Expansion: Pre-Order, Wail Till Launch to Purchase or Not Purchasing

[LordCanti.7124]

Another shared slot? Yes please!

[Linken.6345]

5 hours ago, Tyncale.1629 said:

Not buying. I left when EoD was released because I was disappointed that no new game systems were introduced, like player housing or Henchmen.

New expansion is just more of the same, and some reworking of existing features, again no new game systems so I guess I will have to wait a little longer. Still not sure why they will not introduce player housing, seems like the ultimate fit for the way Anet monetizes a MMO. As for Henchmen, seeing how they keep pushing Strike Missions, I guess we will never see such a solo-oriented feature.

Fishing is a new system btw.

And yea player housing adds nothing to the game.

If you wanna see how good henchmen would be try playing a mechanist and manage to get your bot to were u want it.

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

Won't buy, but will wait till last release (next year) to see if it got good.

[Balsa.3951]

On 6/29/2023 at 8:03 AM, jokke.6239 said:

Majority not buying?

Yeah I don't buy that for a second 🤪

maybe not true but it shows a negative trend.

ppl will buy bcs of the reputation anet s game has but if this new expansion don't diliver the frend will spiral down.

also a expansion should be made to attract new customers not just to hold us addicts 

[SarajielKikiVelika.4952]

I pre-purchased one license to upgrade my F2P Steam-account to a full account.

However I already regret it, since SotO-only accounts don't come with a permanent Raptor mount or the Revenant class. Might be an oversight or intentional to upsell more old expansions, but in any case it shows their contempt for their own customers. 

It also has the same bug that EoD-only accounts had with Mastery Insights in core Tyria not rewarding mastery points. That one took ANet about 6 months to fix. Considering that they want to sell annual expansions nowadays, this would mean one has basically wait till the end of the expansion to actually be able to use all its advertised features unless one buys the old ones as well. 

Edited July 1, 2023 by SarajielKikiVelika.4952

[Cuks.8241]

I barely play open world anymore probably because EOD was really weak in that department and Gyala was just bad. Story is not my thing. 

So I basically get 2 strikes and a fractal (very dissapointed) and nothing for spvp (kinda expected). Relics and new weapons look interesting.

I never prepurchase, Ill probably buy it once its out, its low price. But I also started other games, so maybe also not. 

[Rhetrabushion.3618]

After reading the forum threads, I'm amending from "likely" to "definitely" buy.  

Simple reason. 

Some individuals are going so ballistic in their reactions, it just makes me want to stick it to them more by supporting the expansion. 

 just kidding. 

The legendary armor suits a casual farmer like myself, so it's something I'd appreciate. 

[Tsakhi.8124]

My husband pre-purchased it for my birthday. ^_^ Yeah buddy!

[TheWaternymphHC.1847]

Sometimes I'm really tempted to show the forum warriors that the GW2 forums are a plutocracy. 

[Batalix.2873]

30 minutes ago, TheWaternymphHC.1847 said:

Sometimes I'm really tempted to show the forum warriors that the GW2 forums are a plutocracy. 

Shhhhhh don't tell us that. Just keep promising us waypoint tax cuts, even if they are only for the afk farmers.

[Jarl Grey.8135]

not buying.

got skyscale. got legy armor. no new weapons, just mixing the old ones. no fresh ideas. no new raid. no changes to wvw. not liking how they handle players concerns.

so all I would get are two new maps and a story. and they recently ruined my story class with the latest patch.

thank you, but no thank you. 

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

Why do people still expect new raids? It's obvious they've abandoned them in favor of strike missions, just like Fractals of the Mists has replaced dungeons. The nature of GW2's player base just doesn't encourage the development of new raids. And strike missions basically are single boss raids, especially the CM's. The last raid release was 4 years ago and they've hardly talked about them since. It's all Fractals and strike missions. That's the instanced content we have to work with from now on. Until ANet decides strike missions aren't living up to their expectations and introduce yet another kind of instanced content, because that's kind of their thing.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

After the latest balance changes, throwing Cantha out the window after an expansion and 0.5 LW-but-not-LW Episode I'm not really keen on spending 25€ on something that seems to have quite a lot less content than any previous expansions.

[Balsa.3951]

21 minutes ago, TheNecrosanct.4028 said:

Why do people still expect new raids? It's obvious they've abandoned them in favor of strike missions, just like Fractals of the Mists has replaced dungeons. The nature of GW2's player base just doesn't encourage the development of new raids. And strike missions basically are single boss raids, especially the CM's. The last raid release was 4 years ago and they've hardly talked about them since. It's all Fractals and strike missions. That's the instanced content we have to work with from now on. Until ANet decides strike missions aren't living up to their expectations and introduce yet another kind of instanced content, because that's kind of their thing.

Raiders killed Raids with their habit of asking player to show 1k Li . Asking 1 week after a raid wing opening for experience only what a joke.

this created a wall for new raiders result less ppl raided~ no more raid wings.

when strikes came raiders tried the same asking ppl to show Kp even on the ice golem...

but luckily this time the introduction of difficulty was a more careful planned. and ppl saw strikes are doable with out the stress of elite raiders.

[Linken.6345]

2 hours ago, Balsa.3951 said:

Raiders killed Raids with their habit of asking player to show 1k Li . Asking 1 week after a raid wing opening for experience only what a joke.

this created a wall for new raiders result less ppl raided~ no more raid wings.

when strikes came raiders tried the same asking ppl to show Kp even on the ice golem...

but luckily this time the introduction of difficulty was a more careful planned. and ppl saw strikes are doable with out the stress of elite raiders.

Yea and raids are doable without the stress of elite raiders too, just that some people want to get carried instead of learning the fights.

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

kitten that, I pre-ordered for the swag hat

NO RAGRETS!

[Batalix.2873]

1 hour ago, Linken.6345 said:

Yea and raids are doable without the stress of elite raiders too, just that some people want to get carried instead of learning the fights.

With how much power has crept since EoD launch, raids are even more trivial. And there is still shaming, in pugs, and even in my extremely casual/friendly group, when runs aren't as fast and smooth as possible. It's frankly kind of boring to me--where is the thrill without people kittening up and everyone just "stands on the butt" till it dies?

 

4 hours ago, TheNecrosanct.4028 said:

Why do people still expect new raids? It's obvious they've abandoned them in favor of strike missions, just like Fractals of the Mists has replaced dungeons. The nature of GW2's player base just doesn't encourage the development of new raids. And strike missions basically are single boss raids, especially the CM's. The last raid release was 4 years ago and they've hardly talked about them since. It's all Fractals and strike missions. That's the instanced content we have to work with from now on. Until ANet decides strike missions aren't living up to their expectations and introduce yet another kind of instanced content, because that's kind of their thing.

I don't expect new raids, I'm not that naive.

I do vastly prefer raids to strikes and think strikes are not nearly the same level of interesting, worldbuilding, and engaging content that raids were.

I do think it was a bad choice to abandon raids for strikes, because that is just one more aspect of the game where past content is neglected and thinner future content is normalized.

And obviously the longer we go without meaningful, thoughtful development like raids in the game, the less I particularly care to keep investing in it. The new fractal is nice, but a fractal a year and raids/PvP/WvW/dungeons stagnating (soon to include metas with the Skyscale/leggy armor) is not going to keep my interest.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

3 hours ago, Balsa.3951 said:

Raiders killed Raids with their habit of asking player to show 1k Li . Asking 1 week after a raid wing opening for experience only what a joke.

this created a wall for new raiders result less ppl raided~ no more raid wings.

when strikes came raiders tried the same asking ppl to show Kp even on the ice golem...

but luckily this time the introduction of difficulty was a more careful planned. and ppl saw strikes are doable with out the stress of elite raiders.

Asking for kp is not what killed raids. By that reasoning Fractals should have been dead ages ago, even strikes. The fact is, some people want proof of people's experience and that is always going to be the case with any kind of instanced content. It was like that for dungeons and raids, and it is like that for Fractals and strikes. There is nothing wrong with wanting to play with people who match your skill level. Does it make it more difficult for a newbie to enter raids? It will be if that's the only thing you're looking for. Raids require some measure of organization, including training, and there have always been training guilds around, even to this day. But you have to put in the work to gain the result. Coasting on other people's abilities is only okay if the people who are carrying you are aware of it and accept it. Requiring people to put in the work and show some experience the only way this game allows (killproof) is not too much to ask. It's how it works in real life. I'm just amazed that people actually believe those rules don't apply when playing a game. It's still people behind the pixels, and we don't suddenly intrinsically change depending on what we do.

Strikes (especially the CM's) are the new content raiders go to nowadays, because that's all that's offered to them on that level. And they won't change their tactics looking for people they don't have to carry. That's not the problem and never has been. The problem is that some of them have kitten attitudes. That's where that reputation comes from.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

9 minutes ago, Batalix.2873 said:

I do vastly prefer raids to strikes and think strikes are not nearly the same level of interesting, worldbuilding, and engaging content that raids were.

I do think it was a bad choice to abandon raids for strikes, because that is just one more aspect of the game where past content is neglected and thinner future content is normalized.

And obviously the longer we go without meaningful, thoughtful development like raids in the game, the less I particularly care to keep investing in it. The new fractal is nice, but a fractal a year and raids/PvP/WvW/dungeons stagnating (soon to include metas with the Skyscale/leggy armor) is not going to keep my interest.

I prefer raids over strikes as well, for the same reasons as you. I also wished they hadn't abandoned raids. Strikes are indeed lore-light and basically just mechanical fights, a challenge for challenge's sake. The release schedule of Fractals is also extremely minimal. The only thing I don't agree with is dungeons stagnating. That ship has sailed ages ago. Dungeons aren't stagnating but have been dead for a decade. They abandoned it so fast they didn't even get around to creating new dungeons besides the ones included on release. Fractals were released only a few months after the launch of the game, meaning all development of instanced content went into that and not dungeons, even before launch, considering the amount of Fractals we got in one go. Metas aren't going to decline, though. People find reasons to do them now. That won't change with legendary armor or whatever they're doing for the skyscale.

[Batalix.2873]

25 minutes ago, TheNecrosanct.4028 said:

It's still people behind the pixels, and we don't suddenly intrinsically change depending on what we do.

Strikes (especially the CM's) are the new content raiders go to nowadays, because that's all that's offered to them on that level. And they won't change their tactics looking for people they don't have to carry. That's not the problem and never has been. The problem is that some of them have kitten attitudes. That's where that reputation comes from.

Speak for yourself, I actually am a salad.

This is just an inherent problem of MMOs generally that is antagonized by raiding. MMOs occupy a weird space of encouraging near-daily interaction, and yet no developer could realistically create distinct content to cover that much time. So the genre evolved out of creating very repeatable content (and I would argue "community building" to create social familiarity and a "home") with a lot of incentive to repeat it, i.e. the grind.

This creates a really weird incongruity where a lot of players ultimately reach a point in any content where they are enjoying it not for the content itself, but merely grinding it for the rewards. And while for solo content that's largely harmless, it really creates a lot of social pressure in group content, especially small group content where contribution carries more weight.

Personally, in my several years in raiding settings, I never go into anything--especially with people I just met--with the expectation of a clear, fast or otherwise. I think "meta" is effectively just a paradigm disguising a bunch of self-concerned, antisocial people who would rather impose "standards" on their community than learn to communicate, adapt, and teach their community members (or otherwise make some friends they can reliably group with).

Granted, this perspective mostly applies to pug content, where I think most of what players recognize as "meta" (builds intended for general group compatibility, not specialty builds for optimized performance runs). But I think in general it is just a healthy mindset to have in any setting, even organized/regular statics. If I cannot enjoy the content for what it is, including the little surprises and disappointments, regardless of whether I get the reward, then I think a lot of the enjoyment of the game is lost. And in those few times that I have recognized myself falling into that mindset and can't check myself, I just step away because it is not worth burdening other people with that stress.

Also, I am just not a Spike player. I am never going to bother to "get great" at the game when it just means memorizing a strict rotation, where most content is still perfectly clearable with looser reactive gameplay, and where connectivity and lags routinely sabotage performance. Maybe that makes me a burden to a small subset of other raiders, but they are welcome to kick me and waste more time not-raiding looking for pugs.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[Balsa.3951]

1 hour ago, TheNecrosanct.4028 said:

Asking for kp is not what killed raids. By that reasoning Fractals should have been dead ages ago, even strikes. The fact is, some people want proof of people's experience and that is always going to be the case with any kind of instanced content. It was like that for dungeons and raids, and it is like that for Fractals and strikes. There is nothing wrong with wanting to play with people who match your skill level. Does it make it more difficult for a newbie to enter raids? It will be if that's the only thing you're looking for. Raids require some measure of organization, including training, and there have always been training guilds around, even to this day. But you have to put in the work to gain the result. Coasting on other people's abilities is only okay if the people who are carrying you are aware of it and accept it. Requiring people to put in the work and show some experience the only way this game allows (killproof) is not too much to ask. It's how it works in real life. I'm just amazed that people actually believe those rules don't apply when playing a game. It's still people behind the pixels, and we don't suddenly intrinsically change depending on what we do.

Strikes (especially the CM's) are the new content raiders go to nowadays, because that's all that's offered to them on that level. And they won't change their tactics looking for people they don't have to carry. That's not the problem and never has been. The problem is that some of them have kitten attitudes. That's where that reputation comes from.

well agree to disagree. creating a toxic elite group..

who thinks they don't want ~carry player thru Ice Golem.....

I watch the result where Raids are now. btw elite stuff which some players solod

[Linken.6345]

26 minutes ago, Balsa.3951 said:

well agree to disagree. creating a toxic elite group..

who thinks they don't want ~carry player thru Ice Golem.....

I watch the result where Raids are now. btw elite stuff which some players solod

Well only raid that was soloed was slothasor with broken thief permastealth was it not?

+ that traps damaged the boss without breaking said stealth.

[Balsa.3951]

18 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Well only raid that was soloed was slothasor with broken thief permastealth was it not?

+ that traps damaged the boss without breaking said stealth.

there was some with a scourge as well.

and some 3 man stuff

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

1 hour ago, Balsa.3951 said:

well agree to disagree. creating a toxic elite group..

who thinks they don't want ~carry player thru Ice Golem.....

I watch the result where Raids are now. btw elite stuff which some players solod

That's got the be one of the most disingenuous responses I've ever seen.

A toxic group is going to be toxic whether they ask for kp or not. They're going to be toxic whether they're elite or not. First of all, elite is not something negative. Second, I've seen toxic groups that were far from efficient in raids. Third, toxic people are everywhere. That doesn't mean everything they do is by definition also toxic.

Ice Golem? That's your practical example? Nobody needs to be carried for that, since it's extremely easy even with inefficient builds. People don't ask for kp to do Ice Golem. They ask for kp because they also do the more difficult strike missions during that same run, which do require knowledge and experience of your class and the fight.

And what does the fact that some players soloed one or two raid bosses have to do with anything? Those are outliers, exceptions and not the rule. Most raid bosses simply can't be soloed because of the mechanics of the fight. And soloing a raid boss, which always entails fighting it in enraged mode for the majority of the fight, is something a very small amount of players do to challenge themselves. The people who do low-man runs are min-maxers, who want to squeeze every last drop of skill out of themselves to defeat a challenging encounter. They're the ones who do speedruns. They do not represent the entirety of the raid community, nor is that the only way they do raids. You will find these people in training guilds as well, teaching others. And not even with the expectation that they will all one day be at their level, because that's not even the eventual goal. Most raiders I know personally through the 2 statics I've been a part of don't even have that ambition. They just want to clear challenging content with friends, or pugs who aren't toxic and demand the best of the best.

Raids are where they are now because continued interest in the content didn't merit the resources invested. There weren't enough people doing them. Strikes are easy compared to raids, all of them. It's only the CM's that are on raid level and you'll find the same small number of people doing those on a weekly basis as was the case with raids. If all strikes were only on normal mode the raid community in GW2 would have dwindled to next to nothing. If all strikes were like their CM modes, strikes would go the same way as raids. Apparently people also don't like longer instances so now we are stuck with single boss strikes with very little story, the same story you also get by playing the game's actual storyline.

Your response sounds like it's based on a subjective personal experience, not years of clearing the content.

[jamesg.7128]

Already got Ultimate. I always go Ultimate to get the gems to use between purchase and release on any sales that come up. Already bought a discounted outfit I wanted.