Guild Wars 2

Costs would be the obvious answer. Test servers require hardware and bandwidth, both of which cost money. Since there’s no subscription fee, ANet has to be as cost – efficient as they can..

Now, they stated in a presentation at GDC that they can run different versions of the game on the same physical server, and one can argue that someone playing on test isn’t playing on live. So in theory it could be possible. Probably requires some development though

Given the bugs introduced in the last patch, I hope they will consider it…

1. When did you begin playing? (post bw’s)
One day headstart

2. how many hours total do you have? (/age)
Didn’t check, must be around 350h (stopped playing after the Lost Shore update)

3. What’s your most gold banked so far?
Around 45g

4. Do you have a max level character (s)? (number if more than one)
3 level 80 characters

5. List 1-3 areas / zones / events / tp; where you spend most of your time for income.
Cursed Shore (plinx chain, before nerf)

6. Do you mainly use MF or not?
Used it on some characters, didn’t use on others… can’t tell the difference

7. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a mob? If so, how many and total?
None

8. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a chest? If so, how many and total?
None that I remember of

9. What’s the most number of rare weapons you have looted in one day or 8hrs time?
I’d say around 9-10

10. How many rare or exotic weapons do you “expect” to loot in one hour of time?
Usually, 1 rare

11. How many lodestones have you looted total so far? (all types)
None

12. Do you craft? If so, do you have a 400 crafter? if so, how many?
3 professions at 400, 3 more at 375+

13. Do you sell your looted crafting mats? (specify optional)
No, i keep them (I need more than I loot)

14. Do you feel your return, (in terms of items, completion, income, etc) for your time, has been worth it?
It was okay-ish when I still played, I’m not so sure now that all T6 prices have skyrocketed that I would feel the same
I had a lot of fun, but don’t feel like playing now with the introduction of ascended gear. I’m an altoholic, and I don’t want to chase after a “shallow power curve”.
What seems easy or attainable on 1 character can become a chore when you have to do it 8 times.
I’m waiting for the next update to see if ANet sorts this out, and will decide then if I start playing again (with purchase of character and bank slots, and a make-over kit if I do )

15. In ONE word, what needs improved most; from your perspective?
Horizontality

So, if I’m to understand the reactions in this thread, ANet added vertical progression to please those who were thinking there was no end-game, while kinda ruining it for those who were fine with strictly horizontal progression, but in the end it didn’t change anything and there’s still "no end-game?

See ANet? Remove ascended gear already…

Mirta, you’re confusing gated content and vertical progression. There isn’t gated content yet (except, arguably fractals), but there is definitely vertical progression.

Lordkrall, +5s add up, and may end up significant, and ANet already stated there will be multiple tiers of infusions.

LeoXearo.3641:

I can’t stand how people keep bringing up GW1.

Gw1 was not an MMO, Gw2 is an MMO… They are not the same type of game.

You know, kind of like how warcraft is an RTS and WoW is an MMO… Different game type but same world and lore.

Who cares if GW1 didn’t raise the level cap? What’s that have to do with Gw2?

And why are people acting like an expansion is coming out soon? It’s going to be a really long time before that happens so all you people who can’t stand character progression can enjoy never needing to progress for many months to come.

I mean really, why even play an MMO if you don’t want to ever worry about upgrading you characters? Go play a FPS or something.

In case you haven’t noticed, this game is called Guild Wars 2, not World of Tyria. It’s obvious it is a sequel, as it is obvious that WoW isn’t Warcraft 4.

Now, if course it will be different. But it is already different enough. This isn’t a reason to let Arena Net make every mistake in the book.

I would if they had made a statement and at least acknowledge there’s been dissent about the ascended gear.
So far, they have been ignoring this particular issue.

While I won’t go into conspiracy theories like we’ve seen lately, and while we may have a bit a faith left in ArenaNet, maybe they’re just not in control anymore, or at least not free to do what they want.
We all know how publishers can ruin very good games. There’s plenty of examples…

Yes.

There are plenty of ways to reward players other than better gear.

Exotics were fine, in a middle ground between not too easy (so that you’d still feel some sense of accomplishment when getting your full set) and not too hard (so that even the most casual players had a chance to get them).

GW2 should focus on all these other ways (i.e. horizontal progression). Some are already in-game (skins, title, achievement, etc), and a lot more have been suggested during the last few days. I’ve actually seen such good ideas that, if ArenaNet decides to rollback the recent changes and implement these ideas, it might be the best thing to happen to the game (for instance, on top of my head, unique dyes with special effect/gradient).

inb4 someone argues that it’s the RPG part which means Rgear Pgrind Game (at least they got the last one right)

If they state, once and for all, in a clear, unambiguous manner, that vertical item progression is definitely what they want for the future of GW2 and that they were wrong about their manifesto, then they’ll earn my respect back. I still won’t be playing anymore, but I’ll be at ease with it.

If they essentially remove ascended gear (either by downscaling it to exotic level, or merging it together with the exotic tier), then I’ll keep on playing, but with a grain of salt (i.e. no money spending for a while, to assess the situation).

Bonus point is they remove agony too.

If they remove ascended gear and agony and make an announcement about how they were wrong and apologize for trying to mislead us, then they’ll earn some of my trust back (and probably some of my wallet with it too).

Anything less and it’s a no.

Sorry if my comment have been interpreted as “hostile”. “Sarcastic” was more what I had in mind when I wrote it.

I would happily have had a constructive discussion with you if Arena Net didn’t throw all my belief (and what I though was theirs) away with the last update.
You just wrote the wrong thing at a very wrong time.

mantrunks.4810:

I have a feeling it’s the same people posting on this forum, for all I am reading is the same people quoting eachother, and just spitting out the words again in a different form. It almost looks like high school again.

Just get the new gear and call it a day or stop playing. I’m pretty sure that ANET has already read the posts, if not the main “theme” of this thread, and will figure something out. They can’t just pull the plug on the ascended gear as it has the infusion aspect which would just make new dungeon even harder. They can’t just pull the plug on the new dungeon they spent hours on developing, coding, testing etc. There is no magic switch in programming and business.

Solutions for that already have been proposed : make ascended items the same stats as exotics.
It still wouldn’t solve the entire problem (which is ascended gear and agony system spreading through other content — future and existing), but it’d be a step in the right direction.
The next, harder step, would be to merge exotics and ascended together into the same tier (i.e. add an infusion slot to existing exotics, or at least a way to upgrade them cheaply and/or quickly).

Yeah Anet, it’s still time to change your views on the holy trinity and add it back to the game.
After all, you already did it for the gear treadmill.

And I’m (almost) serious ; I don’t see myself playing this game anymore with the ascended crap. Let’s cater to your true core audience and change Guild Wars 2 into Generic Wars 2.

After reading a lot of other people expressing my feelings about the next update in this thread, I finally decided to post this message.
Not to add anything to the discussion, sadly. Everything already has been said.

But I just don’t want to remain silent.

Because I love Guild Wars 2. Arena Net had one hell of a game. Taking Guild Wars 1’s formula and applying it to the MMO genre was huge, and was exactly what I was looking for.
Fully horizontal progression, reasonably fast leveling, reachable max stat gear.
And the perspective for so much content to enjoy without worrying about accessibility.

Instead, they apparently decided to go with Ascended gear (vertical progression), Agony (gated content), and yet another currency.

While it seems to be only a small step for now (only 2 slots for ascended items, and agony only kicking in for increased difficulty in the same dungeon), it’s already a step in the wrong direction. And it’s already a step too much.

I don’t really feel betrayed, because I feared that someday, the level cap would be increased ; I was secretly hoping it would never happen, because it would effectively be the same as introducing a new tier of gear. But it seems to have been confirmed through a video linked in this thread.
I do feel disappointed though, because I didn’t think it would happen so fast, and in this form they kept telling us wouldn’t be in GW2.

I also almost feel angry, because there is so much they could have done without introducing a new tier with stats increase.
They decided to go for the easy way. This very way every single other MMO out there choose to go after.

I feel sad.