farm items to have cool stuff? I’m done farming btw, not a way to enjoy a video game after working hard in real life all day.

This is what Arenanet referred to as a grind..something repetitive that is not fun. And this is something they said will not exist in their game. And they say they play their own game..

I agree there has to have been some small ecto nerf, maybe 1+ month ago? I was getting at least 1 ecto per rare, and more often than not 2+. Now, i go a few salvages without even one.

Arenanet can tell us until they are blue in the face that there has been no ecto nerf, just like there was no problem with loot drops until they actually looked into it.