FREE = The Most NEGATIVE posting I have ever seen.

This is probably a huge generalization on my behalf but it would seem that when people get somthing for free they are more encoraged to moan about it. I am going to discontinue posting on these forums as it would seem that people are not providing "Good comunity discussion" but rather moaning about anything and everything they can think about.

Is this because you get the feeling you are getting ripped off?
Do you think you are not getting your moneys worth?
or are you just dishartened because something you posted about months ago hasnt been implemented in the game?

I love guild wars I think its fun. THERE I SAID IT!

Am I the only person that loves this game.

Some positive posts would be nice .. just once and a while.

Farewell.

I love Guild Wars but I'm just worn out from playing it so much. I'm taking a break from it, but I do love the game.

See negative been on for 2 mins and well yea .....

I think the thing that sets people up to be disappointed is Anet's enthusiastic stance on being "there to listen" on all issues, yet then being secretive with their info. It's kind of like a look but don't touch relationship with the community.

I don't mind at all, but some do.

There is a huge amount of grind to unlock all skills, currently 600 hours or more. This is a huge differentiation from the Game Synopsis, where it states that "The game is designed to reward player skill and teamwork, not time spent playing, so you won't need to spend hundreds of hours leveling up your character to compete." My decision to buy this game was based greatly upon this synopsis, and yes, I do feel that I am getting ripped off. I paid $50 for this game, and I'm getting nothing but grind. This type of thing is something that businesses get reported to the BBB for, or even worse, get sued for.
No, see above.

I've played it for over 600 hours...if it turns out that this game isn't "fun" then I'm going to be pretty mad. Guild Wars has officially become my favorite game of all time. So yeah, I like it.

What I noticed is the negativity comes from people who have been playing it for a long time and are getting bored with it; and they're blaming Arena Net for their boredom. In my opinion every game gets boring after a long time playing it, even MMORPGs. Then there will be some comparison to WoW and how that game is something that never gets boring. If you ask me, the grass always looks greener on the other side. Besides, WoW has been out for a much longer time than GW...I personally think that Arena Net is still adjusting to what they planned on doing with the game, and that eventually, updates to the game will happen more often.

GW is a relatively new game, and I personally think that people should go easy on it and be more patient. If the game is getting boring, step away from it for a while; but i dont think they should be campaigning here on the boards for other people to go join them in leaving. It's bad for the community. Constructive type of criticism is much more helpful. I mean, if there was a way to help Arena Net make their free-to-play MMORPG much better, I think it can be said in a much better way....

Great, now the "positive" people are threatening to leave ... at leat the forums. Should we post whines about whiners, then smurf to our second accounts, and whine about ourselfs whining?

Oh yes, I LOVE GW, ANET, GRIND, UNLOCKING, GAILE, and that ghostraptor guy. It saved me from suicide, cured cancer and makes flowers appear wherever i go. Do i get some respect here now?

This is easily fixed. Anyone that thinks paying is better can donate to:
"Makkert's Moaners Money Machine"
contact me, and I'm sure your money will be spend to the best of my abilities.

kind regards,
Makkert,
the poor guy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
"Help makkert through the summer! Donate now and feel good! You never will moan again"

I seriously DO like this game. Since release it has been the only game I play on a regular basis, simply because I believe that 95% of this game has been made incredibly well.

The visuals alone still leave me in awe, sometimes I just go for a random 2-4 hour walk into the wilderness just to find a new oasis that maybe no-one else has seen. Does nobody else think that from a graphical point that this game is simply amazing. Also considering the superbly optimized coding!! hats off to the devs.

The internet optimization is fantastic too. The fact my best mate can play along with me from wherever he gets posted all around the world, and by 56k... again brilliant.

There is just so much good about this game, the only thing that spoils it occassionally... the other players, and the thing that makes this game rise above every other title... the other players. The world would be boring if we were all the same, all liked the same thing, all did the same things so...

You guys SUCK and you guys ROCK!

I love Guild Wars. I will never get bored of it. There's always something to do.

people don't complain because the game is free...
people complain because there is actually some kind of listening from the devs

if we didn't like the game, we would just stop playing and not care about anything
if we complain, it's because we actually like playing and hope that the game will improve

That would be most likely; at least for me.

And let annoying people annoy. You need rain to appreciate the sun, and you need sun to appreciate the rain.

Although this may raise disbelieve to those who read my posts and know me as an annoying person: I love guild wars too, or else I wouldn't be playing it.
I SAID IT TOO

I just don't like aNet, esp. if they lie to you.

No.

If it makes you feel any better, this forum is one of the more negative ones. I've been to other forums where GW can't get enough praise, and the same can be said in-game as well. This place is the base of operations of the vocal minority it seems. I hadn't actually heard any complaints whatsoever until I came here. You should just ignore it and stick with the good threads, really.

I am still having fun. It is Fun & Affordable!!

I have done around 400 hours and only have worked on two characters. My goal is to get good at a character then move on to a new one.

From my point of view I have played many, many computer games since 1980.
From games like Zork up til now. This one is just beautiful in graphics and game play.

There is only one other game that I like better then this one and that is the Civilization series. When Civ4 comes out I will drop off on this game some.

Also too much of anything will end up in boredome. You need to walk away from time to time to appreciate this game.

Ok so maybe i dont get it because i dont understand leet or 1337 or whatever but listen to the attitudes being voiced. "i have to grind for 600 hrs to unlock everything" what? Come on your telling me your playing this game to be superior? Or beat everyone else? Or what? Dont you just play it for fun? Meeting new people? exploring someones imagination? or emersing your own drull life in a world where Kevin Plumer from Norwich (if there is a kevin from norwich i apologise i'm sure your a lovely chap) can become, LORD HE-MAN MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE a muscular god whom women want and men want to be, rather then a speccy spotty dwarven hunchback?

I mean come on, its a GAME...perhaps some of you people should look the deffinition up sometime...

GAME - Noun an amusement or pastime. jest, frolic.

Besides Peeps its free!! ok some of you get bored...go away and come back to it...its still free your not wasting any monthly fee.

ANET IMO your doing a pukka job keep up the good work.

Obs

Ehm, everybody has his/her own reason for playing GW.
You shouldn't mock neither the one, nor the other.

Hm, I like to bug people with quotes from wikipedia.com:

So primarily, games are played for the reasons you stated, but games are not pure fun, as you suggested.

Yeah, the negativity is mind-boggling. There's absolutely nothing that can not and will not be given a negative spin.

Personally I think guildwarsguru should add the word "nerf" to their naughty-word filter. I've never seen a word so misused and abused as 'nerf' on this forum - all bug-fixes are nerfs, increased game difficulty is a nerf, DEcreased game difficulty is a nerf, failure to RTFM is a nerf, and of course every single game balance correction, real or -more commonly- imagined, is a nerf.
It's because it's cool to be negative, and cheesy to be positive.
We're at least two. It's a great game, with tons of feeling, the best graphics of any present computer game, and with unparalleled value for money.

Now that's extremely debatable...

The graphics look pretty and does not tax my system to hell to do so. Ergo...

Or maybe people complain/whine because they love Guild Wars, and want to see the game they love improved so it can become even better.

I personally have no respect for people/forums who blindly cheer on a game and reject any sort of criticism, they simply stand in the way of development/improvement. I'll take whining about valid concerns over fanboyism any day, and aside the moral boost, I think ArenaNet is better served by criticism than by blind praise.

Besides, what's there to discuss about "I love Guild Wars!" "I love Guild Wars too!" "Hey, I love it too...!" "...yeah." Trash.

It always interests me how being satisfied with something is automatically associated with 'fanboyism'. I'd absolutely love to know how you think people can possibly 'love' the game when they blurt out things like "GIVE US UAS OR DIE!", or "ANET LIED TO ME THROUGH THEIR BACK TEETH! I HATE THEM! I PUT A HEX ON YE, I TELL YA!", or "This game sucks completely unless you will give me these things that me and a couple of friends really want..."

There's a difference between criticism and childish whining. Just as there's a difference between blind praise and satisfaction. 75% of the 'criticism' I see around here falls under the 'childish whining' category. There's even at least one regular member of this forum who seemingly specifically logs in just to post how much he hates the game in a few threads and then logs off again, mentioning no names.

I think you'll find that ANet is better served by both criticism and praise. If all they ever get is criticism they'll just assume the whole game's flawed, and that every single player dislikes it. If they don't get any praise they won't know which parts are OK as they are.

Ask anyone who praises the game and I'm sure they'll give you a couple of suggestions for how the game could be improved. The difference is, they don't come onto the forums and announce how much they hate the game, and how they think the game is going to collapse under the weight of its own junk. Which is much less helpful than either praise or criticism.

(best gfx EVAR)
True. However, the only real competition is Half Life 2, Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and DOOM3, and personally I'd put them as second to GW (although they are more technologically advanced; especially the lighting in D3 is better than that of GW, but on the other hand D3 environments don't really compare to those of GW).

I'd really love to be able to turn on dynamic lighting in GW, though. That would absolutely rock. And probably reduce most machines to a crawl.

Guild Wars ROCKS! As i posted in another thread... its great for me and my girlfriend as she's moving away in october for a few years to go to Uni. She knows i love games to death. She got into guild more than i did!!! and its going to be a great way to communicate with her whilst being able to play a great game! I think everyone who made Guild Wars deserves a pat on the back. Especially for not making it a monthly payment! And i'll continue to play Guild Wars for a very long time. Even if i decide to take a break from it.
I usually tend to get bored of games quickly, but GW has kept me interested since the beginning. I may not be happy with everything but the game itself is so appealing.
And i know not EVERYONE gets their own way. As most people post a thread moaning about something, and actually think that someone cares. They dont
I love GW.

I love this game too!

I play about 8 hours per week. I've got two ascended characters, but neither has "finished" the game yet.

I'm still finding new and interesting areas, learning to work in a team with other people, and learning new and interesting ways to improve my characters.

I'm having a lot of fun!!!

I think some of the complaints come from the people who say things like "I can only play 4-8 hours per day". 8 hours per day x 7 days = 56 hours per week of playing. Your average working adult can't maintain this kind of schedule. I think these people have probably finished the game with all 4 characters and claim that the game "just isn't very fun!" or "this and that are broken about the game". Maybe they are bored now.

Well, my response is: 56 hours per week x 12 weeks (3 months) playtime = 672 hours of play! If you didn't like the game, maybe you should have stopped playing around 80 hours or so.
Also, that's a LOT of recreation for 50 bucks! I can easily drop that kind of dough taking my family out to the movies! Well worth the money for the amount of entertainment!

Did I mention, I Love Guild Wars!

Dwig

Praise and criticism both have their place. I'm sure Anet appreciates every single positive vibe they come across, as they have poured a lot of energy into making this game, and I'm sure if they go around and read customer reactions they get a sense of pride from it. If someone praised you for something you're good at, wouldn't that be even more cause to improve it? Hell, if no-one told me I was any good at piano I would have dropped it straight away...

Criticism is what gives them the areas where improvements are needed. Sometimes the critique is rather harsh in which case I doubt they'd even bother reading it. I'm sure plenty of Game Suggestions have been made to them through the site which offer a description of the same problem but with a more friendly touch.

Just like to add that these forums do not reflect the opinion of the majority of players anyway, as most of these are pleased and playing the game happily, and have no need to sign up for forums and subject themselves to harshness.

The base of operations of the PvP-centric "vocal minority" is guild-hall.net, not GWGuru. In fact, in the forums of guild-hall.net, GWGuru is often denounced as a bunch of "carebears", that do nothing but lick the heels of ArenaNet. It's just that in the the last few weeks, several posters (who in many cases are already banned from guild-hall.net) have come over from from guild-hall.net to other forums, just to spread the negativity

If people really didn't like the game they would just leave. The people who complain are the ones who want to see the game get better.

My personal opinion is that the vast majority of the game is very good, but there are some things that appear to serve no purpose other than making the game less enjoyable than it could/should be.

If you look closely the vast majority of complaints concern less than half a dozen issues that are not part of the core gameplay, but that stop people enjoying the core gameplay.

I wasnt mocking anyone. Some people like to have their fun berating others, some people get their thrills ruining other peoples enjoyment, Others enjoy farming, Botting, and numerous other pasttimes i neither know the names for nor understand. And thats cool. Whatever floats ya boat ya know. But why waste time moaning? wasnt that the point of the thread?"why is everyone so negative? I ignore players whom i disagree with, dont bother fighting them, arguing, or testing them, as it just wastes my time when i could be enjoying my own gaming experience.

Physcologically, most people complain because they want to justify their own actions and thoughts. They search for villification, and ok great i'm sure when you put "Anet banned my account because i didnt know i was cheating out of the game WTF is next" they will undoubtedly get someone who agrees with them. But like i said not judging them whatever floats their boat, but pushing their moaning views on to everyone else is beyond me. maybe i just have a different mindset

Bug away Oxford english and rodgets online ya gotta pay for and i am cheap skate


Ok i conceed everyone has their own reasons for playing games, but why would you bother if it wasnt fun? I might aswell sit and poke myself in the eye.... ouch...thats not fun....

Ps oops and sorry if i made a mess of this posting....and i dont intend to turn this into a flame war...(what is a flame war...?) and i wish i could do that breaking up text thing would have made this much easier to read

Obs

Maybe it's because the things they promised before the release of the game was very misleading to the retail release?

"No need to grind!" - You won't get elitse, all the necessary skills, and runes.

"Time is not a factor, skill is" - Somewhat true. You can have every skill in the game but still suck ass, but you still need to spend a lot of time just to unlock a few skills.

There is many more, but I pin the blame of GW's problems mostly on the community. You'll see later in my post.

I see so many threads about "OMG theres too much grind in this game!" or "OMG spirits are hax"

To the people who complain about grind: No one said you have to unlock EVERYTHING. Currently Im having a blast with my guild in tombs and team arenas and I dont have hardly any warrior, necro, or elementalist skills. I play my monk and my ranger instead. Even when I went to go unlock the skills for those 2 characters, I never thought about it as work. This is a GAME. It is FUN to go out, kick some butt, get a skill, etc. Character advancement. I guarentee you that hundreds of thousands of gamers like that kind of stuff. Proof? Diablo 2. The ENTIRE GAME is grind, character advancement, rushing, and getting cool gear. And its what 5 years old and still one of the most popular multiplayer games in the world. The moment you start resenting character advancement, you have lost sight of the true nature of 1/2 the game. The increased PvE aspect was implemented so GW was a better game as a whole. I guarentee that every gamer and magaizine would have nailed it for being too short and not having enough emphasis on story.

To the people who complain about PvP imbalance (namely sprrits): GET OVER IT. Last month it was the air spike. Now spirits. In all likelyhood a new FotM will rise soon. If it doesnt, ANet will eventually fix it. But temporary imbalance isnt an excuse to quit the game! Take Warcraft 3. That game got immense hype and was/is the greats RTS in the world. But In version 1.01 there was HORRID imbalance. Namely it was the huntress rush, but I wont get into that cus 1/2 the people here wont know what Im talking about. Know what? People still played. Know what? It got fixed eventually. Know what? GW is the same way.

Having recently tried EQ2, quitting that, getting WoW, quitting that, now GW, I'd have to say that forums are all full of whiners. Heck, the internet is full of whiners. Maybe the world is full of whiners. No, really, I dont know how it is with other online games (EVE? DAOC? Matrix Online? *pffthahaha*) but every online game forum I've seen is full of whiners.

I think it's because A. Online games are generally released "unfinished" (compared to say, console games.) and B. Online games can change, so there's more incentive to speak up, rather than just put up with it and hope they fix it in the sequel.

I wouldn't consider this grind. I think a lot of people would agree.

When are you farming for runes or spending your time in UW to get that piece of armor...

That's grinding.

I use the term fanboyism to describe any GW enthusiast who refuses to acknowledge any flaw with the game, denouncing complaints without trying to comprehend them, usually without actual clue about the issue. My problem isn't with people who are satisfied, it's with people who apparently feel so satisfied that they can't tolerate others to be unsatisfied.

Have you ever considered that someone who is shouting for UAS might have actually already unlocked all skills in the game, found it an entirely cumbersome and repetitive process resembling exactly that which GW said it would prevent - grind, in other words, has the actual experience to base a complaint on, as opposed to baseless whining? My problem is with people who just reached Lion's Arch on their first character, still have the entire world open to them, then read a 'whine' like that, get upset and exclaim that Guild Wars is GREAT and doesn't need UAS.Moderation is key ofcourse, and I agree there is a lot of baseless whining going on (wah I want to be richer, wah there are not enough l33t weapons) - anyone with half a clue can filter that sort of thing. But a lot of the whining stems from a couple of problems that seem to trouble a large group of players, and as long as they're not addressed, the whining is just going to grow in volume. And ofcourse if people start whine threads about people whining like the OP did, that doesn't exactly help.I believe every thread where Gaile announced her presence got about 75% praise and 25% people trying to get her to acknowledge certain issues. I agree that praise and criticism both have their place, but a forum is typically a place where people discuss things. Discussions require difference of opinion usually, so there's not a whole lot to talk about in praise threads, which is why they usually get launched in the nature of 'because everyone else is whining, I hereby start a praise thread!' making them a complain thread by itself. A good critic starts a thread because he wants to see a change, and that alone shows care for Guild Wars already.Ask any player, and they'll give a couple of suggestions for how the game could be improved, that's universal, and we can agree about that. A satisfied player will typically not have issues with the game that detract from his playing experience, instead suggesting things that would add to the game for him (new classes, new skills, you name it). A complainer does have issues with the game that detract from his playing experience. Although some choose rather poor ways to express their issues, that doesn't mean those issues don't exist. And as long as issues aren't addressed or acknowledged, chances are people are going to continue whining about the same thing over and over (such as the traders, currently).

Finally, just because there is no monthly fee doesn't disqualify you from every right to want improvements. Every player paid for the game, and the game was advertised to be developed with updates and expansions - that's what people signed up for, what they paid for. And customers should always be allowed to complain about what they consider a broken product, ofcourse. ArenaNet is not a charitable organisation, they are a business, and we are its customers. There is no question of 'free'.

["The game is designed to reward player skill and teamwork, not time spent playing, so you won't need to spend hundreds of hours leveling up your character to compete." ]

And the game does "exactly that"! Maybe not up to your "expectations", but, the advertisement never promised that. You don't have to spend 100's of hours too compete, you can compete the "very first day" all you have to do is use one of the "premade" PVP characters and you are competing. You're problem is you expected too much, you expected what you expected and didn't see "exactly" what the game offered by its advertisement, which I see as perfectly correct. I could "compete" without 100's of hours of play the "very first day". You're just a whinny brat who didn't get "HIS WAY" Waaaahhhhhh!! lol

I can tell you why the game is popular, coming from an ex-diablo fanatic (I even have the Dungeons and Dragons edition, which kicks ass)

It's simple, very easy to get into it, and quick to join in.

You play GW, and you have to spend half an hour finding the right group, make sure they have the right skills, and then realize that one of them is very shitty in the game or disconnects.

Diablo 2 is not a frusterating game. GW is starting to become one.

Seems to me most of the complaining is coming from the PvP crowd. For instance grinding (for elites, skills, and runes), needing to spend time playing, and balancing are purely PvP complaints.

If that is because the PvP metagame or the PvP crowd is worse than the PvE counterpart I do not know.

I'm PvP so I'm very competitive. This is why I own games like Battlefield 2 and EA's sports game.

In a game like this, the fun isn't "unlocking stuff", but finding that uber build amongst the huge list of skills.

A.net doesn't get that, unfortunately.

At any rate forum postings and threads represent hardly 1% of the total community base. Within the game itself I find very little griping and complaining and a whole lot of people who are having FUN. So all these posts like this are very trivial to begin with. In fact forums are where the "majority of only disgruntled" players hang out, so you can see it's a very small small small tiny portion of the whole community of GW's. So, I wouldn't let anyones negative comments here bother you or frustrate you. They have little and I mean very little impact on the game as a whole. Any DEV being openly honest would tell you so also like the Devs at Triumph Studios, Creative Assembly and Matrixgames have told their community of forumites. So, don't worry, be happy GW's is going to be around a long long long time and only the disgruntled less than 1% want it to fail. lol