Guild Wars 2

ArchonWing.9480:

Unlike a lot of people, I don’t find this malicious. I believe that they already planned it anyways, and that instead the flaw here isn’t incompetence or a desire to lie, but sheer stubbornness even when something may conflict with reality (how the game is played).

Now, truth be told, I have a degree of respect for A-net to not capitulate to every demand people give, because frankly most people are just seeking to contort the game to their own needs and make terrible demands, but it does seem like little can change their minds once it’s set.

You’re praising them for not doing exactly what they’ve done. They capitulated when they added ascended trinkets for the crowd that burned through content then complained that there was no end game. And from there they proceeded to add grinds, time-gates, and many of the other things they originally claimed their game would be without.

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Barret.4095:

how are ascended items a gear treadmill anyway? after ascended armor comes out there will be nothing else after that.

1 character, 6 weapons(including underwater).
According to a dev, it takes 2 WEEKS to make 1 ascended weapon.
That’s 12 weeks(1/4 of a YEAR) for 1 character.
That means, to have BiS gear for all my characters, i will NEED 96 weeks.
I have to login and craft each component EVERYDAY, for almost the next 2 years.
And that’s assuming I ONLY have 6 weapons(2 main, 2 off, 2 underwater).

Don’t forget they’re going to be adding ascended armor. That’s six more slots per character per set of armor (some people want different sets of armor for different situations) you’re going to have to account for.

Barret.4095:

how are ascended items a gear treadmill anyway? after ascended armor comes out there will be nothing else after that.

Sure there won’t. Ascended gear was added solely to placate the players who burned through content and needed something else to work towards. And once they have their ascended gear they’ll be sated, never again demanding higher tiers towards which they can work. Right?

Or perhaps they will demand more an more tiers, but ArenaNet will stand firm. They’ll tell these players, “listen, we’ve already given you one new tier. That’s all you’re going to get; we’re not adding anything else after ascended.” Is that how it’s going to be?

I don’t think either is very likely to happen. Thinking there won’t be new tiers of gear added after ascended is a bit naive, in my opinion.

Dual.8953:

I buy the T6 mats. Most go for 20-30s on the TP and T6’s have been going up lately.

Exactly this. You can buy unidentified dyes, too, and hope to get some of the big money dyes (Abyss, Celestial, etc), but that’s a gamble that you don’t have to take with T6 materials.

cesmode.4257:

Smith.1826:

This talk of “treadmills” is getting to the point where it’s like trying to define “grind”…or even “fun”.

Grind and fun have already been defined by arenanet.
Grind is doing one thing over and over again.

GW2 has lots.

Lies! They told us, explicitly, that they wouldn’t resort to gear grinding.

“Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.”

-Mike Obrien, President of Arenanet

Okay, I’ve got a suggestion that’s predicated on the eventual addition of a furniture-making craft, which in turn is predicated on the eventual addition of player housing. So this suggestion is a call of a new bag type and a call for player housing all in one.

Right now we’ve got bags made from metal, bags made from leather, and bags made from cloth. But there are no bags made from wood. I propose an eventual (hopefully) furniture-making craft be allowed to make “chests”. These would obviously include the standard X-slot chest and invisible versions of them. The third type would be a bag into which all soulbound items are automatically sorted (if possible).

This would add a level of quality of life improvement as well as giving the furniture-making craft something to sell other players that’s on par with the types of items other existing crafts can offer. So, player housing -> furniture-making craft -> soulbound item bags (chests). Make it happen.

Namu.5712:

Just because you have goals in a game, like gear, stats, or whatever doesn’t mean you wont stick around long term if new goals are made. Because people that like to power up characters do play for fun, they however like to have a goal as well. Is that wrong or bad? No.

The rat in the Skinner Box pushes the button for the fun of it?

Skinner Box.

/15 characters

iriyabran.6218:

I’ve expressed my opinion in older threads but after seeing the stream I can sum up again:

-I don’t like purple being added
-I don’t like trail removal and aura not active while stowed
-I don’t like the footsteps AT ALL. They look cheap and awful and they don’t match the weapon. It just looks off.

-I like the stars effect, it really adds up.

So that’s a 3 negative and 1 positive from me.

I think that’s the biggest rub. The weapon was supposed to be soft and serene, and this violent (and cheap looking) lightning strikes just look out of place (and poorly done).

Vayne.8563:

A treadmill implies something that never ends. If there is a top tier, it’s not a treadmill.

What happens when you go on a treadmill. You walk and walk and walk and get no where and that’s how most games are.

Until we actually know there isn’t a top tier of gear (and I suspect legendary is the top tier), then you can’t call it a treadmill…well you can call it a treadmill but the analogy is no longer appropriate or particularly effective. That’s what I’m saying.

What Guild Wars 2 is doing is not what other games have done. And if you think it is, you need to spend some time in those other games. This is very different.

And because it is different it needs a new name. Calling something different by using an old name can only lead to confusion.

Does it really matte what we call it? I think that it’s a new tier of gear added solely to give carrot chasers a reason to keep logging in on a daily basis is the point. Actually it’s the sub-point, the larger point being that this game was supposed to get away from genre norms.

Eurogamer: How are you handling endgame loot – will we be farming bosses?

Colin Johanson: Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base. The rare stuff becomes the really awesome looking armours. It’s all about collecting the unique looking stuff and collecting all the other rare collectable items in the game: armour pieces, potentially different potions – a lot of that is still up in the air and we’ll finalise a lot of those reward systems as we get closer to release. And those come off of things like the bosses at the end of dungeons – the raids.

Remember that? I sure do.

Whatever they do, they’d better not half-kitten it. I’d rather them not add a new race at all then add one without its own city (complete with voiced NPC banter), starting zone, personal story, etc.

hellokittyonline.7532:

Now Anet, please make our material storage bigger =_=

As a man who is 5/5 in Gifts of Mastery and 0/5 in Gifts of Fortune, your screenshot is quite deflating. I feel like a hungry man looking at a grand feast through the dinning room window of a rich man’s house.

I don’t think it would be game breaking if we could have a food, utility, and potion buffs all running at once. And allowing us to run all three buffs might increase demand for the slayer potions since people could run them in conjunction with their sharpening stones/maintenance oils/tuning crystals.

Other than giving those people a nice shiny carrot to unwrap after doing their dailies, we don’t.

I’m saving mine (as well as the birthday experience scroll) for such a time a new race is added to the game (if ever).

Kaizer.7135:

I dont know, they need to hurry up and release them as playable races though instead of this living story crap.

Wishful thinking, my friend. Wishful thinking.

webtoehobbit.4201:

How exactly do they plan on adding new races?

The same way they plan to release new regions, new personal story, player housing, and guild vs guild…i.e. they don’t. Not really (I hope). But from the looks of things, all of those items (new race included) probably fall under their “not a priority” umbrella. ’Cause, you know, Living Story…

A year ago I faced this same choice. I couldn’t decide between a norn warrior and a charr engineer or a charr warrior and a norn ranger. I ultimately went with the former, but I still envision the dual-axe wielding charr warrior that never was…

Knote.2904:

x7 weeklies would’ve been a much better compromise.

Rift does it, can just knock out 7 in a row and be fine for a week.

Seems reasonable enough if time-gating is needed (as it occasionally is). But with regards to ascended weapons, which are account bound when crafted, I don’t see the point in time gating other than to string the carrot-chasers along.

xephire.8324:

Well its their strategy,we have spies in wars and turn coats .Its their way of having fun and it is not violating anything cept kitten ing people off XD.

I’m pretty sure griefing IS a violation of the TOS.

It’s certainly killing it for me. Everything they’re cranking out with the Living Story is unpolished filler…a reason to keep players logging in in the hopes that they’ll drop some cash in the Gem Shop. The reasons I signed up for this game in the first place are being eroded away and replaced with this Zynga-esque Living Story system.

Peets.8529:

I think it is a good idea to reward players who play more.
If it is done automatically then those who play once a month have the same thing as someone who is dedicated to play each day.
So I don’t agree with you.

Why should someone playing an hour a day for ten days get a leg up on someone who plays ten hours over the course of a weekend?

But that’s beside the point. Players, dedicated or not, should want to log in because the game is FUN, not because they’re falling behind in their menial chores.

Uther Deathhand.1570:

darkace.8925:

To keep you logging in on a daily basis.

And the answer to “why do they care if I log in on a daily basis?” is “in hopes that you’ll spend money in the Gem Shop.”

Yes they want you to buy stuff. Since i don’t think they are making money off you any other way. I get where they are coming from but its a bit weird getting in to the routine of daily things to do. And yes i know i don’t “have” to do them. I hope they don’t add much more of this.

I’m not implying they’re wrong for wanting us to spend money in the cash shop. I’m implying they’re going about it the wrong way. Enjoyable content is the way to keep people logging in and spending cash, not time-gating.

Vayne.8563:

All any MMO is is a list of things to do.

Yes, we know that. But they’re supposed to be a list of fun things to do. Is the time-gated stuff they’ve been implementing lately fun? Is there really anything fun about running to a place of power once a day to get a charged quartz crystal? Anything at all?

Instead of this gated method of upgrading to T7 mats to make ascended gear, why not wait until a new region (Crystal Desert, etc) opens up and just let us harvest the new tier of materials at a rate comparable to (or slower, if necessary) that of T6 mats? I won’t speak for everyone, but to me that would be an infinitely more interesting, fun, and rewarding method of obtaining T7 mats that what we’re getting.

To keep you logging in on a daily basis.

And the answer to “why do they care if I log in on a daily basis?” is “in hopes that you’ll spend money in the Gem Shop.”

jinxy.8457:

I hate the new Meteorlogicus effects. The footfall looks bad, they just look like random lightning sparks coming out of the ground and the theme doesn’t really match the model of the scepter. I would love it if it had puffy cloud footfalls instead.

I prefer the current look even if it doesn’t have footfalls… i like the blue/purple trail on the end of the scepter when you run and its now gone

Please anet, consider changing the footfalls or changing the effects back!

That’s exactly what I always assumed it would be. Color me disappointed.

Nope. As someone who crafted every exotic my five characters are wearing, this is disappointing. But it’s not something I didn’t suspect would happen eventually.

Donari.5237:

They did say you can get special Ascended Weapons out of this as well as a Tequatl mini. So it’s not just rares possible. Plus it requires coordination beyond mindlessly hacking at a dragon’s toe.

I’m not commenting on the actual fight, as I haven’t seen it and it would be unfair to judge it one way or the other without having done so. But I will comment on the ascended weapon and mini-pet, though.

Many of you seem to be missing the beef many of us are having with the direction the game is headed. We’re not interested in loot. We don’t care about higher-tiered weapons. We don’t care about the typical carrots that many other MMOs use to keep players grinding away at a game.

In fact, it’s just the opposite for many of us. We signed up because this game was supposed to get away from all that. So for many of us, the fact that Teq might drop a shiny new weapon or a flashy new mini-pet is of FAR less significance that whether or not the revamped fight is fun.

Castaliea.3156:

Or….some people just don’t want to use second best gear because a game had to be altered for people like you need a goal to chase to “entice” you to play the game because bi-monthly updates, WvW, and PvP isn’t enough to keep you content. This game was marketed with the exact opposite philosophy and now they go back on that for this…

Nice try.

+1

While you guys are at it, feel free to explain to me why account/soul-bound equipment (as is the case with ascended weapons, according to Dulfy) needs to be time-gated in the first place.

of making us grind out 100 more crafting levels and time-gating the rate at which we can obtain T7 mats for ascended gear? Doesn’t that seem like a double-whammy of grind just for the sake of grind? Wouldn’t the time-gated T7 mat conversion have served the exact same purpose without the 100 extra crafting levels?

More time-gated content. More treadmills to run. I loved what this game was when it launched. I hate what it’s become. I’m one or two more weak content updates (i.e content that promotes grinding, that serves as busy work, or that time-gates content) away from finding another MMO to call home. And it kills me to admit that, because I really did love what this game was when it launched.

No kidding. One upgraded mat per day, per account. And we need how many to make one piece of armor? Multiple that by six armor slots. Then multiply that by however many characters you’d like to gear up (I have five, myself), and that’s nothing but a kick to the sensitive region.

To give us yet another time-gated reason to keep us logging in on a daily basis.

SkylightMoon.1980:

I honestly don’t see why its such a big complaint at the ascended crafting if its only 2 weeks. Amulets can take a month!!! If you don’t obtain laurels through achievement chests.

It’s two weeks…for ONE weapon. That leaves those of use who use both weapon slots, those of use who dual wield, and those of us with multiple characters once again running the time-gated treadmill. So much for this game not having gear treadmills.

Castaliea.3156:

The ANet that made GW is not the ANet that currently makes GW2.
Hell, you can even spot the difference of design philosophies between when they marketed GW2 and now. Such a 180 they did.

The ANet that’s making this game isn’t even the ANet that made GW2. Watch the interviews, read the blogs, or just look at the game they released a year ago. Then look at what they’re doing now.

Azunai.5974:

Honestly, Anet’s doing a fantastic job. Game’s not perfect, but we’re getting there. It’ll take some cooperation and feedback but if you ask me, I could without some whiny tones around here. (:

It’s funny how you and I can both look at the same game and one of us feel it’s headed towards perfection while the other feels it’s being ruined one update at a time.

goldenwing.8473:

Thanks for posting the link.

The interview confirms the perspective my guild has regarding ANet:

ANET appears to be more focused on their internal processes and less on their customers’ experience.

We’d like to see ANET explain who they believe the game delights (e.g. who are your customers and what do they enjoy?)

Why do you think they care if their game delights? They’re making money hand over fist with the Gem Shop.

Do you think they don’t know clicking F 150 times to break dragon pinatas is boring game design? They do. But they know the temporarily available achievement points tied to breaking those pinatas keeps players logging in. And when they log in they’re going to see those desirable Gem Shop weapon skins available for a limited time; and enough of them are going to spend cash to on those skins (even if they’re locked behind an rng scheme) to ensure things keep going down the way they’ve been going.

Fiontar.4695:

There is a complete disconnect now between the developer hype and the actual reality. Mike highlights the importance of Dynamic Event content in bringing the world alive and their commitment to delivering an ever evolving world, when, in reality, there has been almost zero evolution of the game world. Temporary fluff content is not an evolution or expansion of the world. It’s a complete waste of the potential that this game could have and should have achieved in it’s first year.

The most apt summary of Year One is: Potential Squandered.

I agree with your sentiment. And I’ll use the following quote to illustrate why I feel the way I do.

“With a dedicated live team more than ten times the size of the Guild Wars live team, we think you’re going to be blown away by the size and scope of live additions to the world of Tyria for a very, very long time.” – Colin Johanson

How many of you feel “blown away” by the additions made since launch?

Erasculio.2914:

It’s also interesting to see how the concept of the personal storyline has been thrown through the window after release.

It wasn’t thrown out the window, it was taken behind the shed and given the Old Yeller treatment.

Time gated conversions of T6 materials to T7 means stockpiling is unnecessary.

I think the developers really need to reevaluate their Living Story model. I think the quality of this content has been well below the standard they’ve set themselves with the initial game. They need to ask themselves “is this content worth releasing?” And by content, I mean the meat of what’s in the update after all the filler (breaking pinatas, finding kites, eating candy, riding in hot air balloons, etc) has been stripped away.

If the answer is “no”, then don’t release it. Roll it into the next Living Story update, then ask yourself the same question. And keep rolling it back until you’ve got enough substantive content (new zones, quality of life changes, new dungeons, more than 20 minutes of story, actual voice acting, QA polish, etc) to release it.

Wait until you can actually be proud of what you’re releasing the same way you were proud of the game you released a year ago today. That’s the game you wanted to make. That’s the game I wanted to play. That’s not the game you’re making with your Living Story model.

PS – If you’re going to reply, please do so in a constructive and civil manner. Thanks.

“We’re now updating Guild Wars 2 about five times as often as the typical MMO.”

Too bad the updates feature one-fifth the meaningful content as the updates in the typical MMO.

I’m glad they’re finally fixing it (and I’m eager to see what they did with The Minstrel), but I’m not sure why they went with a purple glow.

I’m interested, but apprehensively so, to see how the crafting is going to shake out. It does suck that the crafting cap is only being raised for weapon crafting disciplines.

kokiman.2364:

Ladies and Gentlemen … everything that is wrong with MMOs!

The developers deserve an equal share of the blame. If they’d stop making chore-like content – if they’d make more compelling content that players actually want to play instead of the filler content they’re releasing like clockwork every two weeks – then players wouldn’t afk for rewards given by events they otherwise would have no interest in doing.

There is no gray in Tyria. The developers have decided they want black-hat wearing villains and white-hat wearing heroes. And they’ve decided they want a whitewashed world, too. What this leaves us is a lot of really campy characters, unfortunately.

Conncept.7638:

That makes no sense, you get one of these at the year mark and one ever 4000 AP. I think it’s safe to say that anybody who reaches those two goals already knows how to play.

Knowing how to play the game and knowing how to play your character (profession, build, etc) well enough to not be a detriment to a party running a dungeon or Fractal are not the same thing. I’m not saying it would happen often. I’m not even saying it doesn’t happen already. I’m just saying I can see that being a reason why they didn’t let someone double click four scrolls to get from level 1 to level 80 in 1.5 seconds.

Faranox.4217:

Why are some of you against a character reaching the level cap immediately? How is that hurting your play experience?

If I go into a dungeon or Fractal with a player who used four scrolls to hit the level cap and, accordingly, has no idea how to play his character then it’s hurting my play experience. Wouldn’t you agree?