[Column] Guild Wars 2: The Neverending Story (Journal)

SBFord · July 2014

I'll admit to not being entirely on board with the new-fangled story Journal as it was posted on the Guild Wars 2 site a month ago. “Repeatable” was the keyword that most of us latched onto, and there was stuff about “no pounding-signpost-grinding” and “challenge” in there, but I figured I'd wait until it all went live before getting too pumped up about anything.

Read more of Jason Winter's Guild Wars 2: The Neverending Story (Journal).

observer · July 2014

The new achievement system is terrible. What were they thinking? The worst part, is having to redo the story, in order to do them. The meta-achievement system was a lot better, and the rewards were a lot better too. The rewards for the new achievement system isn't worth the time.

With the old meta-achievement system, there was a sense of working together, since it was in the open-world, but now it's locked inside an instance. Was this Anet's way of introducing "dungeons"? It boggles the mind.

Zeroxin · July 2014

I like the new achievement system. It needs more varied rewards but it's pretty good nonetheless.

Aeonblades · July 2014

Originally posted by observer
The new achievement system is terrible. What were they thinking? The worst part, is having to redo the story, in order to do them. The meta-achievement system was a lot better, and the rewards were a lot better too. The rewards for the new achievement system isn't worth the time.

With the old meta-achievement system, there was a sense of working together, since it was in the open-world, but now it's locked inside an instance. Was this Anet's way of introducing "dungeons"? It boggles the mind.

I pretty much agree with one small point: Why these huge sweeping changes to parts of the game that DID work. They were on the right track for a few months there with UI improvements, performance improvements, talks of an expansion, promises to make the LS season 2 not as cumbersome and annoying as the first and the first chance they get they drop the ball again.

I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

Until that happens, it's going to continue to be a merry go round of good and bad changes constantly.

flizzer · July 2014

So far I'm liking Season 2 much more than Season 1. I also find it challenging to play. Hope it continues this way going forward.

Telondariel · July 2014

Originally posted by Aeonblades
Originally posted by observer
The new achievement system is terrible. What were they thinking? The worst part, is having to redo the story, in order to do them. The meta-achievement system was a lot better, and the rewards were a lot better too. The rewards for the new achievement system isn't worth the time.

With the old meta-achievement system, there was a sense of working together, since it was in the open-world, but now it's locked inside an instance. Was this Anet's way of introducing "dungeons"? It boggles the mind.

I pretty much agree with one small point: Why these huge sweeping changes to parts of the game that DID work. They were on the right track for a few months there with UI improvements, performance improvements, talks of an expansion, promises to make the LS season 2 not as cumbersome and annoying as the first and the first chance they get they drop the ball again.

I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

Until that happens, it's going to continue to be a merry go round of good and bad changes constantly.

Sadly, Chris Whiteside simply isn't interested in communicating to the community, or listening and acting upon valuable feedback. An immediate example of this is their Trait revamp. It was a change that wasn't needed (read: there was nothing wrong with the previous system), and they completely botched the new results. A feedback thread they created 2 months ago with over 1,500 posts and 60,000+ views remains ignored, and ANET is plugging along like nothing is wrong.

So, you are correct. It's a merry-go-round of a clown show. Poorly thought out and half baked ideas compounding with one another. This is what happens when your original vision gets trashed, when NCSoft takes the reigns, and the team that built the game for the community left Dodge because the writing on the wall was clear of future intent.

Piscore · July 2014

Our story so far...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X_2IdybTV0

if u know what i mean

goemoe · July 2014

I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

Until that happens, it's going to continue to be a merry go round of good and bad changes constantly.

I sign this. And I am playing different games until (if ever) this is changing. New achievements(ystems) won't get me back.

Good article though!

Lydon · July 2014

I'm liking season 2. No complaints thus far.

Zeroxin · July 2014

Originally posted by Telondariel
Originally posted by Aeonblades
Originally posted by observer
The new achievement system is terrible. What were they thinking? The worst part, is having to redo the story, in order to do them. The meta-achievement system was a lot better, and the rewards were a lot better too. The rewards for the new achievement system isn't worth the time.

With the old meta-achievement system, there was a sense of working together, since it was in the open-world, but now it's locked inside an instance. Was this Anet's way of introducing "dungeons"? It boggles the mind.

I pretty much agree with one small point: Why these huge sweeping changes to parts of the game that DID work. They were on the right track for a few months there with UI improvements, performance improvements, talks of an expansion, promises to make the LS season 2 not as cumbersome and annoying as the first and the first chance they get they drop the ball again.

I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

Until that happens, it's going to continue to be a merry go round of good and bad changes constantly.

Sadly, Chris Whiteside simply isn't interested in communicating to the community, or listening and acting upon valuable feedback. An immediate example of this is their Trait revamp. It was a change that wasn't needed (read: there was nothing wrong with the previous system), and they completely botched the new results. A feedback thread they created 2 months ago with over 1,500 posts and 60,000+ views remains ignored, and ANET is plugging along like nothing is wrong.

So, you are correct. It's a merry-go-round of a clown show. Poorly thought out and half baked ideas compounding with one another. This is what happens when your original vision gets trashed, when NCSoft takes the reigns, and the team that built the game for the community left Dodge because the writing on the wall was clear of future intent.

Please enlighten us about what is wrong with the new trait system. I mean apart from the fact that people aren't used to having to go out in the world to find their traits (which new players of the game will instantly be okay with because they haven't experienced anything different) and the fact that traits you unlock aren't unlocked instantly for your other characters. There is no problem with the new trait system.

There are more annoying things in the game right now than the trait system or the achivement system, trust me.

branko7171 · July 2014

Originally posted by Aeonblades
I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

I want that, too. Sadly, I think that will never happen. Their vision is just too different than mine and, as Telondariel said, they don't listen to the players...

greatskys · July 2014

Originally posted by Aeonblades
Originally posted by observer
The new achievement system is terrible. What were they thinking? The worst part, is having to redo the story, in order to do them. The meta-achievement system was a lot better, and the rewards were a lot better too. The rewards for the new achievement system isn't worth the time.

With the old meta-achievement system, there was a sense of working together, since it was in the open-world, but now it's locked inside an instance. Was this Anet's way of introducing "dungeons"? It boggles the mind.

I pretty much agree with one small point: Why these huge sweeping changes to parts of the game that DID work. They were on the right track for a few months there with UI improvements, performance improvements, talks of an expansion, promises to make the LS season 2 not as cumbersome and annoying as the first and the first chance they get they drop the ball again.

I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

Until that happens, it's going to continue to be a merry go round of good and bad changes constantly.

Seems a funny assumption to make when they have more players than ever because of the games success in China . I agree its not perfect but what is . The EU servers are still packed even at off peak times I don't know how much more successful it needs to be before some people consider this game as a success .

I havn't played it non stop from the time I brought it but I regulary go back to the game . I never had expectations of it being my main mmo so I wasn't disapointed . But it has been by far the best value for money that I have got from an mmo . They don't even charge players a DLC price for a new season .

Aeonblades · July 2014

Originally posted by greatskys
Originally posted by Aeonblades
Originally posted by observer
The new achievement system is terrible. What were they thinking? The worst part, is having to redo the story, in order to do them. The meta-achievement system was a lot better, and the rewards were a lot better too. The rewards for the new achievement system isn't worth the time.

With the old meta-achievement system, there was a sense of working together, since it was in the open-world, but now it's locked inside an instance. Was this Anet's way of introducing "dungeons"? It boggles the mind.

I pretty much agree with one small point: Why these huge sweeping changes to parts of the game that DID work. They were on the right track for a few months there with UI improvements, performance improvements, talks of an expansion, promises to make the LS season 2 not as cumbersome and annoying as the first and the first chance they get they drop the ball again.

I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

Until that happens, it's going to continue to be a merry go round of good and bad changes constantly.

Seems a funny assumption to make when they have more players than ever because of the games success in China . I agree its not perfect but what is . The EU servers are still packed even at off peak times I don't know how much more successful it needs to be before some people consider this game as a success .

I havn't played it non stop from the time I brought it but I regulary go back to the game . I never had expectations of it being my main mmo so I wasn't disapointed . But it has been by far the best value for money that I have got from an mmo . They don't even charge players a DLC price for a new season .

I get what you are saying with the new China release, but I think they are going to experience the same thing that NA/EU did. Everything is great for about 3-6 months after release, then servers slowly start losing pop until they get to where we are today with half the servers empty and them having to merge them into a "megaserver" just to have enough people on a map. GW2 is a good game and it has a loyal niche player base, but without changes to their base philosophy on game design, it's going to continue it's slow slide into obscurity.

An expansion would have curbed the hemorrhaging of players, but the time for that expansion was Q4 2013. At this point, I'm leery that they will ever have the resources to do an expansion with so much time wasted on LS and cash shop junk. Add to the fact that NCSoft/Carbine just released WildStar, and I really can't see them having the resources to make an expansion any time soon.

I'm still hopeful, but something tells me NCSoft/ Anet are in full on milk it till it's dry mode at this point, which is a shame. This game could have been another WoW imo if they had just stuck to their manifesto, listened to their fans, and worked on permanent content additions instead of piecemeal tiny updates, dropped the whole eSports fiasco no one cares about, and make WvW their primary PvP focus since it has 10 times the players on any given day anyway.

loulaki · July 2014

lol the posts here are funny

i dunno why, but the community in reddit where are players who PLAY the game they are excited about the new additions and dont have anyone the feeling the community is muted from the developers. These assumptions you have here i dunno where you exaggerating them from ...

Aeonblades · July 2014

Originally posted by loulaki
lol the posts here are funny

i dunno why, but the community in reddit where are players who PLAY the game they are excited about the new additions and dont have anyone the feeling the community is muted from the developers. These assumptions you have here i dunno where you exaggerating them from ...

I don't quite follow what you are saying here. I spend a good bit of time on the GW2 forums (the official ones, I don't use websites like Reddit) Is about 50/50 people happy with the game and people unhappy with the game. If reddit is all open fields and daisies, that's just another reason not to go to reddit, because it's an unrealistic view.

I do play the game by the way, my last login was about a week ago. I just don't play it as much as I once did, but I would again if the design decisions coincided with my interests. I do realize you can't please everyone.

Loke666 · July 2014

Originally posted by loulaki
lol the posts here are funny

i dunno why, but the community in reddit where are players who PLAY the game they are excited about the new additions and dont have anyone the feeling the community is muted from the developers. These assumptions you have here i dunno where you exaggerating them from ...

I play. I do however think that some additions are better than others.

I don't mind the new trait system though even if I think they should have put the work in new skills instead.

I wouldn't look too much into the fact that the first thing in living story was instanced, hopefully there will be plenty of open world events as well and some instanced stuff is good to move the story forward. Just not too much.

What GW2 however needs now is an expansion or new campaign.

Doogiehowser · July 2014

Originally posted by greatskys
Originally posted by Aeonblades
Originally posted by observer
The new achievement system is terrible. What were they thinking? The worst part, is having to redo the story, in order to do them. The meta-achievement system was a lot better, and the rewards were a lot better too. The rewards for the new achievement system isn't worth the time.

With the old meta-achievement system, there was a sense of working together, since it was in the open-world, but now it's locked inside an instance. Was this Anet's way of introducing "dungeons"? It boggles the mind.

I pretty much agree with one small point: Why these huge sweeping changes to parts of the game that DID work. They were on the right track for a few months there with UI improvements, performance improvements, talks of an expansion, promises to make the LS season 2 not as cumbersome and annoying as the first and the first chance they get they drop the ball again.

I so want GW2 to succeed and become the game it was meant to be from the beginning, but with Anet it seems it's one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, the game has one of the best leveling experiences in the genre, but at some point they are going to have to sit down and say "Why are we losing players, what can we do to stop this, and most of all, what do the players actually want for the game rather than what we think they want."

Until that happens, it's going to continue to be a merry go round of good and bad changes constantly.

Seems a funny assumption to make when they have more players than ever because of the games success in China . I agree its not perfect but what is . The EU servers are still packed even at off peak times I don't know how much more successful it needs to be before some people consider this game as a success .

I havn't played it non stop from the time I brought it but I regulary go back to the game . I never had expectations of it being my main mmo so I wasn't disapointed . But it has been by far the best value for money that I have got from an mmo . They don't even charge players a DLC price for a new season .

Still taking that reddit post as a gospel of truth?

And they don't charge people a price for DLC for new season is because it will hardly fill a DLC.

Howdy, Stranger!

[Column] Guild Wars 2: The Neverending Story (Journal)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

[Column] Guild Wars 2: The Neverending Story (Journal)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments