[I remain confident in ANET. But magumma is likely their peak of excellence]

This is something I've pondered as well, and an opinion I'm in agreement with. Verdant Brink in particular is honestly mind-blowing -- I still remember playing through it for the first time like it was yesterday.

You touched on how great the art design is, which it definitely is, but it was the intricacy of the map design that I found fascinating, particularly for an MMO. The verticality and layering made it feel like a hostile environment regardless of the enemies -- traversal was difficult, but rewarding. I also think it was really unique how they incorporated some Metroidvania-like design with the masteries, where you could later access areas that you may not have been able to reach previously. Verdant Brink really is one of the few examples I can think of where the environmental storytelling and gameplay are so cohesively informed by the broader narrative beats, that it feels like one cohesive package. 

There have been times where I agree that it has felt like Anet were at the top of the pile when it came to innovating in RPGs/MMOs (the first 3 Guild Wars games come to mind for me), and I think HoT was such a time as well. 

While I do think Anet still put put out a good product, another factor to take into account is how many senior staff have left/were laid off over the years. When individuals with years of institutional knowledge leave a studio, often times they simply can't be replaced. 

 

[Begging for an offical controller support. [Merged]]

8 hours ago, Omega.6801 said:

...a MMO that was designed with controllers and consoles in mind. So not really a fair comparison. That being said. I don't mind if people use a controller to play, people may use a DDR mat or a Powerglove for all I care. I just don't think ANet should spend resources on developing native controller support when there are controllers out there that can be mapped as well as available mapping schemes as it seems. You say it yourself, you've been playing GW2 with a controller for years now, cool, please share your setup with OP.

Thank you for cherry-picking a tiny portion of my post, as well as quoting and reframing it out of context of the point I was making.

[Begging for an offical controller support. [Merged]]

7 hours ago, Entara.3075 said:

The original post stated an opinion I am assuming is based upon their own knowledge, desires and experience. My post stated a counter opinion also based upon my own knowledge, desires and experience. I believe both opinions are valid.

I don't feel threatened by opinions that differ from my own and even if I was I don't see how this is relevant or invalidates a counter opinion.

I apologize if the OP thinks I am being selfish and not respecting their view. I can assure you that I respect all opinions as valid, but I don't have to agree with them which is what I was trying to convey. I don't believe that I am being selfish in having an opinion based upon my own experiences and knowledge. That being said I freely admit that I am not fully current on the advancements of controllers as I am primarily a PC user. Nor am I familiar with the "ConsolePort add-on" you mentioned for WoW as I have not logged into WoW since Pandaria. Is this "ConsolePort add-on" developed and maintained by Blizzard?

Incidentally I am also part of those other communities you mentioned as I commonly play on a cell phone through GeForce Now. As such, I am well aware of the frustration of having limited control options.

Regardless, if controller functionally could be done without limiting the key-bind options and without taking away from the PC experience then my personal opinion may likely change. I may even use it with my cell phone.

As stated above I freely admit that I am not fully current on the advancements of controllers. I do not see how implying that I am stuck in the past is relevant other than to try to invalidate my opinion.

I completely agree about GW2 having a fairly tame amount of keybinds, which I do find nice. It is an interesting point that you have played on a controller for 5 years. I know that there are controllers that can emulate keyboard keys, but I will have to look more into it. As I mentioned above I commonly play on a cell phone as well as my PC.

 

Thank-you both for your opinions. I respect them even if I may not fully agree on some points. Please be courteous and respect mine as well.

I didn't say you're stuck in the past, I said your mind-set on this topic is. I then gave reasoning as to why I think that is based on my own experience. In other words, I was pointing out that while your opinion is valid (and is one I have held before as well), it is one based on a general lack of understanding of the topic at hand. 

It wasn't meant to be perceived as disrespectful to you as a person. 

[Begging for an offical controller support. [Merged]]

3 hours ago, Entara.3075 said:

No thanks! I really hope they dont dumb the game down enough that you could control it with a standard xbox controller. I've seen to many games destroyed because they try to make a computer game work on a limited controller. How many keys does a keyboard have compared to a Xbox controller?

If you need a controller to play then buy one of the many available that are programmable to mimic keyboard buttons. 

I have a good friend who loves his Razer Tartarus and that is like a really fancy controller.

You don't need to dumb down a game to make it workable on a controller. Frankly, this is a mind-set that's stuck in the past by a good decade or two. I remember feeling the same way when a lot of developers started to pivot towards console development over PC in the early 2000's. 

Compared to most traditional MMOs, GW2 actually has a fairly tame amount of keybinds. I've played GW2 on a controller for about 5 years now -- you use modifiers to shift between sets of keybinds, as well as utilizing action camera. Doing this allows you to have essentially as many keybinds as you want. It's the same concept as someone who uses a modifier key on their keyboard (often shift or CTRL) to utilize the same key for multiple keybinds. 

If you want to look at an MMO that supports controllers natively, look at FFXIV. It has considerably more skills than GW2, and it works great -- people reliably complete every level of content using a controller. 

[Bladesworn in 2024, "An Even Shorter Follow Up" : ANet forgot to Add Duration/Shunt The Hitbox when they added the .5s delay. - So [Dragon Trigger (2) - Boost] Does Not Hit at it's Full 900 Range.]

Thank you for doing all of this (including your previous write-ups). I primarily play Bladesworn, and it's pretty discouraging how many technical as well as mechanical problems it has/continues to accrue. I really hope Anet put some resources into taking a broad look at Bladesworn and what they want it to be, and fix a lot of its nagging issues.

[Please lower Gunsaber firing sound volume]

Agreed!

[Bladesworn and volume levels.]

I really enjoyed when Bladesworn's  gunsaber was  tweaked into a pseudo-ranged weapon. The problem is that the cartridge/explosion sound effects were transplanted onto other skills and the volume levels were never adjusted (skill 1, particularly). 

This has made the auto attacks extremely grating over time. Arguably worse, the actual skill 1 effects are completely masked, which is unfortunate, as they were unique and sounded great.

Any chance these can be adjusted in a future patch? I think the Bladesworn sound effects are generally really high quality, and this one sticks out like a sore thumb because of it. 

[Bugsworn: Bladesworn Bugs / Jank - An (In)Complete List & And How To FIX It]

Thank you for this. I absolutely love the gameplay of Bladesworn (I feel like it really rewards proper spacing/timing), but it definitely has a lot of little problems that need to be ironed out still. 

[Low FPS / Lag Issues [MERGED]]

I've been having similar problems since the last update -- constant, 2000+ lag spikes as well as generally lower performance ( FPS drops where I had none before as well as an inconsistent frametime, especially when panning the camera or entering combat initially). I've even tried a pletheora of different game settings and it didn't change anything. My driver is the same as it has been and I'm not having trouble with any other games besides GW2.