I was just reading another thread about how there are a lot of complaints about not being able to lvl fast enough because players didn't realize/understand that other in-game regions had the same levels of content that they could work on. And I was fustrated when I was reading on the beta forums about how Eng players want Grenades to be auto targeting because it was "too hard" to have to ground target them.

For myself, I don't want it to become another "cookie cutter" mmo. I like Dev's that are willing to give "higher skill = higher reward" options for players that want that. Who cares if it's not easy to use grenades. They should remain a more chaotic type of a weapon and if combat gets too frenzied to use them then you switch over to a weapon that is auto-targetable. I look forward to the challange of getting better at them with practice. Variety is the spice of life.

So I guess my question is aimed more towards those of you who have played A-net games in the past. Would you say they are they type of company that generally caves to the complainers and dumbs down aspects of thier games when people complain it is not easy enough for them in one way or another?

I think that for them to "dumb it down" will require design changes not just change some numbers around, and I doubt that will happen.

ArenaNet's business model (b2p) is good because it doesn't make them a slave to sub numbers. 

That being said, I don't see them over-reacting to QQ as much as some other companies might but they may dumb it down to attract new players when the first xpac comes out.

Originally posted by oxbaker

So I guess my question is aimed more towards those of you who have played A-net games in the past. Would you say they are they type of company that generally caves to the complainers and dumbs down aspects of thier games when people complain it is not easy enough for them in one way or another?

Nope ArenaNet are not caving in to QQ , but don't be mistaken, GW2 is going to be a very causal friendly game, and ArenaNet do listen alot to the comminity.

But don't exspect them to make a change that doesn't make sense for them, just because of QQ.

Oh for sure they will dumb it down for the casuals. They have before they will do it again.

They already did for the 20+ content. Game is now boring to play.

Originally posted by Kuppa

I think that for them to "dumb it down" will require design changes not just change some numbers around, and I doubt that will happen.

Actually, it could. On the "ask me anything" Reddit, someone asked if they'd make changes to the base game depending on feedback and they said they were willing to do so, both pre and post launch. That is my biggest concern. I actually found the game relatively easily, with the exception of dungeons and over-aggro. It's an enjoyable amount of challenge (once again, not including dungeons, which are masochistic), not too hard, not too easy. If it's nerfed anymore, it will grow boring.

Further, after about 5 days of play between the first two betas, I have a 42 Mesmer and 4 level 10+ characters. I really don't think it needs to be any easier to level, people just don't know HOW to level. If people knew how much exp you got from crafting, they'd be shitting a brick. I was getting 2000+ exp per recipe I uncovered, and they're insanely easy to figure out. If you don't want to craft, no problem, just tell players how to get to LA through the help system or the interface, and from there guide them to the starting zones of the other races. By the time you get through all the starting race zones, you'll end up far and above the recommended level for the 15+ area, let alone your storyline. This isn't including exp from events, I'm just talking exploration and hearts.

The game is fine as it is, people are just used to their hand being held. What GW2 does not have is enough information about what to do, readily accessible for those who need it. Frankly I think it's all pretty obvious but, evidently, not everyone agrees.

I hope not, but I fear they will.

I like the game, but I'll be watching closely if they plan to do something stupid...

Originally posted by oxbaker

So I guess my question is aimed more towards those of you who have played A-net games in the past. Would you say they are they type of company that generally caves to the complainers and dumbs down aspects of thier games when people complain it is not easy enough for them in one way or another?

Well, Anet doesn't exactly have a long list of games. While the company is formed by veterans who have worked at studios such as Blizzard, they really only released one game, and that is Guild Wars 1.

I will say that, GW1 didn't really dumb itself down much. They did make certain content easier, but it was more to do w/ a population drop, than QQ, and it didn't happen until many months after launch, after they had released their first expansion. To this day, the original game is still quite difficult. It's one of those RPGs where you either need to spend a lot of time and be smart about your choices, or literally look up a wiki guide for nearly every quest in the game, lol.

I don't think you have to worry about that tbh.

- Side note:

About grenades. Something I don't think a lot of players know about, is the auto-ground target feature. This is in the options, and is a feature I play with turned on. What it does is fire ground-target-AoEs where your cursor is pointing.

The advantage, is that you can fire off these skills instantly, and in the direction you are pointing.

The downside, is that you don't have a UI marker anymore showing you where your skill is going to land. It becomes more guesstimated, and if you are trying to be ultra-precise with your ground AoEs, it's much harder without the UI display.

- This game definitely needs a guide for certain players, though I'd be surprised if any of them bothered to read it.

Hopefully they are smart enough not to listen to the 1% of the player base that actually post on forums. 

Originally posted by Thorbrand

They already did for the 20+ content. Game is now boring to play.

What did they change?

Originally posted by BioNut

Originally posted by Thorbrand

They already did for the 20+ content. Game is now boring to play.

What did they change?

No threat of dieing which takes away for the tactical combat you had in BWE1.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

The game is fine as it is, people are just used to their hand being held. What GW2 does not have is enough information about what to do, readily accessible for those who need it. Frankly I think it's all pretty obvious but, evidently, not everyone agrees.

This ^.

I don't think they should be tweaking EXP game anymore, it feels about right how it is atm, imho. If you are actively doing a lot of the content, you get more exp than you know what to do with.

- The game definitely could use an ingame tooltip of somekind. Either built into the UI (like they are already doing), or via an NPC, or preferably both.

I really think the game would benefit from even having something as simple as a few NPCs where you first spawn into (after the tutorial event) that are just gossiping about Lion's Arch. 'Hey have you been to Lion's Arch? The Asura Gates are really amazing aren't they, one minute I'm in Divinity's Reach, the next I'm trading in the Charr Lands'.

Just little things like that to start putting the idea of Lion's Arch into player's heads, and then maybe a giant tooltip for those that need it saying "hey! you should check out this big purple portal, it will allow you to explore any of the racial areas!". I know a lot of newer players missed out on that info, and it would definitely help them with that.

Though, I know that the community in this game is also doing a pretty damned good job of educating newer players. I know I hand escorted a few myself to the Asura gates, and a lot of others were explaining it in map chat. What surprised me most was I had to escort someone as high as lvl 17 to Lion's Arch, because they had just never learned that that was possible.

Originally posted by Thorbrand

Originally posted by BioNut

Originally posted by Thorbrand

They already did for the 20+ content. Game is now boring to play.

What did they change?

No threat of dieing which takes away for the tactical combat you had in BWE1.

Huh? Which area was this? Or was this across all the areas?

I played a few of the 20+ content and found events that I couldn't solo, and most of the mobs would straight up kill me if I stood still for too long. I was a warrior though, playing mostly melee, so maybe the experience was different for ranged.

I do think that once you start to really get a hang of the combat the game starts to feel easier, though.

Originally posted by Thorbrand

Originally posted by BioNut

Originally posted by Thorbrand

They already did for the 20+ content. Game is now boring to play.

What did they change?

No threat of dieing which takes away for the tactical combat you had in BWE1.

The only 20+ areas I was in on BWE2 were Kessex hills, but there was NO feeling of a reduction of difficulty. Like to see where you ran into that.

I don't think the game was dumbed down from BWE1 - don't know where you got that from at all - original OP. I noticed that the XP was less from mobs so it took a little longer to lvl but that is not a biggie.

I don't think they will dumb it down - not in their best interest to do so.

Originally posted by oxbaker

I was just reading another thread about how there are a lot of complaints about not being able to lvl fast enough because players didn't realize/understand that other in-game regions had the same levels of content that they could work on. And I was fustrated when I was reading on the beta forums about how Eng players want Grenades to be auto targeting because it was "too hard" to have to ground target them.

For myself, I don't want it to become another "cookie cutter" mmo. I like Dev's that are willing to give "higher skill = higher reward" options for players that want that. Who cares if it's not easy to use grenades. They should remain a more chaotic type of a weapon and if combat gets too frenzied to use them then you switch over to a weapon that is auto-targetable. I look forward to the challange of getting better at them with practice. Variety is the spice of life.

So I guess my question is aimed more towards those of you who have played A-net games in the past. Would you say they are they type of company that generally caves to the complainers and dumbs down aspects of thier games when people complain it is not easy enough for them in one way or another?

Honestly, I sincerely hope not.   Fast leveling is a game killer.  It's basically saying our game is shallow and not worth playing, go raid so you can make yourself an epean.

The skill changes? i.e. the rubbish unlocking tiers thing they implemented, that was a suggested change because some people complained they got confused with the choices and thought the skill point spending was, 'unfair', (that you couldn't spend them every level).

At the end of the day they'll, 'dumb', things down if it keeps a majority of people playing longer.  If simpletons don't find it to their likeing they won't bother with the game, meaning less potenial to spend in the cash shop, less interest in an expansion, ultimately meaning less revenue for the company.

It really is best if people stop thinking of any game as some sort of savior of this genre or if it's made in mind for your, 'good old days', of gaming.  Marketing speel and whatever fanbase PR utimatley ends with whats most profitable for the company and publisher.  These days that rarely fits in with what most diehard fans of this genre wants, especially on this site.

Originally posted by aesperus

Originally posted by oxbaker

So I guess my question is aimed more towards those of you who have played A-net games in the past. Would you say they are they type of company that generally caves to the complainers and dumbs down aspects of thier games when people complain it is not easy enough for them in one way or another?

- Side note:

About grenades. Something I don't think a lot of players know about, is the auto-ground target feature. This is in the options, and is a feature I play with turned on. What it does is fire ground-target-AoEs where your cursor is pointing.

The advantage, is that you can fire off these skills instantly, and in the direction you are pointing.

The downside, is that you don't have a UI marker anymore showing you where your skill is going to land. It becomes more guesstimated, and if you are trying to be ultra-precise with your ground AoEs, it's much harder without the UI display.

I actually was a huge supporter of enabling this feature (League of Legends has something similar for skill shots), but then I realized you can just double tap the skill to fire it off instantly anyway, and you don't lose the marker option which is quite important for getting that maximum distance in WvWvW seige.  Wouldn't recommend using the auto-fire ground target AoE feature and just hit the skill twice rapidly to instantly fire it off.

At first I thought that leveling was quite slow once I hit level 20. Then I realised that I was doing other things that really did not give much xp if any. Such as porting around and messing around in the cities. Once I decided to focus more on doing Hearts and Events I saw a dramatic increase of xp gain. Within several hours I was able to level several levels. I was prolly averaging 1 level in just under an hour.

AOE attacks should not be homing attacks. Totally takes any skillful playing away. It is much more skillful to use the targetting circle to predict where your targets are going to be for the attack instead of just tab target homing attacks. I really do hope that Arenanet leaves it be as is.