State of the Game Letter

She works at Arenanet you dolt

Personally the only thing I do not see that I would like to see is larger party otions for instanced zones in quest and mission moments.

4 robot npcs on the Althea's Ashes quest is kinda...moot

Shese talking about the State of the Game that was released today, not fansite Friday.

My concern is that in your efforts to curb the Bots, you will end up driving honest players away. Not all of us are into the PvP thing. But as things stand right now, with the nerfs (and yes....you keep saying that the drops have not changed....but we play the game everyday.....we can see that it has) to drops and the Economy that bacially supports high $$ guilds that got in and made a ton of money early, before all the nerfs, that they are now for the most part controling the entire trading economy.....I thought the goal was to "Eliminate" the grind......but so far with the state the game is in...the grind is trippled....because drops have gone belly up. I made 6 UW runs last night.....other than a lot of Demonic remains and gold.....I got.....wait for it.....1 15-22 flambrege, 1 blue 16-33 Rams hammer (colored blue with no extras.....just blue)....and a few items that I would expect to drop outside the gate at Ascalon City. Yes something is wrong....even if you wont see or admit it.

And before I get flamed for not "playing the Game"...I have, I'm on my 2nd account because I wanted a primary in each skill group. I have encourgaed others to get GW, even my old Flight sim buddies, I have a guildie that has his 2 kids gaming with him. There is nothing like hearing the glee of a 9 year old when she drop that metorshower at the perfect time.....she just bubbles happiness on Vent.....nothing beats that.

For those of us that just want to go out and beat the heck out of a mob or do other stuff in the PvE side....the game that we fell for 2 months ago (or more for many) is slowly....drip....drip.....being siponed away from us, leaving not a heck of a lot to keep us here and excited about the future of the series.

I have no desire to get into the PvP side....really. If I feel the need to put my skills and knowledge up against someone, I strap on my P51D, log on to Hyperlobby and get in the air playing the IL2 series. Everyone plays the game to suit them....but when they ar prevented from even trying to think outside the box.....and every time they do....it gets nerfed? People go find something else to do.

So in summary, right now the Haves keep having, the Have Nots....are never going to get there or they will go Ebay, really....thats the way the game is heading.

Of course, thats just my opinion.....your mileage may vary.

Sounds like everything I want is being considered. Thank you for posting the state of the game letter. It's great to hear what ANet is thinking.

-Diomedes

Neither am I

As with most players who were done with the rp aspect of the game a while ago, I jumped into pvp. Although it is interesting, I find it ridiculous that it usually takes 30 - 60 minutes to put together a decent / organized team for Tomb or GvG. I have never had to spend so much time idling and waiting for action in any other game.

Solution: Adding character slots could feasibly reduce the waiting time. Logically, if people have more slots (esp. for pvp), they will be more likely to have or be able to create a character which complements the build that is being used.

Well, I don't think this thread has any real direction so I'm going to throw something specific out there. If you haven't read Sarus Thread please do. That's got specific's and it's well moderated even though I don't agree with all he's said.

Instead of saying what random thing you want or insults say what you have an issue with. Not what could be better but what's so bad that it'll make you quit type of thing.

For me the two issues I have are:

1. Nature's renewal ruins the Tombs play. You cannot make it go away except by using the same strategy. There's never been a strategy that is as dominant in the Tombs except for the Monk Balthazar's strat that got nerfed to a reasonable level. Spikers/smiters/necro pets/conditions and even all the way back to War/Mo's all had counters to them within any build but not NR. Even without it affecting hex's it would be too strong, any ranger with no skill other than NR and Oath shot can come into the Tombs and you have to play their game to win and that's a no enchantment, no hex based style of play. The games too simplistic as it is without stripping two of the biggest skill lines out of HoH play.

2. The lack of challenging content in PvE. I hesitate to add this because they do have free content coming this month. I think even a casual player that bought the game when it came out could easily have completed every mission and quest with his first character. I'm somewhere in between hard core and casual and I've completed three. UW and fissure are great but they're dependent on favor and there's only two of them. More missions would be nice, but for me at least I hope they have some recurring content like UW/FoW.

I think the game is going in the right direction Gaile, I'm enjoying it so far for the most part, but, of course there is always room for improvement. Some suggestions might be to randomize more things in the zones like placements of chests so they aren't in the same spot everytime. Maybe even randomize mobs and have more traveling mobs that overlap other mob groups for more "surprise encounters". I think more "surprises" when playing the PVE game brings about more excitment and challenge to the game. Have more things like those Shadows that come up out of the ground. I'd even like to see something like my entire group finding itself incircled by a horde of mobs that come up out of the ground or through the walls.

My really only complaint is the Droknar's runs that just about everyone is doing now (because many have to to be competitive in the lower level arenas.) Running in general I don't have a problem with how people want to play the PVE portion of the game, would like to see more balance brought to the Ascalon and Yaks Bend arenas though. Requiring that a player be Ascended to enter Lornar's Pass would most likely quicken the pace at which lower level arenas would become more balanced again, although high level and elite skills would be the next issue there.

I wouldn't be so much against it, but, for the statements "let people play how they want to play", but, understand when people are allowed to bypass the content of the game to get to the higher level content and higher level skills and elite skills, then they are pratically "forcing" everyone else to follow "their" path to be "competitive" against them. Is this the correct way it should be? Seems like there was even something in the EULA concerning the DISRUPTION of the FUN of OTHER PLAYERS". I clearly see these runs that bring high level gear/skills into lower level arenas as a "disruption to the fun of other players".

Definitely need some automated Trading system. I grew accustom to the auction machine in Star Wars Galaxies and coming back to the stone age of trading goods by mouth is kinda hard to get into anymore. It's just chaotic trying to sell goods on the trade channels of districts 1 and 2 in Ascalon where the majority appear to be selling and heh I'm not even sure there's an abundance of buyers on these two districts from all the spam selling.

Now I'm a big fan of trying to do most everything with "henchies". I think I recently read that henchies are no longer allowed in UW/FOW. I don't know the reason for this, (because of bots?), but, I would greatly appreciate being able to goto those areas with a henchie group, I'd even pay the full price for admission. I've been able to do missions with henchies that others say are impossible and that is my challenge from the game I enjoy. Just like in PVP, it takes "strategy & tactics" to complete a mission or a zone with "henchies" and I've found I can do very well, (long time strategy and tactics games player since the days of Avalon Hill and SPI.)

One of my biggest suggestions and I think would make people happy and certainly bring more PVE players to the PVP world is allowing the trading of faction points for gold, what do you think about this?

Oh Oh Oh, Would like to see a "weaponsmith merchant" in the PVP areas so one can customize weapons that the PVE players give to their PVP characters. For that extra 20% dmg bonus.

My overall opinion is that the state of the game is and will get better over time. Nothing is perfect out of the box and I didn't expect that, but, I must say I like your style of talking to the community and at least listening, though I don't expect you to implement "everyones" needs or wants, I'm sure you will come up with the best solutions for the community as a "whole" and not just individualistic minded.

I don't necessarily agree with it all either It's supposed to be a consolidation of the communities ideas not just my own grand diabolical scheme to turn GW into a flight simulator.

Of course I'll admit that there are certain "community" ideas that I'm not putting in there because they are

A) Ridiculous
or
B) Have not been thought out well at all.

How does getting run to Droknar's force you to do the same? The only valid argument I can think of is that people use their droknars armor in the low level arenas. This is more of problem with the low level arenas than a problem with droknar runners. If anything you should be allowed to wear armor that is only available prior to yaks bend in the lower level arenas. It's as simple as that. I really think it's neat that all these "taxi" services have sprung up and that they provide nice way for people to make money and for players to interact.

I don't see how a repetititon of stuff already said consolidated into a 'letter' got to be delayed as long as it did.

I didn't really garner anything from reading that at all.

Quoted for truth.

I'll wait and see how what's been talked about plays out, but the letter itself was really not informative in the slightest.

Firstly Gaile, read the email i sent which was intended for you and your colleagues at [email protected] (did you get it? )
__________________________________________________ _____

Secondly, a few suggestions which i and many others would like.

Auction system.
Player housing...something to aim for and a gold sink.
Storage expansion.
Guild hall upgrades.
Mining, crafting etc - something to do - replayability.
Skill points shared accross all character slots - PLEASE! It's done with fame, rank, faction (all pvp!!) and shared skill points being denied is another kick in the teeth for PvE players IMO.
I want to be able to get skill points with my farmer and buy the skills with my new character as soon as i see them at the trainer...not have to grind him up.

Let us kill those horrible whiptails with meteor shower...just don't let advanced skills into junior arenas (?). I have millions of skill points yet unlocking the skills for my elementalist wouldn't really be unlocking them would it? I would have to GRIND the character through the tragically linear path AGAIN, even after already buying them with another character.
__________________________________________________ _____

Thirdly...state of the game.

It's great when you play it first time round but the second time it gets tedious...not to mention the third and fourth time.
People are bored...there's no replayability.

The nerfing is seriously p*****g people off. My friend told me today that he is leaving because of it. I don't know why i even tried talking him into staying...maybe because he's the only friend i've got who hasn't been offline for two months.
You say farming is OK, but your actions speak louder than words. If you think "Featherfist drops a rare scroll of beserkers insight" is some sort of prize....[insert flame here].
Seriously Gaile...don't be afraid to add some fun into guild wars PvE. You folks at ArenaNet are acting like you have no ideas left...expand your staff and kick out some awesome expansions or something.
Stop the nerfing...**** ebay and stop being so paranoid. The bots will evolve, you can't beat them (obviously).
Instead, concentrate on returning the fun...before you lose more players.

Give us the drops and watch the prices crumble. Do you really think people would buy from a scumbag on Ebay if they knew they could get X weapon from John Doe ingame for 1000 "pretend" gold?

The economy is all whacked but i remember when dye could be bought from the trader at a reasonable price and runes were actually something worth salvaging from the armour.
Now it's not even worth salvaging. I would rather use my expert salvage kit on something useful.



I remember Primal Rage on the Sega...that was fun. I also remember when Guild Wars was fun....they were the days.

I have no experience playing online games; Guild Wars was a first for me. My husband installed it on my computer (he'd disappeared into the office about a month before when it was released, I could barely pry him out while he was playing GW), and told me to try it.

I did. And I love it, I am totally hooked. The only quibble I have is that I really wish I had somewhere besides those precious storage slots to put my armor sets. I hate throwing good stuff like that away.

The graphics are beautiful, I never thought I would be so into killing dwarves, and I can't wait for the update.

I'm very excited about the accelerated XP and rare drops. I believe its the only feasible way to discourage botting. If no one needs to get 100plat, then no one will buy it off ebay. Observer mode is another such benefit that i would be very happy with.

I was not all that thrilled by the lack of a dev reply to the NR problem, but that's the only thing i wasn't enthused by. For everything else, i feel the letter covers where the game should be headed.

*PHEW* well now we have the state of the game letter we can breathe a sigh of relief we know what's in the works now.

Ascended content - accelerated xp quests new mobs, items.
This sound like it really could help PvEers gain skills faster and enjoy themselves more. Hopefully it will be challenging enough to keep them occupied. Also the XP quests could give PvPers who like to PvE sometime another option to gather skill points with.

Faction, xp and rares increase
This sounds good for the same reason as above. Hopefully this time the faction fix will be significant and high enough to make it possible to unlock all skills in a reasonable time (100 hours for all skills - reasons given in suggestions thread).

Gaile, please make sure personally that they make this fix to faction just right so we don't need to ask for it to be fixed again. If they are in doubt, please ask them to err on the side of too much faction rather than too little.

Play balance adjustments - PvP maps fixing, GvG stagnation
Now this is another important area. James seemed to understand the problems we are facing with the current cliche builds, I just hope he knows about it in enough detail from the forums in order to fix things right. Ask us directly if there is a specific point you want more input on. Fixing the PvP maps...YAY! We really needed that because the camping for an hour in Tombs is not fun and neither is the design of HOH - suggests have already been made on that. Fixing GvG stagnation and publishing a schedule - helps us decide whether we want to stay in the game and then to plan out our time - sounds like a good move.

Observer Mode
Good idea making it for Tombs and GvG. Perhaps an option to not participate if you don't want your build stolen. Actually this is really important, especially at high level PvP. I am all for the sharing of builds to enhance PvP for everyone but making top level builds is very hard indeed. So either an option to opt out, or selected clips of the action - to give you at least some time to enjoy a new found elite build


There were some things James did not detail.

Trading System
Now I know Gaile mentioned a trading system before but we haven't had any specific details on this. Hopefully this will come soon also as the unsettled economy is causing distress to the PvEers.

Specific Nerfs
Hopefully Nature's Renewal will be nerfed and fertile seasons. James did mention the spirit spamming and other cliche builds. I hope this is done well, fingers crossed. Also bot banning and control must be done in a way that doesn't make it hard for players to collect items so they can eventually afford things like fissure armor without resorting to buying gold off Ebay. The letter implied this is the intention.

Overall I think this is a good letter, in the way the letter before the faction patch was a good letter - we know what is going to happen, and that something is *actually going to happen*.

Whatever I said is just the impression I get from reading the letter. We don't know many specifics as to how they plan to make GvG more active and when these changes are going to take place. Also I have to agree with quite a few of Tactical Dillusions points, specifically the skill point sharing, guild hall improvements and making PvE more replayable.

QFT....every....single....word

It all sounds great, provided they deliver what was promised in that letter. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. It's looking good, though.

rofl...this is a great point....I hope someone other than myself reads this!



I'd just like to point out that minor runes sell to the trader for 25 gold....salvaging it out of the armor costs you 16 gold....you make a whopping 9 gold off a minor rune. This definately needs to be fixed...that's completely asinine.

As far as the state of the game is concerned I've almost stopped playing completely. As I see it the game has no real RPG value. Players are too concerned with rushing through the game to get the best gear, PvP and making lots of gold. There is no real economy or role playing. If I were to make suggestions for myself they would be:

1. Make an effort to close all the exploits (including low level people getting rushed)
2. Level requirements for Armor & weapons
3. Make a auction house
4. Create a dependancy between players for things other than high end items. Perhaps making farmers farm raw materials to the folks who don't like to farm by forcing to wear level specific armor.
5. Greater variety of armor styles

State of Character Customization
In the terms of skills, character customization is pretty good, meaning that you usually have a fair number of skills to choose from to make them stand out.

Visually though, I'd say character customization is barely passing. Two of the classes, monks and mesmers have horrible options all around when it comes to face/hair. I also don't know how many times I've heard that people can't stand the male warriors faces either. Most classes have a good number of natural hair colors, but if you want something else, your only option is being a necro main or elementalist main. So I guess I'd suggest that face look and hair color not be limited to class.

Armor wise, most classes are okay, but part of me wants to say don't link what your armor looks like to class either or even like the bonuses with the armor. I will say that'd it be nice if the starter female elementalist armor graphics would be used again, which would go in hand with my last point. I also think some of the coloring options are bad. For male ascalon armor, you can only color the shoulder pad. For some armors, you can only color the trim. It'd be nice if there was an A color area for the bulk of the armor and a B color area for trim or extras. It would also be nice if there were a dye preview and an armor preview. Some people spend a lot of money on the 15K armors and feel like they've gotten burned when they see what they are wearing. I got the 1.5K plate chest for my male warrior and scrapped it as soon as I had 1.5K for the wyvern's armor. I've also heard that necro scars and monk tattoos don't always color as they should. It'd be nice if that were corrected.


State of PvE and Economy
Not too many complaints. It'd be nicer if you could get some better and more frequent drops and a little more gold. The item economy is over inflated and while the elite farmers are raking in the gold, the casual people are not. Even worse is if you take henchies, they'll reduce the drops you get. So if you don't have a ton of time to farm and you bring henchmen along, you aren't going to get far. Other than that, PvE is okay for the most part.

For the missions, I'd say the case is a little worse. Some classes tend to get ignored pretty much. People will rarely go into a mission without one and later 2-3 monks. Some missions practically require you to bring a nuker along.

State of PvP
Overall it’s okay. The first concern I have about it is that you need to do quite a lot to unlock a single skill, and that’s if you are good. The bigger problem is with rushers, people with skills and items from the Droknar’s Forge area, in the ascalon and yaks arenas. The only good chance you have of fighting them is if you rush yourself. Now you might have a good weapon from another character and that helps a little, but weapons have skill requirements meaning yes you can do a little damage, but you are pretty much a one trick pony. Anyways, rushers have pretty much kept me from going to the mentioned arenas and you shouldn’t go to the LA arena unless you are level 20.

So PvP is good for everyone with the max level and the best weapons and armor, and not so good for everyone else.

That should stop about 90% of all the complaining that is going on.

I am glad you are going to be addressing these issues in the near future. I just hope that when you implement these changes that the botting problems get dealt with at the same time. It would be no good if bots could attain rare items faster and starve the economy of the nice items.

Thanks for keeping us updated. Your feedback to the community has been outstanding so far.