Nembool

Lydeck, on 20 May 2013 - 04:08 PM, said:

How long are we supposed to wait for the product we paid for? Waiting a year isn't long enough?

How long are we supposed to wait for the product we expected? Waiting 8 years isn't long enough?

I think a lot less people would throw in the towel if 1) ANet admitted the problems and said they were working on them or 2) ANet showed that they were working on them with each update.

So far, I don't think there is a good example of anything being worked on, other than the Living Story and it's associated gem shop items.

borovnica, on 20 May 2013 - 06:54 PM, said:

And I agree that is part of the bigger problematic trend that I see in GW2. They are stingy with their rewards.  

You only get good rewards, once in a blue moon, during really special events.  In usual cases, you can kill a veteran and get junk crap or nothing at all.  I suspect that trend may be because they want more people to buy gems and convert them to gold and to buy gems with real money as the gem price goes up.

The reward-motivation factor is just not there for most content.

El Duderino, on 17 May 2013 - 08:11 PM, said:

Agreed.

But I think the ultimate difference between GW1 and 2 is that in GW2 they tried to make everything too easy on the player. Biggest example is the combat, in GW1 combat required forethought (and fore-building for that matter, hence "build wars" but that's another issue), action and reaction. It was much more structured, slow-paced but definitely more blood pumping since everything hinged on how you respond to enemy movements, enchantments, hexes, interrupts, massive heals, spikes, splits, everything requires strategy and a way to go about.
GW2 is exactly the opposite, zerg wars, boons all being autonomous and "fire and forget," conditions being autonomous damage, the only things that encourage active gameplay at all are stuns, stun breaks, and evades. Everything is autonomous and externally controlled so the player can have as much convenience as possible instead of needing to micromanage anything, which translates into no challenge, no depth, and no teamwork in the traditional sense. This is why I enjoy playing evasion builds in sPvP, but sadly sPvP is dead and can't last me forever.

The biggest problem is that in order for ArenaNet to fix these problems, they're going to need to change the core of the game... Changing the core of any program is a daunting task, even in object-oriented frameworks.

To tackle a revamp of Guild Wars 2 is a daunting task to say the least. Consider how many elements went into making Guild Wars 2 and how many features they wanted to release with at launch:

• Player versus environment content
  
• World vs world
  
• Structured player vs player
  
• Crafting
  
• End-game dungeons
  
• Dynamic events
  
• Action-based combat
  
• Loot tables based on rarity
  
• Magic find
  
• Mini-games
  
• Tutorials
  
• Jumping puzzles

It's honestly ridiculous how much they stretched out the game just to make this crazy package of features, none of which really work correctly. It's like Guild Wars 2 is the jack of all trades, master of none. I would have been fine without: magic find, crazy loot rarity, world vs world (I mean really, what the hell is world vs world even doing in a Guild Wars game) and so much more.

I just wish they would have listened to their real fans, not all of the whiners who wanted an experience that was more like World of Warcraft.

Guardian of the Light, on 16 May 2013 - 10:44 AM, said:

Basically this...

Going OMG QQ I HATE RNG WAH WAH all over the forums then going in game and buying 50 rng boxes is not gonna change anything.

If you dont like dont buy, if enough people follow then change will come. If not then well the majority does not agree with you.

Manzinger, is it possible for you to throw this on the official forums? I'm sure it'll get nuked right away, but it's worth a shot to get more attention. This is probably the most professional explanation of why this practice needs to stop. I don't want to see ANet fall, and I also agree with the person that pointed out Kristin Cox. ANet would have never done this cash shop nonsense in GW1, the cash shop items were always up-front and honest. I don't want to see ANet fall any lower, something has to change.

dannywolt, on 15 May 2013 - 09:46 PM, said:

Sorry, but I recently acquired a tinfoil hat and think Nexon's 15% share of NCSoft had perhaps more to do with it than legitimate desire.

Even so, the lockboxes are kind of her thing since the previously mentioned MapleStory so why they brought her on notwithstanding, they are "her" idea and a rejection of it (fantasizing here, obviously) coinciding with her sacking would not be uncommon in the business world. New monetization scheme = new monetization manager.

In the interests of civility it is, however, likely better to focus on the ideology than the person. Further railing against Crystin Cox will do little, but if people want a name for who's at fault, Cox and Nexon should probably be the first in line.

Well, they need to destroy those "free" gems somehow.

dannywolt, on 15 May 2013 - 09:46 PM, said:

The difference being that GW1 skins were in-game items (at least the ones you are talking about), whereas GW2 skins are cash shop items: high-end skins in GW1 were something you played for, "high-end" GW2 skins are something you pay for.

I would love to see more players united against the lockboxes. They are predatory and manipulative in the very same way that combining a gear treadmill and a subscription fee is... Yet ArenaNet cheerfully waxed poetic on how unscrupulous the P2P market is. GW1 had an "honest" cash shop based on flat fees and a fair amount of my anticipation for GW2 was partly based on the assurance that the cash shop would mirror its predecessor. GW1 did just fine with an honest cash-for-(digital) goods system, why are we now tolerating anything different?

I have yet to buy a key or lockbox, though I've otherwise purchased gems and gem store items. I want Arena Net to do well, I want to support them, I want them to have the funds to pay happy, healthy workers and flood the game with polish and content. I don't want them to employ shady marketing practices.

Ship Crystin Cox back to NCSoft (edit: Nexon? whatever - MapleStory) where she belongs.

Juanele, on 04 May 2013 - 07:29 PM, said:

Grind is not a state of mind. I am well qualified to point this out.

Grind is the consequence of your in-game goals taking a big part in your enjoyment of the game, and those goals are actually long-term goals that you want to coax to happen in the shortest time frame possible. The difficult of the goal is what sets the time frame required, and that difficulty is 100% determined by developers, not by nature or chance.

Now, presently I have concluded most short-term goals I could have. All alts are at 80, the map is fully explores, got more achievements that I would care for, at a bare minimum of exotic gear across my characters.

The grind kicks in when I want to customize my characters to my liking. This is mostly a long-term goal you see, but a feature that I've enjoyed and taken for granted during my six years career in GW1. Which now I see it being taken from me.

First comes the armor. I want my crew to look stunningly. That is the "easiest" of the bunch. For five characters, it would take me about 106~ dungeon runs in the appropriate dungeons, more or less. To my woe, one of the armors I wanted was from Arah, so that kinda settled me back for at least two months, as that place was tough as nails. The rest eventually followed.

Now for weapons. Since Legendaries are out of the question, for obvious reasons, I looked at my options. Dungeon weapons are good looking, but I wanted to focus on my armor, but after I got the armor, doing a dungeon felt like a chore.

I picked a Corrupted axe for my Necromancer, a Destroyer staff for my Elementalist, Foefire's Power to my Guardian, Arachnophobia to my Ranger and that glowing mesmer sword for my Mesmer. A pretty modest roster of weapons if you ask me. Pity they are insane to gather, and the alternatives are pretty meek. But what is in common with all these weapons? They are all crafted, and their material requirements are ludicrous. 30 Lodestones for the Axe, another 30 for the staff, 100 for the Bow, 100 for the Hammer, and 250 globs of Ectoplasm for the sword.

Noticed a pattern here? Most craftable cosmetics have insane drop requirements, that cannot be possibly acquired via normal gameplay. At least I don't consider doing dungeon ad nausea or farming Orr events "normal" gameplay.

After four months of wailing endlessly at the game, doing dungeons regularly and experiencing the game normally, I was nowhere near my goals. I accrued a small wealth but that was it. This to me, was heart wrenching.

And now, they keep throwing at me this exciting opportunities in the cash shop. I practically burned what little I had trying to get one of the new Fused Weapon skins. No such luck, and now I'm poor.

This game became a grind to me when the goals itself presented to me, are so overturned and so needlessly complicated, that I have no other choice but to anguish over the things I want, but not being able to pursue them in a suitable pace.

And that's why I'm cutting ties with this game for the time being. At least WoW makes a good job with making me cosmetic appeasing, and a better still with it's rewards.

Susanoh, on 04 May 2013 - 11:19 PM, said:

Fair enough. And, I agree about the skins aspect. It is seething from GW1 I loved. However, I also liked the suspense of being in a specific area and knowing there was a chance for a unique rate to drop. Unfortunately, the only equivalent for this in GW2 are precursors which basically don't drop. If you want specific gear at max level, almost everything requires a specific set of steps to get them, namely doing specific content a specific number of days.

There is very little sense of treasure hunting or excitement when it comes to gear, which was something GW1 did so well.

Illein, on 19 February 2013 - 07:50 AM, said:

+1 for this. Reward system sucks.

The problem of damage being the only source of loot determination makes it hard for WvW to convince others to play more support orientated roles because all they see at the end of a raid evening is that they've got 20 Badges while everyone else might have gotten 50-70.

My problem isn't that champions don't drop the blue I want, my problem is that nothing in this game drops anything of relevance or value pretty much. I am not exactly sure how many hours /age I have - but I'd hazard a guess and say it's about ~1800 hours since August and I got exactly 3 exotic drops which weren't account-bound despite doing high lvl fractals, dungeons, temple events, dragons - you name it.

That's a pathetic loot system that doesn't need a little twiddling here and there it needs utter revision.