GWEN isn't the expansion I had in mind

Before I say anything let me make it *very* clear. I loved Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall. Worth every penny I spent on them and stuck up for Anet any time I seen someone whining about one thing or another.

GWEN though... I was really, really disappointed. This expansion was suppose to be the epic finale. A service to Anet's loyal customers who have been with them the last two years. Instead I get the feeling that they really weren't trying and just wanted to throw something at us to keep us distracted for the next two years while they work on Guild Wars 2.

Let's do a recap of what past addons to Guild Wars offered.

Factions

Pros
- Added Alliance Battles (perfect way to incorporate people who enjoy PvE and PVP)
- Two new professions
- Arguably the best looking armor the game has ever seen
- Streamlined the game more so getting a level 20 character in PvE didn't take days and/or weeks to achieve
- Lots of new skills and elites useable in both PvE and PvP
- Upgraded the way armor worked to allow whatever bonuses people wanted with whatever armor they chose

Cons
- Short storyline
- Timed missions


Nightfall

Pros
- Added heroes (giving players the option to create their own builds for henchmen and give us some control over them)
- Even more new skills and elites for PvE and PvP
- New armor and the inclusion of runes and insignias
- Added the ability to mod inscriptions on weapons
- Two new professions
- Reverted back to Prophecies style missions where they had more of a bonus feel to them rather than it all being timed
- Hero Battles

Cons
- Added heroes (taking away the need to ever really need player interaction)
- Added bits of grind (Sunspear and Lightbringer titles)


GW:EN

Pros
- New heroes (among them giving us the first look at the new races)
- Hall of Monuments
- New graphic effects (though can only say I've noticed it in the burning forest area in the Charr homelands)
- New standalone armor pieces
- New PvE only skills

Cons
- Short story, shorter than Factions
- Poor reskins of old armor
- No new professions
- Only 10 new PvE and PvP friendly skills per profession
- No new elites
- Uninspired dungeons, outside of the boss at the end of the dungeons have nothing new to offer and in fact feel like they're just there to waste our time
- Forced grinding of titles in order to utilize NPC services
- New standalone armor pieces have nothing that really goes with them
- New PvE only skills require grinding in order for them to be remotely useful
- No new forms of PvP

At the end of the day, GWEN is far too underwhelming and not worth half the price that is asked for. Every other addon to the Guild Wars world felt like a nice step forward, GWEN took it a few steps back and didn't offer the same amount of content we've come to expect out of Anet.

Take it for what you will but the only huge thing I can see that GWEN was suppose to present was the dungeons to give the game more end game content but the content within them just doesn't seem like enough.

They originally made the dungeons sound good and that there would be a lot of interaction within these dungeons but it's really just another bland boring dungeon grind like so many console RPGs out there. Kill mob X for key, unlock door, fight boss within the dungeon. Though the boss fights are pretty unique the frst few times you do it.

GWEN has nothing to offer the PvP player either. As my roommate pointed out it's pointless for him to even buy the expansion because of the lack of any new skills or fun new ways to PvP.

It's my belief that instead of being a service to us for being such loyal customers to Anet since the launch of Guild Wars it's really just a disservice for presenting us with quite possibly the worst addon ever. Instead of getting the epic finale I was hoping for I get content that already is wearing out its welcome.

And you couldn't have posted this in one of the other threads around?

I havent played in sometime, and I'm still debating if I should get GWEN. I've played since Prophecies was in Beta, but decided I'd had enough after the release of Nightfall and the introduction of Heros. Guildwars is still a great game to play from time to time.


Quote: Originally Posted by Squirl GWEN took it a few steps back and didn't offer the same amount of content we've come to expect out of Anet. I think you expect to much from Anet. They offered you a $30 add-on thats free to play for as long at the servers are running. $30 seems like a smokin deal imo, even if I dont decided to get GWEN.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirl It's my belief that instead of being a service to us for being such loyal customers to Anet since the launch of Guild Wars it's really just a disservice for presenting us with quite possibly the worst addon ever. Since when does Anet need to give you anything for being loyal? They make money from you initial purchase and from items you buy in the online store. Otherwise your account is just a waste of server space. Maybe Anet hasnt lived up to your expectation, but you have to realize they are trying to please millions of customers and not just you. You should be thankful that they even give a flip about your wants and needs.

Thank you for posting.

and I agree with you as do MANY others.

Good post, i agree totally with what you have said and i feel that this 'expansion' is just to fill in the gap between Nightfall and Gw2

adding to many professions just makes the game dull, do we really need to have 8 million more topics about how some persons new favorite class has no place in pugs?

further more do we need any more topics created about the same topci there are allready threads for?

AS for your cons list quite a few of those things were listed as not bing in the game WAY before it ame out. so being disapointed is your own fault

doesn't having an aspect listed as both a pro and a con make it a neutral point?

Holy cr*p! People, either PLAY the frikking game or DON'T. We don't want to hear about all your emo reasons every FIVE THREADS. Just make one big thread where all the emos can talk about their GW:EN *slash slash* and the rest of us would not have to weed through the MILLIONS of threads about how "shit" GW:EN is.

Newsflash, most of us love it.

honestly I don't understand why some of you make it a point to defend Anet to the death. This guy made an intelligent post, listing good and bad points.

If people never complained about the HoM, it still wouldn't list PvE titles. There's nothing wrong with this thread.

There are a lot of good things about the game, and a lot of bad. I wouldn't tell someone that it's 'their fault' that they're disappointed.

Quote: Added heroes (taking away the need to ever really need player interaction) Stopped reading right here. I'm really very tired of people trying to force me to play this game the way they want to play it. Soloing was promised on the box that Prophecies came in, I wouldn't even own the game if it hadn't been. Some of us prefer playing by ourselves, it doesn't hurt you in any way for us to do so, so shut it already. If I didn't have the option to play alone, I STILL wouldn't play with you, I wouldn't play at all.

I agree with everything you've written..

Quote: Originally Posted by wsmcasey

EotN was not meant to be a full game.

I do like your comparsions, but your trying to compare an expansion (of misc stuff to just add) vs a full game.

As an expansion I do agree that pvp only get a handful of new skill (attached to a new game mechanic - cracked armor). I also agree it was shorter then I expected. I at least thought they may be a new guild hall or two at the very least.

I do think an $39.99 is a good price for an expansion, compared to the $59.99 msrp that the game industry (pc, console) is trying to make as the new "standard" for new games.

Squirl I like what you did but I saw one mistake: there are at least 3 pve elites... the norn blessings. And another thing you could have added is that the best new hydromancer skill in the game is a pve dwarf skill. :`(

Tempest, here's the problem I see with your logic. The new chapters cost $10 more and came with two char slots as well as new classes and all that. Also that 59.99 price tag is more for PS3 and Xbox360 games.

I think that pros/cons list is a bit skewed.

I said I was disappointed, not that I despise the game. There's a huge difference. But for what Factions and Nightfall brought to the game, GWEN just doesn't seem like it added anything that's of any importance besides a way to transfer over our achievements once GW2 goes live. Which does us little to no good at the present nor within the next two years.

I didn't say that GWEN needed new professions either. That's just a positive that Factions and Nightfall did give us. I'm perfectly happy with being a Sin or I wouldn't have invested over a 1000 hours playing it.

The story in GWEN is just as good as the other campaigns. It's just way too short. And the approach is just awkward, no central hub to just go into the missions.

The expansion itself gave us half, and that's being generous, of the content that other campaigns have given us but still costs 80% of the price of a full campaign. I don't see the justification. Telling me I didn't need to buy it may be true, however as you all know, in the online RPG market you really don't have a choice. You'll either get it and continue to play or not get it and everyone else in the guild moves on to the new expansion while you're left behind because you don't have access to the areas they want to do. And that's why companies know they can get away with it.

As for the pros and cons, that's just based off my experience and what I like and don't like about each campaign. These were just the things I could think of off the top of my head that really stuck out. Granted there probably are other ones, I just can't think of them at the time.

Quote: Originally Posted by Squirl

Quote: Originally Posted by The Great Al

Well, it is a good thing. They're already in the game and there's no changing that. So, more variety the better.

Edit: And I did point out that adding heroes in the first place was a good thing also. It's a grey area. They were needed and I'm glad they're here. At the same time though, nobody ever feels the need to talk any more which makes the game rather dull since it is in fact online after all.

Let me start off by saying I too am a dedicated GW Fan but I've played GWEN long enough and cant hold back anymore! hahah. This is not intended to randomly flame the game, but is heart felt feed back to Anet and since these fansite forums are our only method of doing so, here it is. Squirl. you are so right on the money. I've completed all 3 campaigns (more times than I care to count) and have been playing/loyal to GW since the beta. GWEN was a monumental disappointment. As monumental as their Hall of Monuments. (excuse the pun)

It really does appear as if they did just toss a bunch of ideas together and fed it to us (for $39.95).

- The story line was ridiculously short ( I went to sell and EoG weapon and poeple were saying "Damn how can you be done so quickly??"
- The items are just old retreads.
- I think Anet chose running over content. (kinda like watering down the booze). They didn't have enough content to keep us busy so they have us run 4 maps to talk to a NPC, who tells us to run back 3 maps to kill something. Just to kill our time.
- Missions/quests were to long, especially since most of the time was spent just getting there. Some days I barely had enough time to finish one quest/mission. (Some GW players actually have lives/jobs)
- Nerfing the drops created a negative cash flow for most people I know. We can't make enough gold to pay for the damn lock pics it takes to open chests. The feeling I get is this was Anet's attempt to thwart the pro farmers. But guess what??? We have to go solo farm in other campaigns to make the gold needed to play GWEN! Because I don't have the time to make dungeon after endless dungeon run thats required to make money. I'm not just talking abut items, but gold also.
- Hall of Monuments...grrrrrr... I have been using a perfect Furious Gold Sword of Fortitude for a long time. I like the skin and its just as good as any of the EoG swords. But can I put this sword (that means a lot to me) in my HoM??? NO! I thought the HoM was to enable you to take your achievements/memories with you?? No you can't! Because that perfect gold sword is not good enough for Anet. You have to spend 200K+ to get a vanity weapon. One BTW you have never rally used and means noting to you.

Don't get me wrong. There were some kewl things in GWEN. Like the brass knuckles...but if you toss enough ideas together a couple are bound to be good.

GWEN is just not the caliber of game I'm used to getting from Anet. I kinda feel like I just got swindled by a used car salesman. Anet's credibility took a bit hit with GWEN, in my eyes.

If this is any indication of the direction they will be taking with GW2, then I don't see a lot of the people that made GW a success following.