GW2 community observation as a returning player.

[Synwhisper.8045]

Hey everyone, 

I don't know if this is the right spot in the forums for this as I've never used the forums before. But I'd like to share a gripe/observation i'm having as a returning player who has been away for a couple of years.

I don't know what is going on with commanders atm in GW2 but 50 percent seem to be wonderful and 50 percent seem to be for lack of a more adequate way to describe them, kittenholes. 

Iv'e been back a couple of weeks and I have never had problems with commanders before, been playing off and on since vanilla. But just in the last two days I've had one commander cuss me out because I wasn't following his tag in dragons end. (I was there doing skyscale collection stuff.)  and just then when I was doing my daily  I had a commander be really rude when I asked if the content they were doing was a bounty.  Like it was a really simple question and all I got was attitude in response until someone else following the commander told me yes in fact the content they were doing was a bounty.

Iv'e been spending a lot of time in dragonsfall and I have seen multiple commanders randomly abusing people who aren't following them or who are doing their own thing.

Is there some new rule that if you are in a high density area you MUST follow a commander?

I saw it like three times yesterday from three different commanders. No hyperbole.

Actually had a couple of really wonderful ones doing events in central tyria earlier today so this is not a blanket statement about all commanders, however I don't remember this ever being something that happened before. I always really loved gw2 because the community was so supportive and friendly but since I've been back it has been such a culture shock. What the hell happened in my absence?

Is this super common now? Or have I just had a bad couple of days?

Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the subject. 

EDIT: I'm talking about dragonsFALL. I said dragonsend previously.  So many dragon places. Or just two. 

[Danikat.8537]

Dragon's End is a bit of an issue because the map cap is still relatively low, so for the meta to succeed you either need a very good, well coordinated group or the vast majority of people on the map joining in with the meta. That leads to commanders trying to persude everyone on the map to join their squad or leave in order to increase their chances of success and some of them are more polite about it than others.

Other than that...I think you just encountered some people having a bad day. Commanders are just players, like everyone else. They spent 300g and 250 badges of honour to get the tag and then volunteered to be a walking map marker for their squad by turning it on but that's all. There's no guarentee they'll be a good leader, or a good communicator in general and nothing to stop someone who is having a bad day or simply a very rude person trying to lead a squad.

But that also means you react to them the same way you'd react to anyone without a tag being rude. There's no requirement that you join their group or engage with them if you don't want to and if you think it's necessary you can block and/or report them.

[Synwhisper.8045]

Edit : Dragonsfall  not dragonsend 

I can understand the dragon's end map cap issue. It's a real shame that there is a bunch of collections for skyscale that need to be done there.

Also have no problem being asked to join, just as long as people respect my choice to say no. 

The guy yesterday literally happened on me cussed me out for doing what I was doing without even asking that I join him. I got yelled at for existing in the same space as him essentially. Which is something I have never experienced before in GW2.

Edited July 3, 2022 by Synwhisper.8045

[Strider Pj.2193]

19 minutes ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

I can understand the dragon's end map cap issue. It's a real shame that there is a bunch of collections for skyscale that need to be done there.

Also have no problem being asked to join, just as long as people respect my choice to say no. 

The guy yesterday literally happened on me cussed me out for doing what I was doing without even asking that I join him. I got yelled at for existing in the same space as him essentially. Which is something I have never experienced before in GW2.

Wait…. What Skyscale collections need to be done in the Dragon’s End area?  
 

Most of us got our Skyscale before End of Dragon’s (thus Dragon’s End map) was released.  Help me here unless I am confused..  (Which I may be lol).

[Synwhisper.8045]

Yeah a fair bit of it 

3 hours ago, Strider Pj.2193 said:

DRAGONSFALL not dragonsend. I got confused. 

Wait…. What Skyscale collections need to be done in the Dragon’s End area?  
 

Most of us got our Skyscale before End of Dragon’s (thus Dragon’s End map) was released.  Help me here unless I am confused..  (Which I may be lol).

Yes at least three collections that I've done so far. There might be more later but I'm not quite there yet. 

Edited July 3, 2022 by Synwhisper.8045

[Strider Pj.2193]

3 minutes ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

Yeah a fair bit of it 

Yes at least three collections that I've done so far. There might be more later but I'm not quite there yet. 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skyscale/Walkthrough
 

Still puzzled..  even in the Wiki, no where in the walk through does it say Dragon’s End is involved..

[Strider Pj.2193]

Just now, Strider Pj.2193 said:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skyscale/Walkthrough
 

Still puzzled..  even in the Wiki, no where in the walk through does it say Dragon’s End is involved..

And of course, understand that I am NOT excusing people from being jerks.  😬

[Synwhisper.8045]

1 minute ago, Strider Pj.2193 said:

And of course, understand that I am NOT excusing people from being jerks.  😬

OMG, I'm sorry. 

Dragonsfall

FALL

I was getting so confused.

[kharmin.7683]

Must be referring to Dragonfall.  Was helping a guildie with their skyscale quest last night and saw some map chat where people were complaining about players on the map not helping with events or meta.

[Synwhisper.8045]

1 minute ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Must be referring to Dragonfall.  Was helping a guildie with their skyscale quest last night and saw some map chat where people were complaining about players on the map not helping with events or meta.

Yes I got my dragons mixed up.

It is Dragonfall. 🙂

[Strider Pj.2193]

16 minutes ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

Yes I got my dragons mixed up.

It is Dragonfall. 🙂

Well kitten…. Don’t listen to them.  
 

As @Danikat.8537noted above, some people can have a bad day.. It is no where near as important in Dragonfall to have everyone on tag, like it is in Dragon’s End meta.  They’ll get over it.  🙂

 

And no, most people who tag up are fine.  There are willing to help and guide.

Some, as in all games are jerks.  😡

[Synwhisper.8045]

1 minute ago, Strider Pj.2193 said:

Well kitten…. Don’t listen to them.  
 

As @Danikat.8537noted above, some people can have a bad day.. It is no where near as important in Dragonfall to have everyone on tag, like it is in Dragon’s End meta.  They’ll get over it.  🙂

 

And no, most people who tag up are fine.  There are willing to help and guide.

Some, as in all games are jerks.  😡

AH ok. 

I guess what I'm asking is in common now? Or was it just a particularly bad day.

[Strider Pj.2193]

3 minutes ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

AH ok. 

I guess what I'm asking is in common now? Or was it just a particularly bad day.

I wouldn’t  call it common as I see it rarely, but it does happen..  
 

But truly, most of what I see is at best extremely helpful, at worst, ambivalent. 
 

Either way, welcome back!  

[Synwhisper.8045]

1 minute ago, Strider Pj.2193 said:

I wouldn’t  call it common as I see it rarely, but it does happen..  
 

But truly, most of what I see is at best extremely helpful, at worst, ambivalent. 
 

Either way, welcome back!  

Well i'm glad to hear that and thanks 🙂

[Emberfoot.6847]

12 minutes ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

Well i'm glad to hear that and thanks 🙂

Yea I map a lot in all sorts of maps, and the only ones I saw this happen much was TD maps when Chak Gerent was up, people were struggling to organise it in time, and someone tags up for an HP train. It really does not usually happen very much, and in the rare occasion it does, like 95% of the time the comm is being completely unreasonable so just ignore them. 

[Farohna.6247]

1 hour ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

AH ok. 

I guess what I'm asking is in common now? Or was it just a particularly bad day.

You hit a particularly bad day.  It's pretty rare, and most people don't mind if you're there running solo or in a group.  Some commanders prefer to have everyone join a group so they can get a better idea of numbers, to make sure areas are balanced out evenly, or may ask people who are not participating in a meta to switch maps.  But what you encountered was someone who probably needed a snack. 

Welcome back to the game btw, and I really hope you have more positive experiences and don't let the negative ones deter you from having fun.  

[Synwhisper.8045]

33 minutes ago, Farohna.6247 said:

You hit a particularly bad day.  It's pretty rare, and most people don't mind if you're there running solo or in a group.  Some commanders prefer to have everyone join a group so they can get a better idea of numbers, to make sure areas are balanced out evenly, or may ask people who are not participating in a meta to switch maps.  But what you encountered was someone who probably needed a snack. 

Welcome back to the game btw, and I really hope you have more positive experiences and don't let the negative ones deter you from having fun.  

Probably need a snack. I love this. 
 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

2 hours ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

Yes I got my dragons mixed up.

It is Dragonfall. 🙂

You can edit your OP and/or any other posts to clear up any misunderstanding.

Welcome return. 

[Synwhisper.8045]

5 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

You can edit your OP and/or any other posts to clear up any misunderstanding.

Welcome return. 

Yes i'm going to do that now as I'm confusing a lot of people... and thanks!

[AliamRationem.5172]

I can't say I've seen this myself.  There are certain situations where they want you to stick with the group (e.g. Dragon's End), but outside of events like that there's very little reason for a commander to care whether or not you're following tag.

[Gerebos.1065]

Don't worry the Commander part is just the beginning xD Welcome back to the Grind Wars 2xxx!

Commanders are the least of your future frustrations 😄 I miss GW2 where the hardest/longest farm thing were the Queensdale boss train

[Synwhisper.8045]

56 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I can't say I've seen this myself.  There are certain situations where they want you to stick with the group (e.g. Dragon's End), but outside of events like that there's very little reason for a commander to care whether or not you're following tag.

Must have just been a really bad day then. 

[Gibson.4036]

I’ve seen it in dragonfall periodically, not just recently.

Some seem to have developed an optimal way to do the events and get frustrated when others don’t. I’ve seen people criticize commanders because they should be doing events in a specific order, and I’ve seen commanders request people stop doing events other than the group is doing.

As others have said, its not common enough that I’ve encountered it frequently, but it is something I’ve encountered previously and recently.

I understand people’s desire to optimize everything, but I figure that’s what instanced content is for. In open world content I feel free to disregard.

[AliamRationem.5172]

12 minutes ago, Synwhisper.8045 said:

Must have just been a really bad day then. 

It's a shame because on the opposite end of the spectrum you have open world commanders that make GW2 a really unique experience.  I was just thinking that yesterday.  It's bauble reward week in Auric Basin, so I joined a squad there for pylon events.  These guys had spotters progressing events and calling out veteran and legendary spawns.  They used markers.  They did all the work so that all the 40-something other players in the squad had to do was follow the commander to fun and loot!

It left me thinking what other game have I ever played where you see anything like that?  In WoW or FFXIV open world is mostly a solo experience.  But look how much effort this guild put into running open world events.  There was no negativity because they made it easy on everyone by doing all the work to let us just follow the leader.  It was really cool and uniquely GW2!

[Synwhisper.8045]

23 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

It's a shame because on the opposite end of the spectrum you have open world commanders that make GW2 a really unique experience.  I was just thinking that yesterday.  It's bauble reward week in Auric Basin, so I joined a squad there for pylon events.  These guys had spotters progressing events and calling out veteran and legendary spawns.  They used markers.  They did all the work so that all the 40-something other players in the squad had to do was follow the commander to fun and loot!

It left me thinking what other game have I ever played where you see anything like that?  In WoW or FFXIV open world is mostly a solo experience.  But look how much effort this guild put into running open world events.  There was no negativity because they made it easy on everyone by doing all the work to let us just follow the leader.  It was really cool and uniquely GW2!

This is exactly what I have always loved about gw2. But since I've been back I've seen far less of this and far more of commanders being assholes for zero reason. Or reasons that I don't fully understand. Either way, kittenholes. 

I'm really hoping I just had a fairly isolated experience in this bad couple of days and that I encounter more of what you are talking about, which is what I remember from when I used to play.