Were my 3000 hours wasted? I can't decide.

Over the past year and a half I have played Guild Wars for just over 3000 hours. My comrades know me as an upstanding player and I have been very generous with my gold and time. I was the biggest sponsor for Rajah the Thief's masquerade ball, donating 1 million gold. I have done everything I could as a lowly player to make Guild Wars a better place.

I am so sad to say that I will no longer be logging onto the game, but this doesn't mean I will say goodbye to Guru. I will be checking here regularly to see if certain problems that make the game unplayable for me get fixed.

I don't feel that the 3000 hours was wasted exactly because, at the time I was having fun. On the other hand, in a very short time, Arena Net has ruined the games future in my mine.

When the game was first released it was a real gem. The no monthly fees and beautiful graphics grabbed me right away. There were some problems with the game structure that we were told over and over would be fixed, but the game was new and we all trusted in the developers.

1. How many dozens of times did I see gaile replying to requests for an Auction house with the words "We are currently working on a solution to the spam".

2. The favor system has been a bad idea from the very begining but has never been touched.

3. Creating PvP rank emotions that make it near impossible for new players to get into pvp and enjoy it. "Want to join my group? Show rank please."

These were 3 core problems with the game that I have lived with because I thought that eventually through popular opinion, they would be fixed.

Instead of being fixed, new problems were created.

4. Nerfing Soul reaping when a better fix was available. After months of complaints, and even a poll that shows what the vast majority of players want, they do not un-nerf soul reaping.

5. Instead of doing some minimal moderation to catch bots, they nerf the drop rate on non-rare drops. Beginning players rely on whites and blues to save up gold when they first start playing. They are not savvy enough to know what gold weapons sell for. Plus, being forced to spam to make money will also drive new players away.

6. Although I enjoy the size of the guild wars universe, it was expanded without too much fore-thought. Instead of making existing continents more playable by fixing the aformentioned problems, the developers almosted tripled the playing area. This has spread the remaining players so thin that full groups are extremely rare.

Then they release Hard-mode and in essence double the existing game area. Now the game is a desert 6 times its original size. People flock to contienent connecting cities to sell their weapons and goods in a flooded market. All other cities are ghost towns where people rely on heros and henchmen to play the game for them.

The final straw for me was when Arena Net announced that they would be ending the Guild Wars 1 series. They have not fixed any of the major problems with the current game and expect us to purchase a completely new game in 2009.

I will most definitely play the trial for Guild Wars 2. But I will be going into the release very jaded from my Guild Wars 1 experiences.

I will continue to read the Guru forums and look forward to your feedback on this. If some of this stuff gets corrected I will happily come back to Tyria, Cantha, and Kamadan.

Until then, I will wait here, and hope for some changes.

Honestly, youre quitting guildwars... Bye then... You expect everyone to say "OMG dont go, we need u here..." Youre not the first to leave and not the last that will leave.... so why make a dramatic thread on guru abotu it when there are a vast amount of threads that have already adddressed every issue that you brought up.... Here are the answers you seek:

Step 1.) Realize its just a game.
Step 2.) Get on with life.
Step 3.) If problems arize, repeat step 1 and 2 until result is met.

Can I have your stuff?
(Not really, I just wanted to say it.)

You've pretty much just explained why ANet is moving on to GW2.
GW has lost it's path, and even if it can be brought back in line, it's not going to be able to handle all the new stuff they want to do with it.

Well then can I have your stuff?

I'm serious.

o_o

Okie then. Bye bye Chunk.





I'd like a share of his stuff too! ^^

The OP should've thought about all these things about 2999 hours ago.

Did you have fun during those 3000 hours? If yes, they were not wasted. If not, well... a bit late for that now.

Well Chunk if you tried then you should stop, take a long rest. You wrote well in your letter, 3000 hrs is a lot to spent on just one game. And if you decided not come back anymore then Ventari has a give away items section, and no I don't want your stuff. Remember your good times in GW and look at your screen shots from time to time. Good luck with your next game.

could you elaborate on whats so wrong with the Factions system?
Personally i love the way PvE and PvP overlap (HA and unlock skills for heroes)
Though a lot of PvP players annoy me. You being a better PvP'er i have no problem with but it's people that glote i can't stand (and touch rangers )
Only thing in PvE i don't like is elite missions. The people there are really nasty to a player new to elites. I played The Deep with a couple of guildies and a PUG and was amased at the things they yell everytime your not exactly where they want you. It's not like they were actully helping by telling me where to go they just yelled at me for my lack of mind reading skills

GL mate, thanks for all the help you gave people, maybe you'll come back, maybe you wont, but whatever its just a game.

... *Ignores the OP for a few moments to focus on a more serious problem*

#1. Realise life is "just a game".
#2. Understand in context therefore, that gaming ... be it on a computer, a console, a board-game, pen and paper, on a sports pitch... or life itself... is no more or less important in any form than any other.
#3. Realise most importantly of all... that people who use the "its just a game" line in standard context are small-minded morons who arbitrarily prioritise things of equal unimportance.


And what do any of you expect me to say when you complain about the national government nerfing your life?
Same deal.

Chunk, while I agree with many of your points, and feel nearly the same about whether I want to continue playing at all (though my playtime is about half yours... yeesh), it really is entirely pointless to post essentially a rant crying "change this or I'm out". Many have done it before to no benefit, many will continue to do it to no benefit. Give it up. The game is aggrevating and not going the direction you had hoped? Stop playing. No point in bitching about it.

Gildwrz iz rly gud gaem. If you had fun those hours weren't wasted. Leaving this game isn't a bad thing either. In the next two months there will be more mmo's coming out and more people will be doing the same.

I basically stopped playing as well except for maybe once a week to just screw around. You're not alone topic creator, and the hours were not wasted if you had fun. It's not like you were gonna play GW forever, now, was it?

I do understand point 1 to 3.
Rank has not been a problem for me, but I've got some luck with 'friends' (still rank 1 atm, but can join a ranked team if I want).
Do understand point 4, but it's not been that bad for me.
Don't want to discuss in detail, but imho SR nerf was not only about spirits.
Point 6 is indeed a problem, there are some perma-abandoned missions/outposts out there. I read in a recent article this was one of the reasons A-net stopped making more campaigns at 6-months interval.

I do not agree on point 5 however:
I played with a full team mostly and still managed to get all the basic stuff needed to finish the game.
Loot scaling did not affect that way of playing, so I think this is not an argument.
I hardly ever sold items in game, most golds go in storage or to merchant, and still manage to have above 100K in storage most of the time.
This is without the unlocked chests, that I keep forgetting those
Prophecies is hard on cash when you start, but collectors armor and weapons are available.
The most I spend when I started was on Drok's armor, since the collectors missed some bonus I wanted.
That's 4x 1.5K, since I had collected the head piece.
Most expensive in total at that time was my monk, droks armor with 3 scalps, sup healing, sup prot and minor healing.

When Factions came out, I got my monk 15K Kurzick, before the price crash on amber. That took a few months, we'll that's ok since it's prestige and not needed.
When Nightfall came out, I got my P and D 15K sunspear with little funding in no time (gaining cash is easy in NF, with just playing).

Your statement "Beginning players rely on whites and blues to save up gold when they first start playing." is just not true!

FFS, another whine thread, although I'm surprised that chunk took this long to post one...

Close pls

In those 3000 hours you could have done something useful like donate real money to a worthy cause or climb a mountain, learn skills for future employment blah blah blah

3000 hours wasted? no point worrying about it now, you can't turn back time

Crap man what planet u from?

Point 3: False.

People would only play with the friends they have instead of looking for ranked players. Guildies or Friends list...or pugs where you don't know how bad he is? Rank at least gives some clue, although it's definitely not the way to judge.

lol now it turns into a "if you have rank you're a loser" thread. This forum 'rocks'. Let me go warm up your bottles, it's nearly nap time.

Were your 3000 hours wasted?

the simple acid test: did you enjoy them? Let's face it, even if you've effectively milked all of the enjoyment you will ever get out of the game, 1000 hours per game is a pretty good rate of return. Let's not forget that for the same money as one of the chapters you could've picked up something like Quake4 and hit the end 20 hours later. "were my 20 hours wasted?"

Video games in general are a waste of time, heh. They're fun, though.

I'm gonna miss you though, Chunk. Your posts rock mah world!

0.o 3000!!! HOURS jeez thats:

3000/24=125 days straight GW, i wouldn't call that a waste, thats spending your money good(not sure about time)

It's only a waste of time if you didn't get out of it what you wanted.

Did you have fun?
If yes = not a waste
If No = Yes it was a waste, but that's your own fault for continuing to play for 3000+ hours...

sc2 will be coming out soonish maybe you can help into that. i might stop playing gw for that but idk im still having fun

personally i think the favor system was fine untill some country's barly ever had favor. thats really unfair when i was just starting out i LOVED to go into FoW and play for a bit.

they have tryed to fix spam by adding a trade channel, anything that starts with WTB goes to trade channel and the party search. personally if the party search was better it would help but the limited number of characters makes it un-suitable for players tryign to sell alot of item, also the fact that it was introduced so late.

The emotes are basicly just a was of showing how much skill you have. Pvp is harder then pve by a LARGE MARGIN! im sure you wouldnt let a level 5 into an area filled with level 28 monsters.

the soul reaping nerf is fine IMO its the equivalent of a monk having like +6 regen or more its so abusive

The only thing i really agree with you on is the loot scaling issue, they did botch that up. im afrade to purchase or keep ecto's due to they could be worth less in a matter of a week

Since you stated you are still going to contribute on the forums, I hope you don't become one of those losers who doesn't play the game but continues to troll the forums saying how crap the game is.

My heart's bleeding for you mate. No, seriously, I feel the same way you do about alot of things you mentioned. And yes, I too will move on and stop playing GW. Probably in the near future. But like someone else stated in this thread, I wasn't expecting to play GW forever. Bigger and better things will come along, and some or even most will move to those bigger better things. But yea, the grass is always greener...blah, blah, blah. Was my many hours spent on GW a waste? No, coz I freakin love this game, it's the most fun you can have with your pants on. Did you have fun? If so, then it wasn't a waste of time

3000 hours???!??

yes...even if you got what you wanted... you have waisted your time... its a video game... all time spent on gaming is 'waisted' (well not if you are having fun...if you are not...why play?)

...my 2 minutes are waisted reading this....

3000 hours over 1 1/2 years. That's a waste if you ask me, considering a fulltime job is 2080 hours a year. Not like Anet is paying you to play this.

I'm most amazed at: year and a half = 547.5 days @ 3,000 hours played

That works out an average of almost 5 1/2 hours of gameplay EVERY DAY for a year and a half.

Now, obviously, I can't speak for anyone else, so in my opinion yes, that is an enormous waste of time. When I consider the time I spend on getting ready for work, going to work, meals, being with my wife, playing with my dog, socializing/interacting with friends and family (in person, not via the computer), non-game computer time (reading news feeds, emails, chatting, etc), other hobbies, and sleep -- and on the weekends, doing stuff for/around/on the house -- I have no idea how I could invest an average of 5 1/2 hours on any game.

I've read arguments about the social aspects of multiplayer gaming and how can one person rank another's entertainment value since its a subjective experience... blah blah blah... if you're spending 5 1/2 hours on average every day playing any game, then yes, you are wasting your time.

Time spent having fun is never time wasted, unless there are more important things you should be doing with that time - and in the end it's up to you to decide what's most important in life.

While I have had, and in some cases still have, such feelings about Guild Wars as those you mentioned in your post, I cannot allow this thread to continue. The posting of a general thread to describe your disillusionment and say you're quitting is not very productive, especially since these issues are being discussed all the time in many other threads.

I strongly suggest that anybody considering taking a similar action to the OP should take heed of this. The posting of such a thread will only result in closure - so don't do it. If you're worn out of the game or angry with the road it has taken and want to leave, think about what the game has meant to you in the time you've played it. Everything in life will come to an end; if you think it is time to move on, or take a break, then do so. Hurling out your angry thoughts at the door is, in my view, a thoroughly unnecessary thing to do, and it is certainly not approved on this forum.

Closed.