Jaunty.6018

I'm not even bothering with the turtle. I simply don't care about the game enough anymore to waste that much time on it.

Yeah. It's been absolutely puzzling watching people vehemently defend it. I can't tell you how many times I've been bullied, reported, etc for speaking my mind. As someone who has been playing since the beta of GW1, no less. Far longer than most of them, or the devs for that matter. One slight mention of the expansion being a letdown in mapchat and everyone gangs up on you and insults / belittles you. So much for preaching against intolerance. I was just silenced on here for 3 days and had my posts deleted for criticizing the story and the team for writing it. The writing is about as bad as it gets. Aside from the actual narrative being bonkers, any more forced modern politics and you might as well give us a political questionnaire when we create a character and boot us to desktop if we aren't woke enough. I sincerely hope Anet's okay with having a small niche group of fanboys playing their game because that's what it's going to become. Already seeing it. I have half a mind to delete my characters, uninstall, and never look back. That's what they're forcing us to do with their attitude and absolute carelessness towards the game's original vision. It makes me feel kind of sick inside, knowing I'll lose so much I've worked for and having it all amount to nothing. But I guess that's life. The alternative is taking whatever they feed us, lowering our standards, and have them make us feel like we don't belong in their bubble. Everyone should belong in a MMORPG. Especially one that preaches tolerance.

I would write what I thought of the story but last time I did I got silenced by a mod, and had my posts deleted. So...the story is great. Wonderful. Best story ever.

You have got to be kidding me. I'm actually laughing right now at how much you're trying to defend this by pretending to be ignorant about the power and meaning behind that word in today's political climate. Also, I'm still waiting for that example I requested. When was GW ever political in the modern sense? Maybe my memory is foggy but I don't seem to remember "She / Her" Gwen running up to me in pre-searing and calling me a bigot. Who knows, maybe they've added that. I should go check!

Been playing since the beta of GW1. Show me in any previous content where the writers used the word "bigot" or other loaded words used in modern discourse to instantly express political leanings. I'll wait.

Exactly. The bigotry was absolutely jarring. They did not even need to use that word to describe the guy, they just threw that in there to express their political views. It worked in The Last of Us Part II because that was a modern world, with modern language and politics, and the bigot was a guy who actually acted like a bigot. The lesbian relationship was central to the story. It was believable. In End of Dragons the devs just tossed in the word for no reason other than to say "This dev team is SO woke!" And yeah, bringing back Aurene was awful. That was the only moment in the whole story that moved me, when I thought we'd lost her. How brave, I thought, for the writers to let that happen. Imagine how much better that would have made the game. People would still be talking about it to this day. They'd replay old missions just to see her again. But nope, instead they drained that moment of all its impact.

It was initially, but now I think more and more people have gotten past their honeymoon phase and are now being hit with the unfortunate realization: this is it?

The more I play End of Dragons, the more I see that it's just a real mixed bag of ideas and talent. I can see that a lot of work was put into it from certain team members, while other members did not do their job well. Lots of talent went into creating the visual assets, but whoever placed them didn't know what they were doing or just didn't care. Some of the missions are designed well aesthetically, but the activities inside them are dull. The music is nice, but the voiceover audio quality is mixed. The cinematics have some of the best animation yet, while the writing can be utterly cringeworthy. The skiffs are well designed, but using them is cumbersome. Etc, etc. Current Arenanet seem to be a team of some people operating on all cylinders, and some lagging behind. I'm not used to it. I don't like it. But at least there's some hope that, with enough player feedback, maybe they can get everyone working together at the same level--for future content. Although I'm not so sure they can ever really go back from what they did in the story. Which, again, is something I can't talk about here because I've seen mods delete such posts. Suffice it to say, it was shocking and completely soured my opinion of the writers. Whoever thought that was a good idea has got to go.

No worries! Edit: And then this guy reported me in another thread and had me banned from posting. Hilarious! Last time I give you the time of day, buddy.

I don't know where you got that idea that all I want are negative comments. Despite how disappointed I am with the expansion, I still had a few nice things to say about it, and I stated at the end that I want people to have fun. Plenty of people have been posting balanced comments here. I love that! What I don't love are apologist fanboys who don't want to hear a single negative thing about the game, have every excuse for why it is the way it is and try to defend blatantly lazy design, and call you "toxic" for pointing it out. Those are the players who ruin games.

Sorry, but the people who like it as is and try to silence the "wave of negativity" are going to run this company into the ground. When so many people are unhappy and complaining, the company has to make changes in order to survive. FFXIV, No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 are great examples of why constructive criticism is essential. Those games were improved dramatically from listening to player feedback. If you don't like that people are voicing their opinions about a largely disappointing product, all I have to say is "tough crap and get over it because that is how the world works."

Yeah, if this is the new standard that Anet wants to set then I'm not interested. It really does seem like a different studio, and unfortunately they don't know how to, or don't care to make a quality product. And all the apologists are wearing me out. Like...is this really what they want the game to be? This is acceptable? Because when they shoot down all the wealth of constructive criticism that keeps popping up, that's exactly what they're saying.

Uh, no. I've barely been playing it, for all the reasons I mentioned. It's not uncalled for to point out blatantly careless and amateurish design from a team that has always created quality content. You're acting like this company made this expansion out of the kindness of their hearts or something. I seem to remember paying $30 for it. Others paid way more, for very little. A couple skins and some gems. If their work was compromised because of covid, they should have told us that and delayed the game further. Instead they went the Cyberpunk 2077 route and marketed the hell out of an unfinished product. There's no way they didn't expect critical threads like this, and I'm baffled by those who are complacent and apologetic. You're just hurting the game. I (and many others who have spoken up) want it to be better. We all love Guild Wars. That's why we're here.

Civil and mature ways, like calling people toxic for having a different opinion? Yes...you're clearly a master of diplomacy.

Yikes. No one's being "toxic" here except for you. And I haven't even begun trying to get a turtle mount. Not sure how you came to that assumption from reading my original post, if you even did read it.

Sure, here ya go. https://ibb.co/0YPcrFy https://ibb.co/zNgxNVq https://ibb.co/0Y0yRLC https://ibb.co/PG2wBZ0 https://ibb.co/j5JMByp https://ibb.co/k6C7vXd https://ibb.co/42JbTQR https://ibb.co/p1wNGxB https://ibb.co/YZxnf5N https://ibb.co/JnM7D2C https://ibb.co/9ZBQbFX Those took me only about 15 minutes to find. Let me know if you want more.

I didn't say there was only one type of window or roof. I said the assets were copy / pasted haphazardly, which they absolutely were. It doesn't take a keen eye to see that. I also gave plenty of solutions, many of which were self-explanatory. I'm not going to explain all of them to you. And please don't pretend you're so positive. You have been dropping negative reactions on every single post here that you don't agree with. I know because as soon as I reply to you I get one, which is funny because you claim to enjoy the game so much yet you're basically glued to these forums, and my post in particular. Don't you have some 232323232323 to do?

I know. GW1 is like the last bastion of quality MMOs untouched by corporate greed. Part of why I bought EoD despite it looking subpar in the previews was to keep GW1 going. I'd be heartbroken if it ever went down.

New drinking game: take a shot every time yet another powerful, intelligent, likeable female character is introduced in the story. RIP liver.

In response to your edit: you're not. Accepting all the many flaws of the game and trying to dissuade others from pointing them out just tells the developers that their game is fine, and no changes are needed.

You don't strike me as very critical at all.

100% agree. Loved Grothmar in particular with its pre-searing vibes and the fun metal show. Most maps in the game are better designed than EoD's.

It was so much better than this expansion.

I've seen the opposite in-game. Any time I've mentioned EoD not being perfect I get harassed by the whole map. They come running with pitchforks. You're right about Reddit though. It's bizarre over there.

I'm with you 100%. I regret buying it. The worst part is I KNEW it would be garbo from all the gameplay videos I saw prior, and yet I still trusted Anet to deliver a quality experience, because that's what I'm used to. I guess I hadn't realized just how much the studio had changed over the years. Unrecognizable.