Sounds kinda like the bug that royally pissed off my girlfriend the other day, when we simply couldn't even get the prompt to join each other's personal stories, specifically on our human mains.
Sounds kinda like the bug that royally pissed off my girlfriend the other day, when we simply couldn't even get the prompt to join each other's personal stories, specifically on our human mains.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
I've stopped playing for a few reasons.
Everything is a gold sink. Everything.
Gold is made by:
farming DE's - Anti-farm code to severely discourage this.
farming dungeons - huge diminishing returns
buying gems
TP trading - based around mystic forge gambling or marking swings on volume trades
It's hard to define why I don't like GW2 at 80. I've explored the world. I've got achievements. I've got a nice gear set from a dungeons I farmed 60 times. None of that posed any challenge at all. Nothing required guild teamwork or coordination. Guild's don't even matter anyway, they offer you nothing except a chat window. There was nothing I did with other players that made me think "we are getting better as a team".
I feel the bar has been set so low for all that every goal at 80 is trivially easy or entirely pointless. I can go farm a legendary, but it doesn't help me at all. It doesn't make me look badass because it's simply a time/gem investment and nothing more. People stood around with Ashkandi in Org because it said "ive killed nef" not because it said "ive farming 250 different types of herbs". That kind of goal just doesn't exist in GW2 in any degree.
I understand that Anet tried to give hardcore acheivement driven players a goal to strive for with cool looking armour while not gimping casuals and I applaud that design. It's a fantastic system. The problem is the implimentation is horrible.
The goal for hardcore players should be prestige not gear advantage. Anet have done that. Although there is no difference between the guilded, coordinated, vent using, world class dungeon team that clears a place TA in 10 minutes with no downs/deaths and the pugged group with 1 afk'er who have all died 90 times but still managed to clear the place by spawn zerging the last boss.
Every time someone says they're frustrated because they can't farm or the DR kicks in (which is speculation btw) a puppy dies.
After following GW2 for months it was plainly clear that this was not a "fastest player sets the pace" like the other WoW-style games. Not sure where that got lost in translation. That was one of the biggest selling points for me. I work a lot and can't keep up with the Jones's farming my way to glory.
I'm loving the game just PLAYING it. Like it was designed. Last night I was in Diessa Plateau on my 80 and had a BLAST killing that big giant dood that takes over the fort. Did I get yellow drops? Ton's of karma? Some tier 7 mats? No. Was it hella fun? Yea. And the people around me after it was done sat and chatted a bit about how much they love this game.
I think the bigger claim than 'I've killed nef' was 'I killed nef and was lucky enough to get Ashkandi'
Other than that I agree. I feel like the base endgame is farm. Kinda sad, but true. I have to say as soon as I hit 80 I was having loads less fun with the game. Low level content is too easy and making a new character is often rather slow to begin and hard to get into after getting used to a profession.
Kind of thing I like is keeping my momentum through a game. When I completed Torchlight 2, I went to the New Game plus NPC and started again, scaling the game to start at around level 52. It means I don't have to slow down my play style. It means I can keep the momentum I've been gathering from levelling and just keep going at a sustained difficulty. I've been having a lot of trouble finding this in GW2.
To be fair, this is kinda what the series is built on. I would go so far as to say that it is one of the main draws of the franchise. Just play and everything comes to you eventually.Just log in and do stuff, because the outcome - your success - is completely a given
Even in GW1 the "grinds" were not mandatory and progressively became more trivial as the game(s) rolled out new campaigns.
In GW1 it was mostly like this for us:
"Hey, anyone want to join for a hard mode mission?"
"Maybe later I'm doing a little casual PVP in FA"
"I'll join. Still need my ZQ for today."
"Anyone else?"
"Nah. Farming a bit so I can make this cool armor"
Its sorta how the series has always been. Just play whatever, whenever, however and with whomever you please. None of us were more powerful than the other for working on the beer drinking achievement, playing polymock, doing some halls or running a mission we probably ran a hundred times over. Urgoz? We did that like all the time. There was no real reward for it- just got money [trivial] and the fun/challenge/interest of it all.
Now I don't think GW2 is nearly as cerebral or in-depth as the first games. But the sequel is at least consistent in what players enjoyed of the first ones. The goals of the game(s) are definitively casual focused. None of the GW games are "intense", for lack of a better term.
To this day one of the most "chaotic" flat out awesome moments I've ever been a part of was during Ulduuar 25 man progression. We miss-pulled and every healer save one died at 65-70%. Instead of calling a wipe someone yelled push it... The healer put in a godly performance and everyone else played perfectly; hit every cool down, got every interrupt, avoided all the fires... It was the overcoming a clear screw-up and the efforts of that one healer that made it so entertaining.
Honestly, its always been the overcoming the mistakes that made it fun for me.
I'm enjoying end game immensely.
Hit 80 a little over a week ago, still only 59% map exploration, so many zones I haven't even been in yet, so many jump puzzles left to complete, so many dungeons yet to conquer, and I've finally broken into Orr.
About 2 am myself and about 10 others along with a very handy thief got as far as Lyssa. We didn't have enough people to take down the Priestess and had to make a strategic retreat. I'm floored by the otherworldly art style. Tyria is a wondrous place.
1205 achievement points so far, my achievement list is still mostly empty bars. Have 2 crafts leveled to 400, 6 more I haven't started on. I've only dabbled in WvW and haven't touched arena yet.
Still playing with builds and weapon sets, so many choices and ways to play an elementalist - it's the most fun I've ever had with a character in any game.
Very happy customer here
Valar morghulis
Well, using the term "stronger" might be misleading. I guess, "None of us were better off than the other" might be more accurate?
The Guild Wars series is simply designed this way. The goals are sorta centered on you- be it a nice armor skin or achievement in your HOM. It's just lite/fun/fluffy stuff and nothing more.
You make a point of "challenge". That's fair and I would agree it's not an especially hard or difficult MMO. The challenging parts are [in my opinion] challenging in a manner that makes no real sense. Such as how one can clear some expo modes with barely a death/auto attacking away. Yet a story mode trash pull can insta wipe a party in but a few seconds.
It kinda is your fault though. Not to be rude or anything. The series is casual focused as I said before. All the games made in this franchise are of this stripe.Is it my fault for not knowing that GW2 was the MMO equivalent of Farmville? I dunno, maybe. I don't really think so, though, because I look at everything the game was presented as and currently is, and I like the ideas.
We'll just have to see how things are balanced in the long term w/r/t difficulty. Though the concept of game difficulty is one that is mostly personal.
I know what you mean. Kinda of rant-y here but I feel like MMOs that I truly enjoy are not really made anymore. Even the few MMOs recently which were games I enjoyed have made concessions in gameplay I do not want/enjoy for purposes of broad appeal.It's an entire rant all its own, discussing why MMO's all feel like horrible excuses for games right now. I guess they just want to be as simple and all-inclusive as possible rather than challenging players.
Somewhat jokingly I said in the Vanguard thread I expect to one day retire to an EQ1 timelock server and live out my remaining MMO days somewhere between Old Guk and Kael Drakkel. /oldlady
Last edited by Fencers; 2012-10-01 at 08:07 PM.
I dunno. Maybe they are "trivial" games. Maybe not in some regards.
It's a tough nut to crack. Mostly because I admit to being fairly biased here. I really enjoy the first Guild Wars games. Though it's difficult to explain why.
The first games weren't super duper hard, though they could be challenging at times. There wasn't a lot of progression outside of personal satisfaction [ahh, finally crafted my blahblah armor]. Some aspects of the game were faultily designed, lacking in execution or design savvy- in fact, a lot of it felt archaic even circa GWEN. Now, almost prehistoric. Blah blah.
Despite this I think there can be real joy in a game despite flaws or lack of rigour. If I may use Torchlight 2 as an example of a game I am currently playing. Now I realize TL2 and GW2 are very different games. Stay with me here for a moment.
TL2 is easy as pie. I ran through the hardest difficulty on Hardcore mode with ease. Nothing to it for an ARPG veteran. Heck, I didn't even know half the game's mechanics when I did it and I am still unsure of many aspects of gameplay. Like I literally have no fucking clue how health regen works.
In many ways, Path of Exile is a deeper, more thoughtful game. Far more demanding as well. I scarcely got a hardcore character to level 50 in almost 8 months or play. I need to be cautious at all times, measure my steps, play the market, farm, plan my build, etc. Every progress step I take feels monumental because the road there was so tough.
I sorta have more fun with TL2 though. The game was just a joy to play for the fun of it. There isn't really any progression left for me in TL2 either. Just farm random maps till I die one day and /sob. It's been... a week or two since release?
For me, this is how I view and treat Guild Wars 2. I have fun in the game simply because some things are fun to do. I don't push it- sometimes I am out there for 2 hours jumping around on rocks/killing stuff/trying a dungeon. Some days I just log in for half an hour and fight level 20 trolls or drakes... for fun.
The Guild Wars series hinges on a player finding these things fun at a basic level in and of themselves. It truly is pick-up & play/drop anytime gameplay. There isn't much to be done for the player who simply isn't having fun/joy in fighting a little mini boss in Metrica or Timberline Falls... just because.
I would say that is the crux of the franchise. Why did we run that dungeon, jump atop these rocks or farm that area? "Just because."
Last edited by Fencers; 2012-10-01 at 08:41 PM.
Exactly. There are very few required goals in GW2 (or GW1). Obviously using required in the sense of, needed in order to progress/be competitive. The games are designed around maximizing fun factor, not maxing rewards. If you get bored, take a break, come back a few months later - you'll be able to pick up where you left off, without worrying about what others have done in the time you've been gone. Sure, the meta probably shifted, and if patches/expansions have been released people may be focusing on newer content - but I've never seen a region (in GW1) totally abandoned, and I doubt I will in GW2.
GW2 puts the onus on you. Set your own goals (though they give you plenty of options), have fun doing what you want to do, when you want to do it, with whom you want to do it with. Just don't expect the game to hold your hand and tell you/push you to do something.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
WvW is meant to be played with a group. If you are just wandering around by yourself you are doing it wrong. My server has multiple alliances and multiple mumble/teamspeak servers that you can join if you aren't already part of an alliance. Get in there, find out where everyone is at, and join the party. If you want a game where you can run around solo and gank lowbies go play WoW. WvW is for team play and large scale battles. There's a reason it's called World vs World and not lonely individual vs lonely individual. Join your world and fight the opposing servers or stop taking up a slot for someone who is actually willing to help the cause.
As for queue times, I'm on Jade Quarry (currently ranked 3rd in the US) and the queue really isn't that bad. Most nights even during prime time it takes 15-20 minutes to get into a borderland. Eternal Battlegrounds takes longer for sure, but I don't really care where I am as long as I'm fighting the good fight with some friends.
Got to level 80 today with 189 hours /age on one character (lots of AFK time). So far enjoying it a lot, don't think I'll run out of things to do anywtime soon.
---------- Post added 2012-10-03 at 02:14 AM ----------
It is not different in that aspect. The reason I started playing WoW to begin with was the solid lore from Warcraft 3. "The crux" hasn't changed here, I do dungeons for the story. Maybe you guys have different reasons to play, but I don't think gear treadmill and competitiveness is very important for the majority in either wow or gw 2, maybe in other games, bot not MMORPGs.
While I agree with you that gear treadmill and competitiveness was never an attraction in any MMO I've played, I feel I have to point out that you can't say "for the majority [of players]" about a personal opinion, unless you've got solid numbers to back it. Maybe you're right, maybe you're not. But there's been quite enough of generalizations based on personal opinions as it is.
I'm enjoying the fact I don't need to do anything I dislike. I love having best gear in game. I loved that I don't have to worry about it at all.
I don't like that I don't have much to do other than farming gold or explore. I hate spvp because of some mechanics, namely downed state which is terrible and that my class has to play "tanky" in order to be succesful -- I like to nuke ppl, not cc and kite them around.
So... Feelings mixed. I still play it every evening, but I don't do anything but farm gold and do some occasional wvw with guild.
IF they going to work on this game, IF they fix pve, make it easier and much more epic, IF they remove downed state, or at least add normal battlegrounds... Well then this game will be simply awesome.
That sorta doesn't make sense though. Because the gameplay in World of Warcraft is not dependent on the story aspects. That also holds true for GW2.
That the games have a "story" is fine. That one enjoys it is fine.
Story is not gameplay.
The expression of gameplay in WoW from literal level 1 through 60 [I don't know what the cap is now] is flatly revealed as a process of statistical upgrades. Like the very first quests in Eolwynn Forest are created in this manner.
Well... I think I've been playing the end game since I started playing on the day the head start launched. I'm doing the same thing I did to level up at level 80 and I wouldn't still be playing if I didn't enjoy it. There are still things in game I haven't seen yet, running through the game a second time (because I wasn't happy with my main) I discovered so many things I didn't the first time, it's pretty amazing how much there is to see, and I still haven't seen it all and I don't think I will for months. I'm talking purely about PvE here.
I haven't done a ton of PvP because it's not as interesting to me, and I refuse to pug the majority of a group, PvE or PvP.
"Questions are for those seeking answers. Those who have answers are those who have asked questions." -Mike R. (Malthurius)
Like the game overall apart from the diminishing returns systems they've implemented into farming drops and dynamic events. The dungeon system is fine, I'm used to running only a few dungeons a day anyway from wow and swtor, so that system doesn't bother me.