The best years of Guild Wars 2 are behind us

[Tachenon.5270]

Maybe folks wouldn't see GW2 as a dying game quite so much if anet would stop hammering nails in its coffin.

[Luche Lenardon.4951]

I'm one of the few who didn't follow the hype train and pre-order SotO right away. This is due to he quality of EoD contents, that show a lot to be decided (Especially at launch when there were a LOT of game-breaking bugs that fixed like half a month later). The mini-expansion story is pure laziness if you ask me with a lot of reused contents and barely anything interesting in there, other than showing some weapons and armors gate behind material sink. heck I'd dare say that some of the older LW shows more dedications in making than this.

My last straw is now the current 18th July patch tho. It is very clear they stopped listen to us for long ago for any balance/gameplay and only adjust the number instead of the feeling of gameplay. Many classes after rework feel very clunky to use with with people cry out for change reverts (Berserker's sluggish new Arc Divider, Druid has to use their burst healing to drop boons, Scourge shade nerf, Scrapper sluggish combo quick, Mech is also overnerfed to the point of feeling punished just to play the class while Condi Virt is pretty much doing the same shite and isn't touched)

Now I'm glad I hold off my wallet on the pre-order, I guess it's time for me to leave for something better.

[Cronospere.8143]

Reacting to first post: A lot of negative stuff. Some i can agree to. But i dont agree with your statement that devs are not listening to the players. 

I mean... 

They (the players) wanted mounts. We got mounts. They wanted fishing. We got fishing. There was only negative feedback towards the elite specs. They no longer did elite specs. We wanted to go to cantha, we got cantha.. we wanted new legendary gear. We will get new legendary gear. Now i dont say the entire player base wanted them, but still people asked for them and this was just a fraction of changes which were suggested by the player base. I have been calling for canthan decorations since EoD came out. Today they added some!

Aside from player housing, new races and new pvp/wvw maps. They listen... i just wished they communicated/reacted more on the suggestions so it would be more visible that they listen. 

[kharmin.7683]

23 minutes ago, Cronospere.8143 said:

Reacting to first post: A lot of negative stuff. Some i can agree to. But i dont agree with your statement that devs are not listening to the players. 

I mean... 

They (the players) wanted mounts. We got mounts. They wanted fishing. We got fishing. There was only negative feedback towards the elite specs. They no longer did elite specs. We wanted to go to cantha, we got cantha.. we wanted new legendary gear. We will get new legendary gear. Now i dont say the entire player base wanted them, but still people asked for them and this was just a fraction of changes which were suggested by the player base. I have been calling for canthan decorations since EoD came out. Today they added some!

Aside from player housing, new races and new pvp/wvw maps. They listen... i just wished they communicated/reacted more on the suggestions so it would be more visible that they listen. 

Don't forget the Ranger bunnythumper spec 🙄

[Gravitron.7982]

48 minutes ago, Cronospere.8143 said:

Reacting to first post: A lot of negative stuff. Some i can agree to. But i dont agree with your statement that devs are not listening to the players. 

I mean... 

They (the players) wanted mounts. We got mounts. They wanted fishing. We got fishing. There was only negative feedback towards the elite specs. They no longer did elite specs. We wanted to go to cantha, we got cantha.. we wanted new legendary gear. We will get new legendary gear. Now i dont say the entire player base wanted them, but still people asked for them and this was just a fraction of changes which were suggested by the player base. I have been calling for canthan decorations since EoD came out. Today they added some!

Aside from player housing, new races and new pvp/wvw maps. They listen... i just wished they communicated/reacted more on the suggestions so it would be more visible that they listen. 

Whoever this "we" is, it certainly doesn't include me.

[Gravitron.7982]

1 hour ago, Tachenon.5270 said:

Maybe folks wouldn't see GW2 as a dying game quite so much if anet would stop hammering nails in its coffin.

Bravo sir, bravo. You convey how a lot of us are feeling in a single sentence. So good!

[vares.8457]

1 minute ago, Gravitron.7982 said:

Bravo sir, bravo. You convey how a lot of us are feeling in a single sentence. So good!

Whoever this “us” is, it certainly doesn’t include me. 

[Redfeather.6401]

rpg worlds can keep going on and on, but you need designers who grew up playing stuff like tabletop rpgs to know what kind of depth to add. Adding more ways for classes to interact with the world is a way of increasing the role playing aspect of everything. A thief can find hidden doors and chests for their friends. It can go on indefinitely if you have imagination. Tabletop rpgs are what primed people's imaginations to create rpg video games in the first place! Start at the source and use it to create!

Edited July 18, 2023 by Redfeather.6401

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

3 hours ago, Gravitron.7982 said:

He's saying that Anet is making a new MMO, and if that is the case, they are 100% going to pull resources away from GW2. I just don't see how they are going to willingly have a huge team for their new MMO, and then another huge team along side that, working on GW2....it just aint gonna happen. GW2's dev team is already smaller then it used to be, and it will only shrink, not grow, if they are in fact working on a new MMO. 

Are you saying that they aren't working on a new MMO, and the GW2 development team actually won't shrink at all? If so, then that's good news for GW2!

Not saying that at all. What I'm saying should be pretty clear.

A smaller dev team? Yes, that's nothing new, at all. This has been the case for years. People complain about the lack of new content after EoD, but they fail to recognize everything ANet has done since then, which is nothing small. When it comes to development you can't cherry-pick what constitutes as such and what doesn't based on personal preferences.

What I'm arguing is that they present their argument as absolute fact while most of it is interpretation of data, and they won't even entertain the notion that they might be wrong on some counts. Providing examples without proof, drawing conclusions based on personal bias and assumptions, misrepresenting facts; it's all in there. They don't even want to admit the subjectivity of their posts, or even the subjectivity of this entire forum thread. I don't have a problem with what they're saying. I have a problem with how they're saying it and presenting it as the only possible explanation when looking at disparate data. It might very well be true. And if it is, congratulations to them for their good guess. But there's no solid proof, certainly not when it comes to future predictions. It's also quite hypocritical to accuse me of lying while they have lied as well. In my case it was simple misinformation (because I don't give a flying kitten about PvP, haven't touched it since HoT released and uncharacteristically didn't do my research before posting) but not entirely untrue. Yes, things have been added to PvP after the release of HoT and even PoF, but what's been done with PvP (and WvW) is so minimal it resembles maintenance mode so much more than PvE ever has in GW2. Let's put it this way: we both have a piece of paper with a bunch of dots on it. We just connect said dots differently. And for me to reach a conclusion I will stand by and argue for, I need a lot more concrete evidence, which simply isn't there. Someone is on "copium" alright, but it's not me (Gen Z buzzwords are usually cringeworthy and eyeroll inducing, but I have to admit "copium" is a pretty neat one).

In other words, I stand by what I said. Failure to see subjectivity, misrepresenting facts, drawing conclusions on assumptions and biased interpretation is not a good way to convince people of your point, regardless of whether that point is valid or not. They can come back with a reasoned response without putting so much emotion into it and address the points I made. But I will not lower my standards for reasoning and argumentation because someone takes it personal when their point of view is being criticized. Simply put: not my problem.

[Gravitron.7982]

3 hours ago, vares.8457 said:

Whoever this “us” is, it certainly doesn’t include me. 

I didn't, I included the handful of people in here who agree with me.

[Gravitron.7982]

1 hour ago, TheNecrosanct.4028 said:

Not saying that at all. What I'm saying should be pretty clear.

A smaller dev team? Yes, that's nothing new, at all. This has been the case for years. People complain about the lack of new content after EoD, but they fail to recognize everything ANet has done since then, which is nothing small. When it comes to development you can't cherry-pick what constitutes as such and what doesn't based on personal preferences.

What I'm arguing is that they present their argument as absolute fact while most of it is interpretation of data, and they won't even entertain the notion that they might be wrong on some counts. Providing examples without proof, drawing conclusions based on personal bias and assumptions, misrepresenting facts; it's all in there. They don't even want to admit the subjectivity of their posts, or even the subjectivity of this entire forum thread. I don't have a problem with what they're saying. I have a problem with how they're saying it and presenting it as the only possible explanation when looking at disparate data. It might very well be true. And if it is, congratulations to them for their good guess. But there's no solid proof, certainly not when it comes to future predictions. It's also quite hypocritical to accuse me of lying while they have lied as well. In my case it was simple misinformation (because I don't give a flying kitten about PvP, haven't touched it since HoT released and uncharacteristically didn't do my research before posting) but not entirely untrue. Yes, things have been added to PvP after the release of HoT and even PoF, but what's been done with PvP (and WvW) is so minimal it resembles maintenance mode so much more than PvE ever has in GW2. Let's put it this way: we both have a piece of paper with a bunch of dots on it. We just connect said dots differently. And for me to reach a conclusion I will stand by and argue for, I need a lot more concrete evidence, which simply isn't there. Someone is on "copium" alright, but it's not me (Gen Z buzzwords are usually cringeworthy and eyeroll inducing, but I have to admit "copium" is a pretty neat one).

In other words, I stand by what I said. Failure to see subjectivity, misrepresenting facts, drawing conclusions on assumptions and biased interpretation is not a good way to convince people of your point, regardless of whether that point is valid or not. They can come back with a reasoned response without putting so much emotion into it and address the points I made. But I will not lower my standards for reasoning and argumentation because someone takes it personal when their point of view is being criticized. Simply put: not my problem.

Simply put: When the development of this new MMO starts to ramp up, the quality in the development of GW2 will decrease. Simply put. The development team for GW2 will shrink even more than it is currently. You don't want to believe it? Not my problem. 😎

[Cronospere.8143]

3 hours ago, Gravitron.7982 said:

Whoever this "we" is, it certainly doesn't include me.

Oh you are the funny guy. 

"We" got mounts. Yes. Since you are a gw2 player. Then yes you are among those that are called "we". Because it is now a feature in a game you play. 

Now i never said that i asked for those things i stated in my post. But i have been reading this forum for a long time now and yes. The people asked for those features. If the majority liked it or not. It didnt matter. Because if someone suggests an idea and Anet agrees it is up to the devs if they want to implement the feature yes or no. But they listen nevertheless, also to the minority. 

[Dorsai.1458]

PVP built the original GW and separated it from the other MMOs.  Expectations were that GW2 would continue to be a very active PVP MMO.

As with every MMO, it's the PVE crowd that pays the bills.  Hence ...overtuned PVE skills bleeding into PVP ...nerfs in PVP screwing PVE ...original GW players feeling betrayed by the current boon vomit gameplay.

WvW hasn't been updated in forever.  The recent beta event?  lol.

The last new map for SPVP?

GW2 will continue to thrive as a care-bear, me too MMO.  Which is fine ...it's just another one of many of there.  Too bad as it's combat system is still better than any other MMO.  

GW was supposed to do away with the "holy trinity" of healer, dps, tank - total BS.  It just got replaced by their version of the holy trinity - selfish dps, support dps, support heals.  Class is unimportant.  The buffs your bring are the only things that matter.  Does it matter if the quickness come from Herald or Cata?  

Band-aid vs fixes.  See todays elem "nerfs".  These type of fixes lead to further balance issues down the road and screw over other elem specs that are not cata.  Instead of looking at the actual fundamental issue with the trait or skill that's causing the prob, they just adjust the numbers and call it a day.

[Gravitron.7982]

Just now, Cronospere.8143 said:

Oh you are the funny guy. 

"We" got mounts. Yes. Since you are a gw2 player. Then yes you are among those that are called "we". Because it is now a feature in a game you play. 

Now i never said that i asked for those things i stated in my post. But i have been reading this forum for a long time now and yes. The people asked for those features. If the majority liked it or not. It didnt matter. Because if someone suggests an idea and Anet agrees it is up to the devs if they want to implement the feature yes or no. But they listen nevertheless, also to the minority. 

Yes, Anet will decide what they add to the game. Most developers operate that way. And yes, "we" got XYZ thing when they added it to the game. But not all of us asked for XYZ thing. We all got rainbow wings, but the majority of players probably didn't ask for them. So that fact that we got something really is meaningless if it wasn't something the majority actually wanted.

[Gravitron.7982]

1 minute ago, Dorsai.1458 said:

PVP built the original GW and separated it from the other MMOs.  Expectations were that GW2 would continue to be a very active PVP MMO.

As with every MMO, it's the PVE crowd that pays the bills.  Hence ...overtuned PVE skills bleeding into PVP ...nerfs in PVP screwing PVE ...original GW players feeling betrayed by the current boon vomit gameplay.

WvW hasn't been updated in forever.  The recent beta event?  lol.

The last new map for SPVP?

GW2 will continue to thrive as a care-bear, me too MMO.  Which is fine ...it's just another one of many of there.  Too bad as it's combat system is still better than any other MMO.  

GW was supposed to do away with the "holy trinity" of healer, dps, tank - total BS.  It just got replaced by their version of the holy trinity - selfish dps, support dps, support heals.  Class is unimportant.  The buffs your bring are the only things that matter.  Does it matter if the quickness come from Herald or Cata?  

Band-aid vs fixes.  See todays elem "nerfs".  These type of fixes lead to further balance issues down the road and screw over other elem specs that are not cata.  Instead of looking at the actual fundamental issue with the trait or skill that's causing the prob, they just adjust the numbers and call it a day.

You raise some very good points here, I definitely agree with you on these.

[Deadly.3298]

On 7/4/2023 at 11:20 AM, Tachenon.5270 said:

It occurs to me that the best years of Guild Wars 2 are most definitely NOT behind ME. Why not? Because ! I'm still waiting for a (brace for impact) PROPER Guild Wars 2. One that takes, ya know, everything I love about Guild Wars 1 and puts it in a persistent world. And so on and so forth.

Whee!

(I especially like how the village staying rescued is so immaculately represented by the repeatable hearts in Elona.)

I had to login to like this.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

1 hour ago, Gravitron.7982 said:

Simply put: When the development of this new MMO starts to ramp up, the quality in the development of GW2 will decrease. Simply put. The development team for GW2 will shrink even more than it is currently. You don't want to believe it? Not my problem. 😎

Then we've got something in common. It's not my problem either. 

[Batalix.2873]

On 7/16/2023 at 11:32 AM, Ashen.2907 said:

An existing fantasy IP does not have to mean GW. There are many fantasy IP out there.

Yes there is always the possibility of ANet developing a new IP or adapting a third party IP.

But in a post-Disney megafranchise attention economy world, it becomes increasingly expensive/risky to try new things.

If it's your own IP you are trying to create, that takes a lot of time, talent, and resources to produce, with no guarantee that the public will latch onto it when the IP has no reputation or goodwill built behind it, and when the advertising/social space is dominated by the established juggernauts.

And if it's a third party IP you are considering adapting/cross-promoting, that's a pretty heavy sacrifice. It is basically conceding that your existing IP is not strong enough. Either because you are comfortable not working on/continuing it at all. Or because you are comfortable letting it be appropriated and consumed by other IP, which you may not even own, and lose its own identity in the process. For examples of the latter, look at how companies like Lego (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Disney) and Magic: The Gathering (Lord of the Rings, Warhammer 40k, Godzilla) increasingly don't develop their own properties anymore, but are now just an alternative toyetic medium that can serve as merch for more successful IP.

The Longer Point

Point being, GW2 is over a decade old, largely looks like an up-rezzed PS2-era emulation, and isn't really gamepad compatible. Not to mention at the core of its design are much older game design sensibilities (exploration, collectathon, Z-target dodge-roll combat, RPG leveling, MMO currency grinding, actually having to work for modular gear stats). No game, including GW2 is going to be able to keep pace with modern tastes on an engine that (a) started out in a certain era and then (b) has been iteratively building on said engine to forge an increasingly unweildy edifice. GW2's engine fundaments practically presume that the player has the leisure and patience of past gaming eras. Its days have been numbered ever since IBS heavily pulled back any sort of innovation or regular passes/revitalization of old content. It cannot last forever, and is quickly entering its twilight years where it will have a small, dedicated fanbase and minimal profitability.

It is a given that GW2 is not going to last forever. And based on what we have seen from IBS to EoD to SotO, it is well on its way down the path toward maintenance mode. At this point I agree with speculators that it will see dropoff in playerbase over the next couple of years, a direct consequence of (a) overall less development resources being put into expansions that compare disfavorably to older content, and (b) more players coming to accept that the game is aging and/or winding down and being pulled away to newer games.

But even if we ignored the specifics, *what* parts are neglected, *how* bad new content is, *the rate* at which we expect the game to decline. GW2 cannot last forever and being ten years old without any sort of "new release" or "revitalization" is ancient in modern IP terms. And it is a singular ("cohesive"?) work,  which cannot sustain the same perpetual interest as say a Marvel that is constantly churning out multimedia and hitting as many markets as it can. The Guild Wars "brand" has all of its eggs in a ten year old basket--it has refused to lay other eggs or weave other baskets in that period.

What this ultimately means is that GW2 is dated and aging as a *game*. But that still needs to be balanced against the fact that it contains coming on 20 years of copyrighted authorship that Arenanet owns. The world of Guild Wars is generally very rich and deep, and if it isn't being built upon and perpetuated then that is nearly 20 years of Arenanet assets that are going to waste. Working on anything but GW2/GW3 would be flushing away so much IP, goodwill, corporate stock, and easy money--it's arguably that motivation that kept GW2 alive this long and what gave us these zombie-expacs in EoD and SotO.

So while yes, it is always possible that ANet is working on something other than GW3. Two facts still remain to me:

1) GW2 is not going to last forever and is already showing plenty of signs of already being on the way out, so it begs being updated/replaced by *something*;

2) Between ANet being a fairly small team and only having the resources to work up one game at a time; and having few other IP to work with, certainly none with as much "stuff" to draw from as GW: ANet would be extremely loathe to effectively smother its own baby to raise some other cuckoo bird's egg.

So I do think @Izzy.2951 has the right of it, albeit with some tinges of hyperbole. And if in fact ANet is *not* working on GW3, then we might as well mourn them as a developer of original IP. Working on anything else would pretty much mean abandoning GW IP and selling themselves out as a third party contract developer. And given how they historically seem to have overarching management/production issues, once they commit to a different track I think they will just stay single-mindedly rutted there, since historically they haven't really had the acumen/resources to "branch out".

Edited July 19, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[Izzy.2951]

17 hours ago, TheNecrosanct.4028 said:

Not saying that at all. What I'm saying should be pretty clear.

A smaller dev team? Yes, that's nothing new, at all. This has been the case for years. People complain about the lack of new content after EoD, but they fail to recognize everything ANet has done since then, which is nothing small. When it comes to development you can't cherry-pick what constitutes as such and what doesn't based on personal preferences.

What I'm arguing is that they present their argument as absolute fact while most of it is interpretation of data, and they won't even entertain the notion that they might be wrong on some counts. Providing examples without proof, drawing conclusions based on personal bias and assumptions, misrepresenting facts; it's all in there. They don't even want to admit the subjectivity of their posts, or even the subjectivity of this entire forum thread. I don't have a problem with what they're saying. I have a problem with how they're saying it and presenting it as the only possible explanation when looking at disparate data. It might very well be true. And if it is, congratulations to them for their good guess. But there's no solid proof, certainly not when it comes to future predictions. It's also quite hypocritical to accuse me of lying while they have lied as well. In my case it was simple misinformation (because I don't give a flying kitten about PvP, haven't touched it since HoT released and uncharacteristically didn't do my research before posting) but not entirely untrue. Yes, things have been added to PvP after the release of HoT and even PoF, but what's been done with PvP (and WvW) is so minimal it resembles maintenance mode so much more than PvE ever has in GW2. Let's put it this way: we both have a piece of paper with a bunch of dots on it. We just connect said dots differently. And for me to reach a conclusion I will stand by and argue for, I need a lot more concrete evidence, which simply isn't there. Someone is on "copium" alright, but it's not me (Gen Z buzzwords are usually cringeworthy and eyeroll inducing, but I have to admit "copium" is a pretty neat one).

In other words, I stand by what I said. Failure to see subjectivity, misrepresenting facts, drawing conclusions on assumptions and biased interpretation is not a good way to convince people of your point, regardless of whether that point is valid or not. They can come back with a reasoned response without putting so much emotion into it and address the points I made. But I will not lower my standards for reasoning and argumentation because someone takes it personal when their point of view is being criticized. Simply put: not my problem.

I still dont understand what is your point. You are quoting a lot of stuff based on real information, history and logic just saying its pure interpretations. In this last post you say "yeah small team, nothing new", what are you trying to say with that in regards to the topic, that the best years are ahead of us?

Okay and i would really want to know your opinion about a question im going to ask you. Gw2 right now is making more earnings with a smaller team and not making raids, PvP, PvE less quality and no real long-term innovation/direction for the game. You can search up the quarterly/yearly earnings from 2014-2018 when the team was way bigger and see this. 

Dont you think it would be fair for GW2 to put more man-power, similar to HoT-PoF era since they are earning more money, to keep the hype going and set up the game in the long term? That would also align with their statments of "we are going hard on gw2". What i dont see fair is Gw2 acting as a cash cow and lying in favor of other projects or even ncsoft pockets. I think as a customer its really disrespetful and unfair. 

PD: Also in the last ncsoft report, you can read Gw2 china has its best quarter ever since the game was release there.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Izzy.2951

[ProtoGunner.4953]

On 7/3/2023 at 8:04 PM, Ashen.2907 said:

To be fair, removing the sixth tier bonus and adding it back as earnable relics is inherently vertical progression.

Of course ANet does have the option to step away from the concept before SotO launches.

Finally something to do. I got bored. I am excited about new gear stuff. I have like 15 legendaries and maxed out since a decade or whatever. Time for new kitten, you grouching casuals!

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

Finally something to do. I got bored. I am excited about new gear stuff. I have like 15 legendaries and maxed out since a decade or whatever. Time for new kitten, you grouching casuals!

Imagine if they could add something that was actually new, rather than something that just makes you re-earn what you already had.

[Voyant.1327]

I absolutely loved this game at EOD launch, it was near perfect to me. Sure the flaws were still there (main story is the worst of any MMO imo) but everything else I loved. The combat, the feel of the game...

Then June 2022 happened and it lost the joy. But then they created new balance team so I figured I'd give em a bit to figure it out....

Then June 2023 happened & I'm like "well it'll be a long time before this game has a chance to be fun again."

Balance around "lets make the game enjoyable and fun to play" just as much as actual balance & maybe June 2024 won't be the nightmares prior Junes have been.

I want to invest & support this game, but the developers for some reason keep punishing the players to make some abstract concept work & it makes zero sense. 

[Batalix.2873]

Oh an addendum, I thought I was missing something.

In addition to all of the other things I observed about GW2 really dating itself and falling behind, one issue really stands out in particular.

At the epicenter of "why GW2 is declining" is a rather specific older game feature, and that is the inability to pivot buildcraft on the fly. It permeates so much of the game. You are stuck within the profession you choose. You have to collect hero points to unlock abilities and entire roles in the especs. You have to grind to get gear for that particular build. It's already a huge time investment just to try one single espec.

And then if you want to try anything else, very little of that work translates into time-saving. You still need to collect hero point to try another espec. You still need to grind for gear if the build has different aims. If it's a different profession you need to totally reroll a character and start from scratch.

Yes, legendaries exist, but those take so much time to obtain, particularly for the armor pieces which are what players really *need*. Maybe SotO will alleviate some of this, but the barrier will still exist to some extent.

(I have to emphasize that this is not inherently *bad* design. But it is definitely *old* design, one that a lot of franchises have been moving past since accessibility is more important to sales than challenge/achievement. There is a lot of old-era nostalgic charm to the system but it does not "respect the players' time" much in the current industry )

This older design sensibility has had a profound impact on the game. On the one hand, you have many people just quit the game because it takes too long to rekit a character, or even get a single character up to a speed where they feel competent in group settings.

And then on the other hand you have more dedicated players who just get tired of having to do the same grind a dozen times just to try a new build. Who might have to invest hours of playtime just to try a different playstyle, and incur the risk of it being unfun, underwhelming, or patched into oblivion by the time they get there.

And on the other other hand, the worst problem has invariably been the game's design itself. Because literally every demographic has to deal with this high cost, the game has been plagued from the beginning with complaints of especs/builds being required for meta, or underpowered. Ultimately the reason why all the classes are converging into a homogenized state is because players cannot easily swap between them. The devs have decided that it is better to just make all the classes do everything, rather than the clearer alternative which is just to make swapping classes more accessible.

Because this design decision affects player investment heavily, and is slowly but surely degrading the game's central profession/combat design, I find it very difficult for ANet not to be looking across the way at other very successful online games like Destiny, Fortnite, Overwatch, even FFXIV, and not think "maybe this RPG grind is hurting us". Even Diablo IV has made a lot of concessions for allowing players to espec a single profession on the fly.

I think perhaps the biggest incentive for ANet to make a GW3 (assuming they want to preserve the IP), would be to try to break free from WoW-style design and into action-RPG style design. Some combination of fully-kitted classes, swapping classes on the fly, and/or removing time/gold costs for retraiting is what they would likely build a new game around. Where the draw is smooth action gameplay with a multitude of traiting options, but the thing keeping players invested isn't the grind for the traits but simply the possibility space of the traits (and a lot of gemstore skins). This much I feel very sure of.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[Gravitron.7982]

23 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Imagine if they could add something that was actually new, rather than something that just makes you re-earn what you already had.

The possibilities would be endless! I guess the technology just isn't there yet lol

[Zeivu.3615]

23 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Imagine if they could add something that was actually new, rather than something that just makes you re-earn what you already had.

We won't know how they will work for at least another 30mins. You are assuming they are taking kitten away from us. For all we know, the runes could act neutrally and as programmed until a relic is inserted. And cry me a river about vertical progression. You are guys are so clingy to what 'power' you have that you haven't thought, maybe we can be more? Maybe our combat system can be more. Maybe we can do more by cutting a hole that can become a tunnel. They kept their promises with level cap, with our (legendary) equipment, our mastery system but you refuse to see how limited it has made the game.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Zeivu.3615