Guild Wars 2

If you don’t add new dungeons with your temporary content, or you just reskin existing ones, or pull out archive material that did not make it into release, and all you are doing with temporary content is setting a new story and some mobs against the backdrop of an already existing world, then you can milk your already created content.

Takes less time, requires less overall testing, less storage space, etcetera.

From business viewpoint, that does not see this game as something that appeals to the classic MMO players who define an MMO by permanence, you’ve got a less expensive model. (With or without taking into account those players may attrit.)

PS: Add in those “KMart Blue Light Specials” of temporarily available items based off the temporary theme and the number watchers are happier.

17. Have 2 more close, don’t know if I’m going to get them there.

All but one in a full set exotics, a lot in celestial. I’ve lost track of ascended trinkets.

None more than 59% World Complete.

Yes, Errant Venture is winning. And yes, leveling is easy. Wish that wasn’t the case.

OP, you are not alone in your concerns.

My guild and I take advantage of all the game has to offer however…

…like you, we are dungeon explorers/conquerors at heart.

We, like many other GW2 players for over the last 6 months, have raised concerns about permanent content, including the addition of dungeons, and creating “hard mode” settings from the current ones.

We are also staring down the barrel of temporary content and wondering if the time will come to move on. Not something we are interested in but may feel forced to do.

Just posted about one of that four days ago:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/If-ANet-launched-an-expansion/first#post2868383

Would love to see more dungeons. More places to explore.

Daywolf.2630:

I like dungeons, I just don’t care for instanced dungeons all that much. They need to make some public dungeons, real dungeons, dark and deep, quite hard and not meant for solo players. Huge underground complexes with no way to fast travel though it all….snip

In the past I have said I wasn’t sure that I would advocate a DAoC Darkness Falls style dungeon because I was concerned it would be a pale imitation. These days, I’m not so sure. DF was the ultimate dungeon crawl for us, on so many levels from the solo top level down through the group level Princes, all the way to the community raid level dungeon boss Legion. The non-instanced Darkness Falls dungeon was an entire map zone and then some. That piece of exceptional MMO content was in a class by itself.

Yes, I’d love to have the experience again.

@Shotgun Sonata, thank you for posting your concerns.

I hate to wade into discussions like this; felt the need to just add two things:

@OP:

1) play the profession that BEST fits YOUR strengths/weaknesses (innate way you play, think), and you will survive far better than trying to square peg yourself into a round hole of a character because someone else told you it worked (for them).

2) Having said that, I will pass along what ANet said pre-release / early release: Warrior and Guardian are good starter professions (that help you get a solid handle on the game).

Now, having said that above: I’m at 45 characters, 17 at 80 and a lot of time solo and in guild groups (dungeons/fractals) ….(and I am by NO means trying to claim any sort of expertise here)…

and I have a question for you…

…. are you just looking to get a character to level 80 quickly and easily? Are you looking for a good group character? Running with a guild, looking for PuGs?
Are you planning to do WvW, SPvP or just PvE or a combo of some?

As said above, multiple times, Warrior and Guardian have a lot of built in defense/healing depending on your build. Warriors can stand there and take a lot of abuse. Guardians can as well, but may take longer to kill things solo. Guardian is very gear dependent and the tradeoffs between damage and defense can be a little harder.

A wells-spec’d Necro with at least 20 up the blood line has very good survivability (incoming “healing” as it is doing damage from life taps.) It can melee (tank), has healing/protection circles and good defense using Deathshroud. Yes, in cloth, yes solo up against Champions. And it has some of the best built-in AoE DPS.

A ranger using a protection based pet, or healing pet, or… list goes on… can do some of the quickest killing solo, and easily survive a whopping amount especially if played in a way that makes use of regen/cleanse field.

There will be posters here who claim only “x” profession with “y” build works. There are some general “best practices”. (And in some cases, such as high level fractals, this really does hold true.)

Not going to go through all the other classes and what they can offer. Point is, get creative and understand the trait abilities of the profession and how YOU can best use it.

Means a little bit of homework, rather than just point blank asking what is generally used.

Means paying attention to what it is you really want to do in this game, and understanding the trade offs.

Which is why you started the thread.

There are talent calculators around that can help you figure out not just what you want to play, but how.

Waldir.2571:

smekras.8203:

just out of curiosity. what makes an expansion different from a bunch of updates grouped together?

Quality.

And permanence – you know, the hallmark of an MMO.

If ANet launched an expansion, it would go a long way to restoring my guild’s faith that the “visionary” currently corrupting the game understands the draw of an MMO and isn’t just trying to use poorly written RPG “campaigns” which can’t be saved (see: temporary content: milking the backdrop of the world with cartoonish stories/characters without actually adding to the world.) Hopefully it would contain dragons, the things that all the (permanent) NPCs in the current world were concerned about at release and still always mention.

Like I said in another thread, I enjoy this game. Love the 5-man group set up and the dynamic combat/events/outdoor raids and the dungeons (for the most part).

If another (quality) game came along that did not have the constant temporary, lead-by-the-nose-catch-the-bus events, did not have platform play, and steered more towards impacting a persistent world, I would probably abandon GW2 very easily.

I would not have even conceived that thought, much less considered it before January.

Signing off with:

- Help! They do terrible things to their game!

Okuza.5210:

Dub.1273:

Dungeons can give up to 40g/hour.

We’re talking typical, not “I got a lucky drop” runs. A die-hard 4H tour will be 8g cash plus token/ecto conversion (maybe 2~4g). That’s not a normal dungeon effort, though. Normal includes time for breaks between runs, recruiting, etc.. Including Arah in the tour ups that number, but then also greatly increases recruiting effort (I wouldn’t bring more than one pug on an Arah run).

40g/h as a typical repeatable number for dungeons seems absurd to me after the dungeon-spamming nerf. If you’re not simply trolling, you’ll have to back that up with at least a general methodology.

In one respect this is good to not know. Because you can’t just kick someone because of their choice of weapon, like you alluded to wanting to be able to do.

This is a different topic, but I would like a way to judge whether a player is suitable for grouping or not. The ideal would be a way to tell what their stats currently are; ie. are they zerk or pvt, what’s their actual AR, etc..

The legendary as a “gold grubber” item is simply unfortunate. If it had been done with grouping required, it could have been a useful indicator. Now, it’s not. Would you have preferred it to be a sign of skill or as it’s become, a sign of grind?

—

I should have titled this post “Inverted Risk/Reward” and left the legendary comparison as a side-note or not mentioned it. I think I’ve arranged for the truly important point to be conveniently ignored. ><

I think you might have wanted to title the thread: Entitled Elitist LFG.

Please define “skill”. “Elitist” does not imply elite.

-Leaving the rest unsaid

PS: I’m not the only one on my server to do this. The champion loop in Queensdale can often be a fun community “get together” of familiar names/faces where everybody knows your name (hums Cheers theme song).

It’s all in the hands of the players. And their values and behaviors.

PPS: It’s a great opportunity for new folks to ask questions about game play, joining guilds, builds, ranger pets, weapons, etcetera. There are often some helpful discussions occuring between new players and level 80’s.

When I log in to do my daily, and the available PvE options are (A) Kill 2 champions and/or (B) complete 5 events in Kryta, the easiest (and often most lag-free) thing to do is to join the zerg doing the champ loop in Queensdale.

I hop into /map chat and help out giving new folks directions, starting the boar encounter (applying speed/killing boars as needed), providing leadership if needed, telling folks where to meet up, call out the 50% on the champ so folks can figure out if they will make it on time. If arguments erupt (occasionally), I will also try to help map chat get back on a reasonable / friendly footing. It’s what I can do for my community while I am there having them help me get my daily done.

I often do this with one of my low level alts, who are looking for exp.

If I am on an 80, I will provide some sort of healing /support as needed and if the zerg is large, will tone down my damage, especially if there are lowbies around.

I’ve had new folks thank me for taking the time to explain things. (See PPS below)

Joining the zerg at that point, with so many people there, is the polite thing to do, rather than trying to go off on my own killing something and therefore make a lot of folks wait.

Yes, I can play anyway I want. I have that freedom. I respect the community on my server enough to not to do that in that particular set of circumstances.

Well, technically we don’t know that Zhaitan is actually dead.

We see him fall and assume, given the amount of damage he has already taken in Arah storymode.

/conspiracy

I’d still like to see him return so I can shoot Trahearne into his mouth and watch the dragon choke on the blathering twig.

/innocent look

I’ve run my low level rangers (level 7-8ish) through 30+ zones to get pets. Solo. It’s much faster when a level 80 guildmate helps me do that.

There are some zones that are 10-15 levels higher that have hearts that can be done without killing mobs. Those tend to fill up the exp bar quickly, but the tradeoff is that you do not have that heart to fill in when it is appropriately at level later.

We’ve also helped lower level guildmates get through their some high end stories in higher level zone. We have taken some guildmates through the storymode dungeons earlier than when they can get the chest rewards (5-10 levels lower).

“PL’ing” if you want to call it that, is not an exploit. There are risks involved, and the mobs can kill the lower level player easily. There are mobs the lower level player will only get glancing blows on, if that.

There are no guarantees. And there are trade-offs. Sometimes not always positive.

My Asuras prefer mushrooms and cauldrons (like the ones outside of the HoW dungeon). They can sit on and in.

My norns don’t need chairs (ground is good for sleeping off a great moot).

If you want to add slippery puddles to the ground, then there also needs to be a debuff that gets applied to the attacker with a percentage to slip/fall in combat. Especially if jumping, pouncing, whirling through.

Of course, then you need to add a trait ability that allows the attacker to maintain “sticky” feet and not be able to slip. Not to be confused with stability.

The person being attacked and bleeding then needs a corresponding trait which is in essence “sponge”, allowing them to use “soaking tool” in combat in case they get hit with a percentage to literally “soak up” bleed effects from the surrounding ground.

Yes, I somehow did manage to type this with a <straightface>.

Mailing Black Lion Chests to random devs/players:

Does this mean we should be reporting BLC’s as a griefing tool? <shockface - wink>

Am grateful that the game is based on 5-man groups. The number one reason my guild came to this game.

Enjoy the non-static combat. Enjoy not having to have a trinity. Enjoying the dungeons and Fractals for the most part. And the concept of the outdoor events and raids (number two reason we came to the game.)

The community on our server feels old-school for the most part, and I appreciate ANet creating / promoting that community-oriented feel at release.

Enjoy most of the races for the most part. (Still on the fence about the voice acting as it is both funny and yet interferes with feeling like the characters are totally mine.)

Enjoying most of the humor found in the game. There are one-liners that are just priceless.

The things I have concerns over (platform play, temporary content, among others) are things I’m tolerating at the moment. There’s been a few “trust” issues as well. Nothing game breaking so far.

I voice concerns as I see them, for my guild as well as myself. And try to take an objective view as much as possible, striving for balance in my perspective.

Overall, as I’ve said before, there are issues I have with the game and the developers and they are far, far less then ones I’ve had with other games/developers over the last 13 years.

-“Likes” GW2 enough to have 45 alts and 16 at 80.

Store them in the bank. Got a second stack going. And enough alts that I still get keys from time to time for story completes and random places I can’t remember. (Not particularly paying attention.)

I use those keys when I get them and occasionally get booster potions worth using on alts.

Meh.

Zomaarwat.3912:

goldenwing.8473:

Wait, the jump puzzle there isn’t a ganker’s paradise anymore and the people that are doing the jump puzzle aren’t necessarily WvW players and are actually those that just want to get their world complete done?

I have to agree, moving the portal someplace else isn’t a bad idea.

The JP is not required for World Completion.

Only if you’re a completionist.

PS: Will be interesting to see if ANet bothers to put anymore Living Story achievement-related requirements in there (see: kite basket)

Not the best. Not even close to the other end of the spectrum by any means.

As an MMO community as a whole, it’s actually pretty good.

The server I’m on started out very mature, helpful, friendly and with the exception of a few weeks here and there when a few immature players think their behavior represents the norm, the server has continued to maintain that culture. For the most part, the mature players just don’t bother responding to the ones who can’t seem to be responsibly social in chat. Which goes to prove that ages-old shunning of boors is the best corrective solution.

Of course I turn off map chat in Lion’s Arch, especially around the bank.

Wait, the jump puzzle there isn’t a ganker’s paradise anymore and the people that are doing the jump puzzle aren’t necessarily WvW players and are actually those that just want to get their world complete done?

I have to agree, moving the portal someplace else isn’t a bad idea.

KazNaka.4718:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

KazNaka.4718:

Just remember: higher hp doesn’t necessarily = more challenging content

I agree. Unfortunately damage and defense scaling reaches a point where it no longer conveys a sense of progression and challenge. For example, once creatures start one-shotting every player, it doesn’t matter how much extra damage they do. We’re also looking into how to meaningfully extend the scalability of FOTM.

this is just a stupid idea, but perhaps you could incorporate some of the aspects from jumping puzzles. It is one of gw2’s strengths. I know I had a lot of fun with the halloween clock tower puzzle.

What some with personal preferences see as a “strength”, others see as a “weakness”.

Glad you enjoy jump puzzles. I know there are fair number of players that do as well as evidenced by the return of SAB.

There are other players who believe platform play has no place in an MMO where server/client latencies and discrepancies negate the entire Nintendo effect. GW2 already has disagreements about location of characters and buttons pushed without jump puzzle mechanics involved.

I agree that there is a large number of current Fractal players who would like to have difficulty added in order to keep their playstyle “fresh” and challenging.

Careful consideration needs to given for those players who do not enjoy platform play, or have connections/hardware issues that could in effect block them from playing, or wiping their groups.

Looking forward to seeing what ANet does.

Daywolf.2630:

Raids as in old-school style open world raids? Or instanced raids? Probably closest thing to old-school raiding are cursed shore temples. Nice when there are 20-30 people doing it, but too easy when 100 show up to farm now – for ascended mats etc. Mel is one thing, but from doing gates of arah you open up the anchorage WP so you can then work on grenth afterwards. It’s a nice run really, if 20-30 there it can be a challenge. The other temples of Orr are worth doing too, they all take a fair amount of people to do. Unlike world boss encounters that most strong characters can solo. Dragons thus far have been more of a simple farming event as well, though jormag offers a little challenge – although I have never seen it fail.

Instanced raids, nothing like that here. Would be nice to see something like planes of power here (eq1), keyed progression. But seems like the devs are more focused on easy content for grinding and for 10yo’s heh. Lets not over-complicate things I guess.

Thank you for making the distinction between outdoor and instanced raiding.

There’s a whole new generation of MMO players who have never experienced old-school outdoor raids, and so when they use the term “raid” they usually aren’t aware there are things other than instanced raiding.

I love the old-school outdoor raids, particularly from the DAoC era when encounters could scale from 4 to 200 and feel totally different (tactics and strategy). Where with smart playing and problem solving in the moment, a rag tag group of 8 could conquer raids aimed at 50 to 100 players. /rose-colored glasses

I can understand players who enjoyed instanced raiding in other games wanting to see them included in their new game.

I’ve played EQ2, WoW and RIFT as well and don’t have as many fond memories of those instanced raids. Favorite quote from a game developer we knew at the time regarding Vanilla WoW’s MC raid instance and the requirement for gear grind/attunement: “I was in hell before my time.”

The concepts here in GW2 for outdoor raids are part of what drew us to the game. The execution and scaling still needs refinement. I’d rather see ANet work on that then adding 10- or 20-man raiding.

You can already do dungeons twice a day without DR kicking in: once before the daily reset at GMT 00:00:00 and once after. All depending on your location and available playtime of course.

Have missed none on my first account. Even when trying (sitting in a dungeon with the guild.. and we all laugh.. because somehow all of us have just completed 2 dailies out of 5 at the same time: “lol daily done!".) That’s not why we’re playing. :|

I finished one for the first time on my 2nd account yesterday. Then wondered why I bothered.

Don’t remember how many laurel / laurel-wvw badges trinkets I’ve bought now. Some are on characters I just have parked at the spinach patch for farming. :p

One Charr at 30 (for the achievement of stories), the other two somewhere between 7 and 20, I don’t even remember.

They look fantastic from the front.

They look fantastic standing still.

Best representative comment from a Charr: “No one’s arguing about the need for a plan. Your plan is just stupid and won’t work.”

However:

From the back, they are hunched, the armor/tail clipping is an issue and they only look good moving with speed on.

Love the grit/attitude. Love the punk flavor. Don’t like actually playing them.

This is a pretty “standard” attempt to grab your info.

There are still people new to the whole MMO experience coming into this game who may not be aware of this practice.

Thank you for the heads up in alerting folks here and alerting ANet.

The game is not dying.

Whether it is worth playing or not, is totally subjective.

If the reason you left is still an issue, then coming back may be a futile attempt.

If the reason you left has been addressed by the amount of changes that have occurred since you left, or by a change(s) in your life / perspective, then you have nothing to lose by trying and something to gain.

You’ve already paid for the game. GW2 is set up in a way that allows a fairly (*see note) seamless re-entry with no subscription fees.

*Note: if you are a min/maxer with an eye to maintaining best stats, then the recent addition of ascended weapons (and upcoming armor before the end of the year – Colin) will put you into a catch-up situation within the next month. At the moment, if you rejoin now, you’re on track.

Zhohan.3859:

Does anyone know the most overplayed profession? I would probably say Warrior or Guardian.
Not exactly sure. By FAR the least overplayed class is the Monk. I have yet to see one in Guild Wars 2. (Had the game since launch)
I guess people don’t like being a healer and doing little to none DPS. It’s a shame.
Maybe I should role a Monk…

It is quite possible to role a monk in this game with either a guardian or warrior. I’ve done both quite successfully. As well as role playing a monk in the ranger profession (although it IS harder to have my guildmates believe that the longbow they are seeing is actually just a staff with a string attached.)

I thought the karma nerf was a direct response to events being farmed and not finished.

You do not receive karma now for failed events.

Reduce karma from other sources.

Direct players to successfully completing events. Especially in those zones where nobody wants to do events.

/donkey being prodded from behind with a carrot dangling in front

HiddenNick.7206:

…Is the AC gear!

…snip….

Make the game dead again!

Wait 2 weeks when most of the “power gamers” have their new weapons, and it will all be fine. By the end of the month, you should see zones return to something close to their pre-AC status and the boards will be flooded with the usual complaints about weapon stats, WvW, farming, and “Mom, I’ve got nothing to do!”

edit: to include /wink to be in line with original posting style

Do you really want to complete a month-long event in order to get a fishing barrel that you use in your home instance with Rax’s soul-bound never-runs-out-of-bait fishing pole you buy off the gem store?

ANet does not have a “target group”. Point blank questions to the developers regarding marketing segmentation are ignored.

The quotes from ANet indicate they see the playerbase as one entity.

Which means the “typical” GW2 player is one that has the title: Golden God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals Been There Done That Respected Achiever Dungeon Master who shoots rainbow ponies in WvW, while wearing a Super Adventure Box backpack except when competing in SPvP. And otherwise enjoys running with a large pack of lag inducing zergs with pitchforks trying to ensure every bi-monthly event loop fails in order to fund their gotta-craft-em-all ascended weapon for their one and only one alt who happens to be a warrior in order to successfully PuG using the soon-to-be-implemented™ in-game LFG.

Zeldain.5710:

goldenwing.8473:

Google search on “GW2 what to do at 80” brought up a fair amount of responses.

Here is a sample one that is worth reading:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1188171-So-what-IS-there-to-do-at-80-in-gw2

WvW, SPvP, Crafting, World Explore, Map Completion, Legendary, Explorables, Fractals, Guild Activities, etcetera.

If nothing there appeals, please fee free to move to a game that holds your hand.

There;s a difference between lack of direction and hand holding.

The biggest problem with GW2 (besides no group content) is that there’s no character progression… you have all your weapon skills nearly immediately, all of your skills and traits by like what… 30 or so? So for 5 levels its nothing but slogging through the same stuff doing the same hting with no progression.

Players are zombies by the time they hit 80 because they desperately want something to change… that’s the whole point of end game in games, which GW2 lacks.

What “no group content” are we talking about? Explorables and Fractals are 5-man. My guild is doing both of those with 4 of us.

SPvP and WvW were designed in a way that allowed players to enter at level one, so that no one would have to “wait for the fun to begin”, which is how it was advertised before release.

Orr zones have group events, often see Guilds tackling those.

The game is working as advertised. If there is a need to change that (and I have no problem with more options), then a new thread in the suggestions forum would be appropriate.

The game has many constituencies. It started as no gear progression and moved to add Ascended (which has angered some of those constituencies from Nov, through this latest release – you can find multiple threads regarding this.) There have been constant posts/threads from various players advocating more WoW-clone playstyle and just as many as those opposed.

THAT is a totally different discussion than: I have no clue what to do with the content that is there.

Zeldain.5710:

goldenwing.8473:

Google search on “GW2 what to do at 80” brought up a fair amount of responses.

Here is a sample one that is worth reading:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1188171-So-what-IS-there-to-do-at-80-in-gw2

WvW, SPvP, Crafting, World Explore, Map Completion, Legendary, Explorables, Fractals, Guild Activities, etcetera.

If nothing there appeals, please fee free to move to a game that holds your hand.

There;s a difference between lack of direction and hand holding.

The biggest problem with GW2 (besides no group content) is that there’s no character progression… you have all your weapon skills nearly immediately, all of your skills and traits by like what… 30 or so? So for 5 levels its nothing but slogging through the same stuff doing the same hting with no progression.

Players are zombies by the time they hit 80 because they desperately want something to change… that’s the whole point of end game in games, which GW2 lacks.

What “no group content” are we talking about? Explorables and Fractals are 5-man. My guild is doing both of those with 4 of us.

SPvP and WvW were designed in a way that allowed players to enter at level one, so that no one would have to “wait for the fun to begin”, which is how it was advertised before release.

Orr zones have group events, often see Guilds tackling those.

The game is working as advertised. If there is a need to change that (and I have no problem with more options), then a new thread in the suggestions forum would be appropriate.

The game has many constituencies. It started as no gear progression and moved to add Ascended (which has angered some of those constituencies from Nov, through this latest release – you can find multiple threads regarding this.) There have been constant posts/threads from various players advocating more WoW-clone playstyle and just as many as those opposed.

You can also do WvW starting at level 1.

@OP: look for new weekly…er.. monthly content. This month: return to the Super Adventure Box.

Google search on “GW2 what to do at 80” brought up a fair amount of responses.

Here is a sample one that is worth reading:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1188171-So-what-IS-there-to-do-at-80-in-gw2

WvW, SPvP, Crafting, World Explore, Map Completion, Legendary, Explorables, Fractals, Guild Activities, etcetera.

If nothing there appeals, please fee free to move to a game that holds your hand.

Raire.7983:

There’s a gift from Scarlet in the new update. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, but I now think Scarlet is ANet and this is their response to birthday gift complaints.

Agree.

Passive-aggressive much ANet? Tell us how you really feel!

;)

a t s e.9614:

Dude as i said before Pve is just a spam. Its even worse than
The gw1 passive faceroll with heros . This post was made to
Laugh at those people asking for warrior only because their
Mom dosent likes them . You cant be pro at pve
Becsuse it requires 0 skill . Its a combination of
Stack the boss on a wall + click on axe autoatack or 100b
If u prefer + cast time warp and.watch thing die . Elitism
Shouldnt even exist how u can be good at something
That requires 0 brain 0 skill . Pve nabs should try and win
Some outnumebred fightds in wvw or solo Q

What does this thread add to the community overall? Just curious.

I have never run any game with its music on.

GW2 is actually the first game in over 12 years that I have run with game sound on.

The casual vs hardcore “traditional” definition is too shallow to help describe today’s MMO playerbase.

It has evolved past that simple definition.

bewhatever did a good job pointing out the sliding scale matrix of the current MMO players.

As I said in an earlier post, the definition of players is in part based on time, approach, values, skill.

Mix that with profiles from the Bartle test, throw in Mastery, Relatedness, Autonomy, add a healthy dose of Completionist, etcetera and you end up with a complex picture.

I am an explorer/achiever/socializer, fit all 3 of Mastery/Relatedness/Autonomy, am hardcore, and casual.

There are things I enjoy about this game. There are things I detest and won’t do.

At release until about January, this game was a very good fit. Living Stories and the current direction have me worried.

I would say Darkness Falls from DAoC, except it was done so well there, I would hate to see a lesser copy executed in a way that might diminish all it was. It is the one standout I point to as “the” best thing ever done in an MMO after a dozen years and 8 games.

I see some good suggestions here including RIFTS’s wardrobe function. I could also see LotRO’s armor overlay as well.

Only other thing I can think of is a heavy-armor wearing casting class. Necrotic style. I hate to admit it, but I miss my gnome Death Knight.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Today some players found a bot in Queensdale. Some Mesmers ported it onto one of those balloon towers and because it auto "f"s constantly it took the balloon to DR. That was pretty funny.

Pure win!

Thanks for sharing that… guildmates are still chuckling.

I understand that GW2 seems to have a reputation for being “casual”. I had those discussions on other (gear-centric design) game forums before GW2 released. I found that most of the players that were not attracted to GW2 had only ever experienced gear-centric gameplay. The upshot from those discussions was that the “hardcore raiders” saw GW2 as something they could do in their off-time while waiting on raid timers.

Am I a little concerned about the direction GW2 is going? Yes.

My guild came to this game because it was promoted as “play for fun”, because it wasn’t gear-centric and because it is the only MMO that is centered around 5-man, which we haven’t had since server raid leading and 4-manning MLs in DAoC.

We view “casual” vs “hardcore” as a matrix intersecting time/approach/values/skill. We feel it’s a sliding scale and not a black and white definition.

In GW2, we are creating our own level of “challenging progression” as we 4-man Fractals and Explorables, (including Arah). And running as a small “swat team” in WvW. Two of my guildmates enjoy SPvP from time to time, as we are also old FPS players as well. We also enjoy the community feel and outdoor raids (something also we loved in DAoC).

We’d like to see more outdoor dragon events and more dungeons. We don’t measure “progression” via gear-centric design, but by our own abilities to do content better, faster, easier, whatever. We enjoy exploration, progression, refinement, community events and good lore.

We are hardcore and elite and casual. We aren’t elitist, aren’t looking for bragging rights for anything, and at the moment, there isn’t another MMORPG out there that meets our needs.

I’ve always said a game is what you make it. GW2 comes close to being able to do that.

If players, like those I’ve been in discussion with on other game forums, define “hardcore” by size of raid, reward, exclusivity, then they will probably look at GW2 overall as a casual game. There are plenty of other games out there that offer those specific designs.

I just hope GW2 never totally mimics them.

sirflamesword.3896:

What I’m gonna say has nothing to do with this discussion, but how do you not see yourself as a fanboi? I mean 2 accts and 44 alts that’s $340 worth of just plain old character slots. That in my mind is the definition of fanboi. This is coming from someone who has put over 2200 hours into the game.

“Fanboi” is not about how many characters I have or how much money I have spent on the game. I do that for me, I do that for my family and for my guild. That is how I play the game. I usually run most MMO’s with 3-4 accounts, often 2 and 3 boxing.

I believe “fanboi” describes an attitude/belief of “fanatic” support for the game/developer in a way that is not balanced.

Check my posts. I am not a fanboi.

I have an objective view of this game and the developers and have “called” them on things I believe are not being done in a way that makes sense for the entire playerbase.

I have problems with what appears to be a lack of marketing segmentation. (see threads on guild missions)

I have problems with quality, temporary content, etcetera.

13+ years of MMO play, decades as a Fortune 20 developer, and 56 years do not allow me to post absolute support for any game or its developer.

I’ve never been a fanboi of any game I’ve played, according to the definition of “fanatic” supporter.

-Hope that helps

edit for quote

Touchnshuv.2790:

So as we all know by now, 1 character at 1 year of age gets an account-bound mini Queen Jenna, a lvl 20 scroll, and a birthday booster.

..snip…

Nobody likes this, not one person thinks this was a good display of affection toward your fan base.

I don’t agree.

First, I’m NOT a fanboi and would be horrified to be called one.

Second, I have 2 accounts, 44 alts, accounts activated during headstart, game also bought for family and friends. Not going to talk about contiguous monthly gem store purchases.

I supported this game because I enjoyed playing it and I am responsible for making the choice to spend money. I alone decide whether I got my money’s worth. And if I didn’t, that’s on me.

I also feel that Birthday presents in game in an MMO are a nice acknowledgement and also usually meaningless as far as items/use. I don’t care what the birthday gift is. I’m not measuring the developer’s level of affection. Acknowledgement is a more than I could have expected decades ago and it’s a nice touch.

I’m certainly not going to sit here and scold them because I didn’t receive “something of value” (defined however that means.)

That would make me look terribly ungracious and reflect more poorly on me, than the gift-giver (e.g. ANet).

BetterMixMaster.8153:

I got into an argument with other players over this and it got me wondering what the general opinion is of this.

Currently, if a Mesmer finishes a jump puzzle they can use their portal ability to bring up anyone they want to the end of the puzzle. This also gives the achievement and the items in the chest at the end.

I always believed in having at least one thing in a game being purely skill based and jump puzzles fit it pretty well. Not everyone likes them, a lot hate them but others like me LOVE them. I have done every JP in the game and have not needed a single Mesmer portal. At the same time while I put the time and effort into beating this really hard jp, people can get a free ride up if just one Mesmer does it for them giving the same reward for someone who did the entire puzzle by them self. To me this devalues the actual achievement of finishing a puzzle because a large handful of people got a friend to do it for them and didn’t personally spend the time doing it.

So is it fine that someone can carry their friends to the end of a jump puzzle they couldn’t do or should it be earned by yourself alone?

I’m actually torn on this one.

I understand how it seems that using a portal is actually “skipping content”. And that players are being carried. I am uneasy over that myself.

However, the jump puzzles themselves are such an abomination of issues regarding jump box sizes, race height, and server-client location disagreements, never mind lag that I can understand the desire to use existing in-game mechanics to compensate.

In the end, if ANet insists on having them in this game, then players can avail themselves of anything that will allow them to complete them.

I understand jump puzzles appeal to a large number of players.

I will never change my belief that platform play (best served by Nintendo hardware) has no place in a mainstream MMORPG that uses a server-client paradigm.

AyuReady.3952:

If you catch my drift lol.
(I love guild wars 2 )

Is that the new weapon skin?

/ponders how that will translate to a shield

Not sure I’d spend gems on RNG.

Don’t know if you were on an overflow, or your home server when all that “smack” talk went down. I am sorry you were subjected to that. If it’s your home server, you might consider moving.

My guild was out running “swat team”, doing smaller events away from the zerg (to help with the overall timer) during two Clockwork Chaos runs. Once on an overflow, once on our home server.

Ran into folks that were having trouble, a few that were going down a lot as we took champions with maybe 6-8, sometimes as much as a dozen. Some folks went down, we got them back up mid-fight and all we saw was “thank you”. Complete strangers working together in a community-oriented way the way it was during beta and months after release. That’s the culture of this game.

Immature, self-absorbed people that attack others in public should not be tolerated. If those players have come from a game where that is the standard culture (we know which game it is where the developers fostered that), then these egocentric players need to understand that kind of behavior is not standard across all games.

When we see map chat erupting with a few of these “misfits” intent on spreading their imported culture, folks step up and remind them that GW2 players don’t run that way, that the server has a mature, helpful community. The attackers usually push back briefly then subside. Sometimes they just need to be called on it in a non-attacking way, the way an adult or authority figure would objectively point to the norms as a reminder of expected behavior. They can then choose to belong to the community as a whole or not. Block works. Reporting egregious, non-ToS behavior also works for extreme cases.

If nobody says anything, this subset of players will continue to think that their non-community oriented behavior is acceptable.

It’s not.

Good luck.

I’ll post a few links here in case there are other folks who have never heard of it and are interested.

Thanks for asking btw. I remember a time when MMO players would list their Bartle personality type in their sigs so other readers could understand the poster’s perspective.

Following should be safe sites:

info on what it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_Test

the quiz itself
http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/

a non-technical summary

http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/jawapet/102008/2712_Bartle-Test-why-players-need-to-take-it

I play for fun. Otherwise, why bother?

However, according to Richard Bartle, there are 4 types of gamer personalities that find fun in 4 different ways (Achiever, Explorer, Killer, Socializer.)

According to Bartle, I am an almost balanced blend of Explorer, Achiever and Socializer.

I have seen the Opening Ceremony, done 3 Balloon Rides and killed a few of the Queen’s Champions outdoors opportunistically.

That’s it. My choice. For this set of temporary content.

My achiever side is upset that I’ve missed an opportunity. For achievement points and gold.

My socializer side is horrified to hear the stories my guildmates are telling about some of the community (never mind the threads here on this forum.)

My explorer side is still waiting for large land-mass content to be added in some permanent upgrade.

However, overall, I’m quite happy avoiding the whole hoopla and merrily going about leveling 2 more alts closer to 80 these last weeks. And yes, my blood pressure is fine, thank you.

==

Bottom line:

There are 4 types of gamers and not all content will satisfy all four at the same time.

I support all types of game play that allow players to find fun in their own way, as long as it does not interfere with other players pursuing their own fun.

-Cheers

Nihki.1596:

JustTrogdor.7892:

colesy.8490:

JustTrogdor.7892:

Totaling all my character’s levels equals 374. I’ll let people guess if they want.

You have 374 level 1s.

Haha I think that would be a tad bit more than I’d like to spend. It would probably be some kind of record though.

Makes me wonder, if there’s a character slot limit somewhere and what it is. c’:

Don’t think the community has found that limit yet (if it exists ).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Maximum-number-of-character/first#post2616757