For me what bothers me most, is the issue all ThemeParks have, where the world is boxed in and in a carefully controlled environment so that your gaming feels like being on rails rather than in a virtual world. Really takes away from the exploration part and the general excitement into going into the "unknown".

Also don't like strict class based games where it is the class, rather than me, which decides what I can do and how.

Not having a working Auction House.

Seriously thats my only gripe.  I got to 35 last night and ran Ascalon Catacombs on my Warrior (Longbow/Greatsword) and was truely impressed in the scope and depth of what the PvE content can do in this game.  It is defenitely a thinking mans game. 

Originally posted by Yamota

For me what bothers me most, is the issue all ThemeParks have, where the world is boxed in and in a carefully controlled environment so that your gaming feels like being on rails rather than in a virtual world. Really takes away from the exploration part and the general excitement into going into the "unknown".

Also don't like strict class based games where it is the class, rather than me, which decides what I can do and how.

GW2 is so far from on rails that it isn't even funny.

Have you even played? Or is this just more of the usual rampant speculation [mod edit]

The overflow server grouping problem is fixed now - we had guildies grouping up all evening yesterday and today too. Just form a group, then right click one member and use the "join" option, and you'll be teleported into the same overflow.

Guilds seem to be fixed and running smooth this morning (EU time), so my only "gripe" remains the non working auction house.

PS: if you think GW2 is "on rails" like "other theme parks", then you either haven't played the game at all, or you're playing it wrong thinking the hearts are just like WoW clone quests hubs and that you are limited to your level areas.

Originally posted by vee41

Originally posted by Caldrin

* Very very very very boring heart quests, that have taken the standard kill or collect quests and made them take twice as long and boring. Good job

* So called dynamic events and not really dynamic other than the time they happen. Well this is the case in the first few zones I have been in. Only lvl 25 so far so still got a bit to go. Also some of the dynamic events are just as bad as the heart quests.

Agree on hearts, luckily there should be less and less more you advance in the game. I usually skip them completely.

But dynamic events, sigh. :) I just wrote a blog post why dynamic events are awesome, I recommend you check it out!

You are giving Dynamic Quests far more credit than they deserve. For example you say they have purpose and meaning? How so? They are just like Rift invasions where they just go in circles without really affecting much beside the brief shut down of a village, or whatever. They are not really persistant.

So the main difference between Dynamic Quests and WAR PQs and Rifts is that there are more of them and they are more varied. But the dont have purpose and meaning beside giving you loot and exp. Now if they would actually change the world then those Centaurs taking over a village would raze it to the ground, or use it as a way to conquer the map, none of that happens nor will it ever happen. So Dynamic Quests are again a further dissapointment following PQs and Rifts, they boast to affect the world but the change, if any, is superficial.

Originally posted by kaiser3282

Originally posted by KhinRunite
I wish there were more benefits to grouping in the open world. Grouping makes no difference in DEs, which I don't mind because in DE's everyone is soft-grouped anyway. I was hoping our group of three could help each other out completing hearts. As it stands right now heart quests can't be accomplished faster by a group because the progress is tied to a player only.

Well thats not technically true about the hearts progress. yes if youre each off soloing 3 seperate mobs, youll progress the same as soloing them out of group. But if you stick together and group up the mobs so you can aoe them all together, or simply all 3 of you focus 1 mob together you all get full credit for each kill of every mob. Faster kills = faster hearts progress.

In cases where you interact with objects which spawn mobs, you can have 1 guy running to the objects and triggering them while the other 2 are constantly aggroing the mobs as they spawn and herd them up and then the objective runner can toss 1 AoE into the group and get credit as the other 2 are finishing them off quickly and continue running to more objectives.

Yeah, but the things you described can be done without forming an actual party. There's no inherent benefit from grouping  other than player tracking and instancing.

Incentivizing grouping while keeping the soft group benefits can also boost community, in my opinion.

Originally posted by The_Korrigan

The overflow server grouping problem is fixed now - we had guildies grouping up all evening yesterday and today too. Just form a group, then right click one member and use the "join" option, and you'll be teleported into the same overflow.

Guilds seem to be fixed and running smooth this morning (EU time), so my only "gripe" remains the non working auction house.

 

PS: if you think GW2 is "on rails" like "other theme parks", then you either haven't played the game at all, or you're playing it wrong thinking the hearts are just like WoW clone quests hubs and that you are limited to your level areas.

I'm glad to hear this. Hopefully it will work tonight for me and my cousin. Yesterday it didnt work at all.

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Yamota

For me what bothers me most, is the issue all ThemeParks have, where the world is boxed in and in a carefully controlled environment so that your gaming feels like being on rails rather than in a virtual world. Really takes away from the exploration part and the general excitement into going into the "unknown".

Also don't like strict class based games where it is the class, rather than me, which decides what I can do and how.

GW2 is so far from on rails that it isn't even funny.

Have you even played? Or is this just more of the usual rampant speculation you spew all over these forums.

Yes I have played since head start. Granted I am still low level but the advancement is always.

• Open Map and go to each Heart quest, skill challenge and vista. Usually the path is quite linear.
• Occasionally you will bump into a Dynamic Quest
• There are story line quests, which are also linear, and they seemed quite lacklustre, and mostly a solo experience, so I did not bother doing them.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by vee41

Originally posted by Caldrin

* Very very very very boring heart quests, that have taken the standard kill or collect quests and made them take twice as long and boring. Good job

* So called dynamic events and not really dynamic other than the time they happen. Well this is the case in the first few zones I have been in. Only lvl 25 so far so still got a bit to go. Also some of the dynamic events are just as bad as the heart quests.

Agree on hearts, luckily there should be less and less more you advance in the game. I usually skip them completely.

But dynamic events, sigh. :) I just wrote a blog post why dynamic events are awesome, I recommend you check it out!

You are giving Dynamic Quests far more credit than they deserve. For example you say they have purpose and meaning? How so? They are just like Rift invasions where they just go in circles without really affecting much beside the brief shut down of a village, or whatever. They are not really persistant.

So the main difference between Dynamic Quests and WAR PQs and Rifts is that there are more of them and they are more varied. But the dont have purpose and meaning beside giving you loot and exp. Now if they would actually change the world then those Centaurs taking over a village would raze it to the ground, or use it as a way to conquer the map, none of that happens nor will it ever happen. So Dynamic Quests are again a further dissapointment following PQs and Rifts, they boast to affect the world but the change, if any, is superficial.

There's a waypoint in Caledon Forest that becomes unavaiable when the town it's in is conquered by the Nightmare Court. Merchants in that town becomes unavailable as well. As far as I know they don't reset themselves. Players must drive away the Nightmare Court.

There are other places that has this event, not just the one.

These are the few things offf the top of my head that have had some negative impact on my experience:

I'm with the OP regarding the excessive material demands for crafting.  IMO it shoudl be possible to level your first two crafting professions of choice in relative lockstep with your character without excessive farming so you can actually make use e of your own crafted items.  They don't need to force trading between "crafters" and "levelers" ... enough people hate crafting that there will be a regular crowd that buys the good stuff other people make.

Given that the bank is shared between your characters, I think there are too few regular slots, even with the collections tab.  Asking people to pay for bank expansion I get, but I think what they've offering right now for non-crafting mats is kind of insulting. 

The Trading Post is a big issue IMO, and ANet has gotten pretty lucky so far in terms of the limited outrage.  Had this been another similarly hyped game, the amount of -----ing over this particular issue would be crazy.

Digital Deluxe Edition items were no longer available to me after I hit 'Take All' on one of my characters, and not realizing it at the time, I later deleted that character to make room for others I wanted to play.  Now I can no longer get my DDE items.  $20 down the can.  I'm still waiting on a response from ANet support, going into the fifth day.

Open world PvE kiting for ranged characters is pretty over-the-top cheesy right now IMO.  At one point I was kiting two bronze raptors from Metrica provice (that should really be at least silver IMO) and several smaller ones for 15 minutes, maybe longer before somebody came by and killed the remaining bronze raptor.  Either the AI or the mechanics that make that kind of kiting possible should be looked at further by ANet IMO.

Originally posted by KhinRunite

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by vee41

Originally posted by Caldrin

* Very very very very boring heart quests, that have taken the standard kill or collect quests and made them take twice as long and boring. Good job

* So called dynamic events and not really dynamic other than the time they happen. Well this is the case in the first few zones I have been in. Only lvl 25 so far so still got a bit to go. Also some of the dynamic events are just as bad as the heart quests.

Agree on hearts, luckily there should be less and less more you advance in the game. I usually skip them completely.

But dynamic events, sigh. :) I just wrote a blog post why dynamic events are awesome, I recommend you check it out!

You are giving Dynamic Quests far more credit than they deserve. For example you say they have purpose and meaning? How so? They are just like Rift invasions where they just go in circles without really affecting much beside the brief shut down of a village, or whatever. They are not really persistant.

So the main difference between Dynamic Quests and WAR PQs and Rifts is that there are more of them and they are more varied. But the dont have purpose and meaning beside giving you loot and exp. Now if they would actually change the world then those Centaurs taking over a village would raze it to the ground, or use it as a way to conquer the map, none of that happens nor will it ever happen. So Dynamic Quests are again a further dissapointment following PQs and Rifts, they boast to affect the world but the change, if any, is superficial.

There's a waypoint in Caledon Forest that becomes unavaiable when the town it's in is conquered by the Nightmare Court. Merchants in that town becomes unavailable as well. As far as I know they don't reset themselves. Players must drive away the Nightmare Court.

There are other places that has this event, not just the one.

Yes and if they would actually raze the town to the ground, that would be persistant. But the fact is that, once they take over the town, they just wait to be slaughtered by players (which they always will because they are designed to be taken down). Rift had the exact same mechanic and it quickly became boring, once players realised that it is not a big thing that a town is being taken over.

Here's what bothers me and is esentially stopping me from buying it.

-8 classes, 5 character slots.

-No duel button.

-No face to face trading.

-Loading screens between zones.

EDIT:

-Cash shop is never good.

Pretty much nothing except WvW balance/queues. Yesterday there were no queues but our server (Far Shiverpeaks) held 95-100% of the entire WvW map. I'm not complaining about being on the winning side :) but PvP is boring when the opposing side gives up all hope and leaves.

I think WvW needs either some really nice bonuses for underdogs or maybe the losing servers should be able to team up and work together when the winning server world holds over 2/3 of the map.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Yamota

For me what bothers me most, is the issue all ThemeParks have, where the world is boxed in and in a carefully controlled environment so that your gaming feels like being on rails rather than in a virtual world. Really takes away from the exploration part and the general excitement into going into the "unknown".

Also don't like strict class based games where it is the class, rather than me, which decides what I can do and how.

GW2 is so far from on rails that it isn't even funny.

Have you even played? Or is this just more of the usual rampant speculation you spew all over these forums.

Yes I have played since head start. Granted I am still low level but the advancement is always.

• Open Map and go to each Heart quest, skill challenge and vista. Usually the path is quite linear.
• Occasionally you will bump into a Dynamic Quest
• There are story line quests, which are also linear, and they seemed quite lacklustre, and mostly a solo experience, so I did not bother doing them.

So there is no element of surprise here (short of the occasional Dynamic Quest) because everything is carefully placed on your map and you just need to follow the markers. And the fact that PvP is confined to special zones makes it even more predictable.

 

If you claim the game is not on Rails then maybe you can explain why it is not?

1.) I can level through crafting

2.) I can level through WvWvW

3.) I can level through Personal Story alone, but that requires either a help of a friend to do this exclusively.

4.) I can complete the map in a NON-LINEAR way. Although hearts and areas have levelled monsters I can easily do hearts in no particular order.

5.) I can level up doing a combination of the four

It's really not on rails, man. Also, not everything is marked on the map. There's this jumping puzzle in Morgan's Spiral where you gain the "Morgan's Leap" plus an item if you finish it.

Originally posted by KhinRunite

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Yamota

For me what bothers me most, is the issue all ThemeParks have, where the world is boxed in and in a carefully controlled environment so that your gaming feels like being on rails rather than in a virtual world. Really takes away from the exploration part and the general excitement into going into the "unknown".

Also don't like strict class based games where it is the class, rather than me, which decides what I can do and how.

GW2 is so far from on rails that it isn't even funny.

Have you even played? Or is this just more of the usual rampant speculation you spew all over these forums.

Yes I have played since head start. Granted I am still low level but the advancement is always.

• Open Map and go to each Heart quest, skill challenge and vista. Usually the path is quite linear.
• Occasionally you will bump into a Dynamic Quest
• There are story line quests, which are also linear, and they seemed quite lacklustre, and mostly a solo experience, so I did not bother doing them.

So there is no element of surprise here (short of the occasional Dynamic Quest) because everything is carefully placed on your map and you just need to follow the markers. And the fact that PvP is confined to special zones makes it even more predictable.

 

If you claim the game is not on Rails then maybe you can explain why it is not?

1.) I can level through crafting

2.) I can level through WvWvW

3.) I can level through Personal Story alone, but that requires either a help of a friend to do this exclusively.

4.) I can complete the map in a NON-LINEAR way. Although hearts and areas have levelled monsters I can easily do hearts in no particular order.

5.) I can level up doing a combination of the four

It's really not on rails, man. Also, not everything is marked on the map. There's this jumping puzzle in Morgan's Spiral where you gain the "Morgan's Leap" plus an item if you finish it.

You can do every single thing you mentioned (replace WvWvW with PvP) in most ThemeParks. That does not make it not on rails.

The map is designed to go from point A to B to C but ofcourse you can not do that but then you would run into issues with being outside your level bracket and this game is also designed to heavily depend on levels (in regards to PvE). I have dificulties killing mobs just a 4-5 levels above me.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by KhinRunite

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by vee41

Originally posted by Caldrin

* Very very very very boring heart quests, that have taken the standard kill or collect quests and made them take twice as long and boring. Good job

* So called dynamic events and not really dynamic other than the time they happen. Well this is the case in the first few zones I have been in. Only lvl 25 so far so still got a bit to go. Also some of the dynamic events are just as bad as the heart quests.

Agree on hearts, luckily there should be less and less more you advance in the game. I usually skip them completely.

But dynamic events, sigh. :) I just wrote a blog post why dynamic events are awesome, I recommend you check it out!

You are giving Dynamic Quests far more credit than they deserve. For example you say they have purpose and meaning? How so? They are just like Rift invasions where they just go in circles without really affecting much beside the brief shut down of a village, or whatever. They are not really persistant.

So the main difference between Dynamic Quests and WAR PQs and Rifts is that there are more of them and they are more varied. But the dont have purpose and meaning beside giving you loot and exp. Now if they would actually change the world then those Centaurs taking over a village would raze it to the ground, or use it as a way to conquer the map, none of that happens nor will it ever happen. So Dynamic Quests are again a further dissapointment following PQs and Rifts, they boast to affect the world but the change, if any, is superficial.

There's a waypoint in Caledon Forest that becomes unavaiable when the town it's in is conquered by the Nightmare Court. Merchants in that town becomes unavailable as well. As far as I know they don't reset themselves. Players must drive away the Nightmare Court.

There are other places that has this event, not just the one.

Yes and if they would actually raze the town to the ground, that would be persistant. But the fact is that, once they take over the town, they just wait to be slaughtered by players (which they always will because they are designed to be taken down). Rift had the exact same mechanic and it quickly became boring, once players realised that it is not a big thing that a town is being taken over.

Yeah it would have been uber cool if there's a change in scenery and when players did manage to drive them away a new event will come up where we help NPCs rebuild their town. I hope DEs like this come after some months (they promised adding DEs afterall). But more to your points:

1.) My initial reply was to debunk your idea that DEs are only good for exp and money. Waypoints, merchants, crafting stations are also affected.

2.) As far as I know in Rift those things will go away on their own. The difference here is the Nightmare Court stays unless driven off.

3.) "They are designed to be taken down". I imagine that it's because it's on a low level area, it's menat to be easy. I'm only level 16, so I can't say more. Like you I'm hoping in the higher levels retaking towns wouldn't be as easy.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by KhinRunite

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Yamota

For me what bothers me most, is the issue all ThemeParks have, where the world is boxed in and in a carefully controlled environment so that your gaming feels like being on rails rather than in a virtual world. Really takes away from the exploration part and the general excitement into going into the "unknown".

Also don't like strict class based games where it is the class, rather than me, which decides what I can do and how.

GW2 is so far from on rails that it isn't even funny.

Have you even played? Or is this just more of the usual rampant speculation you spew all over these forums.

Yes I have played since head start. Granted I am still low level but the advancement is always.

• Open Map and go to each Heart quest, skill challenge and vista. Usually the path is quite linear.
• Occasionally you will bump into a Dynamic Quest
• There are story line quests, which are also linear, and they seemed quite lacklustre, and mostly a solo experience, so I did not bother doing them.

So there is no element of surprise here (short of the occasional Dynamic Quest) because everything is carefully placed on your map and you just need to follow the markers. And the fact that PvP is confined to special zones makes it even more predictable.

 

If you claim the game is not on Rails then maybe you can explain why it is not?

1.) I can level through crafting

2.) I can level through WvWvW

3.) I can level through Personal Story alone, but that requires either a help of a friend to do this exclusively.

4.) I can complete the map in a NON-LINEAR way. Although hearts and areas have levelled monsters I can easily do hearts in no particular order.

5.) I can level up doing a combination of the four

It's really not on rails, man. Also, not everything is marked on the map. There's this jumping puzzle in Morgan's Spiral where you gain the "Morgan's Leap" plus an item if you finish it.

You can do every single thing you mentioned (replace WvWvW with PvP) in most ThemeParks. That does not make it not on rails.

The map is designed to go from point A to B to C but ofcourse you can not do that but then you would run into issues with being outside your level bracket and this game is also designed to heavily depend on levels (in regards to PvE). I have dificulties killing mobs just a 4-5 levels above me.

Well it's clear how our definitions of "on-rails" differ so I'll just leave it be. Just so you understand where I'm coming from, I view on rails as having only one path to do something. If I'm given multiple ways of achieving my goal (e.g. reach level 80) I don't see it as on-rails.

You view each "way" of levelling up as a "rail", so yeah, it's on-rails. Can't imagine a game without rails if viewed this way though. =/

Originally posted by KhinRunite

Originally posted by Yamota

 

Yes and if they would actually raze the town to the ground, that would be persistant. But the fact is that, once they take over the town, they just wait to be slaughtered by players (which they always will because they are designed to be taken down). Rift had the exact same mechanic and it quickly became boring, once players realised that it is not a big thing that a town is being taken over.

 

Yeah it would have been uber cool if there's a change in scenery and when players did manage to drive them away a new event will come up where we help NPCs rebuild their town. I hope DEs like this come after some months (they promised adding DEs afterall). But more to your points:

1.) My initial reply was to debunk your idea that DEs are only good for exp and money. Waypoints, merchants, crafting stations are also affected.

2.) As far as I know in Rift those things will go away on their own. The difference here is the Nightmare Court stays unless driven off.

3.) "They are designed to be taken down". I imagine that it's because it's on a low level area, it's menat to be easy. I'm only level 16, so I can't say more. Like you I'm hoping in the higher levels retaking towns wouldn't be as easy.

Yes, this is my main gripe with Rifts and now Dynamic Quests (so far). They are not really a threat and them being finished seems to be a foregone conclusion rather than something that may or may not happen (depending on how good the players are).

Would be much better if "losing" a Dynamic Quest would have real consequences (like destruction of a town and the long process to rebuild it) rather than just to pop some mobs and then have the town magically return to its previous state.

Originally posted by maji

• item shop. I mean come on: I'm level 11, and my bags and bank are already full. It's the tiniest bank I ever saw in any MMORPG. To increase the size, I seem to have to pay money. And I just bought the game. -.-

You can make bags with tailoring, a friend of mine made me 4 10 slot bags the second day of headstart.  If you're not patient enough to craft, and you don't want to buy, I don't know what to tell you.  It's called not having everything handed to you.  You seem to expect 25 slot bags with the game purchase, and maybe a backrub while they're at it.

My primary major concern is that there's no apparent longterm activity that I can look forward to.

I'm not the sort of person who enjoys experiencing the same raid/event/sPvP map over and over again. Once I've seen a dungeon or a zone once (and exhausted it), that's pretty much it. Oh, if it's particularly good - I'll do it a few times, but I can't repeat the same thing for long.

WvW is pretty cool for what it is - but I don't like how it's removed from the open world and I don't like that it resets every 2 weeks. There's a distinct lack of permanence and meaning in the longterm design.

Now, this is the case for 95% of all modern MMOs. WoW has no meaningful endgame either. None of the modern themeparks have what I consider a meaningful endgame.

The only popular MMO that HAS a meaningful endgame activity is EVE Online - and I think EVE Online is boring at the core.

GW2 is a good game - and it's a very good investment, because there's no subscription fee. I would never claim I'm not getting a good return of my investment - at least, not in terms of the monetary investment,

But I'm not looking forward to having exhausted content in 1-3 months, at which point I have to sit down and wait for years until the next interesting MMO comes out. Also, I'm not looking forward to realising that while I had fun getting to level 80 and clearing Orr and doing a bit of WvW, etc., the journey was without a destination. I will literally have nothing to show for my efforts. Just like I had nothing to show when I raided the last dungeon in WoW - or I completed my stories in TOR. It's like the genre has stopped being what UO started - and have become "massively multiplayer" games that never really end - but also never really gives you that sense of completion that you're looking for with most other kinds of entertainment.

Maybe ArcheAge will provide a meaningful longterm experience - and that's the one game I'm genuinely hopeful about in that way.