I love it.  For months people are asking, no, demanding, a release date.  Saying they're being taken advantage of, citing consumer rights, threatening refunds and all sorts of fun stuff. 

As soon as a release date is announced we get, "What are they thinking?! This game will fail."

I have been MMOing for 14 years now since EQ1 launched. I have to say that GW2 for where it is compaired to other major MMOs, is sitting in a good place. People tend to ask to much of an MMO right out of the gates. GW2 by far is the most fun I have had playing a MMO and I will focus on the fun and be happy to wait for the option for a customizable UI and other trimings. As it stands for what I got I feel there is value in what I bought and i think most who play will agree. 

Is it really such a problem if the game contains several minor bugs when it is released? The game will get polished quickly I believe.

No MMO launches free of minor bugs. The community just needs to be a little patient and show some understanding and everything will be fine :)

If I were in your shoes, I would not worry so much. I believe the game will be ok

Originally posted by Vorch

Originally posted by Chingo

You _dare_ to question the omnipotency of ArenaNet? 

 

Seriously speaking, I had much more functional problems in the stress test than I had in the previous BWE which also made me a bit worried. Let's hope they'll pull it off. Would be a sad day indeed if the launch went south for this game after all the talk about and expectations for a release when it's Truly Ready (tm).

The nature of the stress test was not to measure optimization, but to try and kill the servers. If you check the log on message when you try to enter GW2, it says as much.

As long as the servers did not crash, all is well.

That's why I said  "functional problems" like invisible water (yes, with fish looking like they are flying in the air, which was actually quite funny), mobs running into walls, my toon becoming invisible in a story instance, and so on. Didn't mean the DCs and lag spikes which I take for granted in such an event. Anyway, I expect such problems (which I didn't see in the latest BWE) should be a piece of cake to fix (knocks on wood).

Originally posted by Vutar

This game had better have spectacular improvement in the next BWE or this will be just one more MMO in a long line that fails to meet expectations. The same people demanding the game be released are those who will be here a month later bashing it or moving on to the next hyped game. I really thought Anet was going to take their time and make sure the game was "ready." as they said. Having been in tons of beta tests for MMOs, I cannot fathom how they are going to fix all the problems this game still has by 28 August.

There were over 8 pages of just "bugs." in the few hour stress test yesterday. That does not even take into account things like the UI not being customizable. They would not allow any discussion yesterday in regard to improvements. All threads on that were locked. Likely they will be concentrating on squashing bugs for the next two months.  While good to get those taken care of, it is bad for anyone wanting any type significant improvment in gameplay systems. They will not want to implement anything major knowing that more bugs could come up before release.

I really like GW2 and think it could be a great game. However, if they release without implementing many of the improvements that were all over the forums during/after last BWE, it simply will not be a great game.

/sadface

I disagree, I think the game is in excellent shape.

Bugs vary in severity. I've been involved in software releases with several hundred test issues but since none of these were critical or high priority, the application was launched without any problem whatsoever.

And I couldn't care less about customisable UI; never felt they were more than a waste of time reserved only for gimps or hardcore types tbh. Just like most people don't mod their car or PC, I hihgly doubt most players (feel the need to) mod their UI.

Aryas

Originally posted by Badaboom

Valid point OP, but I would hold off on your concerns until after BW3.  As in, let's wait to see what has happened between now and July 20.

I agree.  I think the July 20 BWE will really be a good view of what the released version will look like.  If it has tons of bugs, missing content, and stability issues at that time, then I'll be concerned.

Originally posted by Sixpax

Originally posted by Badaboom

Valid point OP, but I would hold off on your concerns until after BW3.  As in, let's wait to see what has happened between now and July 20.

I agree.  I think the July 20 BWE will really be a good view of what the released version will look like.  If it has tons of bugs, missing content, and stability issues at that time, then I'll be concerned.

I hope BWE3 is not cpu-bound again, otherwise I'll be annoyed.

Originally posted by Sixpax

Originally posted by Badaboom

Valid point OP, but I would hold off on your concerns until after BW3.  As in, let's wait to see what has happened between now and July 20.

I agree.  I think the July 20 BWE will really be a good view of what the released version will look like.  If it has tons of bugs, missing content, and stability issues at that time, then I'll be concerned.

I am not sure it matters. People know a good game when they see it. When WoW launched it was so buggy people could not play much the first month. They were handing out free play time as fast as I could breath air. Not saying GW2 is or is not bug free or should not be as polished as it can be. I just saying GW2 is gona be a game changer and people are gona see that when they play. Im not worried at all.

Originally posted by seridan

Originally posted by Sixpax

Originally posted by Badaboom

Valid point OP, but I would hold off on your concerns until after BW3.  As in, let's wait to see what has happened between now and July 20.

I agree.  I think the July 20 BWE will really be a good view of what the released version will look like.  If it has tons of bugs, missing content, and stability issues at that time, then I'll be concerned.

I hope BWE3 is not cpu-bound again, otherwise I'll be annoyed.

BWE2 was not CPU bound. Why would BWE3? You could tell some of the graphics were off-loaded to the GPU. There were some issues with ATI cards but not NVidia cards. My CPU was not overloaded by BWE2 and you could see that the NVidia GPU WAS being used. At huge DE's I was getting 60 fps based on FRAPS.

The missing content was due to the fact they didn't want to show much of it early to keep it new and exciting. There will always be bugs in software, don't kid yourself. It is only important if it cuases crashes, etc. My wife always says the last bug in software is fixed when the last user is dead.

Originally posted by seridan

Originally posted by Sixpax

Originally posted by Badaboom

Valid point OP, but I would hold off on your concerns until after BW3.  As in, let's wait to see what has happened between now and July 20.

I agree.  I think the July 20 BWE will really be a good view of what the released version will look like.  If it has tons of bugs, missing content, and stability issues at that time, then I'll be concerned.

I hope BWE3 is not cpu-bound again, otherwise I'll be annoyed.

Exactly this.  A lot of people still are not even sure if they need to upgrade because of the fact that their full system resources are not being utilized. 

 The ONLY thing I am concerned about is two months not being ample time to correct profession balance unless that absolutely NAIL it with the next BWE. I understand we, the Bwe users, aren't truly testing the game for them .... but given the state some of the professions were in with CBT behind them ... I think we do more for balance.

Balance tweaks have got to be the primary focus of the next BWE ( I assume it will be) , otherwise the games going to launch with Alpha builds skewing the viability of other builds.

Originally posted by coretex666

Is it really such a problem if the game contains several minor bugs when it is released? The game will get polished quickly I believe.

No MMO launches free of minor bugs. The community just needs to be a little patient and show some understanding and everything will be fine :)

If I were in your shoes, I would not worry so much. I believe the game will be ok

This +1.

Originally posted by botrytis

Originally posted by seridan

Originally posted by Sixpax

Originally posted by Badaboom

Valid point OP, but I would hold off on your concerns until after BW3.  As in, let's wait to see what has happened between now and July 20.

I agree.  I think the July 20 BWE will really be a good view of what the released version will look like.  If it has tons of bugs, missing content, and stability issues at that time, then I'll be concerned.

I hope BWE3 is not cpu-bound again, otherwise I'll be annoyed.

BWE2 was not CPU bound. Why would BWE3? You could tell some of the graphics were off-loaded to the GPU. There were some issues with ATI cards but not NVidia cards.

This is not correct as GW2 clearly stated it was still CPU bound for BW2.  I don't have the link though.

Originally posted by botrytis

Originally posted by seridan

Originally posted by Sixpax

Originally posted by Badaboom

Valid point OP, but I would hold off on your concerns until after BW3.  As in, let's wait to see what has happened between now and July 20.

I agree.  I think the July 20 BWE will really be a good view of what the released version will look like.  If it has tons of bugs, missing content, and stability issues at that time, then I'll be concerned.

I hope BWE3 is not cpu-bound again, otherwise I'll be annoyed.

BWE2 was not CPU bound. Why would BWE3? You could tell some of the graphics were off-loaded to the GPU. There were some issues with ATI cards but not NVidia cards.

From the makers of Guild Wars 1 I was expecting a bit more "bloom" effect, not as excesive as in GW1 but at least a small amount. In fact I didn't see any post-process effects during BWE2 even on higher graphic settings, which is odd, the engine has already proven that it can handle it, if it's indeed the same heavily modified engine.

I really think BWE2 was still cpu-bound. Yes I have an ATI card, maybe that was the problem.

Originally posted by Redemp

 The ONLY thing I am concerned about is two months not being ample time to correct profession balance unless that absolutely NAIL it with the next BWE. I understand we, the Bwe users, aren't truly testing the game for them .... but given the state some of the professions were in with CBT behind them ... I think we do more for balance.

Balance tweaks have got to be the primary focus of the next BWE ( I assume it will be) , otherwise the games going to launch with Alpha builds skewing the viability of other builds.

 

I'm sure their will be some changes but I don't know of an MMO in which class balances are not being constantly adjusted throughout the lifeitme of the game.  On an order of magnitude, this would be at the bottom my list.

Originally posted by Vutar

This game had better have spectacular improvement in the next BWE or this will be just one more MMO in a long line that fails to meet expectations. The same people demanding the game be released are those who will be here a month later bashing it or moving on to the next hyped game. I really thought Anet was going to take their time and make sure the game was "ready." as they said. Having been in tons of beta tests for MMOs, I cannot fathom how they are going to fix all the problems this game still has by 28 August.

There were over 8 pages of just "bugs." in the few hour stress test yesterday. That does not even take into account things like the UI not being customizable. They would not allow any discussion yesterday in regard to improvements. All threads on that were locked. Likely they will be concentrating on squashing bugs for the next two months.  While good to get those taken care of, it is bad for anyone wanting any type significant improvment in gameplay systems. They will not want to implement anything major knowing that more bugs could come up before release.

I really like GW2 and think it could be a great game. However, if they release without implementing many of the improvements that were all over the forums during/after last BWE, it simply will not be a great game.

/sadface

  I understand your reason of concerning, but we are talking in period of two months from now. There sure IS a great number of minor bugs (escort events being unable to finish, broken npc's etc.) but still, game have far greater level of polish than many MMOs that i played even months after release.

  Hell, even LoL still have laggy and half-broken engine. Its been 3 years now, and i still get character missusing spells, missclicks, some buffs/debuffs/spell effects out of work and we are talking about most profitable online game

  IMO, greatest thing that need ironing out is the performance and optimization and lets hope it will get worked around in the upcoming two months. And i believe it will.

Can't wait myself.  believe they said bwe2 was cpu bound but had some multicore support, hence the better performance.

Originally posted by Badaboom

Originally posted by Redemp

 The ONLY thing I am concerned about is two months not being ample time to correct profession balance unless that absolutely NAIL it with the next BWE. I understand we, the Bwe users, aren't truly testing the game for them .... but given the state some of the professions were in with CBT behind them ... I think we do more for balance.

Balance tweaks have got to be the primary focus of the next BWE ( I assume it will be) , otherwise the games going to launch with Alpha builds skewing the viability of other builds.

 

I'm sure their will be some changes but I don't know of an MMO in which class balances are not being constantly adjusted throughout the lifeitme of the game.  On an order of magnitude, this would be at the bottom my list.

To each their own I guess, but the void between the professions who are well balanced and those not is vast. The alpha builds also need to be neutered ..... theres a Mesmer build that can kill someone in 15 seconds or less with two buttons. ( Its not based on a bugged trait either ).

/shrug

I disagree. I think the game runs great.  Some of the classes may need a little bit of tweaking (I'm looking at you Thief) but overall I think the game is at a good launch point. It already incorporates a lot of what gamers have come to expect as normal features in a mainstream mmo and I'm sure that other things like customizable UI will come shortly thereafter.  Or you could just go with a 3rd party UI which tend to be my favorites.   From my point of view, the game is very stable.  In all of the BWE's and tests I've done, I have only been dc'd 2 times and those were both during BWE1.

Let's see how BWE3 goes. If anything, Arenanet have proven themselves to be a very competent and transparent dev studio which goes a long way in my book.  

i had same feeling that the game is not ready yet.

i thought they would hold the release till December for more fixing and balancing.

i hope this game will not be another D3 cuting pvp content for faster release.lol

regreting pre-order .