Guild Wars 2

mtpelion.4562:

Mikali.9651:

old-world expectations? Only “mmo” I’ve played for years is guild wars 1.
All others I tried, played a bit and then stopped.
I also played counter strike for years, same as LoL, and both games didnt have expansions.

You are saying things you don’t know.
What I demand is something frekittenhis game was stagnate for too long.
My demans are really that high huh? Please.

edit. saying fr.esh! is curse word? lol?

You’re getting fresh, free stuff every 2-4 weeks and complaining you are getting a stagnate game… so yeah, your demands are pretty ridiculous.

We’re also running that fresh, free content with the same five races we had two.x years ago, and the same five weapon skills on our weapon of choice, and a choice of three utility skills from a pool that hasn’t grown since launch. It’s entirely possible for stagnation to set in even if the game is being updated regularly.

I’m thinking exile from the Grove and its surrounding lands is a good start.

I’m willing to bet 100 gold every member of Destiny’s Edge aboard that ship survived. Trahaerne may not have fared so well, though. As to the two members of DE not on board, I wouldn’t mind terribly if Rytlock was cutting his way through the jungle to find and kill Caithe. That’s obviously not going to happen, but a guy can hope.

warbignime.4610:

darkace.8925:

Lore Books might be too confusing for new players.

I don’t see how that’s confusion, it’s just like normal books but with animation.

I was joking.

Lore Books might be too confusing for new players.

Nick.6972:

darkace.8925:

Prediction: Logan, Eir, and Zojja will survive the attack/crash.

No way?!

If you’re thinking I’m just stating the obvious then you’re implicitly accusing the writers of being predictable. Surely that’s not the case.

Prediction: Logan, Eir, and Zojja will survive the attack/crash.

If this is indeed going to be an expansion, I pray the developers take the opportunity to bring back the voice actors who gave voice to our characters. The cut-scenes as currently constituted just don’t feel right.

If Caithe isn’t harshly punished for her sins, then I’m going to call foul on the writers. I can’t think of anything more disappointing than the writers forcing our character to forgive her for what she’s done.

Orpheal.8263:

Then they let get the whole pact fleet get literally get slaughtered and shreddered into thousands of pieces, basically standing absolutely no chance against these huge vines, for those are even the biggest air ships in that scene like freaking tiny TOYS to play with…. and kill off basically in that scene everyone including Logan, Eir, Zojja and Trahearne… – come on, be real, as if anyone of them could have survived that, when Mordremoth destroyed their air ships high in the sky right under their feets away in an blink of an eye…
They all would have to be supernatural beings, if anyone of them would have actually survived that mass slaughter.

You’re grossly underestimating the protective properties of Plot Armor.

Wanze.8410:

Its probably a free expansion.

And those people that asked for a paid expansion for the last year and a half will be disappointed anyways because they didnt get what they wanted.

To a lot of people, price and delivery mode of new content aren’t nearly as important as quality and quantity.

CMM.6712:

Doesn’t bother me, and I like the mechanic of taking the crystals to a place of power to charge it as well.

What about the mechanic do you like? In what way does having to charge Quartz Crystals at the limit of one per day improve the game?

lordkrall.7241:

darkace.8925:

lordkrall.7241:

People are aware that making fun of employees makes them even less likely to tell us anything, right?

As they don’t tell us anything as is, there’s no risk of being told “less”.

Read the post you quoted one more time.

I don’t need to. As ArenaNet’s current policy is to tell us nothing, it’s literally impossible for them to be less likely to tell us anything.

CMM.6712:

Why would people want to communicate when sometimes all they get are temper tantrums and diaper creme style posts. “I am leaving if you don’t do x”, or “I am never gonna tell my friends about this game if you don’t change y” Who would want to share there ideas and plans with people that threaten, mock and all that kind of stuff?

Companies who want to generate excitement for their product?

lordkrall.7241:

People are aware that making fun of employees makes them even less likely to tell us anything, right?

As they don’t tell us anything as is, there’s no risk of being told “less”.

I’ve only got a few items left in my weaponsmithing discovery panel, one of them being the destroyer lodestones needed to make Primordus weapons. I’d like to clear the panel out, but I have no interest in crafting 72 of these weapons to do so. Am I correct in assuming each prefix for each weapon must be discovered individually to clear the lodestones from the discovery panel?

Caithe’s secret is that she murdered a bunch of innocent, peaceful centaurs.

I didn’t play Guild Wars until after Guild Wars 2 caught my eye, and I thought the Factions expansion (the writing and voice acting) were atrocious, so my opinion on what Cantha could add to this game aren’t borne of hype or nostalgia.

Some of the environments are unique; petrified forests and solidified seas aren’t something you find in a lot of MMOs (as far as I know). And Kaineng City with a third axis to play with could be amazing. The city could be designed in a way that does justice to it’s original concept art, and the possibilities for jumping puzzles are through the roof. No doubt there are also people who want Cantha because it serves as an analogue for the far east.

Bandit.8279:

Plenty of new content has been released for a 2 year old MMO.

I would hardly consider:
– three new PVE zones whose combined size is about that of Brisban Wildlands
– one new universal skill and one new class-specific skill per class
– zero new classes
– zero new playable races
– zero new weapon options for existing classes
– zero new dungeons (one, if we count Fractals)
– and an episodic campaign so thin it can be completed in a day
to be “plenty of new content” for an MMO that’s more than two years old, but that’s just me.

“…we’re setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe.”

ArenaNet: perpetually planning to prepare to iterate big things that may or may not make it into the game.

Vayne.8563:

So OP in answer to your question, it seems like a lot of people do want Season 3. Including me.

A post full of negative opinions…

“The opinions expressed in this thread are those of the vocal minority.”

A post full of positive opinions…

“See, everyone likes it!”

Aidan Savage.2078:

As for wow, it only has players because of E-Stockholme Syndrome. They keep players by constantly putting out expansions you have to pay for, and the “customers” keep buying.

So when a player buys a WoW expansion they’re doing so because they’ve been psychologically manipulated and/or damaged by an evil corporation, but when a player logs into GW2 for a LS update or drops money in the cash shop for an infinite gathering tool they’re so because they’re some sort of enlightened free-thinker? Nice double standard.

Step 1: Release new zone with few Waypoints.
Step 2: Sell Teleportation consumables in Cash Shop.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit.

Vayne.8563:

The game didn’t work as it was supposed to. It didn’t hold players. I hope no one ever tries to apply to you the same standards of honesty you’re trying to apply to Anet.

You have a business, you make an unpopular change, people are human they try to justify stuff. That’s what being human is. That’s how I saw it.

People were freaking, people were trying to explain, interviews happened and people panicked.

I’m sure you’d like to think it was some kind of devious plot, some kind of lie, but reality is a very hazy thing. Eight people can remember the same event completely differently. A dev might not even remember an interview he gave a year earlier.

Fans pour over dev’s every word. They don’t do that themselves.

This is precisely why Anet won’t say anything. Exactly because of this. If people would stop being so liberal with their use of words like lie, Anet might be able to talk to us.

No amount of verbal or mental gymnastics will ever change the fact that one of those two sentences a lie. If you’re so blinded by your sense of duty to defend ArenaNet, then so be it. But claiming they never expected players to get the best gear so quickly when they literally designed the game so that they would is, was, and will always be a lie.

Vayne.8563:

Now when the game launched that was true. The situation changed when they saw people getting exotic gear and leaving the game. So were they dishonest, or did they change their mind. There is such a huge difference in this.

Years ago, due to doctors advice, everyone gave up butter to eat margerine. The doctors believed at the time that it was healtier. Now they tell you margerine is a killer and you’re better off with butter. Did the doctors lie? Were they dishonest.

The first paragraph says “we believe” and I’m sure when they said that that’s exactly what they did believe.

Only the least forgiving person could call that a lie, unless you have proof that when they said it they didn’t believe it. Things change in my life all the time and I make statements based on now. I’m not lying if the situation changes.

Only the most naive person would pretend it’s anything other than a lie. There’s simply no amount of spin that reconciles “we expect X” and “we never expected X”. into anything other than a lie. If they’d said “we expect X” and “we now believe not-X is best for the game” it wouldn’t have been a lie. But that’s not what was said.

Vayne.8563:

If this is all you can bring up for spotty honesty then Anet is more honest than most companies.

I’ll give you a better example.

“We think everyone, including casual players, should have the best gear by the time they hit level 80.” vs “We didn’t expect players to get the best gear so quickly.”

There are other, equally egregious examples, but I think the point is made.

Mo Mo.1947:

They’ve been expanding the game almost monthly.

And all of that expansion has got us exactly one universal healing skill, eight class-specific healing skills, three permanent PvE maps (each of which is about half the size of the rest of the maps in the game at launch), zero new dungeons (one if you count FotM), zero new classes, zero new races, and a storyline that can be completed in one afternoon of play.

For all of the effort put into the Living Story, we have relatively little to show for it.

Mo Mo.1947:

Why do you need a big dropship dump of an expansion all at once just because it’s how people have done it before?

Because it allows the developers more time to polish content, find and remove bugs, increase the scope of new zones, increase the depth of new stories, etc. They can do things shorter deadlines don’t permit (such as voicing player characters). They can add things that are hard to conceptualize, iterate, and implement on shorter deadlines (such as new skills).

And most importantly, it allows the developers to release content when it’s ready as opposed to when it’s due.

Mo Mo.1947:

The multiple expansions over a period of time are more digestable.

So is a steak served one bite per day.

Vayne.8563:

What this guy says has AT LEAST as much meaning as what others are saying. Do you go into the threads of people who say unsubstantiated negative stuff and tell them that they’re wrong for doing that? No.

You come into the thread of someone trying to provide some balance and say I’m wrong for doing it.

Baseless optimism doesn’t counter baseless pessimism. Baseless optimism is the mirror image of baseless pessimism, not the polar opposite. It’s the same thing reversed, not a balance a at the other end of a scale.

Zaxares.5419:

Are they not showing up as an ingredient when you try to craft/discover them? Or do they just not have the little info that indicates they are used as a material?

They’re just missing the tooltip indicator that they’re used to craft other things. They show up in the discovery UI. It’s not an issue that demands all hands on deck, but it is a low-hanging fruit.

Vayne.8563:

Right hundreds of people are working on a back piece. Do some math.

We know that 20 people work on the living story because they told us. We know there are over 300 employees at Anet. One can assume that 280 plus employees are not bringing the other 20 guys coffee for a living.

Of the 280 people not working on the Living Story, how many of them would you guess are working in accounting? Accounts receivable? Marketing? Community relations? Public relations? Human resources? Security? How many are custodians? Receptionists? Building maintenance? Management? Does ArenaNet’s headquarters have an on-site cafeteria? If so, how many people prepare and serve food? How many people are working on next Tuesday’s cash shop items? How many of them are in quality assurance? How many of them maintain the website? Or work on in-game bugs?

The point is this, 280 people not working on the Living Story does not mean 280 people are working on some other project.

Vayne.8563:

Which means they’re working on stuff. That has ALWAYS been the logic. The people who say otherwise are disenfranchised with the game and/or Anet’s policy of not communicating.

As I just illustrated, 300 people working at ArenaNet doesn’t mean 300 people are working on Guild Wars 2. There are a lot of positions within at a video game developer whose function has nothing to do with video games.

Vayne.8563:

There are a lot of possible reasons why Anet might not be revealing plans. One of them I’ve brought up frequently but there are others.

The logic is, bigger projects are being worked on. You don’t have to accept it, that’s fine.

“Bigger projects” is a highly subjective term. If you’re implying in any way that an expansion (or content one would traditionally find in an expansion) is under development, then that’s faulty logic. There’s literally no basis for such an assumption. If you’re simply implying they’re working on “stuff”, then you’re telling us what we already know.

Serophous.9085:

Anet: “Guys, we are working on stuff”
Haters: “We don’t believe you”
Outside source: “I went to Anet, I can confirm they are working on stuff”
Haters: “We don’t believe you”
Hypothetical more sources go: “We too can confirm they are working on stuff”
Haters: “Well, none of us went, so you ALL must be in a conspiracy to keep up the charade that Anet is doing stuff!”

I’ve given up on trying to argue with those people. There is no point. They hate the game, they bash the game, its all they do. Anet could come out with an expansion that could be held as the greatest thing ever in the MMO community, and they will still trash it. There is no winning.

You’re misrepresenting your opponent’s argument. Your opponents are saying “stuff” can mean anything, and until ArenaNet tells or shows us what “stuff” is, there’s no reason to get excited. Your response to that very reasonably stance is to claim your opponents will react in an absurd manner to a hypothetically situation that has no bearing on the discussion at hand.

Your opponents are saying “we care about this game, but we don’t like where it is or seems to be going.” You’re claiming your opponents are saying “we hate this game, and we will always hate this game.” That’s what’s called a straw man argument.

“The so-called typical “attacking a straw man” argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent’s proposition by covertly replacing it with a different proposition (i.e., “stand up a straw man”) and then to refute or defeat that false argument (“knock down a straw man”) instead of the original proposition."

Misrepresentation of an opponent’s argument isn’t the best way to argue a point or defense a stance. If you didn’t intend to do so, then going forward try to focus on and respond to what’s actually being said. If it was your intent, then we’ll at least know what we’re dealing with going forward.

Bowls of Ascalonian Salad are still not identified in-game as a crafting material. They are used to make Bowls of Black Pepper Cactus Salad.

Vayne.8563:

I think it’s entirely possible that the author of that article has seen the same spurious claims by the same people and thought he might throw that out there, because it’s just as ridiculous to him as it is to me.

It’s also possible the author wrote a puff-piece in exchange for a visit to ANet headquarters and some cool GW2 swag. Such occurrences are not uncommon in video game journalism.

Vayne.8563:

As for what people meant, some of those posts were pretty kitten ed clear. People claiming less than 50 people work at Anet can’t be taken as hyperbole. There are enough of those kinds of posts where sharing this doesn’t seem that bad to me.

I said most were using hyperbole. It’s certainly possible there are a few unreasonable people who legitimately believe ANet isn’t’ working on anything but the Living Story. But unreasonable people are, by definition, unreasonable. So what good does it do to “stand up to” them?

Vayne.8563:

If you don’t like that I shared it, you don’t have to comment in the thread. It’s not constructive.

Ah, “agree with me or get out”. I see. Not constructive, indeed.

Vayne.8563:

I hope those of you who say this thread is pointless (which should be against forum rules anyway), would have the bottle to stand up the next time someone says Anet isn’t working on anything but the Living Story and point out that we at least have annecdotal evidence that that’s not true.

However, I strongly suspect those who say this thread is pointless will never do that.

Why would anyone waste time responding to those claiming ANet isn’t working on anything but Living Story? Most people doing so are using hyperbole. They know ANet is working other things; the “New items in the Gem Shop!” every single Tuesday is proof enough of this. “Standing up to these people” is frivolous, and it usually degrades into an “us” vs “them” argument.

Vayne.8563:

Sorta makes you think, don’kitten

What really makes me think is that this game is in such a state that the developers earnestly thought the knowledge that “they’re working on stuff” would somehow be a panacea to the legitimate griefs some have with the game or the developers’ stance and/or communicating with their customers.

Clever post, TC, but it’s going to go over a lot of heads.

Conncept.7638:

There are a lot of highly organized developers

There are a whole lot of employee reviews which contradict this. Not saying the company is abandoned or the end is nigh, but when dozens upon dozens of different employees all cite the same organizational, leadership, and decision making problems consistently over a span several years… there is more than likely a legitimate problem no matter how much ANet ignores or denies it.

Someone will be along shortly to tell you there’s no reason to believe any of the stuff said in those reviews, as we don’t even know if they were written by people who actually do or have worked at ArenaNet. The simple truth is the state of this game and the quality and quantity of the content released since launch bear out everything that’s been said in those reviews. So when you put two and two together, you get four. An ugly, disheartening four.

Vayne.8563:

Of course it doesn’t “prove it”.

But it sure makes it less likely that they’re not working on stuff, which some people seem to say.

They’ve always been working on “stuff”. That’s what game developers do, they work on stuff. But “stuff” can be anything from a new items to throw on the cash shop to an expansion. That’s why “we’re working on stuff” is nothing more than lip service, and I don’t understand why anyone here is pretending otherwise.

They’ve been working on “stuff” since the game launched, yet this is the slowest progressing AAA MMORPG I’ve ever seen. Why do you think that is?

Ayrilana.1396:

They just add a small fraction of content that eventually becomes as stale as existing content. The only difference is that due to their significantly smaller size, this occurs much quicker.

If that’s the only different you see, then you’re not looking at things objectively.

Who needs an expansion when we’ve got the Living Story giving us “an expansion’s worth of content” for free?

On a slightly related note, I’m still waiting for someone – anyone – to make a cogent argument as to why removing the the water bucket and feed sack bundles from Diah’s farm or the recipe for Eda’s Apple Pie from the game improved the leveling experience.

Vayne.8563:

darkace.8925:

Vayne.8563:

Guild Wars 2 has two less professions now than Guild Wars 1 did it it’s whole life. That’s 20% less professions for those counting.

Guild Wars 2 has five times the races Guild Wars 1 has ever had. That’s 500% more races.

Guild Wars 2 has more variety in this manner than Guild Wars 1…and did so from launch.

Any particular reason you’re counting Ascalonians, Canthans, and Elonians – three distinct character experiences – as a single race?

Because they’re all human? That’s a race to me.

I guess you can consider different nationalities different races, but I don’t recall anyone in my six years in Guild Wars 1 ever refer to them as races.

As far as I know we were all playing humans. Hell Kryta started off as a colony of Elona.

I had the same complaint about Rift. It had six races, but two were human and two were elves.

I guess this is a matter of subjectivity, but I’ve personally never had a problem calling two factions of the same species different races if each has distinctive differences in character models, starting zones, racial capitals, low-level quests/missions, faction reputations, etc.

Vayne.8563:

Guild Wars 2 has two less professions now than Guild Wars 1 did it it’s whole life. That’s 20% less professions for those counting.

Guild Wars 2 has five times the races Guild Wars 1 has ever had. That’s 500% more races.

Guild Wars 2 has more variety in this manner than Guild Wars 1…and did so from launch.

Any particular reason you’re counting Ascalonians, Canthans, and Elonians – three distinct character experiences – as a single race?

My account got hit with a game-breaking bug that’s been plaguing people for close to five months. Over the course of three weeks, every attempt to get the issue resolved was met with copy-and-pasted (word-for-word) reply. After six such messages over the course of three weeks, I decided it was time to move on. The lack of an earnest attempt to communicate, not the bug itself, was the deal-breaker. In my book, that’s not exactly what I’d consider “amazing” customer service. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Metrics are why all the shows about science and history and culture have been replaced by reality shows about pawn shops and logging operations. The networks might be happy with the higher ratings the latter bring in, but it sure sucks for those who enjoyed the former.

Changing the clock (forward one day, back the next) had no effect. Reinstalling had no effect. Contacting Support has resulted in nothing but half a dozen copied-and-pasted replies (literally six identical replies, word for word the same).

This thing has hit me six days in a row now, and eight of the last ten. That’s a lot of lost gold, laurels, achievement points, time-gated crafting, world boss chests, and T6 materials I’ve been denied by a bug that’s gone unfixed for four months. It’s obvious this bug isn’t a high priority for the devs, and it’s left me virtually unable to progress in any meaningful way. At this point, I’m ready to just give up entirely and find another game to play. So this is sorta a goodbye post. Take care, and be nice to each other.

Another day, another kick to the crotch from this bug.

BigSexyBear.1627:

So i’ve made a new character and everything SPECIFICALLY on my new character only seems to be fine. I won’t risk logging onto my ranger again until we get an update from Anet. This sucks.

I have a feeling you won’t be logging onto your ranger for a very, very long time. This bug has been around for four months, and they haven’t even bothered to give us a progress report. If after four months they haven’t said one peep on the subject, I can only surmise from that that it’s not being looked into or worked on with any sense of urgency. But that’s okay in their books, I guess. Whatever business they lose from those unfortunately few of us to be crushed by this bug they’ll more than make up by slapping a katana or a ninja outfit in the cash shop.

Another day, another six gold, three T6 mats, etc., down the drain. Reinstalling the game didn’t did nothing. The problem is on ArenaNet’s end, and they seem either unwilling or incapable of doing anything about it.

To remove any doubt, reinstalling the game did not fix the problem. It’s on ArenaNet’s end.

Vol.7601:

Of course it’s on low priority. Your issue has nothing to do with content or the game devs who design feature patch content.

You have a bug, a particularly nasty one, but I don’t see why that means guys like Foreman or Izzy should work on it. That’s not their job.

Furthermore, 15 days may not be enough to fix your issue. Considering that is ’a very isolated case, it can be extremely difficult figuring out why it happens.

The bug is actually four months old (at least), but I’ve only been affected by it for the last half month.

Vol.7601:

What can you do? Nothing but wait.

Therein lies the rub. If you and I both agree that the chances of this bug being looked at with any sense of urgency are slim, and the chances of a timely fix are less than that, what exactly am I waiting for?