Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by Distaste

Class balance is an utter mess. TR and CW dominate and clerics are there only to drop astral shields. DC's actually have a passive "buff" that makes them heal themselves for 40% less just to give you an idea of how horribly put together the classes are(the reason given is because they wanted clerics to use potions...). Many skills do not work how the tooltip says, some are broken, and others are so broken they do the opposite of the tooltips.

PvP is not even worth doing unless you're a TR or CW due to the horrid class balance. There is no real matching so you can be at GS 5k and be vs a premade 5 man with GS 10k. If you PUG queue you have an equal chance of getting an AFKer or having the group leader(given to a random player) kick you because he can. Honestly 3/4 my PvP gear(which isn't even that great) was bought with glory from losses due to either AFKers, going against premades, or bad class comp(not enough TR or CW).

Picking up on these two points.

1) Clerics got the self heal debuff because they were stupidly OP without it. As it stands you barely need potions as a DC. Before the debuff they were simply unkillable.

2) GWF and GFs are actually the king of PvP at the moment. But only if you are good. Both have crazy burst DPS and the best CC in the game (obliterates the short duration CW stuff). They can literally stunlock you to death. If either get in melee range of a CW / TR its game over.

1. "Regarding Cleric self heals, they will likely remain fairly minor for the Cleric. This is to help balance the fact that Clerics don't need to use as many health potions as other classes. Before the self heal reduction, Clerics would pretty much always have more gold than all other classes.

It was also creating situations where Clerics would just self heal tank through encounters.

So as unfortunate as the reduction is, it does make you a more concerned with taking damage in combat, which hopefully leads to a more satisfying experience at the end of the day."

That's from the IAMA on Reddit and shows just how inept the devs are. At 30+ this is anything but true. A TR with cleric companion will use far less potions than a DC because the TR can kill mobs about 100x faster(exageration but not that far off) where the cleric is left tanking the mobs and slowly killing them while popping pots alongside all of his heals.There really isn't a relief until 50 when we get AS and even then some mobs have some serious dps. We certainly aren't tanking in dungeons either because unless there are 2 clerics for AS stacking the adds alone will drop a cleric. I know this happened around BW2 so perhaps other classes got buffed after? Feats were put in? Either what matters is that clerics healing can safely be brought back to 100% and it won't be OP in the least.

2. CW short stuns are more than long enough to kill pretty much any class so it doesn't matter if they are shorter. The GF do hit hard but they are incredibly easy to get away from and kite. Plus their shield is now pretty buggy with one of the recent patches. I also imagine the TR daze circle from stealth means a dead GF but perhaps I'm wrong. The GWF I have never seen one dominate either on my team or on the opposing side. Sure they do decent damage but they don't drop people nearly as fast as a TR or CW can, plus they are vulnerable. I've done a few 1v1's vs GF and GWF and at least I have a chance at winning. A TR or CW there is ZERO chance. I've outplayed rogues numerous times but it still ends up with me dead because of poor class balance. I've never outplayed a CW though, well because choke->dead, or the more complicated combo of push me out of AS->Choke->dead.

My take on PvP balance is TR and CW damage needs brought down, GF and GWF stay right where they are for now, and DC need some damage buffed and righteousness removed. Then implement DR on CC, as well as make AS stacking not give near invulnerability.Once that happens and the TTK is no longer 2 seconds we can get a better feel for where balance is.

Neverwinter is probably a 5 at best currently.

Class balance is an utter mess. TR and CW dominate and clerics are there only to drop astral shields. DC's actually have a passive "buff" that makes them heal themselves for 40% less just to give you an idea of how horribly put together the classes are(the reason given is because they wanted clerics to use potions...). Many skills do not work how the tooltip says, some are broken, and others are so broken they do the opposite of the tooltips.

Dungeons are boring because every single boss/trash pack are exactly the same; red circles and tons of adds. As a cleric it's the worse experience ever because not only are you the healer but now you're tanking because aggro is broken. Don't assume you'll be getting loot either if you're in a PUG because everyone needs on everything because they want Astral diamonds.

Leveling becomes monotonous because every single zone is setup the same Intro quests->followups->Instanced dungeon->next questhub->repeat. Again there is little mob variety and if you're a cleric(low dps) past 40 becomes dreadfully slow since everything heals, summons more adds, or has a ton of health compared to your dps.

PvP is not even worth doing unless you're a TR or CW due to the horrid class balance. There is no real matching so you can be at GS 5k and be vs a premade 5 man with GS 10k. If you PUG queue you have an equal chance of getting an AFKer or having the group leader(given to a random player) kick you because he can. Honestly 3/4 my PvP gear(which isn't even that great) was bought with glory from losses due to either AFKers, going against premades, or bad class comp(not enough TR or CW).

The economy is essentially fixed to AD's but getting them is a pain. You can do your dailies(which at 60 are incredibly tedious especially since you're forced into doing things you don't really want to do). I just hate when they add a 2nd gated currency that cannot be earned through normal play. GW2 did the same thing with laurels and it makes playing the game tedious.

What's wrong with the game is easily shown in the profession(crafting) missions. Do I send out my crafters out on a 2 hour mission and I get 200 astral diamonds, 1s, and 40xp or an 8 hour mission and I get 300 astral diamonds 2s and 40xp. The game isn't balanced, lacks polish, lacks variety, and lacks depth. If 10 is the best MMO and 1 is the worse, Neverwinter is a 5.

Originally posted by Delavega86

at first i was very surprised that a TES game has race restrictions.

but i really dont mind, as long as they dont result in imbalanced populations, which would hurt RvR.

i would much rather they had 3 different factions that any race could join though.

i mean, why cant an orc and an argonian explore a dungeon together? they wont even see each other lol.

There is a 100% chance that factions will be imbalanced and it will ruin RvR. I think the devs believe that by having 3 factions it will solve the population imbalance issues and that's simply not true. Having a 3rd faction helps but  doesn't solve the issues. In fact it can end up making things worse if the system is setup incorrectly. Take GW2 for example, the #1 server beats on the #2 server to widen the points gap and the # 3 server attacks the #2 server because they are an easier target. It needs to be setup that the #2 and #3 server/faction lose equally so they have motivation to stop the #1.  The other major problem is what they plan to do with night capping/non-prime time. People from different countries tend to group up with players from their region. This ends up leaving 1 server/faction grossly imbalanced at certain parts of the day. if one faction can steamroll with zero resistance during the day the RvR will not last long.

Faction locking races/classes is a rookie mistake when you're trying to add RvR. It just adds one more thing to try and balance and no MMO has EVER balanced it. At least GW2 had the right idea with each side having the same races/classes, just messed up on the gameplay mechanics. ESO is going to end up with faction imbalances that ruin RvR, I also imagine that a lot of players will also be resentful towards the game when they want to play an Argonian but their guild picks DF. The game is basically setting up hurdles in front of itself, I hope they have plans to clear those hurdles.

Originally posted by Timzilla

 

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Originally posted by AwDiddums
Morally this is wrong, you've played the product, you like the product but you want your money back because you really couldn't afford the product in the first place.

 

However when someone has a genuine problem then yes they should get their money back, it's their consumer right, but using an excuse just isn't right, do ppl think these companies survive on goodwill alone?

 

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If you want to inject morality into a simple marketplace transaction, let's put it on the venders shoulders. If they can't deliver a product that engages a consumer for 30 days, then how in good conscious could they expect to keep his money. Return for full refund for any reason should be stamped proudly on any upstanding venders packaging.

Ummm where did you see that GW2 was supposed to entertain you for 30 days? Did ArenaNet ever make that claim? They are under no moral obligation to provide 30 days of entertainment. Do you expect 30 days of non-stop entertainment from a single player game? No.

Take a look at the actual value of  GW2's entertainment though. Say a movie is 2 hours long and $8 a ticket. My fastest level 80 was 70 hours. That means the actual value of GW2 is $280. Even at half that you cannot find a better entertainment value.

So yeah, screw ArenaNet for providing $280 worth of entertainment for only $60....RIGHT? How do they sleep at night?!

Originally posted by wrightstuf

Please dont tell me GW2 is another one of those games..."It gets better later on"

I've heard that about other MMOs, and in every case, if it sucked to start, it sucked. Why on earth would devs not strive to make their game very compelling in the beginning? They want to retain players, not drive them away.

From my own experience, i cant say one way or the other. My highest character is 20. The above statement can only realistically be made by high level characters who have played thru it. I find myself playing TSW most of the time, as GW2 just hasnt done it for me that much so far. I guess eventually i'll get a higher level, but certainly not any time soon. Then i can see for myself.

Dunno, I guess i'm just a "what you see is what you get" kinda person.

Depends on what isn't compelling to you. Story? Like most game stories it starts small and quickly becomes epic. Combat? If you find combat too easy then I can tell you it definitely gets harder as you level. Around level 50 or so all the mobs have more abilities, almost all of which have a poison or bleed(sometimes both). The mob density also increases to the point where you'll almost always fight 2-3 mobs at a time. Learning when to dodge, condition management, and other counters is vital to staying alive.

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

My favorite leveling experience in an MMO, for the first character, was SWTOR.  If they had incorporated the questing system of GW2 it would have been even better.

 

I really enjoyed leveling in classic WOW.  At this point it's terribly dated but at the time I loved it.

 

GW2 is great to explore in, but it's just not nearly as addicting at the moment.  It definitely feel more grindy to me than the first two.

I disagree. I feel absolutely no grind in GW2 leveling. I mean heck I logged in quick last night just to get to the next waypoint and ended up finishing the zone some 4-5 hearts, 6 poi's, 3 vista's, and a handful of events later. If all you want is your xp bar to go up then you might be missing the point of the game. GW2 has so much variety that it never feels grindy to me. From throwing bottles of rum at pirates, smashing rats, killing bosses, repelling invasions, picking up ettin refuse, etc. They have done a nice job of breaking things up so you don't feel like you're always doing the same thing.

SWTOR was incredibly grindy leveling. The only thing that made it even passable was the personal story, but with only 3-4 of those quests a planet it was a long hard slog through each world. Not the mention the quest variety in SWTOR was non-existent.

Vanilla WoW was a better leveling experience than other games at the time, but by today's standards, it was grindy. Do you remember leveling prior to the zone/xp revamps? Leveling past 40 was grindtacular, on my mage I skipped the quests and did the maraudon slimes because I couldn't take quests anymore. BC had a few interesting quests but mostly just more of the same.

If I had to rate MMO level experiences, I would say: #1 GW2, #2 The Chronicles of Spellborn #3 Warhammer(oddly enough).

Originally posted by DKLond

Originally posted by Indrome

Originally posted by DKLond

In WoW - as crappy as the story is - you never need to go looking for something to do. In GW2 - not only do you have to actively search for something to do, you also need a REASON in terms of storytelling. I could probably do without a reason if, at least, they had a better way of showing where the events happen - because I don't enjoy wandering aimlessly until I find one - even if it's just 5 minutes. 5 minutes without an apparent purpose might as well be an hour.

[ ... ]

I think this is going to be a discussion about the differences in themepark mechanics between WoW and GW2.

For the record. In WoW you have no visual cues on the map telling you where you HAVE TO go for that next quest hub. In GW2 you have visual cues and can ask scouts for where you CAN go. To me that makes all the difference.

The fact that you can't know where the next DE is is a deliberate decision by ANet. These events have to be found by playing the game. That includes listening to NPCs, walking from Heart to Heart and constantly looking left and right in the process.

Can it be that you found WoWs "storytelling" ... tighter in such a way that you were being "leashed along" from quest to quest? The world seeming more densely packed and rich as an effect of that?

To me, an NPC TELLING you where to go and you HAVING TO go there is not got storytelling. It feels forced and more like a singleplayer RPG than having the OPTION to go wherever you want and find something worthwhile that you didn't even know about. In that way GW2 creates the feeling of an open world inside the bounds of a themepark MMO.

The art of "stumbling upon stories" in GW2 might simply not appeal to you. But it is needed for the game manifesto to work out.

I'm not the one trying to turn it into a competition between WoW and GW2. WoW is an old game, and I have no interest in going back to it. But, yes, WoW is VERY clear about where you need to go in any given area. There are paths that lead directly from quest hub to quest hub. While levelling, I never had to wonder where or what I should be doing. Doesn't mean the story was good - but there was more direction.

Very basically, I simply want more direction. If the manifesto says there shouldn't be direction - then obviously, the game just isn't for me. Which was my main point in my original post.

 

I just don't get what more you'd want in direction. I mean just going from heart to heart doing all dynamic events you come acrossed will level you through the zone. Do you REALLY need a quest saying "Go do heart 1!" "Go do heart 2", etc? You want a more indepth story but going heart to heart is too complicated? The game gives you a completion listing for each zone, need even more direction? Get 100% completion. Do that and you will be overleveled for everything.

You just want everything spoonfed to you while your hand is being held. Too much direction is tedious(WoW and every clone since), but too little direction is overwhelming and confusing(sandbox games); GW2 strikes it just right with providing some handholding elements, you know those hearts I mentioned were put in just for people like you, wtihout forcing it on people but keeps some of the openness of a sandbox.

There is nothing wrong with raiding per say but it only caters to a certain set of gamers and having the entire endgame dedicated to that subset of gamers kills it for others. When all there is to do is raiding, it gets boring. WoW overplayed raiding/instances and now they are pretty boring in any MMO unless they are drastically different.

When raids finally get back to being a special occurance they will become epic again. GW2 is taking a step towards that by making them linked to a large chain of events so they aren't always available. All I can say is that I definitely won't be missing raid nights or being forced to join a large guild while playing GW2,

Originally posted by ariboersma

Originally posted by Zylaxx

Originally posted by doragon86

Originally posted by sk8chalif

This is shit for me, where do i put my thump. seriously, i hold so hard my mouse sometime with my thumps that i would press all button at once. so this is mouse is not good for me , i will keep my 2 thumps 1 lol

You'd probably like the G700. Nice little groove for your thumb when you're not using the side buttons. 

Yup I just ordered it.  Same size as my previous logitech so it will still feel natural.

ugg I cant deal with wireless mice.. I hope they upgrade the old Mx518

The G700 is both corded and wireless. The cord allows you to use the mouse like a regular corded mouse and charges the battery. So if you like corded it works just like a corded mouse, however I think you'll quickly find that wireless mode does have it's usees.

I used the Mx518 for like 5 years. The one broke, optics died, within warranty so they sent me a new one. Used that one for a year or so and the cord got a break in it. I used the cord from the previous mouse and used it for probably another 6 months. I ended up picking the G700 as my mx518 replacement because I got a 50% off code from logitech, at $50 there was no better mouse. Not to mention that Logitech's warranty service is great. I actually just had my G700 replaced because the left mouse button switch was messed up. It would multi-click and unclick even when held.

SWTOR is down for the count, it would require far too much time/money to change the game into something people would play for years.

Most of SWTOR's problems were discussed years/months before it released. There were those of us that knew full vo/story would cause patches to come out slower or with less content. We were told though "it's Bioware! They know what they are doing!". We also stated how the game would fall flat once the story ended, but again "It's Bioware!". The major problems with the game were all discussed and dissmissed vehemitly, by Bioware fans, years/months prior to launch. Bioware didn't listen then and now the game is built upon flawed design decisions, it isn't going to change.

It took them 5 years to produce the game in it's current form, in order to turn that game around they would need another few years of pure development. We are talking engine overhaul, PvP overhaul, faction overhaul, class system overhaul, world overhaul, etc. You would be basically making a new game with the same assets. It simply isn't feasible and EA certainly isn't going to fund it. EA is going to do the bare minimum to make some more money off the game and that's it. They are going to use as little money as possible to get the most out of SWTOR. Just look at WAR, they reused the same assets for WOH.

Originally posted by jusomdude

You're still doing pretty much the same activities as every other MMO with quests. Cannot agree with that being considered chaning half the MMORPG.

You accquire the quests differently but it's all gather x, kill x, etc.

I wouldn't say it is 1/2 but it most certainly changes a large portion of the MMORPG.

In previous games you need to pick up quests, do what the quests say, and return to turn those quests in. The quests force you to go place and pretty much drag you through the game. If your friend logs in he needs to have the same quest your on to be rewarded for helping and if he already did it he gets nothing. If your friend is higher level then he is basically doing all the work.

In GW2 you just run around and do things as they pop up, there can be multiple ways to complete an event, you don't need to return to an NPC to complete it(unless it's a gather one!), and you don't even need to stay until the event finishes. The events don't force you to go places or drag you through the game, you can explore, craft, and do other events to level. If your friend gets on all you need to do is meet up in the world. The only thing required for you to play together is that you do events in the lower level players range. The higher level friend still gets rewarded so he is happy to help. The higher level is also down-leveled she he isn't doing all the work and making things trivial.

Do you see the difference? One is very linear and restrictive, the other is non-linear and offers a lot of freedom. GW2 isn't changing what you do, it's changing how you do it. How you do it is almost always more important than what you do. Killing 20 stationary boars is boring(pun intended), killing 20 boars that are all charging at a settlement is a lot funner.

Originally posted by BigRock411

Originally posted by terrant

Originally posted by BigRock411

Oops

 

We all know criticism of this game isnt wanted nor is it tolerated.  

Criticism with some backup is fine. Dissenting opinions are fine. OP had some of those, and some things that were blatantly trolling.

 

Seriously though...everyone thinks the classes are 100% balanced?

Of course not. No game is ever 100% balanced, no matter how hard the devs try, unless everything is 100% the same for every player. I don't think it's as broke as the OP indicates, however.

 

 This is the one game where people want heavy instancing?

There's heavy instancing? The only instances are PS quests and dungeons. Yes, zones splinter into shareds when they are over pop. Keep in mind though not to judge the game by BWE3. They intenitonally reduced the zone caps to stress test.

 

No one would want mounts?

Looking at the numerous polls that have been on this site...it's about 50-50. I personally don't see a need for the,. You can get to any given waypoint near your current location on foot quickly enough, and once you have it tagged you can just port.

 

 Combat isnt 5 button swap 5 button? 

Nope. Not even close. I mean if you are playing like an idiot maybe, but you'll be dead in short order. Now, if you are floolowing behind a large group, you can spam all you want and it won't matter. You won't do any real contributing, But you'll get away with it.

 

Nothing the OP stated was a bunch of crazy fabrications...he just wants the game to be better...why such hostility? 

Actually, easily 2-3 or more of the things he stated were fabrications, or just plain misunderstandings about the game. And there's nothing wronf with wanting it to be better. But he more or less stated the game was unplayable because it didn't have idiotic wow features like a DPS meter.

 

 

 

This is what im talking about, im not even criticizing the game and your on the defensive.

 

Seriously you guys need help....

You were criticising it though through your "questions". You even further back your criticisms by saying that nothing the OP said was fabricated. All Terrant did was point out exactly where your criticisms were wrong in his eyes.

Criticising the game is fine, but doing so on false information will end up with you being corrected like Terrant did. The whole "5 button swap button mashing" is something that has a small nugget of truth(you can certainly spam 5 abilities, swap, and do it again) but it is used in a false statement, IE All combat in GW2 is spamming 5 buttons, swapping weapon, and doing it again. If you try to do that in SPVP you will die...a lot, and not be useful. If you try that in harder PvE content, you will die a lot and probably never beat it. It's like saying all you had to do in WoW vanilla was autoattack. Could you kill some mobs with auto-attack? Certainly, but were you going to beat all of the raid bosses doing that? Not a chance.  In any MMO you can use a bad playstyle and get through most leveling content, that does not mean that is all there is to combat.

At the very least GW2 combat is 18 abilities: 10 for weapons, 1 for swap, 1 for heal, 3 for utility, 1 for elite, 1 for dodge, 1 for class ability. At most it is well over 40+ abilitiess(elementalist+summoned weapons).

Originally posted by jazz.be

Originally posted by Kyelthis

Originally posted by jazz.be

Man I'm going to have serious problems deciding my profession on the 22nd of August.

I have so little knowledge about the professions. But they look very different from each other with the various weapon abilities.

I know that every profession has some heal abilities etc. But which one is best at healing and which one is best at tanking?

I wonder if I'd make the right choice from start....kinda exciting.

Best at healing? Elementalist or Guardian.

Tanking? Necro, Ele, Guardian, Warrior.

That doesn't sound right for some reason :-)

I have more faith in Eir_S's comment. However I've read somewhere that the whole healer/tank/dps structure is still present in GW2, that it's just a little less important.

No, that statement is correct.

Elementalist and guardian just have more skills that heal making them better healers. I can only be specific from the elementalist side but they usually have 2 healing skills in the water attunement(the frost beam and tidal wave for example) as well as several other things like traits that make swapping into water attunement heal people around them.

Elementalists also have some very nice traits/skills for reducing damage they take, but I wouldn't say they are as good at it as the other 3.

Necro's have their class skill that basically gives them 2 health bars on top of their abilities that return health on damage. So they can certainly be pretty tanky. Guardians have the extra armor, aegis(blocks an attack), healing, and a ton of abilities that block or reduce damage. Warriors have the extra health/armor, shield block, counter attack, defensive banner, and a bunch of skills to stop their opponent from attacking(stun/knockdown).

That doesn't mean the tank classes can just sit infront of an enemy and "tank" or that the better healing classes can keep people healed indefinitely. It just means those classes do it better than others.

Originally posted by jedensuscg

I agree with you OP, even if the arenanet fanboys do not.  The skill rotation is to basic, the auto attack feature alone hurts PvP.  It is just a paper rock scissor game.  There needs to be more reactive combat, and less proactive.  There is a lot of pre-fight setup where you get your skill set and weapon selection.  But once in combat, its just a matter of hitting those buttons.  There is no synergy between the skills you do have either.  There is no setup, no building of momentum.  There is no reaction to what the other player is doing aside from roll a few times, you can counter a potential attack with a timed parry or block or counter spell.

The skills are interesting for some classes, yes, and they do make PvP a little different from other games, but in the end there is not enough heat of the moment strategy and intuition to make this a true skill based PvP game that is worthy of MLG.

 

But time will tell, cause it is still too early.

This is anything but a paper/rock/scissors game. A guardian doesn't always beat a necro, a warrior doesn't always beat an elementalist, etc. It all comes down to how you built your class and how well you play it. A build with no condition removal is going to die to an enemy with a condition build.

As for reacting, have you met a warrior in GW2? Dodge the bulls rush or die. No setup? Try playing an elementalist and say that with a straight face, they are all about setups and combos. If you get stunned use a stun break(which is all most other MMO's had). No reaction to the other player except rolling? There is plenty to react to and position yourself for like stuns, stealth, conditions, boons, traps, high damaging abilities(hundred blades!). Just because you can't see the things to react to doesn't mean they aren't there.

As for synergy, what are you talking about? There is a ton of synergy in not only your own skills but your team skills. Again go play an elementalist. You have 16 skills and there are plenty that work very well together. Just off the top of my head static field + Lava font or ride the lightning+stun aura+Dragons breath+ring of fire+burning feet. Even the simple classes like warrior have combos like the overly popular bullsrush hundred blades.

The one thing I will say about GW2's PvP is that the super high burst numbers need a bit of toning down. That's the entire reason the warrior is popular right now, they bring really high numbers to the table. I like the longer fights though, so maybe it's just me.

Originally posted by Lobotomist

This is not critic to Arenanet , which i give all kudos too - for going and trying something really new in MMO genre.

The game I feel will be huge hit and everyone will play it.

Alas nothing is perfect - and here are few things - i think  came over quite poorly.

 

1. Dense packed mobs on maps.

This is best known as LOTRO(Evendim) syndrom. Namely in LOTRO they tried to slow player movement trough area By putting a boar (lol , or any other mob) every few feet. Your move was a crawl , because you had to fight constantly. It

turned to be tedious. And after a while Turbine made mobs less dense.

Unfortunatley , i feel GW2 has done the same. Maps feel crazily packed by mobs, which soon turns into tedium.

Especially when you count next step ...

2. No safe spot.

This is known as Tabula Rasa syndrom. Namely TR was very dynamic game , and mobs could invade any place anytime. This lead to fact that there was no place to AFK , rest , take a breath , even to type message. Without being attacked.

Unfortunately same goes for GW2. I died 2 times while trying to type answer in chat. And every time i had to go to take a leak. No mather how well hidden was a resting spot i chose (i am talking outside of towns...although even those are not perfectly safe)

New dynamic games suffer from this (Rift included). But like in TR i feel its to much pressure. And its unfun. You need moments of calm.

3. Camera FOV.

Field of view. Something is just wrong with it. Camera is placed to low. Making your character stand almost in middle of screen. And not in low middle part. You need to zoom out in order to have good view around you.

Also camera rotation is wierd....

I am sure its something you get used to fast. But i dont know why they had to change the usual point of view...

4. Themepark Feel omega.

With such pack filled maps. I am afraid that GW2 feels more theme park than king of themeparks.

Certanly not their fault for giving us tons of content. But thats the feel... ;)

 

1. What area are you in?  Most of the places I've been(Charr, Sylvani, Norn) are fairly open and mob density is perfect. Not so many that you're overwhelmed but not so few that you're spending a ton of time hunting them down. There are places where mob density increases but usually they are area's that should be dense. In an enemy stronghold there should be lots of enemies. Unless of course you're underlevel at which point you'll be aggroing things from a mile away. So I disagree completely here.

2. What? How could you not find "safe" spots. I've AFKed while making dinner and didn't die. I've taken numberous bathroom breaks and didn't suffer a single hit. It seriously is not hard to find spots where mobs don't spawn and won't attack. Heck an almost foolproof way is to just take a waypoint and afk there. Even AFKing at the small towns you're good for at least 30mins unless it is already under attack. My conclusion, you must be just walking into hostile territory and afking.

3. Yeah, it's wonky.

4. That is a good thing, the problem with other themepark games is they force you to ride the rides. GW2 is a hassle free themepark where you have lots of freedom.

Originally posted by oxbaker

Do you get to keep the 20% off items for your account after the game goes live?

No, you get all the gems back. They are just testing their sale system. There will still be 20% sales after launch though

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by fivoroth

It is really sad to see this happen to Bioware cause I actually like their singleplayer games. SWTOR had a huge impact on their financials and that is definitely going to affect their other games overall.

This makes me even more annoyed with MMOs. MMOs are a flawed genre and it is sad to see so many good developers invest so heavily in an MMO then fail. Can't they realise that making an MMO is not worth it. Make an online action RPG without sub and be on the safe side rather than make MMOs all the time.

People just don't like subs and companies make MMOs because of the subs. Then in 1-2 months they have very few subs left.

That ain´t really MMOs faults, if you want to blame something you can blame EA instead.

When you take one studio and opens 3 more new while still keeping the name chanses are that the 3 new studios can't make as good games as the original one even if the same guy is the boss of them all.

Games like Dragon age and TOR have mostly new employees and can´t keep up against Biowares classics or the new game the original studio makes (like ME).

TORs issue in my book is that it really ain´t have enough focus on multiplaying and social stuff which means that i don´t feel to pay a monthly fee for it. The point of a MMO is to play together with your friends and meet new friends, TOR just don´t have enough of that currently since someone decided to focus on the singleplayer game.

And the soloparts of the game are well made but there is a lot more to a MMO. If the game would have been B2P instead like Guildwars I think it would be rather large today, and I think it would have also done a lot better if it put more work into group playing and PvP.

You can't blame EA for this. Bioware Austin was built and started work on SWTOR long before EA got involved. So if you're trying to say EA forced Bioware to open a new studio and that's why SWTOR was bad as the reason, you're wrong. This failure is purely in Bioware's court.

SWTOR suffers from serious design flaws and seemingly incompetent designers. Sooo many of SWTOR's design flaws were discussed, at length I might add, back in 2008 when we started getting information. Things like story being too singleplayer, taking up too many resources, and becoming useless once max level is reached. Those were gigantic GLARING issues and Bioware continued right down that path.

B2P might have helped SWTOR but it's too late for that now. Even as B2P they would have had to merge servers because the game has no retention mechanics and low replay value. GW2 won't be immune to a drop off but they have WvW, a ton of replay value in dynamic events so I forsee a longer more gradual decline. Of course that could change depending on how fast ANet can put in content.

Originally posted by Tensor25

Xfire data can not be relied on. Not everyone uses it nor does anyone know what percentage of the population does. Therefore the only conclusion that can be made from a declining xfire number, is that less people are using xfire.  

Facts: SWTOR subs are declining. <-- This is all we know for sure.

What we don't know: Exact number of subs. The breakeven point (i.e. number of subs to warrant continued operation of the game in its current state).

Opinion: I didn't know what the f*** xfire even was until I saw this thread. I dont use it. None of my friends (that play SWTOR) use it. I am a casual player in my late 20's that gets on the game 3 times a week, 4 if i'm lucky. Paying the monthly subscription is not an issue for me. Even if I didn't play the game for a month or two in all likelyhood my sub will continue. My friends are in a similar situation as me. Late 20's, early 30's employed, (not living pay check to pay check) and paying the sub is a complete after thought (it's $15 buck a month). I have met many people in game that have are in a similar situation

Bottom line: Because this game is star wars, there are many "older" players like my self that will give BW my credit card number and let them ding me for that $15 a month for a long time to come. My opinion is that there are many individuals like this that play this game, which will add to its longevity and keep a steady sub/player base.

So you're saying that just because not everyone takes a survey that it's not reliable? We don't even need to know what percentage of the MMO population does use xfire to draw a trend conclusion. All we need to know is the starting number of people using xfire/swtor and the current number. From there you can draw the conclusion that if 75% of the people that started playing SWTOR with xfire stopped, then it is likely that there is also a downward trend in overall SWTOR subs. That's all this thread is for. Basically it is a huge indicator of bad retention.

BTW breakeven point is ~500k subs and it is assumed that is after 1 year.

Bottomline; even if the game is Star Wars, if it's bad or boring people won't continue to pay for it. I know tons of Star Wars fans, people who played SWG from launch until it's demise, that have canceled their SWTOR subs. While I don't doubt there are more than a few people who will keep a sub just because it is Star Wars, they aren't going to keep the game afloat. SWTOR will either go F2P or be put on maintenance mode like WAR.

Originally posted by lefagr

Originally posted by WynterArwyn

During the beta weekend, we’ll test our secure Gem Store billing system in a live environment, which means you can purchase gems with your credit card or through PayPal.

As we mentioned earlier, we’re wiping all our beta data before launch—including items purchased this weekend—but we’ll keep a record of how many gems you’ve purchased during beta events. When Guild Wars 2 launches on August 28, you’ll receive those gems back on your account.

Are you people insane? Are you going to use your credit card to beta test an in-game store?

Unless I miss-understood...

It's not insane. Some people were planning on buying gems right off the bat. This is just mutually beneficial to both those players and arenanet. The players get to test the items out so they know what they want to buy at launch and Anet gets to test out their store/credit card system.