Guild Wars 2

Namica.2951:

She’s a anime villain.

Note that despite being uber genious and perfect, she made a huge mistake in forgetting Jehnna is a mesmer, and another in giving her enemies a means to attack her.

Let’s not forget she acts like she’s 10.

Yeah, villains like King Koopa Dr Claw Cobra Commander Skeletor Dr Evil Scarlet are prone to mistakes like that.

Either boon duration, condition duration, or nothing at all (not likely). As to which? Flip a coin, I guess.

Olba.5376:

darkace.8925:

Lopez.7369:

So the recipes remain lucrative without a massive grind.

You would be complaining more if it required a massive grind.

Whatever happened to the god ol’ days when crafting was neither grind-intensive nor time gated?

“Good old days”? My memory of crafting in other games included things like lower level materials having abysmal drop rates for higher level characters. The result was that materials in the mid range of levels cost more than the highest tier of materials and their accessibility was a fraction of the higher stuff.

If you wanted to “grind” that stuff, you had to make an alt that was at the proper level. And even then, you would’ve fared better if you just did some endgame dungeoning on your high level character and bought the stuff instead.

Whatever happened to the god ol’ days of Guild Wars 2 when crafting was neither grind-intensive nor time gated?

Lopez.7369:

So the recipes remain lucrative without a massive grind.

You would be complaining more if it required a massive grind.

Whatever happened to the god ol’ days when crafting was neither grind-intensive nor time gated?

Paulytnz.7619:

Oh I’m sure they will add more money sinks in future. At the moment what all this extra gold does for us is allow us to buy some of those more expensive skins that used to take a lot longer such as cutlture armours, order armours etc as well as you said things from the TP.

But you could see WITH all this extra loot they also brought in cash sinks via way of these new recipes being so expensive as well as the weps those guys in the pavilion sell. To me this shows they are planning ahead and I can bet soon we will be seeing a LOT more expensive items for sale…

You’re not thinking large picture. What happens to the people who don’t farm hardcore? The gold is there to be made, but only by those with the time or inclination to make it. Meanwhile, the rest of the community’s gold becomes relatively worthless.

I’m in agreement with TC. Rewarding us with skins or mats should have been the approach. This lets money be moved from player to player without introducing new money into the economy faster than it can be destroyed. Inflation in an MMO with mix of hardcore and casual players is something the developers should take every caution to avoid.

StriderShinryu.6923:

I have to agree, not specifically about presursors as I don’t really care about them, but just about the general state of the in game economy. If the super lucrative farming is going to continue at even a fraction of what it currently is, it’s going to continue to drive the prices of everything upwards. This basically just means two things: First, status quo for those who do farm on a consistent basis as any extra money they do make will be siphoned off by higher prices.

Yep. I don’t know if I’m reading this right, but it looks like inflation’s already hitting ectos.

StriderShinryu.6923:

Second, those who don’t join in the consistent farming will just fall farther and farther behind the curve.

That’s the worse of it. If someone plays casually, or refuses to participate in the non-stop farming zerg, they’re going to see what little gold they have become worthless. “A day’s wages for a loaf of bread.”

stayBlind.7849:

What sucks though is that if most of the GW2 playerbase has the ‘old’ MMORPG mindset, then I believe ANet will go in that direction. Which is completely understandable if you think of it as a sort of supply and demand mentality.

I agree. But there are far too many “traditionally conditioned” MMOers in this game to turn back now. They’re here, they want to be rewarded, and they want to path of least resistance to the reward.

Cerise.9045:

darkace.8925:

stayBlind.7849:

darkace.8925:

I’ll do you one better. Whatever happened to enjoying a game for its gameplay was rewarding enough?

That would require the game to have gameplay that feels rewarding to play.

If it doesn’t, then why play? For virtual rewards for a game you don’t enjoy? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me; but to each his own, I guess.

Is this your first MMO?

Nope.

stayBlind.7849:

darkace.8925:

I’ll do you one better. Whatever happened to enjoying a game for its gameplay was rewarding enough?

That would require the game to have gameplay that feels rewarding to play.

If it doesn’t, then why play? For virtual rewards for a game you don’t enjoy? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me; but to each his own, I guess.

I’ll do you one better. Whatever happened to enjoying a game for its gameplay was rewarding enough?

Zayd Akira.1942:

because of the grindy and easily exploitive nature of this months update, the TP is experiencing a major inflation issue, just wait a little longer and still save and it will drop.

I don’t think this inflation is going to be temporary. I can’t help but feel the developers are going to keep pandering to the hardcore “MOAR LOOT” farmers, meaning influx of new gold will far outweigh the capable of gold sinks to remove it.

20 levels is a bad idea, in my opinion. A player with four one-year old characters could create a fifth and get him to the level cap in a matter of seconds. Now if the scrolls gave 20 skill points to any character level 20 or higher, then I could throw my support behind that change.

Syl.5842:

I wonder what they will introduce to make it worthwhile.

Fish dishes = Condition Duration/Power
Shellfish dishes = Condition Duration/Precision
Sushi dishes = Power/Boon Duration
??? = Healing Power/Boon Duration

ColinJohanson.2394:

You won’t see legendary armor any time soon, you will see Ascended Armor in 2013 for sure though, yes.

As someone with five “mains” (I don’t do alts), I humbly request that you guys don’t time-gate the kitten out of ascended armor. Thank you.

Calae.1738:

I’ve already done it once and find it painful to do it again. It’s such a boring chore. I would pay money to unlock all POI’s, vista’s and way-points with the exception of skill points. No rewards.

And frankly, I’m getting sick of seeing that being thrown around. Are we, as a community, so spoiled that we expect a shiny new toy every time we do something in the game?

“That jumping puzzle sure looks fun, but I don’t do it. No reward.”
“I could revive that downed player, but I won’t. No reward.”
“This new player is asking for advice in map chat, but I won’t help. No reward.”

Edit: this isn’t directed at you, TC, or anyone in general. I’m just getting tired of seeing people claim to need loot-based motivation to play a video game.

Necessity for those wanting Legendary weapons, completely optional for everyone else. If you don’t enjoy it, then why bother? Since you’ve already got the achievement and title, there’s not much you’ll gain by doing it again.

In the first BWE I reported a bug because my pet’s level was lower than my own…mine being white and my pets being green. Not two minutes after sending the report did it dawn on me that the green level was actually my current sidekicked level.

Onshidesigns.1069:

Mini-Pet Slot and Consumables Slots need to be invisible if no items in them.

That sounds reasonable enough.

This is what happens when concessions are made in an attempt to appease the “MOAR LOOT!” crowd. I’ve asked it before, and I’ll ask it again. Are these really the kinds of people you want to build your game – and by extension, your community – around?

Lopez.7369:

Although I’m certain this will be fixed next week, it’s shocking no developer has replied to this concern. It’s a huge issue in the community and economy.

What are they going to say? Whatever they say, whether they’re going to change it or leave it as is, they’re going to be jeered by half the community. When what you say is going to upset a great many people, it’s generally best to say nothing at all.

Adamantel.6427:

Because Warrior is strictly about close combat and rifle is only a side story, not the main focus of the class, and this is what I am talking about.

I think you’re letting your experiences with other games distort just what it is you’see when you look at the warrior as it’s presented in this game.

Tachenon.5270:

darkace.8925:

she tanks us

Ushering in the long-awaited Return of the Trinity!

lol, oops.

fellyn.5083:

Seems like players didn’t learn from the first time it was changed barely 2 weeks ago.

And people on this forum honestly wonder why events are continually nerfed into worthlessness.

It will just be nerfed again and again. Farmers cause their own problems.

And then they cry about it. Every. Single. Time. I’ll bet some of the exploiters…I mean farmers always think to themselves when they see others of their ilk start verbally abusing players “this is why we can’t have nice things.”

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The OP is conveniently leaving out the other kinds of gamers. This is not just something you can simplify down to two types.

• Some players want to be able to complete the gauntlet on their particular class. The gauntlet unfairly makes some of the content harder to complete for some classes.

Harder, but not impossible. I’m willing to bet some of the fights are more difficult for X profession while others are easier…that it all balances out by the end.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

• Some players like a challenge, but feel the difficulty in the gauntlet comes not just from skill, but mostly from poor visibility, camera issues, and cheap one-shot mechanics.

Poor visibility, camera issues, and “cheap one-shot mechanics” (if it can be dodged or otherwise avoided, it’s not cheap) are issues everyone who beat Liadri had to overcome. I agree with you that the game’s engine or a lack of polish shouldn’t add to a challenge’s difficulty, but in this case those issues obviously don’t make the fight impossible to win.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

• Some players have little gold, and still want to beat all the bosses. Bosses like Liadri rely a lot on trial and error, and grind through player’s wallets with armor repairs and way point costs.

If someone doesn’t have the money for repair costs perhaps they should head downstairs and spend – what? – ten minutes farming with the zerg? That would cover more than a few repairs.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Challenge or no challenge, trial and error is always an unfair type of challenge that lots of players do not enjoy.

If they don’t enjoy it, why are they doing it? If the answer is “for the rewards”, then that’s playing back into the entitlement. “I don’t like this. But I want the reward. But I don’t want to work for it through trial and error.” What is that if not entitlement?

Saldonus Darkholme.5680:

None of you actually thought they were going to offer several 1st-year minis like in GW1, right? Not with a cash shop to offer them up in!

I don’t think that’s entirely fair, but whoa boy is there going to be a backlash if there are any new minis added to the cash shop when this new update goes live.

Not going to lie, I’d use (waste?) Transmutation Crystals to on trinkets if I could.

TooBz.3065:

IDK if the devs are on the right track (except that they seem to recognize that something needs to change.). Fighting champions and world bosses bore me to tears, I’m fine if other people like it and I’m not suggesting that the changes aren’t good for people who do.

I’m with you on this one. I do the things I consider fun (open world PvE, Dynamic Events, etc), but I have no problem with others farming ‘till their eyes bleed. The problem arises when rewards for a select few activities become so high that inflation starts creeping in. This means those who spend their time doing the fun-yet-unrewarding activities will be forced to spend their time doing something else for gold or falling below the game’s poverty line.

Xenon.4537:

I think dynamic events should reward more silver. I mean what’s the highest amount of money from an event? Like 20 silver? It’s no wonder people prefer to focus on the champs instead who have a chance to reward hundreds of gold worth of stuff.

The problem with upping the rewards for dynamic events is you’re ultimately just increasing the amount of gold in the economy, and thus creating inflation. Inflation is something that needs to be held in check.

gurugeorge.9857:

Which leads me to suspect that both CP and the champion loot are Anet testing the waters to see just how popular farming really is, in reality. Once they’ve got the numbers they can proceed in whatever direction they decide to proceed given that knowledge.

My further suspicion is that, to some extent, they’ve come to terms with the fact that the game as designed in the manifesto has only been a partial success, and that most players, being conditioned to farming from other MMOs, simply cannot or will not take the game in the spirit that it’s been designed, have no real interest in DEs, or in roleplaying (lite) or in the virtual world, but only in “shinies.” That’s probably a bit of a disappointment to them, on the one hand, as creative people, but on the other hand, as businesspeople, I’m sure they’ll accommodate, since it makes life easier for them: designing complex and interesting DEs has got to be harder than designing something like the CP or changing loot tables.

In the end, the majority will get what it wants, whatever it wants. If the majority is skritt-brained, then Anet will produce shinies.

I agree with everything you said…every word of it.

Personally, I made this my game of choice because of the game the developers originally envisioned (that in the Manifesto), and I’d hate to see it become something else. I suspect the developers will be disappointed when they see just how many people are in it for the loot. I can only hope they find the resolve to make the tough choice of doubling down on the game they wanted to make and not compromise and turn this game into something it was never supposed to be.

I understand money above all else will steer the course of this game; but if Guild Wars was able to thrive without pandering to the skritt-brained, then some part of me holds out hope that Guild Wars 2 can do the same.

aspirine.6852:

It was fun in the beginning, but the farming days should be over soon enough I hope.

Like many others here said they are convinced the living story approach works and giving in to the call for an expansion is admitting they are/were wrong about it.
i wonder who from the original GW team is still around, they should know that the expansions of gw1 made it. gw beyond was created to see if such an approach would work and people rather saw another complete expansion instead of small parts.

If it makes them money (i.e. enough people log in for the temporary content/achievements and see/purchase the temporarily available Gem Shop items) then it does work. That’s probably not what you meant, but it’s certainly a driving force we’ve all got to consider.

Jamais vu.5284:

Really depressing to see the questionable choice of adding 4 new player races in transition to GW2 negatively affecting the whole experience, from scraping PC voicing, to much fewer, more generic animations, to fewer dances, to fewer emotes, to fewer armors/costumes, to more clipping bugs, to cartoonification (of enemy factions) and stereotyping of the races for “recognition value” , to wholly botched aesthetics (Charr armor). etc.
Especially the 3 new races that got conjured out of thin air, just because that’s what the fantasy MMO market “demands” (or so you thought).

I agree with you that it’s disappointed to see our characters relegated to silent protagonists, but I think the Living Story – not the addition of four new playable races – is to blame. If there was no Living Story – if the developers were pouring all their resources into a single expansion – I think the voice acting, as well as everything else, would be on par with what we got with the initial release.

I’m going to guess what’s going to happen, and I’m going to bet I wind up being fairly accurate in my predictions.

Content Predictions
– In an instance, the queen will give begin her speech.
– The Aetherblade will arrive in their airships to disrupt the ceremony.
– Logan will jump to his queen’s aid, but will be overwhelmed.
– Rytlock, in attendance with the rest of the charr delegation, will come to his aid.
– They’ll fight off the pirates for a while, then we’ll jump in.
– We’ll save the day, but the queen will be kidnapped.
– We’ll have to find clues to determine the location of the kidnappers’ hideout while Logan “regretfully stays behind to see to the city’s defenses.”
– Upon finding the hideout we’ll have a short Canach-type instance wherein we (the player and Logan) save the queen.
– We’ll stand around while Logan and the queen embrace before she tanks us for helping Logan save her.

Achievement Predictions
– Attend the queen’s speech.
– Defeat 1/10/25/50 Aetherblade Sky Pirates in Kryta.
– Defeat 1/10/25/50 Aetherblade Sky Pirates in Maguuma Jungle.
– Defeat 1/10/25/50 Aetherblade Sky Pirates in Shiverpeak Mountains.
– Defeat 1/10/25/50 Aetherblade Sky Pirates in Ascalon.
– Examine 10/25/50/100 clues to determine the Aetherblade’s new hideout.
– Rescue the queen.

Zepidel.5349:

And I cant believe how many whiny care bears are in this thread. You guys are seriously getting upset people are taking advantage of a small gap in Anets usual stranglehold on anything farming related?

/checks to see if the Queen’s Pavilion farming zergs are still running

I don’t get it.

Esplen.3940:

I was talking about Ascended vs Exotic.

I know, but I’m talking about time gating in general. I’m not saying time gating should never be utilized. Using it to protect the economy from hardcore farmers, for example, is a good use of time gating. But when it’s used solely to encourage players to log in on a daily basis, that’s where I have a problem with it.

Esplen.3940:

No, obtaining the money is the time-gate. You’re just not capable of earning enough money to purchase a Lambo in one day (in this virtual world).

If you went into the dealership with the money, you’d get the Lambo on the spot (just like if I went to the Laurel Merchant with enough Laurels).

Laurels = Money.
Time-gating Laurels = Time-gating Money.

Rarity = Cars.

Upgrading rarity = Upgrading cars.

But laurels aren’t the only currency. The currency to obtain Charged Quarz Crystals is Quartz Crystals. I’ve got a stack of Quartz Crystals with which I’m ready to purchase CQCs, but I can’t because they’re only selling me one per day.

Esplen.3940:

Comparing it to a car is like saying:

“I have a Tesla, but I want a Lambo.”

The reason why I use this analogy is because it’s not something WITHIN the car, it’s a different tier of car entirely.

That’s fair enough; let’s roll with that analogy. Imagine you have the money to purchase the Lamborghini. You walk into the dealership with a briefcase full of cash eager to make your purchase and the salesman tells you, “No problem. We just have to fill out the paperwork and it’s all yours. You’ll need to initial and sign the dotted line at the bottom of each page of this 30-page contract. Oh, but you’re only allowed to initial and sign one page per day.”

The “you don’t need it” argument is a tricky one. It’s true, you don’t need ascended gear to play this game. There is no content locked behind a gear check that requires ascended gear. But that doesn’t make it any less desirable. Think of it like a car. You don’t need air conditioning in your car. Your car will still get you from Point A to Point B without a functioning air conditioner. But your quality of life isn’t going to be anywhere near what it could be with a working air conditioner.

It’s the same with top-tiered gear (not necessarily Best in Slot). Sure, you can enjoy the game without the best gear, but you’re better able to do so if you’re gear is optimal. I can understand if gear is locked behind bosses/dungeons/raids. At least the developers in games utilizing those systems can pretend they’re making you work for the gear by displaying the level of competency required to clear those things to get your gear. But to simply slap a time gate on something (as they’ve done with Charged Quartz Crystals) is lazy. And I know the team at ArenaNet is capable of so much better.

danbuter.2314:

The ability to sort armor by light/medium/heavy in the auction house.

Absolutely! I can’t believe I forgot this one…good call.

Simple question: does the champion loot system run counter to ArenaNet’s desire to get players back into the open world? By now we all know the champion loot system has increased traffic in Lost Shores, Frostgorge Sound, and Queensdale. And it’s no secret that many dynamic events go untouched for sometimes days at a time (this predates the champion loot system).

Do you think the developers should bother trying to encourage players to get back into the open world? If so, how do you think they should go about doing so? Or is it just the nature of beast that MMOs players – by and large – just want to grind for loot?

PS – On a slightly related note (but only slightly), the champion loot changes killed my server’s WvW. We (Blackgate) were winning (often by a good margin) week after week before the change, now we’re in last by a considerable margin. It’s far too early to know if this is just a temporary occurrence, but it’d be a shame to see my server’s WvW community crumble because of “shinies”.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Given the lack of response from Anet so far, this is probably working as intended, and I was one of the first to predict an incoming nerf on this farming. It’s quite likely that we’re going to need an awful lot of mats for Crafting from 400 to 500, so they’re pre-loading it for us.

The fact that we can pick up a fair bit of gold along the way isn’t all that bad either. Not all of us are trading post sharpshooters.

The lack of civility between players however, is not justified. Play nice kiddies, and maybe we’ll get to keep playing Farm Wars 2.

I think their lack of response is because they know they’ve created an insatiable monster. To let the monster run amuck isn’t good for the good citizens of Tyria, but any attempts to check the monster will result in a display of wrath terrible to behold.

Kronus.6048:

The reason why you see this happening is pretty simple: Arenanet nerfs to the ground every farming area in the game that is seen as profitable so the farmers are rushing to get as many rewards as possible before the nerfhammer hits. It’s not the farmers fault really, but rather the extreme nerf on the farming areas from anet that led to this behaviour. Before you had cof p1 to run, areas to farm and so on. Now, it’s all about the places where champs spawn the most to get as many chests as possible. When this gets nerfed, the zerg will move to the next most profitable thing and repeat the process.

Blaming ArenaNet for the poor behavior displayed by some of the people playing this game is absurd.

Dante.1763:

darkace.8925:

Dante.1763:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Dante.1763:

you could simply ask for volunteers to voice characters! id voice act for free if given the chance! im sure others would as well!

Voice actors are unionized, and union rules make this almost impossible for a non-indie developer to do.

oh well thats stupid then!

It’s not just a general “they’re unionized” that’s the problem, it’s the specifics of their union rules that’s going to cause problems. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe voice actors have to be paid a minimum of about $800 for a four hour session and an addition $250ish for each additional voice after the third. This, along with the quick release schedule of Living Story content, means they A. can’t justify paying ten voice actors $800/each (it’s going to be much more for established voice actors) to come in for a few lines of dialogue and B. can’t let content pile up before bringing in the voice actors to knock out a bunch of work all at once.

would that also apply to volunteers? i mean if you are by yourself volunteering to take time out of your own schedule to come down and voice a character, wouldnt that be our choice as a volunteer? you as a volunteer are aware that you wont be paid

I’m just speculating here, but I’d imagine the use of volunteers could cause friction with the SAG and thus hamper the ability to use unionized (i.e. professional) voice actors going forward.

eekzie.5640:

I would love for more content like Fractals and the SAB.
Both of these were just so well put together. The random ‘’go do 50 of these’’ or ‘’kill 100 of these’’ kind of living world events are absolutely terrible.

I’m all for frequent and free diversions like Fractals and mini-games being added to the game. But I’m very much against the Living Story replacing the Personal Story. If you look at the quality of Factions and Nightfall respective to the original Guild Wars there’s no drop-off. If you look at the quality of Queen’s Jubilee or Secrets of Southsun respective to the original Guild Wars 2 they’re not even in the same league. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I want quality, not quantity.

Dante.1763:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Dante.1763:

you could simply ask for volunteers to voice characters! id voice act for free if given the chance! im sure others would as well!

Voice actors are unionized, and union rules make this almost impossible for a non-indie developer to do.

oh well thats stupid then!

It’s not just a general “they’re unionized” that’s the problem, it’s the specifics of their union rules that’s going to cause problems. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe voice actors have to be paid a minimum of about $800 for a four hour session and an addition $250ish for each additional voice after the third. This, along with the quick release schedule of Living Story content, means they A. can’t justify paying ten voice actors $800/each (it’s going to be much more for established voice actors) to come in for a few lines of dialogue and B. can’t let content pile up before bringing in the voice actors to knock out a bunch of work all at once.

Player Character.9467:

stop running off to farm destroyers in your 100% burn uptime build. It’s pve, you chose you run out there in that build.

Suppose a guardian has invested significant time and money setting up a condition damage PvE build. He enjoys the build, and he takes some measure of pleasure knowing that he’s not running a cookie-cutter greatsword AH build. Then an expansion dealing with Primordus and his destroyer minions is released. This player’s build is now effectively rendered useless for the new content all because of an immunity to burning. And remember the immunity to burning is implemented because of fluff/lore, not because of game balance or or because its an interesting mechanic. And your response to this person is “it’s your fault”?

Without singling anyone, I’ll say that some of the responses in this post illustrate what I’m talking about. There’s an air of entitlement in that they expect to obtain the reward and accomplish the achievement simply by virtue of trying. If everyone was awarded a first-place ribbon, regardless of where they finished, then the ribbon would be little more than a participation ribbon.

What’s more, the some (not all) of the people who feel this way feel their opinion is the only one that matters. They can’t enjoy the game unless they can 100% their checklist (achievements, mini-pets, etc). So this is a problem that needs to be addressed. Never mind that doing so comes at the expense of the other side – those wanting a challenge for which a certain level of skill is required. Those guys are just elitist jerks, right? So who cares what they want.

BobbyStein.2315:

Will the player speak in the future? Probably, but how and where are still under debate.

This is exactly why I’m against the Living Story. With the Living Story – as with much of the Living Story content – the developers simply can’t deliver the same level of quality they worked so hard to achieve with the original game. If waiting four to six months – a year, even – between content updates meant the content, the dynamic events, the immersion and the ambiance, the polish and QA, and even the voice acting were given the same care the original game was given then I’d happily forgo the updates we’re getting every other week.

I wonder if more people would bother with the meta events (Gates, Temples, Beetletun, etc) if the WP fees were drastically increased while these events were unfinished.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Still in the loot tables and still dropping, especially at the end of jumping puzzles.

There really is no excuse why these are still in game. Them being sellable is not a reason either. The election is long over and these should have been removed.

Sure there is; they’re releasing Living Story content too often and thus QA suffers.