Aventurian

Not going to rage but I will say that I am pretty bummed out by this news. It seems this is the first time Arena Net actually considered giving worthwhile loot from an event, and it is also the first time I made the conscious choice not to bother participating because of just how poorly handled and at times unplayable the preceding events were.

Over the last several years in GW1, the GW2 BWEs, and the recent Halloween I’ve fought to make the time to attend and participate in every event, but these recent issues and Arena Net’s blatant refusal to even acknowledge what most consider an acceptable, simple, and even at times necessary fix to the problem have left me burned out and disinterested in the game in general. It’s a real shame too; this time last year if you had told me that Arena Net’s unfaltering dedication to bringing large scale, open world, dynamic, free content at a rapid pace would be the thing that virtually kills the game for me I’d have laughed at you. But then quality counts for more than quantity to me, and I’d much prefer Arena Net stop giving us an event a month in favor of one event every few months that actually works.

No, the game hasn't changed much yet. I wouldn't bother with others' opinions on where the game has gone lately. You'll get those who defend the game until death who will tell you nothing's wrong and those who enjoy complaining as much as possible who will tell you it will never get better and can only die from here. Just look at recent patch notes and see what additions have been made. Or log in? It's not as if you're paying extra money to jump back into the game.

Expherious, on 17 November 2012 - 08:41 PM, said:

Yeah, it does sound like that, doesn't it?  Like maybe ArenaNet would rather have our money handed to them to do something most of us don't enjoy just to get a shiny new toy to start shoveling more of what we don't enjoy.

Gee.

DuskWolf, on 17 November 2012 - 10:51 AM, said:

Half way through the Zaitan fight, the truth hit me and I was awoken to the huge pile of lies GW2 PvE was in reality - after months of buying into the hype.

Ever since then, they've kept on forging a path directly perpendicular to their stated manifesto. But that continuing divergence is just accepted now and doesn't even shock me.

"Revolutionary"? It's barely Evolutionary.

Briar, on 16 November 2012 - 03:36 PM, said:

Bravo! A brilliant post! Simply brilliant!

The point that some fail to realise is the failure to deliver on the potential of GW2. But what was that potential? What did they promise us? What was the core of it? Fun, dagummit! Fun!!

Today, people log on to scour the shores of a beach for flotsam and jetsam. What sort of depraved mind sees that as fun? Do they have actuaries developing content, there? Please, allow me to share some perspective with whomever is bold enough to read this: You have a book in your hands, and the chapter you're on describes a character who's walking along a beach checking similar items. There are only very base descriptions of the objects at hand, and you're aware that a lot of other people are sharing this activity with the protagonist. The motivation to do this is very suspect, and yet they do it because they've been told to do it.

You sit back, you look at your book, and you wonder whether you're reading some kind of psychiatry textbook. Because it all sounds like some twisted social experiment, as you couldn't imagine a more boring activity. But no, apparently the author thought that this would be fun to read. Instead, you put the book down. You saunter over to your bookshelf and pick up something with true adventure, emotiona, and drama in it. Something that's actually fun to read.

And fun is the problem here. Everything is timid, tame, quiet, and... how can I put this? Limited isn't quite the correct word. It's like a playground where every child is given edutational tasks, busywork to keep them quiet. Just enough to keep them interested, but not enough for them to be entertained. It's not fun, it's just something to do. The tasks keep the mind occupied, and the promise of better things brings in operant conditioning. Something better will be just around the corner, so let's continue with our menial labour for now. It will get better eventually. Except aside from a few moments, it doesn't. It really doesn't.

Operant conditioning is never a substitute for fun.

Anyone who reads this needs to understand the Rule of Fun.

I keep linking that in the hopes that people will read it and perhaps open their eyes.

Now, if I'd designed this game? The Black Citadel would have been much larger in scale. Lots more NPCs, and something almost akin to a fantasy dyson sphere. The engineer would have had a chainsaw at his disposal, along with other fun gadgets, and a small army of mobile bots to aid him in the field. The engineer himself would be in heavy armour that makes him look almost like a heavy tank, and he'd have massive presence on the battlefield. This is what I'd consider fun. To be honest, GW2 feels like a cheap knock off of the game I would have designed. Egotistical? Arrogant? Maybe. But bloody true.

Because if there's one thing I know... it's that fun is important. The Rule of Fun is the most important design rule of all. Instead, as a charr, I found my city to be underwhelming compared to the concept art. I found that my most fun tool as an enginere was a piss-poor 'flamethrower' that missed most of the time. How do you do that? How do you make a flamethrower unfun? How?! How bad do you have to be at design, how much must you hate fun, in order to make a flamethrower like the one engineers have to put up with in GW2? Who thought that was a good idea?

And this is the problem. GW2, as it stands, has an absence of fun. I don't find my city fun, I find it boring. I don't find my profession fun, I find it boring. I don't find the content fun, I find it boring. I don't find the new content fun, either. I mean, if you find sifting through junk on a beach to be genuinely fun then... I have to ask. Are you an actuary? Have you ever daydreamed? Ever read a comic book or a stirring novel? What's wrong with MMORPG developers and players? Are you all so soulless? So much so that you accept a treadmill as an acceptable substitute for fun.

What the hell, people?

And that's my problem. I don't want to log in to GW2 because none of the things I could do are fun. Hanging out in my city isn't fun. Playing the engineer isn't fun. Doing the content isn't fun. And unlike many MMORPG gamers, I'm not a weak-minded person who falls prey to operant conditioning. I don't think that a treadmill is the be-all-and-end-all answer to everything. And don't tell me that you need a treadmill to create fun, because that's utter nonsense. And don't tell me that it would be hard for ArenaNet to make GW2 fun, either.

I've played a bunch of indie games lately that were fun and had no need for progression. Hands up! How many of you have played Hotline Miami? Made by two people, no progression, and you want to keep playing it. Why? It's fun, damn it.

ArenaNet could fix this this. I KEEP STRESSING THIS.

But they'll only fix it if we pull our heads out of the sand and tell them that we want fun, not treadmills. I'm no one's enemy, here.

---- Edit ----

I kind of want to expand on how let down I feel by how tame and uncreative the game is.

Okay, the Black Citadel. In the original concept art, it was a gigantic sphere. What this did with my imagination was a fantasy dyson sphere. Yes. Basically, what I thought was that due to the unique physiology of oozes, they could basically have an oozecore, constantly lit up. That would work similar to geothermal energy for them, and they'd use that to power the various parts of the Citadel, all of which would be a giant, self-replicating machine. A machine that produces more.

This would explain how they manufacture the various things that they do. The massive let down that is the actual Black Citadel doesn't at all have the scope to support the kind of things they're building, and that disappoints me. How amazing would a giant dyson sphere of black metal have been? Instead of just the slapdash war camp that it turned out to be, with random bits of junk plating, it could have been this beautiful clockpunk machine with lots of moving parts.

They instanced the game, so there's really no excuse. Even with the amount of players, a properly optimisd engine can run very complex looking locales populated by lots of units. Look at Assassin's Creed, for example. Or, hell, Everquest II. EQ II had absolutely massive cities. And with that sort of design they could have really lived up to the original concept art. Instead, it's just ... timid, tame. "No, no," I can almost hear the actuary heading up GW2's design saying, "that's far too over the top. Their tiny minds wouldn't be able to have that much fun. Tone it down. Make it smaller. Smaller. More humble. Less impressive. It's still not unimpressive enough. Do you have a problem understanding the concept of less impressive?"

And the end result just leaves me feeling cold.

StormDragonZ, on 17 November 2012 - 08:46 AM, said:

In the world of gear grinding, damage does mean everything.  Sooner or later GW2 is just going to have another competitive "cooperative" PvE experience.

I like the fractals but I can see many problems for people without a dedicated party.

But the event itself? Absolute garbage. It's something I'd have expected in 1998. GM appears and spawns a million mobs in a city. EPIC EVENT OF THE CENTURY.
They really need to stop doing this, because they obviously lack the basic knowledge to support this kind of stuff.
Massive lag, invisible mobs and players, zero skill involved, boring mechanics. I had people in my guild dropping the event half-way because it was so absolutely awful.

And the bugged investigation quest. I'm *ing tired of playing a beta every single time they update something.
We are three months after release and they still can't properly test anything before a major update.

At least we didn't get the massive login/broker/guild chat crash of doom this time. Good job Anet, it only took three months for a fix.

I'm sorry, but last time I checked it was workers who did all of what is known as work in this world.  I'm sorry you're insulted that these villainous scum feel entitled to fair pay for doing that work, but what bearing does that have on Guild Wars 2?

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The frequency of these sort of posts is beginning to make me think some of these people are on Activison's payroll.

Or could it be that quite a lot of people have begun to see the elephant in the room? Are you familiar with The Emperor's New Clothes?

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It's the sort of thing sleazy big dog companies do to upstarts they're genuinely concerned about.

That's rather paranoid and delusional.

RedStar, on 15 November 2012 - 10:32 PM, said:

Oh..god...the old "If you're not a chef, you can't tell me your food is undercooked" argument. Sorry I disagree.

I'm talking about their ability to solve problems. Everything they seem to fix seems like kneejerk reactions, that are poorly conceived and even more poorly tested. Like hot fixes that outright remove certain items that are exploited, rather than simply remove the exploit. Chili peppers come to mind.

They seem to pick the solution that makes the game less fun, every time.
Hell, they only ever seem to hotfix issues that may benefit the player in someway and call it an "exploit".

I've started advising people to tell Anet that the gamebreaking progression bug they just discovered, accidentally gave them an extra silver piece, that way it'd be fixed before they clicked 'send'.

Imagine how many bugs would have been fixed by now, if Anet thought people were getting exotics a tiny bit easier.

Look at Halloween chests. They let a few people enjoy them, then BAM! Instant, and severe nerf destroys anyone else's chances of getting anything good out of that. It's like they do it on purpose to get items in the TP, then cut it off to increase demand.

Aventurian, on 15 November 2012 - 10:36 PM, said:

Perhaps, depends on the company I'm sure.

Specialz, on 15 November 2012 - 06:53 PM, said:

So in other words, you're blaming everyone else. You're blaming the forum population for a problem you willfully perpetuate, by bumping every complaint thread to the front page, while neglecting those threads you deem worthy. All the while excusing yourself from blame because you do it for the betterment of the forum.

Here's a thought, try ignoring conversations you want no part in. Start, or participate in discussions, you feel are important. You notice how empty many rant threads would be, if you removed the self righteous fanboys showing up to defend their beloved game, and tell the big bad hater to * off? The irony is staggering. These threads dominate front pages, because people like you can't stop attacking them! Then you pretend you aren't  part of the problem. In fact the majority of posts here are supportive.

You can't see them, because you're in the complaint threads talking about how the complaint threads are being talked about too much, while talking about them, in them.

and you talk of personality disorder-like behavior...

and no, simple disagreement does not a fanboy make. Defending a company, and deriding their opponents regardless of subject, however, does.