Guild Wars 2

The most important human nations in Guild Wars 1 were;
- Ascalon
- Kryta
- Cantha
- Elona

Non-human nations were scarce.
- Deldrimor and Stone Summit
- Tengu reservations
- Charr

At the end of GW1, Ascalon was holding on but struggling a losing war against the Charr. Kryta had been reunited under the Queen at great cost. Cantha became human supremacist. Due to player actions Elona first fell into civil war and eventually became an undead nation.

As for non-humans… I think they got the worst end of the stick. In Cantha there was genocide against Tengu. Dwarves became a dying race of stone warriors. Norn had half their spirits destroyed or lost. Asura manage to get by. Charr inherited a ghost infested nuclear desert (basically Ascalon got blasted twice) with a Dragonbrand in it to boot.

As for Sylvari, in 25 years not that many could have hatched. They may be optimistic but numbers wise they can’t be succesful yet. Asura seem to have adapted to their new homes the best out of all.

Yes, humans may be struggling, but that pales to the struggle of other races. They lost a lot but still have the most. Like if you have 10 million dollars sure it sucks to lose 5 million, but compared to people who have a couple of tenners you’re still better off.

Sialor

Well if only ANet could cure my apple allergy…

I share your pain. I really like apples, but I’m allergic to them during Bark season. So in coldest winter I eat apples.

Considering most of my female friends are lesbians, I didn’t notice a thing in game.

In real life I don’t have different feelings towards homosexual couples compared to straight couples. Couples usually look happy, make me feel good through proxy and I wish them well. Their sex or gender irl doesn’t change any of those feelings, neither does it in game.

I’ve got it all the same. One of the best things of GW2 is, you can put it aside without problems. It’s like shooting heroin but without goosebumps if you go cold turkey. Or like boozing up but no hangover and you can go to work just fine minutes after drinking.

And yet I have a distinct feeling of progression. I like my character, I want to play, but I’m not punished when I don’t want to play. Some nights I don’t even have an hour. Even at 80 the game rewards me for just playing 20 minutes or so. Apart from dungeon runs (which at the longest are 30 minutes), I can press alt-f4 any moment I like without feeling like puppies.

That’s a good thing. It makes me want to spend money on gems!

Did you do story line?

Also, missing 6 vista’s is pretty big. Check your map, it’s impossible to not notice 6 unfilled vista’s.

Furthermore, all SP show up on map regardless so the empty one should stick out.

Sure hope not. One of the big strengths of GW1 was no increase in level cap or gear. Money was used for doing whatever you wanted and never felt stressful.

Several dungeons are pretty difficult with a full pug, while 2 or 3 guildies already make a huge difference. Most dungeons are actually really easy once you know the tactics, and pay attention, imho a hallmark of good design.

I totally feel like in uni. I’d love fiddling with linux, learning cpp, building PCs and generally learning that kind of stuff EXCEPT when stuffed into an obligatory course, which made it a chore.

I like grinding, when optional. I like running dungeons for gear, if entirely optional. I like pvp, if optional. This game delivers. If any of that requires grind to get something particular, it gets boring fast. In WoW I stopped 1000 rep from exhalted on AV because I really needed the offhand yet became too much of a chore.

And yet farming players or doing jumping puzzles is the best way to earn tokens :/ Actually contributing to WvW results in not nearly enough tokens.

Tip for hunting events: check your map for contested waypoints, you can bet on it that there’s an event there.

Also, ride event chains. That way you can easily complete all five in one run.

If all else fails, if there’s no queue, cap a few points in WvW these count.

Or do story mode dungeon, these contain over 5 events each.

Celtic Wish”

I believe the deal is, you pay no monthly but if you want the expansion you will need to pay for it. I believe this is something exactly like GW1.

So how is that different from WoW, except you do pay a monthly and buying expansions is virtually required in WoW.

Jia Shen.4217:

The basis for mana in GW1 was to support the magic the gathering style design to the skill system. Combat was mostly about how well you played your deck of cards vs the other players’ (or AIs’) deck of cards. Where deck of cards was their skill sets and mana pools. In magic the gathering you had more than one way to harm your foe. Out damage them with your cards (skills in GW1) or shut them down by tapping their lands (mana draining in GW1). In GW2 combat is not about that style of combat system and about actual skill in combat. This is why if you just sit and button mash you will probably die most of the time.

That’s basically it. Most skills should not be mashed and actually have more value with being used at the right time instead of on cooldown.

Back when I was 16 and decided to become ‘mature’ I threw out all my plushies. Always regretted it but hey I was a big boy now. Years later I decided to start a new collection of plushies because being mature is what you make of it yourself (xkcd #150). Buying the Charrlie was a good start.

Has he been worth my 35$? I’m more than inclined to say yes. He cuddles pretty well, and is unisex due to flat belly and concave back. He has a bit of a feud with my girl but on the other hand she likes cuddling with him too from time to time. As a compromise I have to put him on a leash. Also he makes for awesome showing off, people love gaming plushies for some reason and I’ve got the best of the best.

I now have a respectable collection of plush toys in my bed again, but Charrlie will always be king.

However none of that is relevant to me. In GW1 a mini Vizu costed thousands of armbraces, yet I never even bothered with it. I simply didn’t care in the slightest. In this game, if you don’t care about appearances, guess what, 20 gold will last you a lifetime. If you care about appearance but are content with being pretty instead of showing off, a few hours of dungeon running will give you your fix.

99% of the players will never feel any negative effects from MF farming by others, quite the opposite. Lower tier items with full stats will become dirt cheap in the long run which is good for new players.

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

again, i have no issue with an honest fair critique of the game, I know it has flaws, Im no fanboi, infact, im starting to feel like im one of Anets harshest critics who still loves the game despite its warts…..(keep running into fanboi’s here, be it intel fanboi’s or nvidia or anet(or all 3 at one)

the game needs optimized.
the game needs balanced.
the game needs debugged.
the game needs the economy fixed.
the game needs content.

but, Im also forgiving in that, I have beta tested MANY mmo’s over the years and worked on the server side of a good number of MMO private servers/shards, so i know how hard it can be to deal with this kinda thing, even private servers sometimes get farmed(if they become to popular), and the are all plagued with at least minor bugs…..

again, I have zero issue with you disliking aspects of the game, or even if you flat out hated it as some of these posters do, but people need to keep it mature and respectful….being a dbag isnt going to get anet to listen, infact its more likely to get you ignored or banned……(as i said, there are a few who are lucky im not forums staff……they would have been on vacation long ago..if not fully banned by now…)

I consider myself part of the 99%, namely the casual and mostly silent majority. So lets run down your list for virtually every other player who’s not hardcore:
the game needs optimized => check. This game is more optimized than any other mmo at launch
the game needs balanced => check. This game is more balanced than any other mmo period, not even considering launch period.
the game needs debugged => check. This game is more bugfree than any other mmo period, let alone at launch.
the game needs the economy fixed => define “fixed”. If you mean “I want my stuff for free” then bad luck. If you mean make legendaries a challenge then check.
the game needs content => check, omg check. This game has more content than any other mmo period. Dynamic events, skill challenges, vistas, interesting crafting, jumping puzzles… I don’t even know where to start when I boot the game.

But that’s just me being a pretty average guy with a job, gf and hobbies. Maybe that influences my point of view but maybe that’s also what the vast majority of players looks like. The only reason I’m vocal is because I used to be one of those “hardcore” entitled gamers playing with a pc they got from Christmas. I do not consider that a good thing anymore.

Strill.2591:

MF forcing others to use MF as well is an economic argument. It has nothing to do with “shared goals”. If the majority of players are using magic find, they are valuing items and gold based on their item and gold income with magic find. If a new player without MF enters the economy, they will find items far more expensive than other players because their income is much lower due to no MF. They will thus need to use magic find themselves in order to remain on par with the economy.

If you think everything except legendaries is easy to get then you haven’t done even an iota of research into what’s available.

You complain about higher prices, while in fact it’s the opposite. More magic items entering the economy means prices dropping overall. Only top tier items will remain expensive, but basically MF has the net effect of dropping prices on trivial items. A full set of exotic Lv80 gear with arbitrary stats costs no more than 15g when you shop around. OK you may not have the best skin but you can more than get by. More magic items entering the economy means easier gambling which directly forces the price of precursors downwards.

We’re currently in the start of a new game, with a completely unstable economy. Don’t pull any conclusions out of current price points. If I could, I would short sell every precursor at half the price in 6 months. Fairly sure it’d make me the richest player in the game overnight.

Could most players get a legendary? That’s a good question but it’s not complete. Let’s break this down…
Tomorrow? Only if you’re unemployed or student so you can farm. Yes you could have a legendary by the end of the month.
Next year? I am in the employed+gf+friends+triathlon group and I sure see myself getting a legendary somewhere in may-june 2012. That sounds entirely reasonable. If I threw cash against it, I may get it a bit sooner, however I’m not inclined to do so.

Also the prices for precursors will eventually lower again once the first surge is over. At the moment several hardcore people got their gifts ready and only need the precursor. I guesstimate that’s less than 10% of the population. Once that rush is over, the normal people will slowly trickle in depending on real life obligations. The prices will drop eventually, that’s inevitable.

Any way you turn it, a legendary needs 200 skill points, 500k karma, 500 dungeon tokens, 500 Badges of Honor, 500 of each trophy and 100% completion. That can’t be rushed in any way, you got to earn those yourself. So the real question is actually, could most people get those in a reasonable amount of time. Given I consider ~1 year a reasonable amount of time for the top tier item, I’m inclined to say yes.

I’m looking at it from this point of view:
- this game is the first MMO that actually puts the word Massive into play. It’s vast. Some things are so detailed, I wonder where they got the time. Other MMOs look like single player games compared to GW2
- Not a single MMO ever was finished at release date. Actually, Guild Wars 2 is without a doubt the most finished MMO to date on release. Did you guys even play WoW or Aion when they first released? It took more than a year for those games to reach the state where GW2 is in at the moment.
- Most content works for 99% of the playerbase. PVE is fully functional except for a few hardcore farmers. WvW is fully functional except for a few large guilds. Dungeons work just fine except for exploiters. All in all, this game is f’n polished considering it’s not even 2 months after release. I surely did not expect this much.
- Even then, GW2 more than delivered on the hype. I’m a fanboy, but even I did not expect such a good game.
- Of all features that work, overflow must be the most brilliant. I’ve had MMOs where I couldn’t even play for a solid month because I literally had to stand in queue for 4 hours, a bit unfair considering I work late.. Even if overflow was massively broken, it was still a giant leap compared to any other MMO.

- Lest we forget, this game does not have a monthly fee. It’s beyond my grasp how they even manage to make ends meet considering this game is already more vast than WoW ever was, but that’s their problem, not mine.

- Also a few less important things such as the TP and forums didn’t work because a.net knows what’s important: making the core game experience work. A.net more than delivered, and then some. The vocal minority doesn’t interest me, and I sincerely hope a.net knows how to ignore them.

I actually liked fishing the way it was in WoW (waiting for a splash). Of all I did in WoW, fishing was the one thing I really liked.

Suggestion being to have a full screen map on the second screen. In WvW this would be so useful… I’m tempted to buy a second afk account just to have a full screen overview of the map while fighting on my main screen.

More communicative than a.net already is? Which is already vastly more than Blizzard ever was? You must be joking right?

flyinpoon

In game or in real life I actually want to succeed based on my abilities, and if working harder is what it takes, then I work harder, but it’s ok, you always have GW2 and in real life the welfare state, they don’t care that you have no desire to work at anything, and wont judge you.

Except you run into a contradiction in terminus here. In no other MMO is it possible to be successful ingame and irl at the same time. Between work, girlfriend and triathlon I have little time to actually run evening long raids every other night. With GW2 I can have an hour of quick MMO fun and then log off. No other MMO I played previously allowed me to have a real life like this. Because of that I never became “successful” in other MMOs because my RL takes first place over pixels.

Maybe I was bad in other MMOs, but if I have to compete with 16 years olds and welfare people, while I actually have a pretty successful life… with all due respect, it’s not possible for me to be “good”. I don’t see that as a bad thing though, and I just want an MMO to lose myself in for a few hours now and then. GW2 is the first MMO that respects my limited time. Even gaining a legendary looks possible in the long run.

The dungeons are awesome, and the end reward is pretty hefty. The thing is, you actually need to be good. If you are in a guild, several “impossible” explorables tend to be extremely easy. EG path 1 in AC is virtually impossible with pugs, while my guild steamrolls it. We earn quite a penny in there. Beyond that they’re actually fun because tactics beyond tank&spank are important.

Except if you really want to WvW actually IS pve. Moreover you can actively contribute without killing a single player. Third, if it’s not PVP you need to master, it’s actually keeping your eyes open whether any of your spots is free. I’ve got 2 complete maps already and stonemist, my server really isn’t the best out there. Last time I checked exploration by itself does not require PVP.

Lastly, ankittenep repeating this because it’s pretty much key. Gift of Exploration is necessary for Gift of Mastery. It’s about mastering the game, and you’ll be in for a tough surprise when you find out you also need 500 badges of honor which you can only get in ….. WvW, although in fairness, they can be farmed, again, without killing a single player.

Look, if you don’t want to master the game, I don’t care. You can play it any way you like. But don’t ask for a proof of mastery if you don’t want to, you know, master the game. That’s a bit silly.

So… best case scenario you can get explorer by only doing PVE. The other best case scenario being you may actually start to like WvW. It is a win-win any way you look at it, whether you want to pvp or pve. That’s exactly what WvW is about, it’s a PvX zone.

Entity.3408:

Every Ranger I now come across gets a double glance o.-

Replace “ranger” in that sentence with any racial slur and you’ve made a very questionable statement.

I think it’s pretty clear. One press of a button means 1 button pressed. The luxury of these keyboards is actually in rearranging buttons. Eg I have several buttons within tumbs reach on my Naga without ever programming a single one beyond mapping a key to it.

Furthermore… using programmable buttons gets you kicked out of any lanparty tournament if you’re interested in any of that. A G15 isn’t even allowed to pass the door in most lans. Using your system to the max does not mean cheating, it actually means optimizing your system so you can play to the best of your ability within the rule set of the game. Keep that in mind.

Nice. Cheap top tier weapons as a waste product of people going for expensive top tier weapons. I’m not complaining. Now to find a cool skin.

arcaneclarity.5283:

All they need are GMs to fly through zones. These things are obvious.

Except it is virtually impossible to discern a silent, farming player from a bot except by watching very, very closely to keyboard input or software, both of which you can’t but the GMs have to do in order to make an honest ban. In this world, people are still innocent until proven guilty, and that goes for bots too. Your hunch is not enough to ban someone, neither is a GMs hunch enough to call someone bot.

It’s not a graveyard race. If you’re dying, you’re already doing it wrong. It’s not about healing either but about not getting damage. That’s a very big difference and requires personal skill. Yes, YOU as a player have to be good in order to not die. Relying on an overgeared healer won’t help you in this game. So man up, take personal responsibility and make sure you actually contribute to the party instead of WPrunning all the time.

Noerknhar.3826:

In my opinion, obsidian shards should be bound to a different event. I wasnt able to find a story based reason why they’re only buyable at the balthazar event. Wouldn’t it be better to be able to buy them at any god’s altar after completing the event? This would make us feel happier about them because we wouldn’t have to wait a week or two after a server restart until the event is actually doable (due to bugs and such).

Fissure of Woe, but that’s more fanservice than anything. Still, for lore reasons obby is a thing from Balthazar, not from other gods.

It’s a tactic. If it’s really that good, use it yourself.

Don’t forget it’s a trade off, since this player does not actively participate in the battle. These 10 players spread around the map could make a difference for worse or for better depending on circumstances.

In my guild group we’re usually with 20ish people. If we send out 2 scouts, that means a 10% reduction in fighting power. That’s pretty hefty and could be the difference when clashing with another group. It’s up to the commander to decide whether it’s worth it.

Also all the gear you vendor is a source of income, sometimes half a gold on a good run or at least a quarter on a bad one. You’re not poor, you just have a steady income which should allow you everything you want if you save up.

In real life I earn enough and after expenses and fun, not a whole lot remains. I save whatever I can to buy a car, house (ie legendaries). I expect my legendary to take about a year to save up for, which is about the same time I needed for my car. Yet in real life I don’t consider myself poor, actually I consider myself pretty rich.

As soon as I saw the password limit increase in GW1 I updated my password as inspired by xkcd (funny to see the same cartoon in the newspost later) so I completely avoided the whole problem.

Anyways, I suspect a couple of my passwords are hijacked because I have several “insecure” passwords I use virtually everywhere that’s not important. It would be both useful and interesting to see a list of these hijacked passwords on the account page, as in everything that was tried against my account name. Also good to know whether any of my “secure” passwords are in that list.

Opinions?

Considering I spent 150 euros on the CE, played a lot already with no end in sight, the music in my car, the art making my office pretty and the box functioning as lunch box … I would consider it money well spent.

Furthermore, considering I have a full time job, girlfriend, friends and training for triathlons, to me it is a good thing this game doesn’t require insane amounts of time for level or gear grind. I intend to get a legendary …. eventually, but until then I can have all the fun I want without feeling required to do anything in particular. My play time is limited, my pockets are deep. A.net caters to my style of play and I like that.

I’ve also been kicking some French kittens last week. Good tactical teamwork, really fun to be in such an organized group.

I recommend playing the game before claiming abilities aren’t exciting. Virtually every ability has at least 2 or 3 different uses depending on situation, while every bar has at least 1 skillshot dependent on high player skill. The 5 weapon skills alone on any bar are more interesting than the complete 80 skills macro bar of an average wow class.

But that’s just my opinion.

The problem is double, since unlocking account wise is only necessary once, which will drop dye prices eventually to subvendor prices. But on the other hand it’s very annoying to go 100% on one character, only to have no dyes on the other …

With all due respect…. good riddance. Players like you are what destroy a game for the vast majority. You paid 60 euro’s, completed the entire game in less than a month, and moved on. I’ve been playing for less than an hour a day on average since launch, and I’m very happy this game follows my pace.

Again, with respect to the OP’s lifestyle, but I do not, and want not, play videogames for 10-14 hours a day anymore and I certainly wouldn’t be proud of it. Back in puberty I used to play hundreds of hours a week but, again, I was never proud of it as the OP claimed, I just play games because it is fun and back then I used to have a lot of time.

Honestly, I’m the kind of person who’ll be spending money in the gem store past the first 150 euros for the CE box. He won’t, because the elitist mentality forbids such travesties. Also people who game for 14 hours a day can’t earn such disposable income to spend on gems, without judging.

To reiterate … good riddance. The gaming community consists of 99% casuals and 1% of self acclaimed “hardcore” playing 14 hours a day. I’m bloody glad at least on game caters to this 99%.

Considering the fact spammers advertise MORE expensive than the gem store, OP’s point fails. Whomever buys from the spammers is short selling himself and risking his account being stolen or banned. Stupid is the correct word. Doubly stupid even.

Dead.7385:

marnick.4305:

For content updates, that’s a given. But for fixing launch problems, it would be extremely redundant and silly, considering the way the GW update system works.

Can definitely agree with that. They have a ton more on their plate than most MMO’s.

It just EQ has been using a 24/7 test server with no server wide wipes in years (which now that I quit I will state that it had full rights and we were considered gold status players even though we had no sub). So when I read that it would be too costly it was eyebrow raising since EQ isn’tkitten maker for SoE. Even Vanguard has a test server iirc and that REALLY isn’t/wasn’t turning tons of profits.

Then again I am using SoE as an example and they have many MMO’s to support/leech money from.

That’s because test servers aren’t used for bug hunting but more for testing what a class plays like at max level with free gear. Them being open 24/7 is effectively giving casuals an easy way out (which is a good thing imho). But that’s just my experience with test servers, they were usually just about crashing the server by raiding Ironforge.

Since testing a profession at max level with free gear is already implemented in the current game, there’s no inherent need for a 24/7 test server. A true test server should be limited to the content that needs testing, eg a single dungeon or area. Tell me a single game where this holds true?

Spawn.7014:

Once again i AGREE this game needs a PTR. but i understand why they haven’t put one up YET. For all we know they could be working on it and i hope they are

For content updates, that’s a given. But for fixing launch problems, it would be extremely redundant and silly, considering the way the GW update system works.

vicwolf.7862:

“Trust me i know what the F2P model is considering i own a gaming company working on an MMO.”
Oh? What’s your company name? What’s the project name? Your statement flies in the face of nearly half a decade of mounting empirical data that is diametrically opposed to your supposition (not to mention the laughable statement that they cannot afford a PTR).

My real name is Marnick Sluismans. My linkedin is www.linkedin.com/in/marnick. I work for Beckhoff Automation as a Support Engineer and was on the front lines when we rolled out our new software package, TwinCAT 3, which has many parallels to Guild Wars 2 (breaking the norms, unthinkable innovations). When bugs inevitable happen in every stage of development, I’m the one being called. I have seen behind the curtains what a beta looks like, both internal and external.

My professional experience with software development and customer support tells me Arena.net is doing an extremely good job.

Kind regards and stop feeding the troll

Marnick Sluismans

Vicwolf, you’re comparing major post-launch content patches for other MMO’s with incremental improvements in mid-launch, and you decide all these incremental improvements need a full month on a PTR? You would be complaining too if that were the case.

A.net is doing the best they can, and compared to other launches (not content updates) this is far and beyond what any other company, including blizzard, ever achieved. Yes, sometimes updates break stuff, but overall there’s progress. With a test server we currently would have our very first patch (if any). Also given the horrendous reputation of testing on a PTR, which is more like content spoiling for world first, I’m not sure a PTR helps in any way. In other MMO’s content still launches with major bugs and exploits because a PTR is not used for testing but for gaining experience with content.

Launch is the worst time for any MMO and patching often feels like going to Echternach. However I have confidence they pull through since overall, more is being fixed than is being broken. And that’s what counts.