Guild Wars 2

Since Player Housing has been discussed in this thread, here’s my thoughts. Player Housing should be a goal players work for, not something they drop gold or cash to get the instant gratification before walking away from it bored. So I’d rather see Player Housing shaped by in-game actions and not something tied to (in any way) the Gem Shop.

Ideally, players’ actions would shape their housing. This means decisions made in the Personal Story could determine our neighbors, trophies from our conquests could be displayed, etc. I think the character’s house should be appropriately styled in a manner that reflects the characteristics of his race, too. Furnishings and decorations (paintings, etc) should come in a variety of styles and colors.

I’d like to see a new crafting discipline be implemented allowing us to make furniture. Metal, wood, leather, and cloth could all be used to make everything from chests to beds to tables. Chests could (if the developers deem it fitting) be used to store personal items. I can’t think of any consumables such a crafting discipline could make, but bags (chests/boxes, technically) could be made. The “auto-sort” bag for this craft could accept either consumables or soul/account bound items. Obviously higher-tiered furniture would look nicer than lower-tiered stuff.

While we’re on the subject, I’d love it if we could choose/buy a crafting station or two for our houses. I’d also like to see Player Housing tied to some form of gardening. It could be as simple as purchasing and planting seeds, and after a few days of care, harvesting. The seeds could produce random herbs, vegetables, or fruit depending on type (I’d go with Ascalonian, Krytan, Shiverpeak, Maguuma, and Orrian with each producing a random herb, mushroom, vegetable, or fruit appropriate to that region with a rare chance at getting Unidentified Dyes).

ColinJohanson.2394:

VOLKON.1290:

Well, new personal story arcs could send you off on paths that lead to unlocking something specific from the Order you chose at the beginning of the game (which would add more substance to the Order you choose mattering)…

Also just want to quickly add, I think this would be really cool and is an example of an approachable system for all players that’s relatively easy to message, understand, and could be available to everyone.

Expanding on Volkron’s idea, making a “task system” tied to the Orders would encourage more players to participate in the Personal Story and also allow you to tailor the tasks required to unlock the skills to the specific Orders. So someone who joined the Priory might be tasked to track down an artifact or research an area, a Whispers member might be charged to spy/infiltrate/assassinate, while Vigil members could earn the new skills through good old fashioned hand ’n slash. In this way the same skill could be unlocked through different styles of play and players would be rewarded for/encouraged to progress their Personal Stories (giving us character progression on two fronts at once).

ColinJohanson.2394:

What other systems would excite you that don’t fall into the “sitting in front of your keyboard” pressing buttons options? Keep in mind they need to be easy to learn so we can teach them to new players, accessible, and not overly complex/tedious, and hopefully not something with a path of least resistance that leads to degenerate game play.

Again, and this brainstorming is specific to the case of new skills, you could have a reward schedule that pays new skills at the completion of certain stages of the Personal Story, make them purchasable with Karma (hopefully people would realize Karma comes freely enough just from doing the things we enjoy doing, though some would no doubt grind event chains to unlock them asap), or simply price them on par with the skill already in the game and let build diversification be its own reward and rely on other forms of Horizontal Progression to keep players engaged.

New skills is a tricky form of Horizontal Progression because?
A) if you price them too low with Skill Points, they’re barely going to amount to a speed bump for people who have been playing for any length of time
B) if you price them too high with Skill Points, players are going to grind the path of least resistance to get them
C) if you balance them with existing skills but price them too high, inexperienced players might associate Skill Point cost (or effort required to obtain) with power and be disappointed when they purchase what they thought was going to be a better skill than what they otherwise had available to them
D) if you tie them to one specific activity (Personal Story, dungeons, Veteran hunt, etc) then you’re forcing players who might not otherwise enjoy that activity to partake just to unlock skills they might want to use in their favored area of the game.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Reading through a lot of the comments on various class diversification (or just stronger trait/skill diversification) concepts, one of the things that seems to be missing is a discussion on how you’d actually earn/unlock these additional abilities to make it a progression system.

One of the goals of progression, in this case horizontal, is to create an extended sense of game play and thus = reward for playing it.

For example, we’ve added more skills to the game recently, but those simply unlock with skill points, which basically means -> play any part of the game that gives exp, or kill champs to get skill point books. That’s ok as systems of unlocking horizontal progression go for the extended class diversification, but game play wise it generally means find the easiest place to get XP/champ-loot and do it over and over again for a large % of players, since folks most often gravitate towards the path of least resistance.

What sort of systems of horizontal progression unlocking would you like to see that’d accompany a system like extended class progression?

Regarding your specific example of new skills, throwing skill points at the game is the least interesting route you guys could have given us. A system where we kill veterans to capture skills could have provided both more interesting game play and another form of a gold sink (assuming we purchase signets or consumables used in the capture process). In my opinion, there are always more interesting options than “sit in front of your keyboard pressing buttons until you’ve got enough skill points to unlock something”.

The manifesto (or the spirit behind it, for those of you who hide behind semantics when defending this game) got sold down the river in exchange for quick and easy profits. Nothing more, nothing less.

lordkrall.7241:

As far as I am aware all major releases this year will be P2P and thus not in direct competition with GW2 B2P model.

If you don’t think others games are DIRECTLY competing with Guild Wars 2 for players’ time and money then you’ve lost touch with reality.

The Living World, and My Part in It
Also relating to the subject of resources and quick updates, the fact that my character hasn’t uttered a single line of spoken dialogue in the Living Story does nothing to make the world feel “living”. I understand there are ten voice actors, none of which come cheap I’m sure, and little time to voice every spoken line. I also understand it’s a waste of resources to voice content that will be gone in two weeks (more on that later).

But my adventure in this game began with the words “this is MY story”. The Living Story has changed that. I’m no a silent protagonist in someone else’s story. My Personal Story has been supplanted by Scarlet’s Personal Story, in which I’m just the guy who pitches in to help out. I feel as though I could be replaced by one of the asuras’ golems and nobody would notice the difference.

Temporary Content
Temporary content is designed that way for a reason (keep players logging in) but it seems like an awful waste of resources to design content to be thrown away. And it has placed a great deal of strain on people who don’t have much time to play to rush to get it all done before it goes away. This strain has cause my brother (the guy who introduced me to the game in the first place) to quite. Permanent content is the way to shape the world. The “be here every two weeks or miss out” approach is burning people out.

*Don’t Break It*
I really hope your idea of a living, breathing world with change isn’t to wreck the masterfully crafted zones your team has worked so hard to make. Burning down Claypool or trashing swathes of Caledon Forest might give the impression that things are in motion, but two weeks later everyone will move on to the next installment, leaving you with nothing but a splotch for new players to gawk at. Let them experience the beautiful zones in the game as they were originally envisioned. And if you must effect change on the world, do it for good reason. “Scarlet threw a tantrum” isn’t a good reason, in my humble opinion.

In Conclusion
That about cover my thoughts on the Living World. I’d rather the resources going into it be used to develop a proper expansion. But if the Living World model is here to stay, give yourself the time to do them justice. Don’t release Living World content just because the two week deadline is upon you. Wait and release it when you can be proud of it…when it matches the quality of the content you had in the game at release. Go back to “when it’s ready.” Wait and release it when you can say to yourselves “now THAT was fun.”

The Living World…where to start?

The Villain
I’ll start with the low-hanging fruit. Scarlet. The writing is easy enough to criticize. She’s a caricature, a parody of a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Every two weeks she shows up unannounced, often interrupting our leisure time, and makes a mess of things. We then spend the next two weeks cleaning up her mess before she runs away, ensuring she’ll be back to do it again next update.

I might be dating myself a bit here, but as a child I watched a Super Mario Brothers cartoon. In that cartoon King Koopa always caused trouble before being cornered, at which point he’d say “he who koops and runs away lives to koop another day.” And then the cartoon would end and he’d be back to do it all again the next day. That’s exactly how I feel about Scarlet. She has about the same level of depth as King Koopa in the Super Mario Brothers cartoon.

In game, we’re presented with virtually no information about her or her motives. Short stories presented outside of the game are not the proper way to present the story in-game. If you haven’t presented me with enough information about an important character in the game, then you’ve done a poor job developing that character. And that leads me to my next point…

The Elder Dragons
This game was launched with the clear threat the dragons presented to the world of Tyria. These all-powerful beings represented an end to all life as Tyria knew it and were the underlying reason for everyone banding together in a grand alliance hell-bent on fighting these antagonists.

But now they’ve seemingly decided they don’t want to destroy the world. Or the Pact has decided they’re no longer a threat. Scarlet showed up, literally out of no where, and the entire world forgot the dragons existed. The dragons themselves seem to have forgot they existed. The Elder Dragons have gone from being preeminent threats to afterthoughts. The story has shifted from an epic struggle for survival to an episodic villain-chase.

Presentation
You guys really need to put more effort into presenting the setup/scene for each installment of the Living Story. A message or a few unspoken lines of dialogue aren’t doing enough to breathe life into what you want to be a Living World. Take Tequatl, for instance; the message didn’t tell us anything beyond “come fight him”. Rox didn’t tell us anything beyond “go look for stuff”. There was no lore, no exposition, and no resolution. It was simply a “we changed this, come check it out”.

That works well enough in some instances, but for much of the Living Story something other than a message saying “hi, come help” would go a long way to adding depth to the Living World.

Release Schedule
I would personally rather have an update every two or three months if it meant the updates were more polished, deeper experience that contained far less content filler. Take the Bloody Prince’s story, for instance. We had a short instance lasting 15 or so minutes, three or more days of time-gated chores, followed by fifteen more minutes of content to close it out.

Far too many Living Story updates are time-gated or loaded with content filler. Remember this about filler content…if it’s not fun enough for you to enjoy it, it’s not fun enough for us to enjoy it. I doubt anyone, anywhere found burning dragon effigies fun.

Breaking dragon pinatas, collecting kites, riding in balloons, and carving pumpkins isn’t content…it’s filler. And filler isn’t fun. If fewer updates meant less filler, fewer bugs, more polish, more depth, and more fun, I’d be the first to sign on for that.

Resources
While we’re on the subject of resources, the more resources the developers pour into the Living Story the less resources are available to expand the game to areas like the Crystal Desert, to expand the Personal Story, or to balance skills and traits or introduce new classes or races. I’d rather have any of those than chase Scarlet around the same zones I’ve fully explored on five different characters.

There’s only so many times I want to visit the same old zones before I pine for some place new to explore. I’d rather explore new places in this game, but if we keep chasing Scarlet around the Harathi Hinterlands I’m eventually going to go somewhere else for that “new” feeling.

Astralporing.1957:

The future weeks will be a test whether they’ll be ready to address those, or would they rather use a “player vote” system as an excuse to concentrate on more superficial and less volatile ones.

It’s certainly a possibility that the developers could use this as an opportunity to cherry-pick a few low hanging fruits, polish them up, and show them to the community while saying “See? We do listen to you guys.” Hopefully they won’t take that easy route; hopefully they’ll tackle the tougher issues for the good of the game.

Knote.2904:

What about something akin to a Dark Knight type that was more of a mixture of Ritualist/Necro.

A ritualist and necromancer don’t wield the same type of magic. The only magic in the lore (lore nuts will correct me if I’m wrong) not present currently present in the existing eight classes is the ritualists’ spirit magic, but that class is already present (sort of) in the form of the engineer. Thematically, they could still do something with spirit magic; but I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything resembling a necromancer in heavy armor to be added to the game.

Ashabhi.1365:

It give us something new to do

My teachers in grade school used to give me something to do, too. It was called “busy work”. I never really found it all that enjoyable.

Ashabhi.1365:

and goes away before we get bored with it.

It doesn’t go away, it changes form. Clicking F to break dragon pinatas isn’t all that different than clicking F to burn dragon effigies, which isn’t all that different from clicking F to carve pumpkins, which isn’t all that different from clicking F to build snowmen, which isn’t all that different from clicking F to gather kites, which isn’t all that different from clicking F to… I don’t know about you, but I’m bored the instant I read “do X Y number of times” in an Achievement List.

Ashabhi.1365:

Why is it everyone complains about the LS, but we don’t hear a lot of whining about the “holiday” events? they’re temporary too, and they change every year. Yes, we will have a visit from Mad King Thorn again, but it won’t be THIS YEAR’s Mad King Thorn. Wintersday will be back too, but it won’t be like last year either.

Because the holiday events are being given to us in lieu of actual expansion-level content. Mad King Thorn has not supplanted the Elder Dragons…Scarlet has. Kralk is just waiting for us to take the fight to him in the Crystal Desert, but we’re too busy chasing Aetherblade Pirates around the same zones we all explored a year ago.

Einlanzer.1627:

darkace.8925:

They haven’t even balanced the classes that are already in the game, so the likelihood of a new class anytime isn’t going to be high.

hint: the classes will never be balanced. Balance doesn’t work that way, it’s iterative and never-ending. They can’t hold off on releasing new content for this reason or the game would never grow and then die off very quickly.

I’m well aware that class balance in MMOs is a never-ending process. But that’s not the kind of balance we’re talking about here; we’re talking about fundamental issues that have lingered far too long. I’m not just talking about tweaking utility skill here or a trait there (though there are certainly more than a few useless traits in this game), I’m talking about things like Ranger pets (the class’s defining mechanic) that do as much to hold the class back as they do to set it apart. A class’s unique mechanic should never be a hindrance. Those are the kinds of fundamental balance issues that should be addressed before new classes are thrown into the mix.

They haven’t even balanced the classes that are already in the game, so the likelihood of a new class anytime isn’t going to be high.

I actually should have proposed Orr. If hardcore farming has been given the green light from the developers, why not restore Pent/Shelt to their former glory? And if nothing is going to be done to entice players to return to these abandoned zones, perhaps it’s time to overhaul the Temples? Or at the very least give us a better means of acquiring Obsidian Shards since the Temple of Balthazar is rarely open.

nottsgman.8206:

completely agree, the story should be in-game, if it isn’t it doesn’t exist. not having it in-game is just lazy.

It’s not laziness, it’s simply a product of the Living Story business model. A two-week release cycle simply doesn’t afford the developers sufficient time to properly develop and polish content. There’s a reason why this Living Story is time-gated behind Daily Achievements. What’s more, the temporary nature of the Living Story means that even if they did have time to get the quality of the content up to par with that in the game at release they’re not going to deem it worth the time or money to do so since it will all disappear in two to four weeks anyway.

Sarrs.4831:

Fingers crossed something actually does come out of this.

If this new collaborative process is earnest and the developers truly strive to communicate with their customers (PR speak isn’t communication) then they’ll do a lot to diffuse much of the growing hostilities among their customer base. They don’t have to enact the suggestions the community offers, but just listening to the community’s concerns and informing us why they do or don’t implement various changes will go a long way toward rebuilding some of the goodwill they’ve burned over the last year. However, if this is all just lip service given to placate the frustrated masses…the blowback will be fierce.

Expansion Level Content – When can we expect to see an expansion of the personal Personal Story (not the Living Story), complete with voiced dialogue, branching stories, Elder Dragons, etc; new, fully-developed zones (Crystal Desert, Ring of Fire, etc) akin to those in the game at release (vistas, renown hearts, dynamic events, etc); and/or new races?

Weapon Skill Customization – Will you ever implement customizable weapon skills (i.e. the freedom to swap Hundred Blades out for something else that fulfills a different function, thus leading to multiple builds utilizing the same weapon type)?

Player Housing/Home Instances – Is there anything beyond resource nodes being planned to make the Home Instance feel more personal and a worthwhile place to visit? Is Player Housing being worked on at all? Or is it just “on the table”…a concept that can be developed later but isn’t currently being anything other than potential content?

Alternate Question
If this question isn’t off the table (I imagine it is, but I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t ask), I’d like to ask why the philosophical shift from “fun” to “grind” is so jarringly overt. The content in the game at launch and the content being churned out via Living Story are nothing alike, and I’m wondering if the daily log-in metric has trumped the “if it fun” metric.

I can’t imagine the developers risking a kitten storm by addressing this issue, but I feel it’s the most important issue with regards to this game’s future. It’d be a tough subject to discuss, as it may involve “hard truths”, but I think we deserve what path this game is going to be taking going forward.

OptimusPrimo.9547:

I don’t see the issue with “You have been warned” being used in the final line.

I do. I’m not a child, and I don’t appreciate being treated like one by someone who wants me to purchase their products.

Asenic Touch.7960:

Saying someone lied isn’t a personal attack however, especially when you provide evidence of it. This is a very dangerous slippery slope, though I’m not even remotely surprised given the state of things.

Indeed. As someone who has – on more than one occasion – accussed ArenaNet of “selling out”, “doing a 180”, and “abandoning the ideals upon which they build this game” (none of which was done without providing reasons based on facts why I believe so), I can easily see an overzealous moderator punishing me for a “cleverly disguised attack”.

I don’t condone personal attacks against the developers; I’ve reported more than a few in an effort to help keep this forum a civil place where we can all discuss the game we enjoy. But the tone of that warning crossed into an area that gives a broad license to squash out critical commentary of a constructive and respectful nature. As I’ve been quite critical of the direction the game has taken lately, I think I’ll avoid any potential “misunderstandings” and just stop posting altogether.

Neoheart.2750:

The QQ on this forum is ridiculous. Everyone wants everything fast, free and without any thought put into it. Now bosses are being labeled as “impossible” cos a zero can’t auto attack down in 2mins… Just ridiculous.

Or maybe we’re just tired of the constant bugs the two-week release schedule for the Living Story ensures we keep getting?

Vol.5241:

If the game is as bad as you all make it out to be for this past year or so, then I must wonder what you’re doing still here.

Oh that’s right, it’s not as bad as you make it out to be.

And if the criticisms of this game offend you as bad as you let on then I must wonder why you bother reading them.

I’d love to hear a developer explain the rationale behind this.

Auesis.7301:

darkace.8925:

With the small size of this balance/skill update I’m just going to assume they’ve got like two guys working on skill and trait balance.

Assume? They have. They literally have 2 guys working on balance.

Surely you jest?

With the small size of this balance/skill update I’m just going to assume they’ve got like two guys working on skill and trait balance.

LiveSpartan.8206:

plus the whole Kessex Hills thing with Krait, invisible barrier, deforestation, and wiping out a ruined village cool stuff

We taking bets on whether or not Scarlet is behind the kraits’ actions? I’m going with “yes”. Any takers?

Gotta keep them daily log-in metrics up.

And WvW Season 1 starts when? Oh, Friday. That’s going to go over well…

Noss.4105:

-It’s not a frikin’ balance patch when the profession changes are mostly tooltip/bug fixes, instead of tweaking skills and traits!

Good to see I’m not the only one who read the patch notes and thought to myself, “okay, there’s the tooptips…now where’s the actual skill and trait changes we were promised?”

SpyderArachnid.5619:

I am seriously curious if they even know themselves how much of a grind they have just put into their game.

Of course they know, and there’s a very specific reason they did so.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

I want to know how many hours they are playing every day just to get the amount of materials they are going to need to make this before the event ends.

I highly doubt anyone at ArenaNet wastes time playing the filler content they keep shoveling out the door with each Living Story update.

Galtrix.7369:

Frankly, I’d rather just buy expansions every few years with a massive amount of content in them than the Living Story barely has enough content to keep my attention for, literally, 10 seconds.

I wholeheartedly agree. The fact that the story in this Living Story update time-gated behind Daily Achievements says in bold, underscored letters that the Living Story just can’t deliver meaningful content in meaningful quantities.

My thoughts:

The story thus far is okay.
– I’m disappointed that the story is time-gated.
– I’m disappointed that my character is still stricken mute.
– I’m disappointed that the “painterly” cut scenes are still being forgone.

The balance changes:
– These don’t look to be nearly as sweeping as I (for some reason) expected them to be.
– Once again changes for PvP hurt PvP-only players.
– The Fire Attunement traits weren’t given nearly the attention they needed.
– Not sure about the rest.

The rest:
– The new items look like they’re (unsurprisingly) going to encourage a tone of mindless grinding.

If by “didn’t change anything” you mean “a ton of Fire Attunement traits are still worthless” then you’d be correct.

Today’s update is a good example (as is the new path in the TA dungeon) of the kinds of stuff I’m talking about. Gone are the “painterly” cut scenes and the fully-voiced back-and-forth dialogues we were treated to in the Personal Story and original dungeon paths. The Living Story just won’t allow for voiced protagonists (or a great many other things I enjoy about the game, it would seem). Removing my character from the story is a good way to lessen my interest in the story. Relegating me to a silent protagonist – standing around with my hands in my pockets – is not the best way emphasis the “living” part of the Living Story.

It just underscores my point that the Living Story just doesn’t live up to the quality of the original release. And if the Living Story is all we’re going to get – if there’s nothing new (new Personal Story, new zones, etc) that matches that original quality that sold so many of us on the game, I’m afraid things are going to stagnate quickly (if they haven’t already).

Smith.1826:

…especially in regards to GW1: Half of my skillbar is locked, I don’t have as many options…

As today’s update reminds me, the locked skill bar is a major sticking point. I’m a PvE player, and every time one of my weapon skills is nerfed (or worse, rendered useless) for the sake of PvP I die a little inside.

Here’s hoping most/all of the changes aren’t done with PvP/WvW in mind…

Vayne.8563:

The new dungeon path, for example, is as good as any dungeon path in the game…to me and many like me.

Too bad few content updates are of the same quality as the new dungeon path. And before anyone plays the “quality is subjective” card, it’s not entirely. There are objective measures by which something can be judged, and far too much of the Living Story content fails to meet these measures.

blue.8629:

Returned after 10 months, why remove stuff?

The same reason Zynga caps your free water in Farmville…to make you feel on a psychological level like you’re missing out if you’re not logging in on a regular basis.

It doesn’t look like we’re getting new zones, new playable races, or new Personal Story content before next year, but the game is starting to stagnate for me. The throw-away content and the filler nature of the Living Story isn’t doing it for me anymore. There’s only so many times I can chase temporary content through existing zones before I start longing for that sense of exploration that can only come from new zones.

What’s more, I’m tired of being silent protagonist as we chase Scarlet from one event to the next. This game started with a beautiful cut scene and the line, “this is my story.” I want to get back to that, but the nature of the Living Story ensures that won’t happen without a more substantive content release.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there for me. The constant Living Story updates is going to lessen the enjoyment I’d otherwise have got from the holiday festivals. Since we’ve been bombarded with festivals and updates all year long, I find myself approaching these events with a “meh” attitude where I otherwise would have been very much looking forward to them.

I know the paradigm has shifted since release, but I’m sorely wanting something “meatier” than we’ve been getting through the Living Story. It’s been said several times that the team is working on a “big project” behind the scenes…I’m thinking it’s time to shed some light on that project. Wallowing through one Living Story update to to the next, not knowing if anything better is coming anytime soon, doesn’t leave me with anything to look forward to. More of the same just isn’t cutting it for me anymore. So here’s hoping the developers aren’t far from telling us there’s something in store that doesn’t involve the words Living Story, Scarlet, or festival.

We’ll get it, but we won’t like it. It’s going to be nothing but an exercise in hoop-jumping, treadmill-running, and soul-crushing grind. Despite the notion that carrots wouldn’t be used to “keep players playing as long as possible”, things have degenerated into just that. Metrics – daily player log-ins – are the only thing the developers are focused on, so you can be sure crafting a precursor will be a drawn-out grind.

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Tengu need to be implemented. We have all the professions we need everything has been covered profession wise.

Because of the homogenized nature of the professions in Guild Wars 2, there’s literally no reason to add another profession other than “more for the sake of more”.

ThiBash.5634:

More doesn’t equal better.

Less doesn’t equal better, either.

ThiBash.5634:

Only 10% of the Guild Wars 1 skills were awesome, and only 30% really useful.

Yeah, that’s a problem totally exclusive to Guild Wars 1. I mean, just look at all those engineers running Throw Mine.

ThiBash.5634:

And balancing was a pain.

That’s why we pay them the big bucks.

ThiBash.5634:

However, if you must have more skills, play an Elementalist.

You’re missing the point. It’s not about having a bunch of skills, it’s about having the a choice when it comes to skills. If you want to play a hammer-wielding, damage-dealing warrior you’re out of luck. It’s crowd control or find another weapon.

ThiBash.5634:

You get 5 weapons with 20 skills each (100 total), 60 traits, 3 healing skills, 20 utility skills, 4 elites, 25 skills from conjured weapons, 4 skills on attunement swap, 4 skills on dodge, 4 skills when falling. That’s 224 skills and THEN you can also combo with your fields of those of other players for even more options or pickup environmental weapons, siege engines or racial skills.

See above.

ThiBash.5634:

There’s variety there dude. Just gotta know where to look.

Sure there is. But the variety is restrictive. You can build your character to fill one of several roles, but there’s no variety once you pick that role. You’re always going to be rocking swords and longbows if you want to be a condition-damage warrior. It doesn’t matter if you dislike swords…it doesn’t matter if you really like The Moot…it’s swords or find another role to fill. Period. That’s inflexibility at it’s finest.

ThiBash.5634:

Edit: My humble apologies, I forgot the 16 skills you get while underwater. Sorry for that.

Apology accepted.

Neural.1824:

darkace.8925:

Ascended =/= Legendary

Same stats, they just look different.

Two months ago the exact thing could have been said of exotics and Legendaries.

Neural.1824:

There are multiple threads in general discussion and in the suggestions area created by people who would like to PvP aspect removed from the legendary creation

I don’t like having to grind for the Gift of Fortune, so I guess that should be removed from the list of things needed for a Legendary. Joe over there doesn’t like crafting, so the Gift of Metal needs to go too. Susan hates RNG, so we should probably do away with the Clovers while we’re at it. The list could go on, but that’s not even relevant.

The only point that matters is this: Legendary weapons were always intended to be difficult to obtain. BiS stats (i.e. exotic at release) were originally intended to be easily obtained by everyone by the time players reached the level cap. That’s why exotics are available via crafting, karma vendors, Badges of Honor, etc. Ascended gear is a 180 on the original idea of easily obtainable BiS gear…it’s a moving of the goalposts while the players are lining up for a field goal. That’s why people don’t like being forced to grind for ascended weapons.

Ascended =/= Legendary

Brother Grimm.5176:

I get plenty of crafting and salvage items from enemies so I’m not sure what the OP is talking about.

If you’re not sure what OP is talking about, then I’ll break it down for you. Say you need cloth or leather.
– You run around killing enemies.
– You hope RNG favors you enough to give you the appropriate salvage item.
– Or you hope RNG favors you enough to give you a loot bag.
– Then you hope RNG favors you enough to give you the desired items from said bag.

Meanwhile, I – someone who needs metal or lumber – simply run from node to node to node. I get a ton of ore in a fraction of the time it takes you to get cloth scraps.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Seriously don’t want to be mean, but I do NOT want aspects of WoW becoming parts of GW2. Sounds like some WoW vets chiming in to vote, “NO”, so that makes me relax a bit.

Just because it’s used in WoW doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea for Guild Wars 2. Or do you not want mining, harvesting, crafting, auction houses, etc, in GW2?

Khisanth.2948:

So … you want more things that are only good for selling to vendors?

Uh, seeing how this is the crafting sub-forum I think it’s a safe bet OP wants more crafting materials for crafting purposes.

Parisalchuk.9230:

Yet petitions and polls arent allowed – so how exactly do you expect any feedback if not for forum discussion?

I’ll say it again, the primary feedback with which ArenaNet concerns itself is daily log-ins and cash shop revenue.

I had the book from last year’s event on a character I eventually deleted/re-rolled. At the time it didn’t occur to me that there might be a way to save the item via transmutation, so it was obviously deleted along with the character. I’m wondering if there will be a chance to re-obtain the item this year or if the item is gone forever.

Xcom.1926:

ASB.4295:

Jackie.1829:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/What-A-Dev-Think-About-The-Official-Forums

Here’s a mirror: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/268673-what-a-dev-think-about-the-official-forums/

That is pretty amusing.

Had to double check the dates for a second.

When you see “we need to do a better job communicating” the second time in as many months – especially when it’s practically a copy-paste statement like that – it just comes across as lip service. Being disingenuous with your customer base is worse than a lack of communication.

Skan.5301:

We all had expectations that weren’t fufilled over the course of a year. People didn’t start getting angry overnight. It was because of the actions the devs took that caused it. Over a year of short comings and other nonsense is what sparked all of this.

I would argue it’s the lack of communication from the developers – or worse, outright lies (we expect everyone to have exotic gear by the time they reach the level cap; we didn’t expect players to get exotic gear so quickly) – that’s caused most of the contentiousness we’ve got on the forums these days.

Toby.2357:

Does Anet really listen to the community tho?

I believe they do, to a degree. They listen to metrics more than they do the actual, voiced concerns here on the forums, though. And I personally feel like they view us as mushrooms (fans of The Departed will get it).