GW's future....

So they are spending all that gold on worthless mods? You better check again. Sure they pay more for the skin but the items they buy are just as valuable statwise as any of the ugly collectors or crafters items. The two factors that conspire to make an item worthwhile are stats and looks. I could have an awesome gold zealous sword of fortitude req 8 with 15% unconditional damage and if it isn't a rare skin it's worth maybe half of what it would be. By that same token I can have a max damage Fellblade that has a 15% hexed mod on it armor +5 and a fiery hilt and the same holds true.

If they want me to PvP make it part of the story. Ok, but frankly I don't know what the big deal is, you fight you win or you lose, you go to HoH and win. Then what, go to disney land?

How could you possibly expect Fort Aspenwood to be populated when the majority of the population is still leveling and completing missions?

I said the same thing in someone else's thread about these 2 places being empty. Not all of us burn thru the game in a day and then complain the towns are empty and no ones playing the game. LOL What the heck do they expect?!?

Where did I state that SF and Tombs were in the game from the start?

And it took me 3 days, you did it in 1 - and you're saying there is just as much content? Even with discarding "numbers" which I don't understand why I would want to, after all, it's certainly more tangible than "feel") the fact you finished it in one day simply reinforces my point.

Removing running from the equation since Chapter 2 has nerfed it, you're telling me that you can complete the entire chapter one's missions from presearing to the death of the lich in Hell's precipice in a day? Three days? A week?

I'm pretty experienced in GW, I've finished the game with a total of eight different characters across two accounts, and even getting run in places, it typically, on average, took about a week of average playing time to finish the game, and that's trying to do it in a fairly fast manner. In Factions, it's not nearly as long, nor is it nearly as hard as Chapter one. In one of the later missions (where you're supposed to kill the portal guardians and fighting the four constructs), the game made such a big deal about having to have both the spear and the urn to defeat it - yet I simply grabbed the urn and seven other henches and finished it. I didn't need the spear. I didn't need help from a PUG or a guildmate. I even got expert bonus without even trying.

Even getting to level 20 is about 10x faster than chapter one (again, without the benefit of being run anywhere) and you don't have nearly the troubles of completing the two 15 attribute point quests (running all over the desert, completing multiple quests, getting to copperhammer mines, etc), or doing an infusion run, or any of the other things you need to do to get a "finished" character.

It just isn't there. And at least a lot of the side quests you had to do you gained something tangible, such as skills. You don't even get that in Factions except for a small handful at the start. No, you have to pay for the skills - all the side quests give you nothing but exp and skill points. ANet's way of building in a money sink into the economy.

That's wierd, House of Zu Helter is packed with people grinding out faction to get amber or boost their alliance standing - and Ft Apsenwood is about 5 minutes walk away. With henchies.

Ft Aspenwood is a ghost town for a reason. The random 8v8 sucks.

I believe the main reason why the CE is doing well is because people liked GW:P, not because the quality of Factions, per se. Indeed, how can you know how good a game is before even buying it? Hence, Factions is riding high because of the success of Prophecies. It now appears that a lot more people are unsatisfied with Factions. Let's see how well GW 3 does, and I for one will not be preordering it. I'm inclined to wait and see what it's like first from forums like this one, before I make the decision or buy or not.

If the question is are we getting the same value for the $50 we spend on Factions that we did for the $50 we spent on Prophecies, I would say that we aren't. But, we are still getting a tremendous value. Consider what else I might do with that $50...a 5-hour round of golf...a day of skiing...2 books that take me 12 hours to read...dinner for 1 at a nice place...a tank of gas ...1200 hours of GW for ch 1. I'm feeling like that was money well spent.

i fondly recall the whines of the uber elitest power players from day 2 of GW.

i am at the end of the game and there are only a few people here in district 1. THERE IS NOBODY HERE TO PLAY WITH THIS GAME SUCKS

i was in presear enjoying the scenery

/signed :-/

Faction is a really good game yes theres some problemes but we will learn to deal with it. And I think for 50 buck its worth it cuz there a all new story line new armor weapons monster and farming places. Cuz after 1 years of Gw proh i think ppl would get bored and just start quitting. So in fact with faction ppl will get back to GW and play more and more!

No, they are spending all of their gold on vanity items. But of course, this has been going on since day one for chapter one.

"Perfect" green items are worth nothing, Crystaline swords with lesser mods are worth 100s of plat.

Put the same mods on two different swords, one a simple long sword, the other a fell blade, and you tell me which one is "worth" more.

Barbie fashion show.

And the sudden explosion of frenzied buying for "toys", paying 100k (or more) is ridiculous.

Want to make a million gold? Spend 80 bucks on the collector's edition, and sell your "gift" when it arrives. Just wait and see.

Pokemon.

Is this true...did an Anet designer say that, can someone confirm this?
I only PVE and if this is true, then they are isolating the majority of people that bought this game. If they do this, then they can definitely kiss any future chapters goodbye..

Lets see, one alliance, ten guilds, 2Mil faction is NOT hard to make.

QFT.

All i've seen is bitch bitch bitch. Factions has been out what, a week?

To be honest, 'mimi,' all you've done here is start a flame war. A flame war that is everyone vs you. After reading the thread, completely unbiased, (havn't bought factions yet) it seems to me that you hate the game, and the community.

Don't want to waste all your money on gold sinks? Go play WoW. Personally, i like Barbie and Pokemon. Two of my favorite hobbies.

didn't you say you don't have Factions?

that's ok i know what you're going to say next

Upon re-reading my response I see I left out a paragraph

That "lack of sustanability because of design limitation" is a moot point if GW can find a way to appeal to a new audience. MtG had the same design limitations yet it is still alive today. Why is it?

The existing player base is not what's going to keep this game going. ANet needs a continual stream of new players to sustain this "business model". That means future expansions will be geared towards a new player base. So what does that mean to the existing player base? They are probably going to make content decisions that you do not like. Somebody in ANet marketing probably has a statistic that says "The Average Consumer who purchased Guild Wars (insert chapter here) quit playing after X months". From their standpoint we have a shelf life. They're assuming we'll quit playing at sometime in the future. With that in mind are you going to build your "business model" around that bunch of customers? Nope.

The future of GW will be in the hands of new customers. Like any corporate entity, the future of GW will be based on money, in this case amount of sales. I can hear the response now "That's my point, we're not buying Chapter 3 because of the poor quality of Chapter 2". That's already been factored in the equation by the bean counters. They're going to expect a certain amount of people who bought Chapter 1 or 2 not to buy Chapter 3.

The sustainability of GW will be more of a function of marketing than it will be of quality design. Don't get me wrong, there has to be some level of quality to a game because poor reviews lead to poor marketing and poor sales. But if you were to look at Factions as a new game, having never played Chapter One before it would probably rate pretty well. The problem with Factions is that we (existing players) are comparing it to Chapter One, which without a doubt it does not measure up well to (I'd argue that as an expansion it measures up better, but that's another discussion).

So that's where I disagree....I believe GW's sustainability will NOT be a function of design limitations, but will be a function of marketing to new players. All games have design limitations. Not all games end up being sustainable.

Seeing as i made over 30k faction in the FPE alone..

Guildies and friends agree.

It's ok, i know what you're going to say next.

In my view Chapter 3 and all future Chapters will continue to sell well because all they have to do is copy and paste the same content over and over again -like how they copied and pasted the PVP content and Fissure & UW from Chapter 1 into Factions - add a few new aesthetic changes to armor, weapons, and collectibles, and then they have pleased the vast majority of their customers who will love the "new" game despite all it's copy and pasted content.

Ah, yes, but how many new people will pick up a future chapter when current players of the game tell them not to bother or to wait until it's been out for a while, and they read forums about the last chapter that are more critical than not. Word of mouth can be a powerful thing among gamers. You want to appeal to new gamers, but at the same time, you certainly don't want to shaft your current ones.

I think they did a good job on the mainland part of factions.. alot of detail in there and the mobs are decent towards the later part.. I like how they incorporated a falling roof in the arbor mission.. the thing that I can say was definitely rushed was the factions equivalent to pre-searing.. It's just rushed- and that's people's first impression when they jump into the game.. get to the market off that island and you'll see a pretty decent game