state of the game your views

hi ive been playing guild wars for 19 months started pve then got into pvp and now do both more pvp alately tho cos ive done most of pve .

i think that the doa missions are tediuos and too much time consuming for example the foundary takes 5 hours + a lot of people dont have all that time and also the others are so time consuming anet has made a huge mistake with doa in my opinion ide like to hear your views plzz

ps double champ points last weekend only 25 guilds had 1200 rating another blunder by anet , i mean what was the point !!! wake up anet or people are gonna play other games.

regards a very concerned gamer

One of the things that was proven last weekend event = no more easy champion points

Which is good.

Well I cant even get a group for doa! I just guess that places like that are in the game for people who have plenty of time and a group of reliable friends (no Leeroy Jenkins :P)
Yes Im upset I'll never get the big pimpin weapons but I have better things to do with my time. Maybe one day I suppose

I can't speak for all the other vets, but I've been playing off and on since E3 for everyone of 2004, and I gotta say Guild Wars still rocks. Sure it's been really slow, and DoA might not have gone so well... but the fact that A.net still does testing weekends where they actually take player input, tells me that Guild Wars is doing all right.

20 bucks says its the nerfs that kill guild wars. Soon the retail version of GW will just be a box filled with a bike helmet and foam darts. Derrr

<---You can bet you'll still see me around if the day comes though

For me it is the anti farming code and the anti farming policy that slowly removed almost all the fun from the game for me. Don't understand me wrong. I am NOT a farmer. The closest I was to farming was doing 20 Shirokenruns over the course of two days short before the nerf.

But why am I affected by it if not farming? Well, they officially confirmed somewhere that the code also shifts drops in groups. Over a course of one year I'm monitoring this. Everytime one of the more active gamers of my guild (for example me) is playing together with one of the more casual ones, he gets punished for doing it. Drop distribution got to an average 1:7. That's really annoying.

This farming code is utter crap. It's the most idiotic thing I have ever seen designed by a gaming firm and almost makes me think the columbians must have send a bad shipment to the states....

same goes to chest. Over ten character I opened a total of ~350 chests. But when finishing the first tier of the title track for my warrior while cartographing I again was seen as a farmer by the game. 100% of the chests dropped purple crap that even continually dropped in its value.

Basically, no matter where you go, the game seems to be working against forming groups of human players. Heroes that need to level up, anti farming code killing your drops, some professions being useless in some areas of the pvegame...

I've been playing Guild Wars for awhile and have been a very happy customer since release date on April 28,2005.

Not only that the game is free to play online, the developers works around the clock to make the game more fun for us with the memorable in game events, mini games, birthdays gift, etc. The PvE aspects of the game pwns, and it is nice to see the developers are putting in their effort with the community to make HA more fun for everyone (instead of ignoring the problem)


To those who complains on the game, seriously...think back to the grinding days of "MU Online, Gunbound, ROSE online, Knight Online,FLYFF, Yulgang-Scion of Fate, etc etc etc). I am not speaking to give ANET a pat on the back, but I am speaking from past experience I have with other free online games. Guild wars is one of a kind and you cant find a free-online game that is comparable with guild wars graphics, frequent updates, good community, level of fun out there.


State of the game: Good, --- as long as there is more fun events in the near future, continuing effort in hearing what the community wants, and looking foward for new game play in next release.

ok i remeber the old games like kai online and the others and in there time they were great , my point is on 1 hand they try to get rid of some of the elitism with inscriptable weopons so items not worth so much , then they go and do a champ point weekend when only top 25 guilds qualify for double points ? what about the other 12,000 guilds huh the elite players n guilds still get all the best items/titles the average player gets a lot less thats wrong in any form you want to look at it and i dont mean like outside prizes either, the celestail tournament is a joke my guild has resigned all the hassle of setting a match up not worth it unless you have a realistic chance of being top 16 which not many have only elite guilds again so maybe i should cry more cos nobody is listening anyway unfair eleitism rules yet again

I am a casual player who enjoy both aspects of PvE and PvP. From my perception, Guild Wars PvP consist of competitive game-play and GvG is made for competitive players who likes to have fun, and win. To those who worked hard to make it the top 25, it is not something they achieved over night...so I guess they deserve it....As for everyone else, it is a win/win because they can gain double factions from the wins.

It seems like your argument in terms of the "State of the game" is based solely on a weekend event (3 day), a promotion that encourages GvG's rather than guild wars game-play itself. Since you claim that you have been playing guild wars for 19 months, ask yourself how much guild wars has change and evolve in the past 19 months? or even in the past 1 month? WinterFest, Canthan New Years, and Gamer Event weekend was pwNage bro ...anyways, I hope you can look at the bigger picture instead of basing the state of the game on a 3 day event.

I could be wrong, but I believe it is implied in the op's post that he is upset with many aspects of the game, otherwise one event wouldn't upset him.

Many changes and evolutions over the course of Guild Wars history have been geared towards the elite players. Some changes more so then others. The strategy here is obviously to increase competition between players. In a game that's at least half pvp thats not really all that crazy of a plan. Have the devs pushed it too far and too hard in the same spots again and again? I think yes.


Ps- State of the game
About like the universe. It could implode, stay where it is, or digress outward forever. In both cases wth are we going to do about it.

drops are random guys, just because you have bad luck dosnt mean Anet hates you....i play all the time, barly a day goes by that i dont 55 monk or chest run, And i have Realy good luck with drops..its just luck

I do agree this last weekend was kinda lame, but as long as some people liked it i wont complain

The game itself has grown from humble beggings but Anet seems to concentrate on balancing. I believe that somtimes they focus on balancing one thing that the forgoe how it might affect other things. Most of the time when you see a "Nerfed" skill its because it has too much of an advantage in PvP play because of a certain build. But they neglect how it will affect the PVE aspect. However the game itself has grown regardless, with its many community activities, and player influenced inputs. Holidays are usually fun way to relax sit back and take in all the sights not make suttle critques on how the hats sucked. The best question most of you have to ask yourselves if you're questioning the ability of this game to hold your intrests is " Why am I still playing it?". That question will answer many others if you have doubts about the game.

Here is my opinion, a player for 21 months, ive seen alot of changes. Ive Seen the AoE nurf, The Farming Nurf, and now the AI buff for the Enemy NPC's.

Ive been a BIG fan of PvE and PvP, i have been focusing on PvP since the nurfes of PvE have made gameplay (heros only w/ henchies) really dull and lacking human interaction. I mean unless you have a really active wonderful PvE guild you dont have any human interaction in the game anymore.

it takes (if i dare say it) almost as much skill as pvp to play pve nowadays. I mean you have to use skills that have a propper balance of AoE and Single hit dmg. To be honest i see pretty wierd builds used for playing the game, ive used some pretty funky ones myself. But in pve people are starting to carry PvP skill bars to give themselfs a fighting chance with all the nurfs done to the game. It has made my expericne in guild wars less the satifactory latly, cuz the rich get richer while the players who dont know as much about the pve game get to heroway it the whole way though.

I love guild wars, I love the idea of the game and everything that comes with it. But with the accumilation of the celestial tournament, PvP nurfs and PvE nurfs it seems that anet is forgetting we PAY them to make this game more enjoyable. not monthly fees but We PAY big bucks to play a game that lets us have fun. i mean theres some times where i just wanna kill the game cuz things take SO FREAKIN LONG or when you get it done theres Crap to show that youve done any of it!!!!!!

I didnt pay 200+ dollars for all the chapters, with extra character slots, and other things to have it thrown in my face that anet is controling how much fun i have in this game.

I would love to have a button thats for: Noob (easy), Journeyman (Normal), PvE Pro! (Hard) Master of PvE (ZOMG WTF IM GUNNA DIE!!!! QQ)

i mean you have to do alot of work to impliment these in but PLEASE if im going to spend money to have fun in a game that i love and really enjoy, THEN PUT SOME TIME INTO IT!!! i realize you have huge projects ahead of you but im playing the game NOW and if the game stops being fun now, whats going to make me want to keep playing it?

Im not saying let skills be overpowered its not about the skills, its about the players, its about what are the needs of the players playing this game. yes it is mostly mature people, but Guild Wars is not a life to live, its a game that people Love to play because it gives them a chance to meet people they never would watching tv. They play it cuz when you're out on a quest you have FUN! when your killing a boss thats really difficult and you win a green you actually enjoy the time you spend. I really do not think that having players goin off alone and bored with no one to quest with really have that great of a time, sitting there for Hours Grinding into a little whole to get somthing done. (5+ hour long quests, titles you cant get without grinding and farming forever.)

Bring back farmability, with the easy (noob) button, just dont make the drops that great, make the drops a little better and farming harder with (normal) make the drops better, and smarter Ai's (hard) Make the mobs higher lvls, smarter, the drops relaly good, and imposible to "Farm" (ZOMG WTF IM GUNNA DIE!!! QQ)

That way, the people that really want to challenge themselfs and get wonderful drops to prove their skill, and the guys that just wanna get through to a certain place have the ability to do so, not everyone has time to do a 3 hour quest. This game takes too long to be alone the whole time. Making the difficulty variable will increase intrest in the game and help people adjust and get to know what there doing before they do it.

This is coming from a Highly concerned player who right now bealives anet is wishing us to not have fun and make the game tedious to play. Anet, we are your customers, we know some of these things will change the economy, but if you keep on this way, there wont be a guild wars 2 or anything along those lines to have an economy in. Guild Wars is a Wonderful Game, Please make it even better, let us have our fun!

Thank you for reading my rant.

~Ashton

I still like Guildwars a lot besides the pugs who spamm, scam, leave to anoye another people or whatever. (I still think they should take action on those topics)

Further ofcourse there were updates and features added which could have been a lot better with some more thinking and community talkings but well it happened and it can't be reversed or at least they won't reverse it.

For example a few farming updates I have seen which were not that great. The first big farming upgrade which solves the loads of mino's and griffons being farmed in the desert, well that was fine, the agro break well also not a big issue. But now the ecto's, golds, and another certain items have an insane low drop rate, well that sucks really badly, and Anet not claiming they have something against farmers but still update the farming skills to get worse and say it's all about PvP balance bugs me really badly. There I lost a little trust in them, just say it and not let us figure it out and say "Well it was all about PvP" ... yeah right.

Also I have the feeling the hench ai went worse since GW was released. I did a lot with henchies but it seams they became dumber and dumber. Even the hero's got there flaws where they keep activating there skills and while doing it walk around and make them fail activating them, this happens a lot when agro enemies on stairs. :/ But well that might not ruine the gameplay for me.

The thing that bothers me the most is that certain features are being requested for ages now which could really improve the gameplay and game experience greatly, but still aren't added. Instead more and more things are added to let us forget it or whatever. I hope chapter4 got an auctionhouse with it, as well a few updated which are being prommised for months now to fix certain ingame problems like the sunspear title and a few more.

So if you ask me about the state of the game, well in short therms.
- PvE still fun
- good content
- nice challenges (titles, elite places)
but:
- economy issues as well money and drops
- social cooperative gameplay went down
- broken game elements, certain things feel like they are totally broken, unfixed, and didn't involve some logical thinking with it.
- needs and wants, we get more wants then we actually get the needed things. There is a difference between water or coca cola, where water is a need to stay alive and coca cola is a luxery to enjoy a flavour.

Hey, uh, OP. The shift, period, and enter keys are not out to kill you--it's okay if you press them once in a while.

ide like to thank, bar fight and iscana i totally agree with there feelings . And as for drop rate of ectos what a JOKE !!! i went to UW other day 3 times and only 2 ectos droped in total for 3 runs thats ridiculous obviously more people are gonna buy gold as making money in the game has gone now *cough* buy gold at www.anet.com LOL its coming folks believe me respect gamers peace out kev

I quit the game last summer due to pvp nerfs that affected pve, the game becoming a boring cycle of "wtb" "wts" and empty channels when "lfg for..."

Dead zones, too-short content and poor customer service and representation.

Most everyone I know has quit the game as well.. a robust friends list went offline nearly overnight when factions dried up and nightfall was announced with factions issues still unresolved in our eyes. Looking around on these forums that I haunted religiously, I see most if not nearly all the names here have changed as well.

The game just became boring to me.

My biggest complaints really reflect what has already been said, the farming code and PvP balancing often ruining skills for PvE.
I'm not a farmer, but have a character for every profession and take them all through the chapters, which mean i play the same area a lot, but have noticed even among my characters, a few of them get far more frequent drops than the rest that just get crap. I find this really strange, i mean why should one character consistently do better than the other 9?

Anyway, like another poster on this thread...to sum up my view of the state of the game:

The good...
- PvE is still fun (except for DoA)
- good content and story
- nice new features introduced (gotta love heroes)
- holiday events are excellent (loved the Cathan new year and Winter events especially)
- mostly the right challenge level (except for 'Call of Torment' power which should be nerfed/removed for being unbalanced)

The bad...
- economy issues and drop rates (prices to high and drops way too low, though NF 'treasures have helped).
- social cooperative gameplay has become somewhat elitist ("LFG, must have 'x' rank/title").
- having missions that rely on two seperate teams from different locations (Factions: the trouble with this is that now most players have moved on, the 'other' team is nearly always henchies and basically screws you).
- too much attention to PvP balancing and not the effect it has on PvE.

I'm a casual PvE gamer. I'm on "break" mode at the moment.
There nothing in GW atm to change my view. To me GW is still a fun game.

Near Chapter 4 launch, I will finish up the very lose ends with my character and once Chapter 4 comes out, I will be playing it actively again.

I will be pre-ordering the collector's edition of C4, and buying any DirectSound packs when they become available.

Right Now Jade Empire SE for PC has my attention.

I can't even find a team for Razah kinda sucks but I don't really need a Rit hero so . . MEH on DoA.

I had to buy a set of gems (thankfully got them cheap), but after that, i was able to get Razah on my own with heroes and henchies without dying and it took me about 30 minutes.

If you have the gems, you can prolly do it yourself.

State of the Game = Good for me.

I think Events need to get a little more fun though. The Double rare of chest drops, green weekends, double faction in AB/Aspenwood = Great Events. How bout something like those, only with a twist. Otherwise, great job Anet. Can't be more pleased with the way things are going.

I have played since the BWE's (I missed the first one though). And I have found that the game has one integral flaw.

In place of the standard level progression akin to most online rpg type games, GW requires you to work harder for every scrap of forward momentum. Every drop, every skill, every item, every mission, every quest, every monster and everything else - you have to work harder to advance than you should have to.

This game was supposed to be playable by a CASUAL gamer. The in-game message system tells you to take a break after two hours of play time. Yet some missions can take several hours requiring several attempts. Item and armor costs can exceed 100k. Anti-farming code is flawed and quite obviously prevents playing the game (if you've been here for more that 3 weeks you have probably experienced it). And getting the skills that you need can take a lot of time too. Getting 3k in randoms can be a several hour task if you don't land in groups with 2 monks.

I do not call that casual. I call that grind of a different kind.

The only thing you specifically comment on is DoA...

DoA too time consuming??... Haven't we had loads of threads on this already? It takes time for 1 reason..."Elite Mission". Additionally, 5+ hours for JUST the Foundry? Well whatever build you're using is just plain bad... It should take 2 hours or less... We often do it in 1.5 hrs or less...

Here's a good example::
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Build:Team_-_DoA_Balanced

Anet made a mistake with DoA? Hmm, now lets see, tons of players have now gotten richer then they have ever been before. Why? Cause they put in the effort. Seems like a good thing to me. Other then it not being a very impressive aesthetic, it does offer HUGE reward with the time spent...

Becoming harder to get Champ points is not gonna make everyone leave this game. The REASON it was harder, simply cause 2x reward causes MORE competitiveness to appear from guilds/players. Even if it didn't work out for the best, its only ONE weekend anyway. Eegads. Mmm ya.

As for the overall state of the game, i see it as healthy as ever. New player base has greatly increased from what i have seen from public chat, and even the amount of new members through forums such as this.

Too many rumors are having people cry "doomsday!" for the game's future, but in all honesty i think we have years ahead of us for good gaming. Since we have NO official word from Anet or NCSoft about future "GW2" installments, then i won't worry till then. All other threads about such things and supposed "news sources" are simply rumor until Anet says so. kk ?

Cheers!

Thats not ELITE... its far from it. And how dare you say this build is balanced? You just use the same tatic used at.. everywhere!!! Tank, then nuke, and use bonder... oh wow, so orignal, and really balanced.
The problem of DOA it quickly became what we all didnt wanted to be, a place were you NEED to use certain build in order to get a group, and you keep on exploring the lack of AI monsters have. Thats not a ELITE group. If you really were a elite players, you would get a group with ritualists, assassins, dervishes and get it done. But no, in order to do so you will have to play 4+ hours, and people really dont have the time to do so.
Thats the problem with DOA, its not and ELITE area, its just like the rest.
Im tired of seeing people wanting a specific group at The Deep (so specific that you have to show your weapon, and stay at a specific team formation.. that 134-134-134-222 wtf?), a specific group at Urgoz, a specific group at FoW, and hell we dont even see people really going to UW unless they are farming.
Im tired of seeing "LF Bonder", "LF Nuker" (elementalists arent elementalists, they are nukers now), "LF Tank" and "LF SS".
Im tired of thinking on solutions for todays issues and never be heard, nothing changing. And they create something new intead of fixing something old. That will never solve the problem.
55 monks, 5 man fow, monks soloing DOA, underpowered elite skills, overpowered skills, stupid economy, player buying golds, 100plat+ectos items, impossible quests with unfair rewards, impossibility to actually keep up with the game with 4+ characters.
Old problems that will never be solved.

Batou,

I think you've just been ripped a new one. I would have to agree with you on one thing, the game is as healthy as it has ever been. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the game is actually balanced. It never really has been.

That said, GW is still one of my favorite games ever, despite it's design flaws.

State of the game





IMO

He directed DoA as a focal point as to what is wrong with the game. Its not about just the foundry, just the impossible odds of getting a group to stick around for it, its about how screwed up this game is right now. I mean hell to kill mobs of lvl 28 margonites with 7 per group sometimes 14, how easy is it to even take down half of them? Its not easy, you have to use aoe at first then target and use direct dmg to finally kill them. Its Not about the fact that players just getting into this game get pwned in the face and lose intrest way quick. its that even seasoned old vets of the game get Pwned in the face, get frustrated with all the crap you have to do to kill a mob now that they leave the game.

What is wrong is that Anet is catering to a certain skill level of people. That skill level is average yes, but most of the players come on to guild wars to join a group, run around do quests and NOT TAKE UP THEIR ENTIRE WEEK COMPLETING ONE!! lol i mean please. If you want so many players to quit the game cuz you dont want to put more effort into somthing thats already out, Pfft then give it up now, Youll have such a small fan base by the time something new comes out no one will want to play it 1 month after release. GG anerf GG on ruining a wonderful game that catored to ALL players.

QQ.....