Guild Wars 2

Bad for zerg commanders and great for havoc teams. I’m fairly impartial to it.

This was amazing. I got in to Dgin’s group there and walked in and it was just an amazing feat of awe to behold. It sucked when they started trebing the middle of it tho.

@OP: Ya know, this game is really what you make it. You have to go out and find your fun. I dislike the choices ANet makes an i’m VERY vocal about it, but I’ve found my “fun” or my sweetspot in this game. It takes time to find the right group of people and the right content to play, but it is here.

The great thing about this game is you don’t have to pay for it on a monthly basis, so take a break and come back or just log in and do you dailies and then go off to something else.

More of the same ole WvW. I’d like to see better incentives for various goals, but as long as it stays fun on Reset Night, i will continue to keep logging on at least once a week. I could care less what they do with PvE anymore. Other mmos can and will do PvE better.

TOTALLY! They have SPOON collections now. So my hope is that if we get spoons, then we should get tea cups, then tea cup plates and ZOMG! I can have a tea party with my minis! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Too funny. They’ll end up ignoring this entire thread and pushing the changes out anyhow. You know this right? lol

It befuddles me that players can’t see the bigger picture to how this thing works, so let me lay out a big, log thread to explain it…

When ANet set the groundwork for the gemgate store, they knew that people were min/maxers and that we wanted progression. Sure, it’s a wonderfully sweet idea that we play a game just to have fun and I’m sure some people believe that to the point that they live it everyday. If so, good for you!

But for the rest of us, having the best gear, the best stats, and being the most progressed, no matter what kind of progression it be, is of the utmost importance. We want to be harder, faster, better. If we are mediocre in life, why be the same in the virtual world. This is an “escape” after all.

So the gemgate store, in all of its salami slicing awe, was not setup purely to deliver outfits and etc – that’s just the shroud of the ANet, covering the real purpose: Money to gem to gold transactions.

“Why would anyone want to spend RL money on gold???”, you ask? Well, sure, its easy getting gold. Just grind the same old content 50 times a day, day in day out, and you’ll get there. You’ll have all the money and crafting mats you could ever want. But see, most humans just aren’t like that. They want convenience. They want reward for very little effort, and thus the RL money to gem conversion was instituted.

Instead of grinding the same old boring junk, you can dump money into the gemstore, get gold, and BUY the mats you needed to level up crafting. Then, dump in even MORE money and start getting ascended gear crafted.

The fact that they put outfits in the gemgate store and other stuff, is more or less a store front to what the original purpose is. You could make the argument that flipping items on the BLTP is an alternative to grinding the same old content, but unfortunately, ANet has a full time economist to watch and monitor for that sort of thing, making sure to control drop rates and etc, so that the items you WANT are ever so much more, just out of your reach….the proverbial “Carrot on a stick”.

Business is business. The way ANet does is not a hidden affair. They won’t acknowledge it, nor give out the statistics, showing that RL money to gem conversions constitutes 90% of all gem store purchases. Nor will the die hard fans even except what I’ve typed here. But, the world does need its janitors, so welcome to the working class, kids!

And its really just not intuitive. The game needs an “in-game” reporting feature. Furthermore, you’d think that creating and running a background process to do file checks for modified files, or even code would be something that they could do in the coding to the game. I know <insert game here> does this and they have very little issue with hacking.

I know how these people are doing what they are doing to hack the game, but if i mention it, the forum mods ban me. Furthermore, that generally “happy population” that doesn’t come to the forums to complain about the hacking, they just get upset and either leave it be or go play something else. And why make a big fuss over something very few people are reporting?

IllegalChocolate.6938:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

AdaephonDelat.3890:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Man they must be in pretty deep financial trouble if someone going on vacation can delay something for 2 years.

Colin’s reply to you from a year ago -

ColinJohanson.2394:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Is there any sort of timeline on this? It was first stated over 6 months ago I believe. Is this something that is going to happen in the next few months? 6 more months? A year? 10 years? Obviously you can’t give us an exact date, but some sort of rough timeline would be nice.

We’ve learned we really can’t give timelines, since if we’re ever wrong a mob comes after us with torches and pitchforks I can say we started designing this, and realized the proper (not hacked in quick) solution needs to be a part of bigger systems that more clearly directs players as well as ties in comprehensive rewards for playing across our game world, which we’re currently working on right now.

Some small parts of that comprehensive plan for game reward systems are already rolling out this month with the updates to WvW rank rewards.

For more details of our high-level strategy, feel free to check out:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/

So many great ideas…I wish I knew what happened to that Anet…

The collection system they have implemented can allude to a system in the direction of precursor crafting.

If you look at how illuminate armor pieces are obtained, one can say they are currently piloting a system before deciding if its a good system for obtaining precursors.

This is speculation but you can see that they are at least experimenting with different reward systems for a parallel intent.

Whereas WoW had Theorycrafters, GW2 has Speculationcrafters.

When Ghostcrawler promised a pony, someone at ANet was the intended receiver of said promised pony, and thus the realm of false hopes and dreams was born, also known as corporate policy over at ANet.

Hell, while they are at it, they might as well promise everything to us to shut us up for a few months, drive up them gemgate store sales from all the pacified angry users and then think of something else up when that wears off. Thats what i’d do if i was a used car salesman.

They had to get rid of the “table” in order to burn it to stay warm. Please note that things you may think you are placing on the table will fall to the ground to never be seen again.

Also, i’ve disbanded my wallet, much like the dungeon team, so i will no longer be producing gem store sales. LOL

Just play WvW and you won’t have to worry about a meta. PvE is a joke anyhow. You have mobs spraying craploads of unavoidable damage or conditions. You can’t tell where attacks are 3/4 of the time. Those new Mordrem mobs: Crap loads of health and bleeds. Too much loss of character control…yeah, i’m all set. WvW is the only thing REALLY worth playing in this game because its fun. Greed Wars 2 = WAR 2.0, for all intents and purposes. I just wished i had my old White Lion and Chosen back.

“Sadly, I can’t call this game a ‘’Guild Wars 2’‘. "

Well yeah, its GREED Wars 2. Sorry, no one tends to advertize that, but tis true, tis true.

That moment when you realized in your Personal Story that “The Pact” had tanks, mechs, machine guns, attack choppers, and bazookas, while you are running around stabbing things with a sword or some really weak-kitten magic….yeah…

Somehow, “whoop-de-doo” just doesn’t seem to capture the spirit of this ‘added feature’ for me. Maybe we can have a spoon/mail carrier feature where we could equip our mail carriers with spoons? “ZOMG DUDE! HOW L33T WOULD THAT BE!!!!”…sigh…

I’m not keeping up with this thread – is there any progress being made here or tons of paragraphs regarding feedback that ANet will ignore?

Such a waste of time…

I must not be playing the same game as the OP, but the only thing that zerker ever did for me was to get me dead faster. Apparently mordrem bleeds and Orr mobs that crap tons of DoTs on you is something that just kinda falls off and doesn’t do any damage? I tend to think the PvE mobs are more “cheap” killers than easy, but again, i must be playing a different game…

Amongst the many, another thread that illustrates the need for the average GW2 player to just not care, nor be compassionate towards the game.

I’ve learned to cope by playing other games and ignoring the terrible content in this game. I don’t care what kind of player that makes me. I did my time here, got burned, and i’m not mad anymore. Greed Wars 2 is gonna be Greed Wars 2, so learn to play Greed Wars 2 for the great WvW (or whatever interests you in this game) and go on to something more seriously maintained and community friendly.

Easy peasy. Who cares what ANet is doing? I know i don’t. lol

I dunno if ya’ll just started playing the game recently, but i’ve been seeing hacks for the last 6 to 8 months now. sPvP and WvW. I know how they’re doing it too, but if you mention specifics on the forums, its an instant x amount of day forum ban.

AFAIK, ANet is on a “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” plan with the hackers and etc, so get used to it. They need people playing this game to keep getting paychecks, regardless if they hack or not.

Ragnarox.9601:

GW2 ss p2p. Plus they made 400-500m pure profit from selling this game (50m from gem store maybe). So if you cant make new dungeons and stuff for 400-500m well then its clearly you dont care bout future of the game and interested only in profit.

I disagree. With the cost of the equipment and software licenses on top of wages and benefits, I’m betting that gem store sales is probably just enough to keep the game running at this point. But again, they have no else to blame but themselves on that one. 400-500m may sound like alot, but its not. A “small” business of around 25 employees and a small server farm is right around 100k per month, so thats what i base that on.

Ashen.2907:

Care to share the source on that $500 million profit from initial sales claim?

If we assume 5 million unit sales. Perhaps at an average cost of $70 each. That is $350 million. Revenue not profit.

Now 350 employees. Im sure that the team size varied over the course of the 5 year development period but its the only number we have so lets run with it. The average game dev salary in the region where Anet is located is in the $70k range. Not all of those 350 employees will make that much so lets knock that down to 60k. The cost to employ (payroll taxes, benefits, etc) is as much as 1.3 times base salary so we are back up to $78k for each employee. $78k x 350 employees x 5 years = $136.5 million dollars.

136.5 million in payroll alone on an initial sales revenue of 350 million. Where does your $500m profit come from?

Exactly. Thus why i said what i said. Thats why they are pushing the NPE so hard and not trying to maintain veteran players. If you’re a vet player, playing since retail or beta and you’re not spending $10-$20 a month on gems, you’re basically living in someone’s house for free and eating up all their pizza rolls. lol

But again, if they wanted the money, they’d make good decisions and create content people would want to log in an play, which will feed the gem store. But thats a topic for a different thread thats been been beaten worse than the dead horse, so meh.

My point is, is that you just can’t compare the games at all.

I might as well be saying that Halo is a better game than GW2 because i can shoot things dead and jump all over the place and etc, etc, etc…its just not a valid argument.

OP: From what i gather from your post, you’d have been better off saying, “Hi! I’m a new GW2 player thats played a month of GW2 and a week of FFXIV and OH BOY is FFXIV BAD, because any MMO that requires intelligence to read the help tips that show up every time a new feature is shown is HARD! and online research is beyond my skill level!”

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

As for the comparison: Both games do both good and bad things, but FFXIV will always be the clear winner due to the sheer talent of the devs and A+ management of the game and it’s community. SE does a GREAT job of letting the community know whats coming up and addressing community concerns. Funny enough, they address the english speaking community’s concern’s when they are all Japanese. Fancy that!

I play both games. I play GW2 for the WvW, because thats really the only thing it has going for it and thats more because of the community, than ANet (Yes Anet, GW2 has become Mythic’s Warhammer Age of Reckoning Part 2). I play FFXIV to play a well managed and developed MMO with great content.

But the argument is illogical to begin with. GW2 is F2P game with starving devs, while FFXIV is a monthly sub with plenty of resources to craft awesome content. Its like comparing a Smart car to a Nissan 370Z. ROFL

You also can’t compare GW2 to WoW because of this. Nor, could you compare WoW to FFXIV, because WoW has had 10 years of development, and 7 years over FFXIV.

If you want a true comparison, try comparing TERA to GW2. Theres an argument that GW2 will win and it’ll make everyone happy.

Very nice post, OP. Just another high point for Greed Wars 2.

You HAVE to realize that this is a norm for everyone, except for the very few and fortunate. The reasoning behind the low drop rates is that if more exotics and t6 mats dropped, the more people would sell those on the TP, and the more gold they would make. The more gold they make, the easier it becomes to purchase gems without RL money. This is a REAL big no-no in Greed Wars 2, as it takes money away from ANet.

Not very surpising, your results are. Nice though, are your efforts to track such things.

But, in the grand scheme of things, the fans will rage on and make the findings a part of elaborate feature or some such thing, that makes the game all that more exciting to play, so the findings may be for naught.

The OP is a genius! Why, do this and you can drive away the other 40% of people still playing this game. Great idea!

While we’re at it, lets just take out loot and zergin entirely, so we all have to solo Lupi just because its FUN! WOW! We are full of the smarts!

Note: Things like this is exactly why the NPE exists, so don’t be surprised if we see another unique change to GW2 soon.

I dunno, but i’ve never seen a company that with holds content and information as much as ANet does. But, thats old news. You either hate it and play something else, while flaming here, or you don’t care about it and wonder what all the “hub-bub” is all about.

TBH, i think its all one big psychology experiment at this point. It sucks, because i can see through it all. For example, Gaile points out three things shes “given” us information on (aka “improved communication”):

Engineer Backpacks
Whats considered copyright infringement
Gemgate Improvement

I’ll give her the Engineer backpack info. At least someone said, “hey, we see and issue here and we are working on it.” Thats what ANet needs to do for alot of issues brought up here. Take it a step further. give us a road map.

Copyright infringement. Thats more community service. Good for you. /golfclap

Gemgate improvement. This was a disaster, and you added to it. You asked for suggestions, when the clear, obvious answer was to just rollback the change. This exact issue makes me think that common sense is a rarity, but then we get something like account wide achievements and the wardrobe and WvW which, is utterly brilliant in design and implementation.

So i dunno. Day of the week maybe? Maybe ANet comes in on Tuesday with their game faces on and makes awesome ideas and implements them once every 6 months or so? And the rest of the time, everyone is living “Bay lyfe” or something. Either way, the marketing team and economy team rule this game now.

Ironically, everytime someone makes a thread about good drops happening to often, 2 more people post thread complaining that they don’t happen enough. “Perception”, this must be.

IndigoSundown.5419:

You know you’ve been reading GW2 forum too much when…

… you reply to your bosses’ emails, correcting his minor grammatical errors and telling him he needs to “learn to manage.”

I LOL’d.

…you begin to see the actual psychology in every product you consume.

And thus it shall be known as “Greed Wars 2”. lol

Also, FFXIV is AMAZING!

I say go play it. You’re wasting your time here, unless you’re a brand new player. I’m not saying that to be mean, but if yer lookin for any kind of change or reaction here, just stop, because they don’t care. If you have a level 80, then you’re just not in their target demographic. They’ve proven that.

It was a good year! I had a blast in this game up until Gemgate (which is still happening and not fixed btw) and then the whole gambling fiasco on the Halloween 2014 weapon skins.

ANet has done a FABULOUS job…at giving me a new found appreciation for other MMOs and development companies that i just never had before. So, thanks!!!

Great initial effort, leading to at least 3-6 months of fun and exciting gameplay. Quickly falls down into a cesspool of bad management decisions which affects the enjoyment of the gamplay, shortly there after.

It is gambling. Make no mistake about that. I’m just waiting to read the news here in a few weeks about a class action lawsuit hitting ANet over it, because i’m pretty sure its illegal somewhere, if there isn’t a “Better Business Bureau” somewhere that will raise a fuss over it.

I can’t speak for everyone, but i’m on a break right now and strongly considering never logging in again.

Between the gamble for the 2012 Halloweed skins, Gemgate, and Gaile Gray’s revelation that ANet is catering to this new, unheard from “new player” demographic, instead of ALL players…well, i’m not supporting bad decision after bad decision, after bad decision.

lordkrall.7241:

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Does the game dyeing due to poor decisions not cross peoples minds at all, or the lack of feedback to the concerns voiced?

The game is not close do dying. Nor will this change kill it. The vast majority of the players probably don’t even know/care about this change nor what is happening (or not happening) on the forums.

The thing is if people keep abusing the devs and the company they might simply decide that it is not worth posting at all or even have a forum for anything other than supports (as in Guild Wars 1). Which could quite easily mean that they would just close them down.

You’re right, but if one player says “enough” and stops logging in and buying gems, then another player will, and another player will, and not to mention that we are in guilds, where we most certainly will vent our frustrations over these changes and like a virus, the animosity will grow until only the few diehards are left standing around in a borderland or in Cursed Shore pondering where all the people went.

Don’t kid yourself – Change starts with YOU, and no one else. If you’re unhappy with the changes, just don’t log in. They’ll get the message sooner or later and it’ll hit’m harder than coming here and complaining.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

LordDragonHeart.9352:

So far there’s an overwhelming voice that says this update is bull. The only dev “input” we’ve heard with in these 30 pages is that they are open to suggestions, which is basically a passive-aggressive way of saying “yea, nah. We’re not going to change it back but, look! We’re open to suggestions : ))))))))))”

So as they say: “The only winning move is not to play.”
No, literally, let’s just boycott gw2 till they realize they need to clean up their act.

Already called my guild and told them that I wouldn’t be on and why. They agree with me so we will move on to something else until Anet decides to knock off the foolishness.

Yup, i think a good long boycotting is called for here. They know how to fix it. But seriously, that “suggestions” line was PRICELESS! Someone needs to call EA and tell them they been trumped. ROFL

nomad.7210:

“Why not give them for a fixed price in the gem store?”
How can you say the reasoning behind the tickets is money grabbing and then ask for the skins to be in the gemstore? This doesnt make any sense xD

Lets say there is a lottery for a trip to Disneyworld. If i didn’t enter the lottery, then i could just spend the 6-8 grand on the trip and the vacation and be done with it, without entering a “lottery” or gambling for it. At that point, its PURELY optional if i want to gamble for it…optional…Meaning, i have a choice and my choice is not to gamble.

nomad.7210:

I honestly dont understand the whining. And its not really gambling if you didnt invest something, and cmon the time you spend doing the event and having fun is hardly an investment.
I see Tequatl more of a gamble than these random shiny ticket drops.
Every time i do Tequatl i invest time and gold, for the possibility of an ascended weapon drop.
I do that now for a year and didnt get one weapon chest. NOT ONE!!

Now, keep that reference and add that ascended weapons can be gambled for by buying tickets in the gem store. Now, instead of harmlessly playing a game and using my “time” as the investment…well… now i’m going to use the money i work for to do it as well. I am going to give someone money for a “chance” at something. Thats gambling. Thats where, people like me, are drawing a line and saying, “THIS is NOT how you do business in a video game!”

I could except this, if the wrappers weren’t purchasable in the gem store. I could totally except that you have to run the labyrinth to get the wrappers and leave at that. At that point, i’m not paying money for a chance. That would have made sense. That would have been decent.

Syzygy.5031:

They’re pushing the envelope to see how far they can go with grabbing cash. It’s an area that needs more regulation. I’m sure that will eventually come as most countries have fairly comprehensive regulation of gambling and lotteries. They haven’t yet caught up with in-game real money gambling.

In game lottery for some things that have been requested back so many times, and putting tickets in the gem shop is a horrible idea. Doubly so in a game that allows minors to participate. At least online poker is the preserve of adults who should be able to know what they are getting into.

Why not give us back the original way of obtaining these?
Why not make a harder meta-achievement to earn one of these skins?
Why not give us a way to earn them in game?
Why not give them for a fixed price in the gem store?

More money. That’s why.

So much for GW2 wanting to be different.

Edit: I know full well these tickets can drop in-game. More chances in store are an attempt at getting more money from all those hoping to improve the chances of winning the lottery.

This and exactly this. My biggest problem right now is that its gambling. Gambling ruins people’s lives and here, in this video game, its now ever more so just right out in the open. I don’t like to gamble. I hate it, actually, but i never judge those that do it.

It really is more so a violation of my morals and something i’m having a hard time dealing with.

I know alot of people will overlook it and not put much thought into it. Thats fine, but what if the game started depicting something offensive to you? I don’t want to set examples, but it could be anything from the vivid emulation of kitten to the acceptance of massive illegal narcotic use. My point being, its just NOT something that should be in a game and it is NOT ok that this exists in a video game that doesn’t advertize itself as having a gambling system.

This was my first year seeing the Halloween event and i love it, BUT the 2012 Halloween weapon skin lottery is really killing it for me, since i’ve always wanted a few of those skins and now it feels more a mockery or trick to get me to buy gems for the wrappers so i can up my chances. To that end, i’m very close to quitting this game entirely. I can’t delve into that more without inviting the banhammer, so i’ll leave at that.

Well, guess its obvious now ANet hates its community, amirite?

FYI: Things need fixin.

Get back to work and blog us something to keep us “fans”, please.

I had an awesome idea, but of course, again, it won’t matter, but…heres hoping it gets read and thought about by someone in a position to make a difference:

So i did “Reset Night” for the 2nd time this weekend. I got into Mumble and listed to my server’s best and brightest lead us on an extravagant journey of battling the evil Blackgate server on EB. The fights, the emotions, all of that was a throwback to the fun and excitement that i remember back when i first stepped into Molten Core (WoW) many years ago, for the first time.

It was epic! It was even more fun than <gulp> The Battle for Lion’s Arch.

So my thought here is, why can’t we have better loot tables or chances at more exotics on Reset Night all across the board? Just that one night. Every tower commander or rank 300+ player has a guaranteed rare drop, with a high chance of an exotic?

I think this would fix ALOT of the issues in the game right now with people complaining about loot, WvW in general, and content.

Lets face it, the PvE content of this game, with the seemingly limited resources that Anet appears to be showing is dismal at best, so why not harness the greatest mode in the game and make it a true source of end game?

My god man! Its player generated!!! In my opinion, is such an easy solution to an environment where the developers are throttling content based on resources, so why not? Its high risk/high reward, which is the F2P catch phrase, no?

But, truth of it all. They won’t. Gonna go cry myself into my ham sammich. Thanks fer readin.

Try to go Windows 7 Pro 64bit, if you can. If you MUST get Win8, make sure it is Win8.1, but even then its still a headache. Yes, 64bit on all sides with whatever you go with.

Flitzie.6082:

I find it difficult to believe you have troubles understanding the mechanics and gameplay of gw2 if you have already played another MMO like WoW. It really is not that hard. I still think Guild wars 2 is among the easiest MMOs out there. It sure feels different to what you are used to from WoW but the core features are the same after all.

Obviously, you’ve never played WoW. WoW is a cake walk compared to this game. Raid bosses have easy-to-see, typcasted attacks and condis and boons are also easier to see, amongst a whole slew of other features that make it more casual friendly.

I’ll take Ragnaros over any give Arah boss any day of the week, as far as difficulty goes, but i also like easier content, since i’m not an uber, twitch-happy player.

Combat in this game is a HELL of a lot more involved and difficult, but its risk/reward, so the better at it you get, the better it plays. In that aspect, GW2 > WoW any day.

To the OP: As far as map chat language, every game has its own language. You just have to play long enough and ask questions to figure it out, like the rest of us have, when we started out.

Make no mistake, this is not WoW. Cons > Pros are the status quo here.

Don’t buy the outfits. Its that easy and sends a clear enough message. I don’t like it either, but thats why i don’t buy outfits.

Yeah, i have to agree with the OP – dungeons just aren’t worth it, unless your farming tokens for a particular look with the dungeon armors. Otherwise, your best bet right now is the Orr Temple farming or EotM to get somewhat decent drops, since there are more drops in those situations, than anything else.

Its blatantly apparent that they’ve upped the drop rates on rares and exotics, regardless of your MF%. Whether i’m at 100% MF or 250% MF, it makes no difference. People can state that RNG is the issue, which it is. The odds are clearly stacked against the consumer in this case, to facilitate the purchase of gold via gems, to make crafting more accessible. Its highly irritating, but they’re makin money, so it is what it is.

Cya on the battlefield.

DonQuack.9025:

Phenn.5167:

I’ve seen several online, large-playerbase game developers do an excellent job of what I’ve outlined above.

like?

I’ll give you a hint: It starts with a “B” and rhymes with the word “lizzard”.

Yes, i know, different ball park, but the point being is that they give away everything, months in advance. Sure, its spoilers galore, but you gotta give the consumer benefit of the doubt that if they don’t want to know about it, they simply won’t read about it.

That goes back to that slip cover thing Gaile just said. Its not like the author or publisher is ramming that slip cover down your throat or anything abrasive like that. When you pick up the book, you choose not to read it. Easy peasy.

Its not worth arguing, really. In a year of reading forums off and on, i’ve seen alot of good requests, issues, and etc. Its rare one gets addressed, so i’ve grown the open that the company policy towards the consumer is much like Square Enic back in the FFXI days and that was to just randomly do stuff and explain it when it drops with very little advertizement.

People, you just gotta lower your expectations and take it for what it is. Thats all. You’ll sleep better at night if ya do.

Vayne.8563:

This week I got my 20th 80. Most of my characters are themed, so I like getting a certain look. Keeps me logging in for the most part.

It’s not quite roleplaying…but it’s not not roleplaying if you see what I mean. My characters exist in my head as individuals with individual tastes.

This and exactly this. Im no RP’er at all, but i can’t help thinking of a “backstory” in my mind for a character, when i go to build out the character’s look. For example, i just got done with a norn mesmer that wears the cultural tier 2 with Aureate weapons. He has purple hair, eyes, tattoos. His armor and weapons sorta look drab and not really dark, so my thought with this guy is that maybe the magic he is using affected his hair, eyes, and tattoos, while the rest of him is normal? Things like that, but i don’t go walking into any RP events talking like a norn or anything crazy like that.

I complain alot, so tonight, i figured i’d try a new approach.

I’ve been a GW2 junkie for a year now. I had a month or two spurt prior, but was still too addicted to other MMOs to commit at the time, so a year ago, this time, i finally came back in and started playing and i haven’t left.

I’m a mechanic and IT guy by trade. I was a mechanic, got sick of it and moved on to IT years and years ago. I like building and repairing things. Its just what i’ve always done.

Recently, i had conversation with a work buddy over his hobbies and he is no gamer, but he does build and ride motorcycles and one aspect of his hobby hit home with me during the conversation. He stated that he liked the building and repairing portion of the hobby more than riding. When i started to roll that around in my mind, i realized, THIS is why i log in everynight.

I do everything in game. WvW, Dungeons, mapping, sPvP. You name it, i do it at least once a week, because i have many characters and a great guild to game with. But all that stuff is either flawed or lacking in some apsects and although i’m not going to count them off – Mainly because i can’t and i think others have done a far better job at describing those issues – I LOVE building characters. Its my thing. Its the one, truly in-depth “thing” this game does and succeeds in spades at. Granted, everyone has access to the same stuff, but i’ve yet to see anyone in game that looked EXACTLY like one of my toons. And it goes beyond just physical appearance, and into the complex stats system. Thats where the repair comes in, after i’ve built a toon.

Furthermore, the gem store seems to cater to this hobby, so i spend a fair amount there as well. The open world is more or less, a beautifully crafted environment for my creations to live and breathe – a canvas to show off my building skills.

I think ANet will certainly keep me enthralled for some time to come, just because of this. There are many dyes. And as long as they keep making armor in some way or another, i’ll keep at it. So, thank you ANet!!

In addition to what Vayne said: Bioware basically made a carbon copy of WoW to make SWOTOR and its still going strong, even after losing a bazillion subs. MMOs don’t die easy. People get invested and dig in for the long haul.

1. Do you think there is already enough challenging content that requires strategy and coordination in this game?

A: On some things, yes. These things are considered easy. On others, no. This would be like (high level) Fractals and Arah, wherein the “strategy” is to stack in a certain corner and make sure you have enough guardians to reflect all damage and an ele to stack might. I’m not a fan of a strat that requires a certain group composition for an otherwise stupidly broken boss.

2. If Anet did design more challenging content, would there even be enough players to play it?

A: I don’t hear a whole lot of conversation about everyone wanting to do Triple Threat, so its more those niche guilds that can organize it, then your everyday player like me.

3. Is the zerg mentality too strong to even prevent some development?

A: Theres nothing wrong with the zerg. Be the zerg. Love the zerg. The zerg gets things done. ALL HAIL THE ZERG!!!

4. What would more challenging content in GW2 look like?

A: Bosses that drop 20 conditions on you and they hit you for 30k per attack..wait…I believe thats already in the game. LOLs is me!

The problem ANet needs to fix before they consider this and “raids”, is to make the stats work in a unique way with the mobs and bosses. They really haven’t done that and thats kinda why the winning solution here is everyone runs zerker and finds way to break already broken bosses.