Guild Wars 2

New to gaming forums eh?

I never get these types of threads.

I’ve been in your shoes dozens of times OP. A game goes in a direction I dislike or releases new content I’m not into. I just move on. Sure the expac has actual issues that need addressing but I don’t see any of that in your post.

Your just bullet-pointing personal preference issues.

The things you want in the core game are expac exclusives. If you want them buy it. You can’t expect Anet to offer major selling points such as Revenant as a gem store access class at release. That’s just laughable business practice if you think about it.

The PvP/PvE content imbalance may have slightly more merit but as a player since Prophecies this is really the way these type of games have to go now and Anet clicked to this with Nightfall and EotN. PvP is less reliant on new content when compared to PvE. That’s not opinion, it’s game mechanics.

What are the most popular maps in the PvP meta?

Outside that PvE players are your bread and butter in this genre now. I would imagine many games like this will give up on PvP all together at some stage as it has become a whole new genre unto itself with the advent of mobas and their popularity. PvP is slowly becoming a minority hindrance and mobas just seem to handle issues such as balance better…no PvE to worry about. That’s probably another thread.

Lastly the “why pay $50 when your giving away core!!Insult me much?” argument is just such a ridiculous complaint. You paid for 3 years access. You got it. Don’t even try to tell me you didn’t get your monies worth. This model will keep core populated. kthx and please put this complaint to bed.

Anyway I get your opinion but I don’t get why every player saying no thanks to the expac has to start a thread explaining why? Just go play something you enjoy, maybe check it out when the price drops? Either way all the best.

Gotta agree.

I suggest Warrior or equivalent class to any player new to the genre and have had similar experiences in guilds with new players. Ele is another one with all the tune switching, I find many new players just hate it.

Warrior is always a safe bet.

Why not both?Just role two mains from the start.

I did this when I started the game, switching from a Thief to a Guardian as I leveled. It’s a good way to break up the game play so you have more variation and leveling is fast anyway. Was cool to get two toons to 80 and geared out at around the same time, gives you options for latter content.

PS.Go Thief :P lol

Love it.

Outside the name and lore you can’t really compare GW1 and GW2. I had heaps of issues when GW2 dropped but they have lessened over time as I realized what vastly different games they are. I was just hungover from 7-8 years of GW1 :P

My only real issues in regards to comparing now is the lack of skill and build variation. I get why that happened but I still miss it and this game gets boring pretty quickly in that regard, even with elite spec. They finally added a decent guild chat system and guild halls so I can cross that off my list finally. Woot!!

The only thing I’m really concerned about moving forward is the gear grind and relevance of a stat based hierarchy starting to sneak into the game. If it becomes too prevalent and relevant to have the top tier gear to play large parts of the game I’ll probably retire, just not my thing and GW1 was fine without it.

Same with class segregation and effectiveness. For a game with less build options this game has some major balancing issues to sort out if all classes are to be equally welcomed to certain content. It’s becoming pretty wammo and monk focused in that regard, not quite the trinity mind you, but certain classes are definitely preferred and favored over others for more and more content which is akin to the same thing for those classes that don’t fit into the cookie cutter. Go away and re-roll.

They need to keep a lid on that imo as not everyone has fully geared out 80’s of every class ready to go, I certainly don’t.

Oh yeah…and the jumpy jumpy jumpy, glitched out graphics, fall, start again soz puzzles.

Can’t friggin stand them.

Still loving the game overall but future trends do concern me, more so as this is really the only MMORPG I have ever invested serious time into outside GW1 and CoH. I’m really hoping it doesn’t morph into a clone of what I detest in other games in the genre.

Cautiously optimistic.

Oh and hit me up OP if your playing some GW1, would love to dust off my Sin and his Sabway crew :P

Youtube is a good place to start getting up to date with info. Wooden Potatoes, Bog Otter, etc, etc and Dulfy.

You’ll garner more specific info related to what your interested in if your proactive with searches. It would take a 50 page thread to post all the changes since you played.

Welcome back btw :P

I’ve enjoyed it.

It’s just a change to the theme of the world with a handful of distractions until meta reward then move on, no more/no less, or did you forget they dropped the expac at the same time?

No thx, I’m making a ton farming bags.

In all seriousness let the leets get their shiny first and have a year running around feeling special. It will probably cost 10 candy corn next year or go on sale at the gem store.

You read it here first.

I remember when I purchased the Nightfall collectors edition for GW1. Among other goodies was a DVD with a “Making of…” short movie showing the development process which mentioned that the next expansion would be primarily PvP focused. They wanted a PvE/PvP/PvE/PvP order and focus to their expansion content.

Then EotN dropped.

Yeah…I don’t believe a thing this company says now. When it comes to Anet the proof is in the pudding, as many pre-purchasers of HoT have now found.

/end tangent

Devata.6589:

Simply the fact that you can get it in any other way devalues the item. It removes the content related value from the item. It does not stand for anything anymore.

Kind of sums it up for me.

I get the other side of the coin, people who just WvW wanting PvE skins or whatever the case but it would be nice to keep some skins sacred to that game type so they actually represent something. As it stands they just represent gold or timesink……thats it…..

As much as many players don’t want such restrictions it would be nice to have a select few so I can at least see a player in game and appreciate the actual individuality of such reward.

The lack of skin variation is the catalyst for this imo.

Misguided.5139:

How about an option to disable them showing up on your map?

/end thread

eliteblast.6403:

What is the point in having gold, if I can’t purchase things with it?

I don’t really see what relevance that has on having access to content restricted skins, unless you don’t merely want to purchase things as opposed to everything.

Sekhmet.6153:

Right now you just go to whatever train/farm/zone that gets you the most gold and just run around for a few hours or however long you have and see how much gold you get from selling your drops. At least if you had motivation to fight specific bosses or enemies, you might find yourself exploring or going to places you rarely go, and I always found that fun.

Agreed.

That’s pretty much my main issue. Instead of such rewards actually having any character, merit or actual relevance as far as that characters journey or history everything can be traced back to a handful of gold farms and zergs running around in circles, regardless of how the individual earned it,

There is no personality or RPG in that.

Exclusivity of some skins, not all, based on terms outside merely goldsink would allow such players the game play and reward of expression they enjoy.

As it stands everyone is tarred with the same brush in that such skins can be obtained “farm-mode” which cheapens and removes the personality from the game and the reward itself.

The only valid argument against this is a lack of skin variation imho, outside that the only impression I get is that of greed.

eliteblast.6403:

People shouldn’t be forced to participate in content they have no interest in doing. I enjoy doing SPVP, and world bosses. Why should I have to spend endless hours doing other things in order to achieve a legendary or a skin?

I have gold I earned doing the things I enjoy, other peoples enjoy selling the things they earn, thats good for everyone.

I agree in part but I really do think there should be rewards like that. Your not being “forced” to do the content, you just don’t get access to that skin. No biggy and it makes that skin a distinctive representation of what the player enjoys and gets up to.

It actually represents something.

As much as “everything for everyone” is a valid concept personally I prefer mechanics that create distinction and variation among the player base with aesthetic reward. That’s just me though.To each their own.

The problem I see is that it makes the content less appealing and cheapens aesthetic rewards for completing specific content which I thought this franchise was always about.

I kind of dig the idea certain rewards are exclusive to that area or game type. If I want it I have to get good at it or accept that only those players who are have access to it. In the past this has made me try parts of the game I would have otherwise completely ignored and has also allowed me to actually admire such rewards from afar as I can comprehend the effort put in to attain such items, even if I choose not too.

Now it’s all becoming irrelevant goldsink regardless. Just farm SW or where-ever and buy it.

It’s not just about people wanting to show off, I couldn’t care less about that, but the loss of exclusive reward given for actually completing specific content saddens me. I used to enjoy that and admire players in-game for it.

Now it’s all just a multi-colored migraine based on who broke out their credit card or farmed more and it’s a pity that’s all it really represents.

/2 cents

PopeUrban.2578:

Splitting the function of skills makes it far more difficult for players to transition between modes, and it makes their characters and build feel very inconsistant.

Agreed.

GW1 seemed to design itself around having these two game types segregated to the extent they were almost entirely different games.

In saying I can see where the OP is coming from in regards to the concern of certain classes becoming less desirable or even totally neglected/ignored in certain PvE content due to balance and mechanics being based on PvP foundations, especially with raids around the corner.

PvE only skills, not splits, aka EotN could be a way to alleviate such problems but I guess that would also create it’s own issues in regards to transitioning from one format to another.

This seems to be an issue for most MMORPG’s though hence why I advise most new players to any game in the genre to roll Warrior. It’s the safest bet in terms of relevance and inclusion to both formats.

VaLee.5102:

Not sure about unfinished, but you can clearly tell it was rushed at the end to meet the deadline. There are plenty of hints to suggest that.

^This

The majority of complaint seems to be from pre-purchase, which is the WORST way to buy a game anyway. You have pretty much invalidated the right to complain through not allowing the opportunity to make an informed decision.

Delusion.9543:

Okay, sweet. I’ll just take my time PvEing & finding a cool Guild to get along with then. Are most players too busy with the expansion to run through old content? I don’t really know what it offers or anything, so I apologize for coming off as air headed.

It’s really subjective.

I’m waiting on my copy to arrive some time soon and I’ve been fine without it. Just doing dailies, Halloween and slowly working on alts has been more than enough to keep me busy, although I only play a few hours a day. Core seems just as active as before HoT dropped, sure f2p and Revs/Alts mapping has a lot to do with it but personally I’ve noticed very little difference when just exploring core at random. After checking out HoT on my gf’s account I’d say core feels more lively than the new maps but I’m assuming they are still having mega-server issues.

Really depends on your situation and whether or not the people you intend to play with are focused on the expac.

I honestly think you’ll get a better product in a few weeks anyway, HoT has had teething issues like any MMO release, all your doing is avoiding these and the content rushers while receiving a more polished expac in a few weeks time.

Win/Win.

I’m wondering if this is intentional for the moment to increase the focus on Halloween?It would also be abused I guess in regards to XP. People would just farm the most efficient area ad nauseum. Be a bad look to release an expac and just have everyone farming one area/event I guess?

I agree it also seems kind of kitten loot wise.On the flipside it’s nice to not have to play Inventory Wars 2 for a change, one of my biggest gripes with core.

MikaHR.1978:

Wildstar….all over again.

Time will tell on that one but I seriously doubt it and I’m happy to eat humble pie. It’s just a game and I’ll get my coins worth. Similar things have been said with every content release. Franchise is still trucking on.

You pre-purchasers are so humorously over dramatic, not even a week after release.

I get you got hustled and your angry you didn’t get what you want and I want it now!

Again…maybe learn from it. I have corn cobs to farm. Cya.

MikaHR.1978:

You are aware that people are asking for refunds and ANet is granting it, right?

Of course, that’s an inevitable consequence of players falling for pre-purchase hype and marketing.

Or…DEATH OF THE GAME!!!

Astralporing.1957:

Think of it next time you will tell someone to leave or stay out of expac.

I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth to reinforce your opinion.

What I DID say in my first post in this thread is that it seems pretty obvious the expac was rushed, seemingly this was an easy impression to form months before release.

As such Anet were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Raids, main content for the “hardcore” weren’t ready so they had to make a decision. Release what was ready, the new open-world PvE, as the only content option for such players.

Cross fingers and hope the “casuals” will be ok with a festival, core and a new class till they work like madmen to get raids out. Yeah it backfired but imo opinion it was better than releasing the whole thing in easymode. And yeah…I’m a fully casual.

I would be highly surprised if this content isn’t nerfed after raids come out.

As expressed in my first post this is all assumption, but it’s not hard to come to.

If you pre-purchased I again have zero sympathy. You gave yourself no opportunity to make an informed decision. You just jumped the gun based on beta preview, previous content and the promise of shinies or extras.

Maybe chalk it up as a lesson?

I have little fear for the future of the game, as least as far as getting my monies worth casuals rioting or not. I’d imagine most are in-game as we type.

MikaHR.1978:

Non subbed?

Yeah…as in pay once and that’s it. The examples you gave were subbed at release.

Pre-purchased eh.

Amirite?

MikaHR.1978:

Wildstar says hello.

LOTRO says hello.

SWTOR says hello.

Need any more?

A game that released non-sub would be nice.

Yeah it sucks, yeah Anet stuffed up and rushed the release but it’s done.

Those wanting harder content have it, would be surprised if it’s not nerfed once raids hit. Those wanting “fun” and easymode have some pretty cool festival content and the rest of the game.

If your to impatient to wait more than a few weeks to let them at least attempt to sort it out, we are talking MMO expansion release here, that’s your issue.

If your pre-purchase raging I have no sympathy at all.

Many GW1 players kicked up the same stink when GW2 came out. Guess what happened?

Celtic Lady.3729:

Lord Cody.5237:

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

This means nothing other than massively multiple players are all playing the same game. Doesn’t mean they’re all doing the same things at the same time in the same place.

^This so much.

Sick of the repetitive use of “it’s a mmo…go play insert any offline game if you don’t want to play” as valid rebuttal or justification for forced grouping from people who clearly have no understanding of what the term means or what the genre actually is.

To put this tired mantra to bed once and for all I present the universally accepted definition of MMO:

An MMO, or massively multiplayer online game, is a game that is capable of supporting a large numbers of players who can play simultaneously over the internet.

Anet

For our long-standing fans and loyal players, we would like to say thank you and show our appreciation. For all players who registered the core Guild Wars 2® game prior to January 23, 2015 and who upgrade their account by prepurchasing and registering any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns‘ launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account. The process of delivering your additional character slot will take us some time, but rest assured we will get it to you as soon as possible. We’ll provide more details about the specific timing soon.

Just wondering if there is any chance Anet will give “veteran player appreciation” to those “veterans” who now, post release, purchase the expac with an additional character slot?

From my stand-point I don’t pre-purchase any game. Ever.

You can dangle as many carrots as you want in front of me but I’ve seen way too many examples of why pre-purchase is a horrid concept that is often horribly implemented as opposed to anything positive. I just don’t do it when it comes to gaming.

The expac has obviously had it’s fair share of such issues, the topic of many a thread but I don’t want to get into such semantics, just saying the issues exist.

In saying I have been a supporter of this franchise since 2005, purchased every product since and due to the recent HP change have decided to order the expac and happily start on the content.

As such is there any chance long-term supporters, veterans and purchasers of your product will be shown the same courtesy and appreciation or will it just be left as a pre-purchase incentive?

Cheers.

MikaHR.1978:

I wonder what would sales be if ANet was clear its hardore only expansion, and if youre not “hardcore” yo have “other 25 areas to play in”

ANet shold have been frank about it and say in advance that HoT is:

- annoying (“difficult”)
- super grindy
- group only focused
- full of “prepare to have fun” and empty of “fun”

This is the kind of attitude that annoys me. It’s such a knee-jerk reaction to an obviously rushed expansion. If you purchased it thinking otherwise you needed to do more research as I did. If you pre-purchase any game my sympathy levels drop to almost zero but that’s another thread.

Before you get me wrong I’m not saying Anet is without fault here but the customer also has some personal responsibility and accountability to make an informed decision and I get the feeling many got sucked into pre-purchase expecting vanilla open-world in new clothing on release.

At least give Anet a chance to balance things out before you throw your toys out of the cot.

As I stated before this is really the lesser of two evils given the information pre-release, Release the expac as 100% easymode and hardcores will just walk and never come back. They deserved harder content but it wasn’t ready and as previously stated maybe this is a temporary fix until raids are sorted.

Casuals, majority or not, will just take it as a slight hindrance, do something else, and come back in a month when the expansion is no doubt closer to the polished product Anet originally intended.

Hexalot.8194:

Nonsense… the only people I’m calling White Knights are those who insult and denigrate the Casual players (calling them the 1% who “complain” on the forums ?)

I hope you see how hypocritical that is. Why not just be the better person.

VaLee.5102:

Please think on a big scale and in the long run. HoT will not always be end content.

…and as such it’s open to be changed in the future.

I think it’s too early to call.

The whole thing was rushed, that seems pretty apparent. Some elite specs still need a lot of work, raids aren’t even out yet, etc, etc.

You have to give the players that wanted harder content something at release. Some “casual” players really are showing some real selfishness this early after release, to make it clear I consider myself part of this demographic. At least wait till raids are released before worrying about the long term effect of the new open world content.

VaLee.5102:

Everyone payed the money for the expansion, not just a certain group of people. And you can’t blame them for that, the expansion was never advertised to be challenging in it’s entirety, just that it will have challenging content.

Again it was rushed, Anet are at fault for that. It would not surprise if the original plan was to make the open world content easier with the understanding raids would also be good to go. Then something went wrong and they seemingly freaked out, at least the HP saga and changes seem to indicate as much.

“Just ramp up the open-world difficulty and make specs 400HP, that should keep the hardcore happy till we get his sorted…hopefully the “casuals” will be ok with core till then"

This is blatant assumption but it really “feels” like this maybe the case.

Anet may have screwed this up by releasing it too early, by all accounts they seemed pretty nervous when the date leaked and they had to lock it in, but’s whats done is done and really whats a better scenario:

1.Release the expansion with something for those wanting a harder challenge while those not wanting it still have a festival and core content to entertain themselves with till they sort it.

2.Release the whole thing “easymode” and completely ignore one of these two player demographics.

It really seems to be the lesser of two evils till they get it sorted. This may scare many casual players away but again, whats done is done, and in the non-subscription model it’s not like they won’t ever come back after paying a fair chunk of coin. If casual players can’t at least find something to do till raids come out with all the other available content and ditch the game entirely…well….not sure what to say to that.

Zoid.2568:

It’s because they nerfed the content. Everyone is rushing through because of the nerfs. Once easy content is completed no one will come back to it, it’s a borefest. If ArenaNet didn’t nerf the content, then people would have stayed for the challenge.

Sorry to burst your bubble but this was a common complaint on day one, several days ago, hence the mention in the update today.

Please don’t change this.

I ordered a hard copy of the expac mere hours ago, partly due to the HP change making it top of my “games to get” check list for this pay cycle, but please don’t make this content easier.

I want some open world content I will completely SUCK at….I want to get slapped around and have my butt handed to me again and again and again till I learn to adapt and conquer it. I’ve been drooling at the bit for this.

I mean I’d consider myself of only average skill level in this game, probably worse after burning out on sPvP/WvW for the first 2 years and playing mostly PvE in the last year, but I find Cursed Shore a complete cakewalk snoozefest after a year of PvE. If this content is made “easymode” I’ll be gutted and probably exchange the expac for one of the other games on my list (looking at you Fallout).

Great thread OP.

Even though I’m stoked with the recent change to the HP requirement it’s so nice to actually get a well worded take on your experience as opposed to “casual whiners ruined the whole game!!!” or equivalent rant. I can sympathize a lot more with how some, certainly not all, players like you feel now.

Much respect.

Now it’s my understanding that all these HP’s will be needed for the new legendary gear, happy to be corrected, and if so does this not have relevance or bearing to an eventual and rewarding long time goal you can display for your efforts that shows the effort you put in? I mean most casuals, starting to hate that generalization but I digress, will probably just do what they can to unlock the spec and then just go back to what they enjoy while you will have partial access to some pretty awesome rewards.

For my part I don’t think game mechanics like the elite spec and their acquisition should be used as a symbol of status.

Would be interested to garner your thoughts.

I’d be all for it being optional and locked in choice per character via an NPC at the first map, maybe give you a title on full spec completion to display you did it the “hard way” or whatever. Similar to hard mode in GW. Maybe even a shiny or epic title if you did this multiple times.

The only condition I would have is Anet keeping a record of the percentage of players who chose this harder method to freely display on the forum at a later date.

Pretty sure the results would be an eye opener to many players, more so among the players who dislike this change.

Rozbuska.5263:

Well what will casuals cry out next? Raids too hard? No problemo lets nerf it….

No need to be so overly dramatic and falsely place all the responsibility for this change on “casual” players when I saw just as many “hardcore” players and altoholics agreeing that 400 was too high, especially in-game.

Destram.8651:

Stop being delusional thinking you have some superiority for doing a boring and slightly tedious task when it was more boring and tedious.

^This

Kill.3458:

Lol white knights getting kittened cause the “vocal minority” got their way. Smh

From reading a few of these threads I’d add content burners and CoF farmers to that list. Most of the people I’ve seen complaining already have it. I don’t comparatively see many complaints from players 1/2 way through who were “enjoying” the ride thus far.

Dudes who spent the last few days grinding CoF and charging through the whole expansion will be kittened they can’t stand around laughing at all the “scrubs”…..good job. Go grind a legendary or something.

I’m hyped, was going to hold off on the expac, lot of great games coming out atm, but this just shot straight back to the top of my list and I’ll happily grab it full price as opposed to waiting on a discounted one now.

Zaron.1987:

Silverstone.4539:

I totally agree. THEY SHOULD LEAVE IT AS IT IS. just because a few people kick up a stink they change it? what about all the people that were just happily playing the game. grow some balls Aent. You’ll lose my respect doing this change.

as i said just do your own challenge mode and dont completly unlock your elite until you reached 400 hp by your own…

—> you are happy and others also that they only need 250 hp now

I’d assume while many will be unhappy at this change for valid reasons that I can also concur with just as many if not more are just angry they wasted the last few days burning through this content or farming CoF so they could feel superior to the more “casual” player.

Fact remains Anet has to prioritize potentially bad press and consequent effect on sales over a handful of “hardcore” player egos.

Great move for everyone if they took the time to actually think about it but yeah, it’s optional anyway. It’s not like they handed out legendaries.

This is great news, now we can do the rest of the grind actually using the espec and hey it’s optional. If you want to make it more “challenging” you can just ignore it and not unlock the spec till you want.

At the end of the day they had to do something before all the media reviews came out. This could have lead to some low scores and subsequently low sales which is bad for the whole player base.

Sorry about it.

Thank you so much for this guys.

Even more stoked to see that you have decided on doing this with so many new players around atm. It’s a great sign for the future and goes to show that customer feedback here can actually bring relevant and positive change unlike the “like it or gtfo” crowd would like us all to believe.

Pumped.

HtFde.3856:

People (from my point of view rightly so) expected to be able to play their Chronomancer, Reaper, whatnot a few hours into the game and to enjoy HoT WITH the new elite spec. Instead they have to go through HoT with their old build do unlock the elite spec to then … er … have nothing really new to try it out with.

This is the biggest issue in my mind.

It’s the implementation at fault, more so with the BWE’s in that Anet gave everyone who pre-purchased the game an ice-cream, for one lick, then snatched it back. Most of the players I know who pre-purchased were licking their lips in anticipation, had their builds planned out, armor at the ready, all other goals finished ready to roll the new spec etc, etc.

Cue wet fart.

Anet should have disclosed how this would actually be implemented on release before giving the specs to the player so easily in the BWE’s. Many have said Anet don’t own the player a thing, it was the players fault for purchasing so early, but they should have never created and marketed a pre-purchase environment that was guaranteed to create mass resentment and disappointment. Players shouldn’t expect to be hustled by their game devs.

It’s also pretty deceptive to newer players. They have been ramming these specs down players throats marketing wise as a core part of HoT with very little mentioned in that you have to pretty much map the entire first game to access it.

It’s like taking a car for a test drive, the sales person describing all the cool features and shinies, loving it and buying it, to then be given the steering wheel and told “oh sorry…you’ll get the actual car in a few months….you gotta go work for that kitten”.

Who does that?lol

Bridger.9245:

Instead of unlocking in order from top to bottom, they should be unlocking left to right. 100 points should get you a “completed” trait line (with 6 more traits to unlock for more options) rather than 60 points for a worthless trait line and another 100+ points to get to the third tier of major traits.

I dig this idea, just to throw another solution from a different thread up.

Anyway I really do hope they at least address this issue with feedback at some stage soon, either way really just so players know if change is even a possibility, as I hate to think of the flow on effect if this is a major sore point for the gaming media and their reviews while it would also let players move on, either in this game or somewhere else.

JOKe.3597:

Nike thats why I said they should stay open less time.. to be able to see when they are set.

That would completely neuter the spec outside absolute terribads..

Skye.2038:

Wow, I cant believe im seeing all this complaining about grouping up in an MMO. Isn’t that the point?

In most MMO’s yes.

What you and many others seem to be unaware of is that the game was originally marketed and designed from the ground up to include solo play and players, even to the extreme of stating one would never have to team up to attain max level as I quoted a while back.

It was entirely optional (in open world content at least) .

So many players purchased it, played largely solo for 3 years and are now being forced to either avoid content or group up to progress in the open world and that’s seemingly the main issue here, the change to the open world content.

I don’t see anyone wanting or expecting to solo raids or fractals.

The communities response in general..

amiia.8139:

You realize that You just insulted 100% of MMO game community? I highly disgrace this attitude in MMO because it kills this genre. For solo games probably You should go back to Baldurs Gate times. Games are meant to be played together.

I wasn’t insulted in the slightest so your wrong.

Also…..

Anet

Will Guild Wars 2 be solo-able?
Yes. You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group, if you so desire. Most content will be designed in a solo-friendly way, though often with mechanisms for scaling up in difficulty when more players are involved. This will give players the option to experience the game however they prefer.

..taken from the official FAQ at the time of GW2 initial release.

Now you can like, loath or disagree with this play-style and these players all you want. You will never change the fact that the core game was intentionally and directly marketed at solo players. It’s indisputable the game encouraged and embraced this type of play both in intent and mechanics.

One could argue this is not the case anymore, "That was the core game, this expansion is geared at “hardcore” players who love grouping" but you can’t change the fact solo players were enticed to purchase the original game by the game makers themselves.

This may have changed, Anet have done this kind of thing before (the transition in GW1 from a nice PvE/PvP balance to pretty much exclusively PvE focused expansions and focus effectively killing the PvP community through neglect) but you can’t expect to intentionally entice and market your product to a subset of customers, have them invest over 3 years of game time, progression and in many cases a lot of cash, then alienate them when you finally release your first expansion.

It’s just horrible business practice, more so when they made no mention of this before release and cleverly hid it behind having the elite spec fully unlocked in the BWE’s.

It’s just deceptive and dishonest business practice in a genre where people are far more invested in their game and characters.

I’m as much against it as I would be if the game released was “easymode” but the scales of balance have shifted way to far towards the 24/7 every day player here.

JOKe.3597:

This is MMO you should not play solo.. if you want to play solo go play witcher.

Answering with “But MMO’s are’nt meant to be played solo, gtfo and go play offline” completely ignores the fact GW2 was designed exactly for this play style, and actively encouraged players who enjoy that.

Go play a moba.

tico.9814:

. Let me ask a question to all the whiners why have a good combat if the content is not challenging?.

Most casual or solo players I know want exactly that, challenging content. People don’t seem to be reading what that group are actually saying instead translating it to QQ and assuming people just want a faceroll game that one can beat by spamming an auto-attack.

This simply isn’t true if you actually take the time to read players issues.

Mobs with large HP pools , timers and huge DPS that can one-shot does not actually equate to challenging content. All it does is create a mechanic that falsely seems that way till you are forced to team up, not due to challenge, but to make a combined HP and DPS output greater than that of the mob(s) you are facing.

That’s not challenging content. It’s weight of numbers pure and simple.

Add that to the ease some classes have with this content solo compared to others, especially higher HP classes with more mitigation options or ranged DPS and it’s not hard to see where the issue is.

Thegreatninjaman.5891:

why would you play an MMO solo? i mean the game is called GUILD Wars.

Doesn’t really mean much in a game without GvG.

A lot of valid reasons have been given in the thread, most important in my eyes in that the game was actually marketed to players who enjoy playing this way.

For my part I’m 50/50. Some times I like rolling with guildies and friends and like content geared at that type of play (fractals, dungeons, guild missions or events, etc, etc mostly in the weekends when I have to time to do such things) but other times I prefer just doing my own thing…yes….alone…., especially after a hard day at work which revolves around customer service and dealing with others all day (open world, dailies, world bosses, just roaming and doing random events, etc, just something I can pop in and enjoy for an hour or two after work).

Point is this used to be an optional choice where now at times I am forced to group to progress in open world content and my enjoyment and access of this content is dictated by others, I just don’t dig games that force me that in the open world.

It won’t make me quit, seems a tad over-dramatic this early on, but I will play less and I understand why players who enjoy this more “casual” play style may avoid the new content entirely, at least for now.

Eddie Mo.7169:

If matters if one side or both sides think that the one side was the majority. No we know that it isn’t the majority.

Not really.

When I first saw this score mentioned over 12 hours ago here it was around 3 or 4, now it’s up to 7. As such I don’t place merit on it or what it represents in regards to who outnumbers who.

For all we know it could be a handful of people with disposable accounts and as mentioned the “majority” of the recent 10/10 “reviews” are from first time users obviously back lashing against the initial negative responses.

Grain of salt.

Nimiar.3509:

I am not buying it at the moment because from my own research the expac doesn’t seem very solo/casual play friendly right now. That plus not getting a character slot for the new profession makes it a no-go for me.

Yeah I’m on that page. Put a few hours in on my girlfriends account and decided to hold off based on my first impression and wait for a sale and a few patches to drop and see what they may change or address for more solo-minded players like me. In saying she has a far larger in-game social network than me so she’s having a blast. I deal with people all day at work so I’m more reclusive in my play-style and prefer games that cater to this as it’s what I find more relaxing and enjoyable.

My local game shop always has cheap MMO’s a month or two after release, they always seem to over-purchase copies, and I’d rather decide then than invest time and full price now for a second copy. Besides I’m fine with core for now and Fallout 4 will be taking up most of my time. No need to pay that much when I won’t even have the time to play it anyway.

I’m also really gutted they restricted the veteran character slot to pre-purchase. Hope they change this, pretty insulting they used it as merely more pre-purchase bait and left those playing since launch that didn’t want to purchase before release with nada. I have no issue with pre-purchase incentivisation but this was handled pretty poorly imo.

Eddie Mo.7169:

fireflyry.7023:

Who trusts a rating system whose overall score is based on so many 0/10 and 10/10 reviews 3-4 days after release.

Should be the last place to look for any semblance of valid review, the demographic of players influencing that score seems pretty clear. Ragers and white knights.

Not talking about reviews, but the # of ragers who thought they were the majority.

I don’t really see that as being relevant. One extreme is just as bad as the other and both are minority subjective opinion.

darkace.8925:

Objectivity, it appears, it not required to review video games on Metacritic.

^This.

Who trusts a rating system whose overall score is based on so many 0/10 and 10/10 reviews 3-4 days after release.

Should be the last place to look for any semblance of valid review, the demographic of players influencing that score seems pretty clear. Ragers and white knights.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Andromeda.8293:

Just so we have an idea of where we stand votes are as follows:
REMINDER 0=NO FUN AT ALL, 10=MOST FUN I’VE EVER HAD!

(score given) – (number of votes)
0 – 25
1 – 12
2 – 21
3 – 20
4 – 13
5 – 7
6 – 6
7 – 8
8 – 18
9 – 15
10 – 11

Averaging 4.37/10

Not ideal, but only 150ish reviews

It’s pretty skewered though. I’ve seen a few people post 0/10 to then say they are still playing it…I mean….who does that?Plays a game they rate 0?Neglecting them and the 99/10 fanboys 5-6 seems to be a more realistic medium.

Great read though

I’d suggest doing a bit more research.

There are a lot of threads and youtube videos concerning the release issues people have as well as the things they are loving. It’s really a subjective call based on what your into. It’s not a requirement so if you have goals in the core you could focus on those and save a few pingers or if not dive straight in.

Either way gl & hf.

These kind of sum it up, they want to bring it back but it was never designed to be re-playable so it would be a LOT of work and wouldn’t really be the same if they did.

I’d say chances are this won’t happen any time soon, if at all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3jecf0/i_missed_most_of_season_1_and_all_of_season_2_of/