The only down side is the dumbed down hotbar trend this game started. People are so dumb and unthinking they dont even know theyre bored because theyre spamming 5 skills over and over like a trained monkey. But those are the same people who are too dumb to handle variety so they cry about having too many skills
That's your opinion. Although I'm burnt out on GW2, it's not because of the hot bar.
I like games where you play the game and not the keyboard. Having more skills than keys you can humanly reach is not fun.
The only down side is the dumbed down hotbar trend this game started. People are so dumb and unthinking they dont even know theyre bored because theyre spamming 5 skills over and over like a trained monkey. But those are the same people who are too dumb to handle variety so they cry about having too many skills
I cannot disagree with this more. The first game showed the potential of limited hotbars. When done correctly, limited hotbars (8-10 skills) force a player to intelligently choose their builds, make sacrifices, and specialize for the content ahead. It's a test of one's buildcrafting knowledge, and when it's done right, I would pick it over "million skill" bars any day of the week.
The real problem is that Guild Wars 2's skills aren't specialized enough and enemies do not require/encourage specific skill counters like the first game did.
The only down side is the dumbed down hotbar trend this game started. People are so dumb and unthinking they dont even know theyre bored because theyre spamming 5 skills over and over like a trained monkey. But those are the same people who are too dumb to handle variety so they cry about having too many skills
I cannot disagree with this more. The first game showed the potential of limited hotbars. When done correctly, limited hotbars (8-10 skills) force a player to intelligently choose their builds, make sacrifices, and specialize for the content ahead. It's a test of one's buildcrafting knowledge, and when it's done right, I would pick it over "million skill" bars any day of the week.
The real problem is that Guild Wars 2's skills aren't specialized enough and enemies do not require/encourage specific skill counters like the first game did.
Gw2 combat always felt so limiting. Like it was holding my character back.
Looking at the reddit /r/mmorpg section with the comments about this thread and article
This is orgasmic for all the MMORPG haters that dominate mmorpg.com and the reddit mmorpg section.
And that is why I don't take the forums seriously at all. Its filled with MMO haters instead of people who actually enjoy MMOs...on a MMO site. Ever think if you hate every new MMO, its time to move on?
Its funny though any time someone likes an MMO, they get called a fanboy or a shill rofl. Just proves all the members here hate MMOs and troll an MMO forum with how much they hate MMOs.
Btw, going back to 1990s MMOs doesn't work either otherwise Vanguard would have been a success despite a bad launch (anarchy online launched badly, and it still saw success so that excuse fails right there). People ask for old MMOs, but don't actually want to play them. All the other old themed MMOs coming out are going to do just as good as Vanguard did.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
Looking at the reddit /r/mmorpg section with the comments about this thread and article
This is orgasmic for all the MMORPG haters that dominate mmorpg.com and the reddit mmorpg section.
And that is why I don't take the forums seriously at all. Its filled with MMO haters instead of people who actually enjoy MMOs...on a MMO site. Ever think if you hate every new MMO, its time to move on?
Its funny though any time someone likes an MMO, they get called a fanboy or a shill rofl. Just proves all the members here hate MMOs and troll an MMO forum with how much they hate MMOs.
Btw, going back to 1990s MMOs doesn't work either otherwise Vanguard would have been a success despite a bad launch (anarchy online launched badly, and it still saw success so that excuse fails right there). People ask for old MMOs, but don't actually want to play them. All the other old themed MMOs coming out are going to do just as good as Vanguard did.
Old mmos were good vs the new ones that feel watered down, too easy, shallow but have much better visuals. Same as songs I hear an older song (I’m 41 y/o) and I think damn this still sounds so great vs new songs which disappear after a year or even copy the beats from old songs.
Jeez is this even an official article in a gaming website? r/Guildwars2/ redditors rant better with some constructive criticism too. This one is just your everyday qq.
Here's my answer and I'm no hardcore fanboy anymore like 2 years ago but I can shed some light as a self-proclaimed vet in this game, which many other vets may nod in agreement..
What is end game in gw2?
Let me very honest with you first, I have a love and hate relationship with loot boxes and chancing for that omfgawdd I just dropped the rarest shit (waves my shiny donger at plebs wherever I go). I also miss the vertical progression shiny +15 armors in MU, RAN online, BnS weapon etc where I could literally spend countless hours of frustration to get the most OP shit in the market and via P2W cash shop. HOWEVER, in gw2 has revolutionary systems that standard MMO players don't have to worry about aka outgeared in PvP and derp in PvE with judgmental glare like FFXIV. C'mon you can't rant about gear in PvP cuz amulets actually give you a lot of playable options. Sure it doesn't have the uhmmph that most fighting games have but that's I believe tied more towards collision sfx and vfx than anything. Let's say you play league of legends or BnS, the combat is actually more enticing as every impact feels heavier and landing that ''skillshot" feels amazing. I don't necessary recommend any start adding random popup banners to tell whether a shot was ''perfect, great, awesome" but the crits can use a visual and sound effect per weapon so it feels great to smack something. This has been present since year 2000 with Ragnarok Online and Maple Story where crits had glaring pop-up with a unique sfx, vfx. One thing anet did in the right direction is to use standard models for pvp and WvW to reduce visual clutter. However, it needs a lot more visual polish that MOBAs generally have. A projectile has standardized particle effect and size where '''sidestep" dodging is actually a skill and visuals on kiting and positioning (LoS) matters a lot to winning a fight. So far, gw2 has no real visual queues that indicate I'm being targeted or will be attacked and before I react I'm already downed by a rando gank (cough* looking at you max stacks sigil of bloodthirst thief and shatter mesmer). It's not fun to be forced into a meta I understand.. but note this gw2 IS the one MMO that the word META is overrated because I can play an off meta and cream a lot of supposedly META build, youre right that gw2 skill variance had been reduced a lot by ridiculous balance team but most are in tack for experimentation. Just to put into perspective, my rabid base necro vs trailblazer scourge (pmuch the META wvw scourge), I can still stand a good fight with them and most fights I can win. I'm not trying to say I got mad PvP skills and you dont but it really boils down to taking the time to understand every pixel detail of what skills are used in what progression and gw2 PvP - the sky is the ceiling. Hard? Very. Fun? Imho hell yes, if you spent the time to learn. It's not the standard fighting game like rock, paper, scissors, ultimate move, finish him! It's a tug of war and gladiator kinda fight, last man standing after a bloody fight wins (a lot of people coming from other games have a misconception that gw2 is all about snowballing but it's not and I hate seeing people give up half way a match and rq when there's no early, mid, end game.. it's a plateau since the start and defense is the best offense).
End game in a nutshell.. lemme tell you the greatest conflict of all time and the struggle of the devs. Many players have split in mutiple sub groups of end gamers.. fashionistas, whales, trading post baron, drunk WvWers, toxic PvPers, acheivement hunters, raiders, theory crafters, lore crazies and lastly the filthy casuals. Obv there are others that I've not mentioned but that aside the point I'm trying to make is Anet is trying to come up with a formula to keep everyone happy most efficiently. So far the trend of their development every 3 months - New LS, PvP season + balance, and festivals. Every 6 mo on average is the fractal (I really hope they add challenge motes to all the new ones to keep the raiders in tact). All above mentioned keeps everyone happy except raiders, fashionistas and cheevo hunters.. the Anet added lootboxes and gemstore armor pieces for fashionistas. If you start to get bored of the game then either you are playing with the wrong crowd or the wrong content. How am I so adamant to say what is 'wrong' because I've forced myself multiple times to play content that I didn't care for either that be grinding myself two legendary armors, 14 legendary weapons, WvW and GvG, PvP ladders, cheevo hunting like for the legendary accessory Aurora. In the end, I figured out that my crowd and end game are fashion and trading post wars of which I can spend countless hours, relaxed, and enjoy while chilling with people in towns and on discord. You really just need to find your niche. My other end game now is to pamper nubs, but it wouldn't have been possible if this game was about me, me, me, and yours is also mine mentality (cough* roll the die for loot in dungeons and raids).
You're right, gw2 is far from perfect but the devs here are just absolutely one of the best. I can't even believe how long I followed these guys (around 9 years now). A lot of the other gaming company devs i followed 3 years tops and disappeared, not from this one.
The only down side is the dumbed down hotbar trend this game started. People are so dumb and unthinking they dont even know theyre bored because theyre spamming 5 skills over and over like a trained monkey. But those are the same people who are too dumb to handle variety so they cry about having too many skills
I cannot disagree with this more. The first game showed the potential of limited hotbars. When done correctly, limited hotbars (8-10 skills) force a player to intelligently choose their builds, make sacrifices, and specialize for the content ahead. It's a test of one's buildcrafting knowledge, and when it's done right, I would pick it over "million skill" bars any day of the week.
The real problem is that Guild Wars 2's skills aren't specialized enough and enemies do not require/encourage specific skill counters like the first game did.
Gw2 combat always felt so limiting. Like it was holding my character back.
While fair, this has very little to do with the limited skill bar. "Holding your character back," can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what purpose this serves in gameplay. If it adds to depth by forcing the player to make informed decisions, as with Guild Wars 1, this is a good thing, as it adds a strategic element to gameplay. If it is only done for the purpose of accessibility, as with Guild Wars 2, it will feel dumbed down.
Looking at the reddit /r/mmorpg section with the comments about this thread and article
This is orgasmic for all the MMORPG haters that dominate mmorpg.com and the reddit mmorpg section.
And that is why I don't take the forums seriously at all. Its filled with MMO haters instead of people who actually enjoy MMOs...on a MMO site. Ever think if you hate every new MMO, its time to move on?
Its funny though any time someone likes an MMO, they get called a fanboy or a shill rofl. Just proves all the members here hate MMOs and troll an MMO forum with how much they hate MMOs.
Btw, going back to 1990s MMOs doesn't work either otherwise Vanguard would have been a success despite a bad launch (anarchy online launched badly, and it still saw success so that excuse fails right there). People ask for old MMOs, but don't actually want to play them. All the other old themed MMOs coming out are going to do just as good as Vanguard did.
Old mmos were good vs the new ones that feel watered down, too easy, shallow but have much better visuals. Same as songs I hear an older song (I’m 41 y/o) and I think damn this still sounds so great vs new songs which disappear after a year or even copy the beats from old songs.
It's definitely generational imo. But old mmos were cool because the internet was finally a thing. You could play games with people in a different state or country that you never met before. New mmos have to do more than just connect people. In opinion that's why the genre has seemingly been in the decline since the 90's. It's common place now for people to connect on the internet. I'm guessing a handful of mmos that have come out recently (minus some questionable cash shops) would have been way more popular if the internet had been born in the last few years and not the last few decades. It was fun to play games online with other people. Now the intrigue of 'being online' isn't really that big of a deal. Because most people are online.
Looking at the reddit /r/mmorpg section with the comments about this thread and article
This is orgasmic for all the MMORPG haters that dominate mmorpg.com and the reddit mmorpg section.
And that is why I don't take the forums seriously at all. Its filled with MMO haters instead of people who actually enjoy MMOs...on a MMO site. Ever think if you hate every new MMO, its time to move on?
Its funny though any time someone likes an MMO, they get called a fanboy or a shill rofl. Just proves all the members here hate MMOs and troll an MMO forum with how much they hate MMOs.
Btw, going back to 1990s MMOs doesn't work either otherwise Vanguard would have been a success despite a bad launch (anarchy online launched badly, and it still saw success so that excuse fails right there). People ask for old MMOs, but don't actually want to play them. All the other old themed MMOs coming out are going to do just as good as Vanguard did.
Old mmos were good vs the new ones that feel watered down, too easy, shallow but have much better visuals. Same as songs I hear an older song (I’m 41 y/o) and I think damn this still sounds so great vs new songs which disappear after a year or even copy the beats from old songs.
It's definitely generational imo. But old mmos were cool because the internet was finally a thing. You could play games with people in a different state or country that you never met before. New mmos have to do more than just connect people. In opinion that's why the genre has seemingly been in the decline since the 90's. It's common place now for people to connect on the internet. I'm guessing a handful of mmos that have come out recently (minus some questionable cash shops) would have been way more popular if the internet had been born in the last few years and not the last few decades. It was fun to play games online with other people. Now the intrigue of 'being online' isn't really that big of a deal. Because most people are online.
I somehow agree with you but also will give you an example(this is my personal preference) Played wow when TBC released I loved it kept me hooked for some time vs todays wow I get bored 2 days after I resub. The game is so much different and not to my liking that is like night and day. Older games had community and playing together was a thing now is not and GW2 is like that too I'm in a very big guild and people are online no one talks no one does anything with anyone, same goes for FFXIV only active FC(guilds) that actually do things together are elite FC that if you search their names at any given time are online playing(no life players). Games are watered down and solo 90% of content the 10% requires elite(no life) to participate. I played FFXI for 15 years was a group forced mmorpg for the first 8 years or so and me as a midcore(far from elite) participated in all the endgame activities and there was no gear(ilevel) requirment you as a person mattered and was able to help and get helped.
Looking at the reddit /r/mmorpg section with the comments about this thread and article
This is orgasmic for all the MMORPG haters that dominate mmorpg.com and the reddit mmorpg section.
And that is why I don't take the forums seriously at all. Its filled with MMO haters instead of people who actually enjoy MMOs...on a MMO site. Ever think if you hate every new MMO, its time to move on?
Its funny though any time someone likes an MMO, they get called a fanboy or a shill rofl. Just proves all the members here hate MMOs and troll an MMO forum with how much they hate MMOs.
Btw, going back to 1990s MMOs doesn't work either otherwise Vanguard would have been a success despite a bad launch (anarchy online launched badly, and it still saw success so that excuse fails right there). People ask for old MMOs, but don't actually want to play them. All the other old themed MMOs coming out are going to do just as good as Vanguard did.
Old mmos were good vs the new ones that feel watered down, too easy, shallow but have much better visuals. Same as songs I hear an older song (I’m 41 y/o) and I think damn this still sounds so great vs new songs which disappear after a year or even copy the beats from old songs.
It's definitely generational imo. But old mmos were cool because the internet was finally a thing. You could play games with people in a different state or country that you never met before. New mmos have to do more than just connect people. In opinion that's why the genre has seemingly been in the decline since the 90's. It's common place now for people to connect on the internet. I'm guessing a handful of mmos that have come out recently (minus some questionable cash shops) would have been way more popular if the internet had been born in the last few years and not the last few decades. It was fun to play games online with other people. Now the intrigue of 'being online' isn't really that big of a deal. Because most people are online.
I somehow agree with you but also will give you an example(this is my personal preference) Played wow when TBC released I loved it kept me hooked for some time vs todays wow I get bored 2 days after I resub. The game is so much different and not to my liking that is like night and day. Older games had community and playing together was a thing now is not and GW2 is like that too I'm in a very big guild and people are online no one talks no one does anything with anyone, same goes for FFXIV only active FC(guilds) that actually do things together are elite FC that if you search their names at any given time are online playing(no life players). Games are watered down and solo 90% of content the 10% requires elite(no life) to participate. I played FFXI for 15 years was a group forced mmorpg for the first 8 years or so and me as a midcore(far from elite) participated in all the endgame activities and there was no gear(ilevel) requirment you as a person mattered and was able to help and get helped.
I didn't start playing wow until I had a reliable non-dial up internet. It was awesome. Not so much the actual game but being able see other human beings running around a game space with me was cool. I grew up playing kings quest and other Sierra rpgs. But to play a game with other people from all over the country or world was an awesome feeling. It was a chat room a video game and an rpg all in one. I didn't start playing until about mid way through wrath. But i was hooked for several years. Not necessarily because of the game itself. Although I had fun in it. But the technology was amazing to me. I could play a game with thousands of people from across the globe and interact with them. Nowadays that's common place. New mmos have to do more than just provide an online community. Because at this point that's old news. Developers just don't seem to understand that. At least in my opinion. Older mmos had it a lot easier because online play was just starting to become a thing.
I use to love this game. Played it for years, and then, their First Expansion, HoT, just ripped the game apart for me. Changed their whole focus at the end game.
Let me explain that: At first, their end game was Horizontal. This was epic, an innovative and wonderful idea where players could do what they wanted, and all get around the same rewards, with cosmetics being the only variable.
Then they put in Fractals, and Ascended, and this made a focus on fractal content, which, distorted the whole horizontal end game, it narrowed it, bottle-necked the game to be about fractals and Ascended gear.. they then they did this again with Raids and Legendary Armor.
So.. it made the game less optional, it forced me to grind (not just try, but grind) content I knew from previous MMO's I played, that I was not into playing this game mode.
Well, I am not going to hang around and do second-class-citizen filler content, no matter what the game. So.. after.. really.. doing my best to find my own fun.. but realizing that I was in a dead end point, and the only way I was going to progress upward was doing raids.. I left.
A good game, a solid game, and a lot of fun, but.. they chose their direction, and that is to build a end game for players that are not like me.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
It was barely competent when it comes to dungeons and WvWvW. I haven't played in a while so maybe they've fixed things but I only enjoyed exploring and leveling.
“Finally, and again this could be classified as really nitpicking, but I kind of loathe the Black Lion Store. Maybe I am just spoiled from other games, but I feel like the quality isn’t there?”
How far have we fallen? Far enough to be talking about the “quality” of cash shops it seems.
After farming all Pre-Pof Contect and farming all 3 my legendaries... I got bored so much.
I have every month 2 week pause and 2 weeks I play GW2
Raids are elitism ...Farming fractals over and over are boring... dungeons.. nobody do them..and farming events over and over is boring like fractals...
But why I play this game?
Only for WvWvW ... nothing else nothing more...
Eh, I like GW2 all in all. It does a lot of things right. There's a good reason that WoW copied some of its features, like players in the same area being able to fight the same mobs without the archaic "Only the first person who tags it gets credit" crap that many MMOs still have, and that make launch days hell when each zone is overpopulated with players (same for endgame zones).
What mostly kept me from investing too much in GW2 is the scummy NCSoft association. I hate the company after the CoH debacle. But GW2 is fun to play now and then. It's a game you can play casually. I'll likely never play it for long periods on end, but I do enjoy returning to Tyria now and then.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
It's an okay game, but been living off GW1 reputation ever since launch, although it *was* a far better game at launch.
My particular pet peeve is actually too much of the end game stuff REQUIRES groups. Like crafting material buried in group fractals. I have no problem with co-operative content, have as much as players who like grouping want..... but GW2 making it absolutely a necessity knocks months off my playing time when it comes round in my gameplay rotation.
One question, though: Why all the apologetics and qualifiers, undermining your own opinions/views as "possibly nitpicking", among other things?
If you feel the PvP relies on the Meta too much, then that's how you feel.
If you feel the game doesn't offer enough variety from zone to zone, and that it's more or less the same 'routine' (incidentally, I had the same sense even back when I played).. then that's how you feel about it. It's perfectly valid to express that feeling. It's not "nitpicking".
Not liking the Black Lion store, for the reasons you list is not "really nitpicking". You feel that way. You share the reasons you feel that way. Nothing wrong with that.
And so on.
The whole post reads like someone who wants to share their thoughts, but fears backlash for doing so. That's ridiculous. I'm sure anyone who doesn't like or share your views will get over it and be just fine. If someone is so unable to handle or tolerate a differing opinion that they *can't* get over it, that's their problem, not yours.
If that's how you feel about the game, that's how you feel about the game. If others see it as nitpicky, then that's on them; it doesn't make your views/experiences any less valid or worth sharing.
This is a great article. I don't know why you are so passive in your writing, however. You seem uncertain of yourself. You should not be afraid to express your feeling towards Guild Wars 2. Many of Guild Wars vets feel the same. Especially about the Black Lion Store. Nothing in this game feels earned, just bought. When I see cool armor or weapon; "I figure eh they probably just bought it."
The reward system is a hoarding mess. Guild Wars devs took the reward system and went WAY over the top with it. There are over 50 currencies, and that is not an exaggeration. Just google Guild Wars currencies.
Guild Wars essentially tried to be everything and ended up just being a mess. A prime example, watch a video of a WVW match. Tell me if you can even see people behind the particle effects.
Comparatively, Guild Wars is like that Aunt who tries too hard, paints herself with clown makeup, puts on too much jewelry, only to go out for breakfast. My biggest pet peeve is Guild Wars has to REMOVE items from their game, not add to it.
I returned after one year, and I am having trouble even finishing Path of Fire. I am continually asking myself... what's the point? I can buy what people waste time earning.
Every game has both positives and negatives. It all depends on what people choose to focus on when they play. There are parts of this game I don't like and never play and there are parts I play all the time. When my positives in game play out number the negatives and I end up having a good time, then for me it's a good game. That's why I enjoy this game so much for so many years.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Basically this is yet another "don't get mad at the devs because no one is perfect" articles that basically tries to make excuses for every terrible choice they made. AND there's ALOT! It's not simply that they are a new team and that they made mistakes....hehehehe oh he oh no no no. You see, they stepped WAY WAY past that after the first year.
Remember folks, this is a team that refuse to balance properly, attacked the playerbase not once but several times on the forums, made excuse after excuse after excuse for terrible management practices, banned long time previously beloved players for speaking out against these practices, banned accounts because some of these previously beloved players (who later became perceived enemies because they didn't stop speaking out against mistreatment of players), went back and focused on removing and making unavailable all of the pre-beta and beta footage and interviews wherein they described the game as everything that we did NOT receive, and finally they made promises in several class forums that they never delivered on and then simply swept these promises under the rug and refused to talk about them.
These are NOT Innocent developers we're talking about here.
This is a great article. I don't know why you are so passive in your writing, however. You seem uncertain of yourself. You should not be afraid to express your feeling towards Guild Wars 2. Many of Guild Wars vets feel the same. Especially about the Black Lion Store. Nothing in this game feels earned, just bought. When I see cool armor or weapon; "I figure eh they probably just bought it."
The reward system is a hoarding mess. Guild Wars devs took the reward system and went WAY over the top with it. There are over 50 currencies, and that is not an exaggeration. Just google Guild Wars currencies.
Guild Wars essentially tried to be everything and ended up just being a mess. A prime example, watch a video of a WVW match. Tell me if you can even see people behind the particle effects.
Comparatively, Guild Wars is like that Aunt who tries too hard, paints herself with clown makeup, puts on too much jewelry, only to go out for breakfast. My biggest pet peeve is Guild Wars has to REMOVE items from their game, not add to it.
I returned after one year, and I am having trouble even finishing Path of Fire. I am continually asking myself... what's the point? I can buy what people waste time earning.
I got one of every class to max. Then the expansion hit and changed the playstyle of all my characters. I didn't like the changes, the classes anymore. It didn't feel the same anymore to me.
Basically this is yet another "don't get mad at the devs because no one is perfect" articles that basically tries to make excuses for every terrible choice they made. AND there's ALOT! It's not simply that they are a new team and that they made mistakes....hehehehe oh he oh no no no. You see, they stepped WAY WAY past that after the first year.
Remember folks, this is a team that refuse to balance properly, attacked the playerbase not once but several times on the forums, made excuse after excuse after excuse for terrible management practices, banned long time previously beloved players for speaking out against these practices, banned accounts because some of these previously beloved players (who later became perceived enemies because they didn't stop speaking out against mistreatment of players), went back and focused on removing and making unavailable all of the pre-beta and beta footage and interviews wherein they described the game as everything that we did NOT receive, and finally they made promises in several class forums that they never delivered on and then simply swept these promises under the rug and refused to talk about them.
These are NOT Innocent developers we're talking about here.
I agree with all you said just to add when they made the base game free to play I felt very insulted they didn’t give us who bought the game full price at release anything at all .... so for what I payed full price others get for free and no discount for us for expac if I wanted to play the expac had to pay again when new player just payed expac.
Comments
-Azure Prower
http://www.youtube.com/AzurePrower
The real problem is that Guild Wars 2's skills aren't specialized enough and enemies do not require/encourage specific skill counters like the first game did.
I've got the straight edge.
This is orgasmic for all the MMORPG haters that dominate mmorpg.com and the reddit mmorpg section.
And that is why I don't take the forums seriously at all. Its filled with MMO haters instead of people who actually enjoy MMOs...on a MMO site. Ever think if you hate every new MMO, its time to move on?
Its funny though any time someone likes an MMO, they get called a fanboy or a shill rofl. Just proves all the members here hate MMOs and troll an MMO forum with how much they hate MMOs.
Btw, going back to 1990s MMOs doesn't work either otherwise Vanguard would have been a success despite a bad launch (anarchy online launched badly, and it still saw success so that excuse fails right there). People ask for old MMOs, but don't actually want to play them. All the other old themed MMOs coming out are going to do just as good as Vanguard did.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Old mmos were good vs the new ones that feel watered down, too easy, shallow but have much better visuals. Same as songs I hear an older song (I’m 41 y/o) and I think damn this still sounds so great vs new songs which disappear after a year or even copy the beats from old songs.
Here's my answer and I'm no hardcore fanboy anymore like 2 years ago but I can shed some light as a self-proclaimed vet in this game, which many other vets may nod in agreement..
What is end game in gw2?
Let me very honest with you first, I have a love and hate relationship with loot boxes and chancing for that omfgawdd I just dropped the rarest shit (waves my shiny donger at plebs wherever I go). I also miss the vertical progression shiny +15 armors in MU, RAN online, BnS weapon etc where I could literally spend countless hours of frustration to get the most OP shit in the market and via P2W cash shop. HOWEVER, in gw2 has revolutionary systems that standard MMO players don't have to worry about aka outgeared in PvP and derp in PvE with judgmental glare like FFXIV. C'mon you can't rant about gear in PvP cuz amulets actually give you a lot of playable options. Sure it doesn't have the uhmmph that most fighting games have but that's I believe tied more towards collision sfx and vfx than anything. Let's say you play league of legends or BnS, the combat is actually more enticing as every impact feels heavier and landing that ''skillshot" feels amazing. I don't necessary recommend any start adding random popup banners to tell whether a shot was ''perfect, great, awesome" but the crits can use a visual and sound effect per weapon so it feels great to smack something. This has been present since year 2000 with Ragnarok Online and Maple Story where crits had glaring pop-up with a unique sfx, vfx. One thing anet did in the right direction is to use standard models for pvp and WvW to reduce visual clutter. However, it needs a lot more visual polish that MOBAs generally have. A projectile has standardized particle effect and size where '''sidestep" dodging is actually a skill and visuals on kiting and positioning (LoS) matters a lot to winning a fight. So far, gw2 has no real visual queues that indicate I'm being targeted or will be attacked and before I react I'm already downed by a rando gank (cough* looking at you max stacks sigil of bloodthirst thief and shatter mesmer). It's not fun to be forced into a meta I understand.. but note this gw2 IS the one MMO that the word META is overrated because I can play an off meta and cream a lot of supposedly META build, youre right that gw2 skill variance had been reduced a lot by ridiculous balance team but most are in tack for experimentation. Just to put into perspective, my rabid base necro vs trailblazer scourge (pmuch the META wvw scourge), I can still stand a good fight with them and most fights I can win. I'm not trying to say I got mad PvP skills and you dont but it really boils down to taking the time to understand every pixel detail of what skills are used in what progression and gw2 PvP - the sky is the ceiling. Hard? Very. Fun? Imho hell yes, if you spent the time to learn. It's not the standard fighting game like rock, paper, scissors, ultimate move, finish him! It's a tug of war and gladiator kinda fight, last man standing after a bloody fight wins (a lot of people coming from other games have a misconception that gw2 is all about snowballing but it's not and I hate seeing people give up half way a match and rq when there's no early, mid, end game.. it's a plateau since the start and defense is the best offense).
End game in a nutshell.. lemme tell you the greatest conflict of all time and the struggle of the devs. Many players have split in mutiple sub groups of end gamers.. fashionistas, whales, trading post baron, drunk WvWers, toxic PvPers, acheivement hunters, raiders, theory crafters, lore crazies and lastly the filthy casuals. Obv there are others that I've not mentioned but that aside the point I'm trying to make is Anet is trying to come up with a formula to keep everyone happy most efficiently. So far the trend of their development every 3 months - New LS, PvP season + balance, and festivals. Every 6 mo on average is the fractal (I really hope they add challenge motes to all the new ones to keep the raiders in tact). All above mentioned keeps everyone happy except raiders, fashionistas and cheevo hunters.. the Anet added lootboxes and gemstore armor pieces for fashionistas. If you start to get bored of the game then either you are playing with the wrong crowd or the wrong content. How am I so adamant to say what is 'wrong' because I've forced myself multiple times to play content that I didn't care for either that be grinding myself two legendary armors, 14 legendary weapons, WvW and GvG, PvP ladders, cheevo hunting like for the legendary accessory Aurora. In the end, I figured out that my crowd and end game are fashion and trading post wars of which I can spend countless hours, relaxed, and enjoy while chilling with people in towns and on discord. You really just need to find your niche. My other end game now is to pamper nubs, but it wouldn't have been possible if this game was about me, me, me, and yours is also mine mentality (cough* roll the die for loot in dungeons and raids).
You're right, gw2 is far from perfect but the devs here are just absolutely one of the best. I can't even believe how long I followed these guys (around 9 years now). A lot of the other gaming company devs i followed 3 years tops and disappeared, not from this one.
I've got the straight edge.
I've got the straight edge.
Let me explain that: At first, their end game was Horizontal. This was epic, an innovative and wonderful idea where players could do what they wanted, and all get around the same rewards, with cosmetics being the only variable.
Then they put in Fractals, and Ascended, and this made a focus on fractal content, which, distorted the whole horizontal end game, it narrowed it, bottle-necked the game to be about fractals and Ascended gear.. they then they did this again with Raids and Legendary Armor.
So.. it made the game less optional, it forced me to grind (not just try, but grind) content I knew from previous MMO's I played, that I was not into playing this game mode.
Well, I am not going to hang around and do second-class-citizen filler content, no matter what the game. So.. after.. really.. doing my best to find my own fun.. but realizing that I was in a dead end point, and the only way I was going to progress upward was doing raids.. I left.
A good game, a solid game, and a lot of fun, but.. they chose their direction, and that is to build a end game for players that are not like me.
How far have we fallen? Far enough to be talking about the “quality” of cash shops it seems.
I have every month 2 week pause and 2 weeks I play GW2
Raids are elitism ...Farming fractals over and over are boring... dungeons.. nobody do them..and farming events over and over is boring like fractals...
But why I play this game?
Only for WvWvW ... nothing else nothing more...
What mostly kept me from investing too much in GW2 is the scummy NCSoft association. I hate the company after the CoH debacle. But GW2 is fun to play now and then. It's a game you can play casually. I'll likely never play it for long periods on end, but I do enjoy returning to Tyria now and then.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
My particular pet peeve is actually too much of the end game stuff REQUIRES groups. Like crafting material buried in group fractals. I have no problem with co-operative content, have as much as players who like grouping want..... but GW2 making it absolutely a necessity knocks months off my playing time when it comes round in my gameplay rotation.
One question, though: Why all the apologetics and qualifiers, undermining your own opinions/views as "possibly nitpicking", among other things?
If you feel the PvP relies on the Meta too much, then that's how you feel.
If you feel the game doesn't offer enough variety from zone to zone, and that it's more or less the same 'routine' (incidentally, I had the same sense even back when I played).. then that's how you feel about it. It's perfectly valid to express that feeling. It's not "nitpicking".
Not liking the Black Lion store, for the reasons you list is not "really nitpicking". You feel that way. You share the reasons you feel that way. Nothing wrong with that.
And so on.
The whole post reads like someone who wants to share their thoughts, but fears backlash for doing so. That's ridiculous. I'm sure anyone who doesn't like or share your views will get over it and be just fine. If someone is so unable to handle or tolerate a differing opinion that they *can't* get over it, that's their problem, not yours.
If that's how you feel about the game, that's how you feel about the game. If others see it as nitpicky, then that's on them; it doesn't make your views/experiences any less valid or worth sharing.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Remember folks, this is a team that refuse to balance properly, attacked the playerbase not once but several times on the forums, made excuse after excuse after excuse for terrible management practices, banned long time previously beloved players for speaking out against these practices, banned accounts because some of these previously beloved players (who later became perceived enemies because they didn't stop speaking out against mistreatment of players), went back and focused on removing and making unavailable all of the pre-beta and beta footage and interviews wherein they described the game as everything that we did NOT receive, and finally they made promises in several class forums that they never delivered on and then simply swept these promises under the rug and refused to talk about them.
These are NOT Innocent developers we're talking about here.
I agree with all you said just to add when they made the base game free to play I felt very insulted they didn’t give us who bought the game full price at release anything at all .... so for what I payed full price others get for free and no discount for us for expac if I wanted to play the expac had to pay again when new player just payed expac.