How happy are you with Guild Wars 2 right now?

[Super Hayes.6890]

My vote is based on the fact that I am having more fun in game than I ever have before. I've been around since beta. I will acknowledge that there has been content that I didn't care for in the past but the amount of other content available means I just don't play the content I don't like.

[Sylent.3165]

I don't strongly dislike the game, it's a great game with a great huge world but there is nothing to do when i log in I feel like farming meta events is end game outside of raiding and there isn't even a purpose to do that

[FOX.3582]

PvP balance sucks. I guess for everything else it’s a very good game.:)

[Djinn.9245]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Djinn.9245 said:

@Athrenn.9468 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Athrenn.9468 said:

This is why I believe that Living World is just a strategic ploy to keep players from figuring out that their expansion releases are lightweight compared to the industry standard established in other games.

I deleted the rest of your "spoiler" text in line with your intent to allow people to choose to read it or not.

I have to question the above assumption, especially in the case of PoF. What PoF lacks is not content, it is rewards to fuel the near-endless repetition some MMO fans expect. When I comparison shop, ANet's business plan is a lot more consumer-friendly than other companies. $30 for PoF compares favorably to the first 2 ESO DLC, which sold for ~$22 and ~$30, respectively. It especially compares favorably to games which charge $40-50 for XPac's, then rent access to players. I know there is going to be disagreement on the latter assertion. I never felt more cheated by a game than when I played the big gorilla of MMO's. Ommv.

So, for me, the Living World updates are gravy, especially at PoF's price. Maybe that's damning ANet with faint praise, but if that's the case, I'd be damning the whole industry.

I haven't played ESO so I can't comment on that, but again, I would question whether people would feel the same way about Path of Fire if the developers told them that there was no 'free' Living World content for Winter 2017/Spring and Summer 2018. What feels like a generous amount of content now will feel dry in comparison 4-6 months down the road. Like gravy, I believe that the promise of regular 'free' updates is the reason why Path of Fire sounds palpable. "It's enough content to tie me over for the next two months until episode 1," people might say. "It doesn't need to be enough to last me all year." Whereas if this was a game where expansions had most of their maps, dungeons, raids, PvP game modes, etc. packed into them on day 1 of the release, a longer draught between releases would be more bearable.

I challenge people to consider the thought experiment of how they would feel about Path of Fire as a standalone product if ArenaNet said that Living World was either canceled or gated behind a mandatory paywall for all players. In this scenario, there would be no more free content updates until Expansion 3. Would it still be worth it in your opinion? If not, then I think that Living World is really part of Path of Fire's selling point. You're paying money with the promise of future free updates that are just around the corner.

I've been reading your comments and I honestly don't understand what you're on about. Living World updates are clearly a separate entity from Expansions as they are charged a separate amount in the gemstore if you fail to login while they are active. I personally did not buy PoF thinking that Living World Season 4 had anything to do with it.

Except that without PoF you can't even play the LIving World Season 4. It's required for playing, just as HoT was required to play Season 3.

Something that is gating progress /= being part of that content necessarily. Although this is a grey area I still say that I never saw the Living Story as being part of an expansion.

[Djinn.9245]

@Erasculio.2914 said:

@Ohoni.6057 said:No, LW is part of the expansion. You need to buy PoF to gain access to s4, just as you needed to buy HoT to gain access to s3, even though s2 was part of the original box purchase.

The following season of the Living World has always been used by ArenaNet as a selling point of their GW2 expansions.

I don't remember seeing anything about the Living World in either of the expansion advertisements.

[Nemmar.8491]

I am somewhat happy in general, but i really wish they upped their game with the storytelling. It's still miles away from GW1 stuff. In GW2 they have the most one dimensional villains and both expansions are about just tracking them down and beating them. There's no twist, there's no development, there's no explanations of the motives. We just go and kill some dragon/god that decided to turn evil just cause.They need to improve on the storytelling alot. That's my main issue.

The second issue is just the combat. I wish we had more build freedom like GW1, but we know that's not gonna happen. So, my second gripe with it that can be fixed are the elite skills. They need to be more powerful than they are in general. And elite has to be something special. Also, give them the gold glow back.

So, it's not all negative. I really enjoy the soulbeast. Pretty happy with that.

[mauried.5608]

Many players who are unhappy with MMOs continue to play them and continue to be unhappy.The warped logic is that because I have "invested" so many hours in the game already , if I quit now all that time is lost so its better to keep playing even though I dont like itin the hope that the game will eventually get better.

[hoewhoew.4619]

I'm pretty happy with the game right now. This past year we've had a decent amount of new content of great quality. We've had new raids, fractals, living story, quality of life updates ... The expansion too, is something I am greatly enjoying? Is it perfect? No, it isn't. But then, what game really is?

I am personally really looking forward to the next living story season, and everything else they have in store for us this coming year :)

[Raven.1793]

I don't know what's going on but a lot of the people I know and played with have moved on to other games. The ones who remain seem to feel a need to constantly grind for gold. The storytelling has also gone downhill since the original game. I actually found the PS quite enjoyable but can barely stand putting even one character through the PoF story. Have you considered that creating a world in which every character is a self-righteous, reincarnating, solo slayer of gods and dragons might be just a little too much hubris? I really find myself hoping that the writers have some sort of long-term plan to knock my character down a few pegs. Nevertheless, I still enjoy certain aspects of the game: dungeons and wvw. Considering what ANet has done with raids and the open world though - to say nothing of the recent mount fiasco - I think I'd rather they continue to ignore those game modes. If there is a bright spot in any of this, it is that the class balance has been fantastic. It's not perfect but balancing 9 professions and 18 elite specs - ensuring each one is enjoyable in its own way - couldn't have been easy. At the end of the day, only ANet knows the number of active accounts and if that number is dropping like my anecdotal experience seems to suggest, perhaps you should consider revisiting the casual appeal of the game to keep around those of us who are easily entertained but aren't willing to turn the game into a career. After all, it gets lonely in Tyria when you're the only supreme dragon slayer around.

[Erasculio.2914]

@Vayne.8563 said:This poll was posted when it was, in my opinion, to try to prove some kind of point.

Yes. I had the idea of this poll when talking to you, in fact. Remember when you said something along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing, for the records), "Most people in this forum don't like the game, because it's human nature to complain but few people compliment something, and those who like the game are playing it instead of posting on the forum"?

I thought you were wrong then, and so I made this poll. I have posted my conclusion about this poll a few pages ago (here), but basically I still think you're wrong - most people here like the game.

Don't be so negative, Vayne. If your point of view were right, we would have the majority saying they don't like GW2. If even so close to the mount thing we have a majority saying they like GW2, it means that really, most people here like the game; and, when they complain, it's because they care and want the game to improve, not because they're a bunch of spew-spitting haters.

[John Valdea.5879]

it's funny cause before the whole loot box fiasco prob 80% would have been mostly happy or better.....

[Lonami.2987]

A few days ago, I would have voted for "I'm mostly unhappy, a lot of things could be better.", but right now, it's more like "I'm very unhappy with GW2 right now.".

ArenaNet has been pretty much making the same design approach mistakes for the last 5 years. There will reach a moment when the game won't be able to hold anymore. The lack of key MMO features (like dungeons, guild updates, and world bosses), the constant balance mess, the lackluster rewards... They're utterly unacceptable, and no sugar coating and overpraising will fix any of this.

This game would be dead if it wasn't half-F2P/half-B2P and had some serious competition, and that makes me very, very sad. Guild Wars 2 needs to be an MMO once again, and not this sloppy single player experience.

[feetpicenjoyer.6418]

Enjoy it while it lasts, I guess. Anet's been silently dropping nearly everything that's not braindead open world pve 11111 spam.

PvP? Gone

WvW? Gone

Dungeon? Gone

Raids? Nearly gone

Fractals? Barely holding on

Sure, it must make the casuals very happy to see that everything that was even remotely difficult is getting removed, god forbid anyone must improve his/her skills.

But don't think it's a good thing. Revenue is in steady decline, the content has no longevity or diversity, and when a mass exodus happens Anet will have to find that money through other means - such as predatory lootboxes.

MO is driving this game off a cliff and while flying off might be fun to some, the crash is inevitable.

[mauried.5608]

But how unhappy do you have to be though to quit the game.?Proves my previous point that people will continue to play games they are unhappy with, and will keep complaining about how unhappy they are with the game.Anet doesnt care whether the players are happy or not, only that they keep playing.

[Vayne.8563]

@Erasculio.2914 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:This poll was posted when it was, in my opinion, to try to prove some kind of point.

Yes. I had the idea of this poll when talking to you, in fact. Remember when you said something along the lines of (I'm paraphrasing, for the records), "Most people in this forum don't like the game, because it's human nature to complain but few people compliment something, and those who like the game are playing it instead of posting on the forum"?

I thought you were wrong then, and so I made this poll. I have posted my conclusion about this poll a few pages ago (

here

), but basically I still think you're wrong - most people here like the game.

Don't be so negative, Vayne. If your point of view were right, we would have the majority saying they don't like GW2. If even so close to the mount thing we have a majority saying they like GW2, it means that really, most people here like the game; and, when they complain, it's because they care and want the game to improve, not because they're a bunch of spew-spitting haters.

Cllicking on a poll isn't the same as posting to the forum though. It takes two seconds. And some people like polls. The point is the voices that complain are going to be more negative. I steer you again to my experience running businesses. Most of my customers were satisfied most of the time. We had plenty of feedback and most of it was negative . The feedback was negative, because people who were happy just kept doing business. They come, do business and leave. Why take the time to fill out some questionaire or type something onto a forum? Unless you like it like I do, which most people don't.

I have 400 people in my guild now....maybe 350 due to alts and I think less than 5 post on the forums at all. Most of the guild seems to be happy, including a couple who weren't happy with HoT. Certainly more by percentage in my small experience than people who post on the forums to begin with.

We do here some complaints in the guild, usually from the same 3 or 4 people. But those complaints are louder than all the compliments put together, because when you're unhappy you want to shout it from the rooftops. I can tell you if there's going to be a complaint, who will be complaining 95% of the time. And it's been like that for years. Same people complaining.

Some of it is just grumpy on man syndrome, which I also suffer, but a lot of it is people that don't have experience with MMOs, who have nothing to compare this too. They don't really know how much better this game is than what else is out there.

To be fair the entire industry has it's issues. But within that context, Guild Wars 2 does very well..for me anyway. Your mileage may vary.

[Harper.4173]

Personally - not that happy. Why? I feel the game has failed to deliver on some key aspects.

1.There are not enough new skins in the game.A game that basically relies on horizontal progression requires a high influx of new skins in order to keep players motivated. This simply has not been the case ever since release. To make things worse a lot of the skins we do get are part of the gem store and not actually in-game rewards. I'd venture to say one out of two skins in the gem store would have found a better (but less profitable) place as an in-game reward in GW2. There are SO many skins that should have been cool in-game rewards for difficult or challenging tasks but instead are sold on the gem store.That part of the rant aside - even as it is - with most skins coming through the gem store there are still not enough of them being made. Even if they're sold for gems, we're still getting too little.

2. The game's failed to have a focused idea of what it wants to be and to stick to it.It feels GW2 is trying to be everything at once. It has tried so many things and dropped almost as many. I feel if they reached less and focused more they could have accomplished much more. I could rant about a lot of things in this category but the eSports fiasco is enough. They tried pushing for something GW2 was clearly never going to be ( at the detriment of the other game modes) only to now finally realize their mistake.That aside look how it flip-flops between expansions - HoT trying to be ultra hardcore, PoF being incredibly casual. They just can't get a good grasp of what they want this game to be and it shows painfully.

3. Time and time again developers have failed to meet expectations and promises.I know these forums are new. The old forums are dead but some of us still remember.
I remember being promised "New legendary weapons and new legendary weapon types in 2013" - then waiting for a whole year and getting nothing of the sort.I remember HoT being sold on the promise of a full legendary weapon set and raids when preorders launched only to have those things later taken away because they weren't ready.I remember our progress in fractals being reset because why not?Even recently the devs have gone back on the philosophy of avoiding RNG and accepting that RNG is not fun for players with the whole MoutGate fiasco.

4. There is not enough content in the game because most old systems are not supported anymore.So PoF came out - and guess what, one month later there's really not much to do in it anymore. It's basically do champ train bounties or dynamic events for almost no rewards. Don't get me wrong - the expansion was really good on a couple of points - map design, mount system, sound and soundtrack - but failed miserable on the really important ones - quantity of skins and relevant things to do that keep players coming back.Old systems like dungeons are dead - and while they could provide actual worth wile content and enjoyment to players they have been largely abandoned despite the fact that they could be revamped to be functional. So much of the older content is being left in disrepair - a thing I feel Anet cannot afford since they cannot produce new content at a satisfyingly fast rate.Why isn't the Queen's pavilion coming back?

5. Story, atmosphere and continuity.The game's story is weak. I would argue it's far weaker than GW1's story lines and on top of that this game fails to deliver atmosphere. It has no sense of urgency, no sense of danger, of high stakes or gravitas even in its most "crucial" moments. Every story instance is infested with "millennial" "quirky" jokes that do nothing to build atmosphere and simply come off as annoying.Any and all immersion has been destroyed for me and the supporting characters have become so insufferable that I'm starting to believe GW2's core story (before any LS or Xpacks) was better simply because it didn't include most of them. There's also the forced push for "diversity and representation" that's really painfully obnoxious (thankfully it's pretty much dead now).All those issues aside - the story fails in my opinion to be a worthy successor to GW1's story. GW1's story had more depth, more facets and honestly felt somewhat better designed. GW2's story is incredibly liniar and sadly has been revolving around the same (boring) central element for too long.

6. Visual noise and visual integrity.I don't think I need to explain in detail how GW2's visuals have been steadily getting worse since release. The "funny" and "quirky" items that at launch weren't very prevalent have now become so obnoxiously widespread it's not even funny anymore. Everywhere you turn there's some neon-colored character or someone with some incredibly over sized and ridiculously spiky/plushy tidbit latched onto them.While in the beginning of the game the atmosphere was far more consistent, right now the game is FULL of immersion breaking elements slapped on to almost every player you run into ( plushie hats, plushe backpacks, silly outfits, etc)

So - to sum this all up - I don't really like where the game is. I love the game, I enjoy playing it still, but I'm becoming more and more frustrated with the way it's being handled. Ever since launch we've been fed a steady diet of "wait, it'll get better soon, we're going to do so and so" and honestly, it's gotten a little better but also sadly a lot worse.

[slpr.2647]

Ive logged in twice in the last 2 weeks. couldnt think of anything i wanted/needed to do. after 4 yrs, its boring. and the latest mount skin debacle didnt help. I've been playing Destiny2 and loving every minute of it.

[Kal Spiro.9745]

@Fawx.9064 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Ohoni.6057 said:I was in the mostly happy category this time last week, but the Mount Skins thing put me in a bad mood. I still think most of the game is in a good place, which is why I didn't want to say that I was "mostly unhappy," but they NEED to do something about the 30 skins locked behind the gambling box before I would consider giving them any more money.

See I don't get this at all. A company makes a bad decision. It's ONE bad decision. It doesn't effectively change the game because a couple of weeks ago none of these mount skin exists. And it changes the entire game for people, even though they were playing happily without those skins, even though they don't need those skins to play the game, and even though more skins will be coming in the future.

The game is the same game. The company either made a mistep, or people are expecting too much from a five year old game with declining monthly revenues that wants to keep providing content.

Last week I was mostly happy and this week I don't like how they're selling mount skins so it's all gone to kitten. This, to me, is a perspective issue.

Here is the thing. It has nothing to do with the skins. It has to do with the fact that in 1 day we went from 5 mount skins, released with a festival, to 36 mount skins, all available in the cash shop only.

It would be nice to be rewarded for completing content instead of being rewarded for farming gold.

Some of those skins are kitten lazy re-textures. They could have easily have been added as collections/achievements.

In releasing the mount pack, Anet made their stance very clear. We will not get mount skins by playing the game. We will get mount skins by farming gold or swiping a card.

Inbefore “farming is playing” - don’t be thick. They aren’t the same thing.

Skins should 100% be their income. Skins provide nothing to the game. Your Griffon isn't better become its wings are made of fire. Your Jackel doesn't teleport more effectively because it's made of stars instead of sand. It provides no benefit to the game and as such it is exactly the sort of thing that we should want them sticking in the market. There is no reason to be treating mounts any differently than gliders and gliders have no need to be collections or achievements.

Yes, maybe people would like them to be, but that doesn't mean it's bad for them not to be done that way. Nor does it mean that it's not a good model to do it that way they currently are.

[Yitsul.8342]

Things I'd Like

• The continent from the cancelled Utopia campaign including humans that are Tyria's equivalent to Native Americans.
• Cantha
• More playable races especially the Tengu
• New Weapon types including but not limited to scythe
• Focus skins that look like actual objects instead of small shields (PoF's torches were more creative!)
• Being able to see Jormag and S_____ eventually
• A new god of fire. and Divinity's reach being revamped for that new god.
• More waypoints in PoF maps
• New Dungeons
• Necromancer ax damage buff
• Underwater Flesh golem
• Marjory and Kasmeer finally getting married
• Slayer achievements for Dinosaurs, Mordrem, Chak, Destroyers, and Icebrood

Things I'd Dislike

• Marjory getting killed in the story
• Having to kill another god unless it's Dhumm
• Most of Cantha becoming Dragonbrand land.

[Bullgar.6519]

Im alittle bit happy with GW2 i mean so far their doing alot of things to make the game better but one of the flaws i see is that their not putting enough new equipment . i mean sure some new weapons and new sets of armor came out with the expansion but getting them didnt feel rewarding enough like getting a legendary armor even though the only good looking legendary armor is the Heavy set.

[Ohoni.6057]

@Kal Spiro.9745 said:Skins should 100% be their income. Skins provide nothing to the game. Your Griffon isn't better become its wings are made of fire. Your Jackel doesn't teleport more effectively because it's made of stars instead of sand. It provides no benefit to the game and as such it is exactly the sort of thing that we should want them sticking in the market. There is no reason to be treating mounts any differently than gliders and gliders have no need to be collections or achievements.

Yes, maybe people would like them to be, but that doesn't mean it's bad for them not to be done that way. Nor does it mean that it's not a good model to do it that way they currently are.

I agree with you that skins should be a primary form of income for them, and that skins can be less disruptive than certain other options, but there does need to be balance in the system, there should always be some skins that can be earned in game, since those are the rewards most valued by players, and the paid skins should always be reasonably priced and through a reasonable delivery method. The Mount skins have so far failed on both counts, which is the problem.

[Dayra.7405]

I am mostly happy with GW2 as it is, but still after 5+ year, I mostly play something else ... :)Just returning from time to time, if there is something new.

[Faaris.8013]

With the first episode of LW S4 coming soon, I don't wonder about the story or content, I wonder which new way of predatory monetisation Anet will test on us. Don't get me wrong, I bought an outfit and a new character slot with money in the last two weeks, I do not question the gem store in general. But it's sad that I'm not happily looking forward to the episode. It's more like I would feel about an announcement from the HR department: You know they found a new way to rip you off and the changes will not be to your advantage. But I have a thick skin, still playing thief, the only class that didn't get a new elite trait line with the expansion, let's see which experiment they will try.

[fizzypetal.7936]

In the main I'm pretty happy with GW2 - been playing since Beta and have only taken breaks when life has got in the way every now and again. The things I love vs other MMOs I've played in the past:

• no need or greed rolling on loot when in a party
• no having to camp ore, lumber or plant nodes
• you don't get punished gear wise for not logging in
• can be in up to 5 guilds simultaneously
• lots of character customisation options - starting at the character creation screen and carrying on in game
• That this game is whatever I want it to be for me
• Nothing on the gem store is pay to win

The main thing I have found a bit annoying at times is to do with the adventuring aspect - I really like to explore and some of the places on the HoT & especially the PoF maps make it impossible for a solo player or even a duo to enjoy. On PoF maps the mob chains, constant cc and very quick respawns - ugh - so not fun.

The PoF story - there are aspects of that were frustrating too. Chapters where only the story owner would get credit for the story achievements and the immediate instance kick if you went over the edge of the instance map. In previous stories a warning would appear on the screen letting you know you'd be kicked unless you returned to the zone - and it gave you a few seconds to get back in. PoF is not forgiving in that regard and that was hugely frustrating for both me and my friend.

The mounts though...boy howdy I absolutely love those! Map completions are far less tedious which means I might actually get another map completion done on another of my dozen or so characters. I've only got my main with 100%, couldn't face doing it all over again with other characters. Mounts though will make it so much quicker so I'm super happy about the introduction of those into the GW2 world.