So how many are still playing??

[mughzee]

I've played many o' MMOs. Bombix and I discuss them at length often enough. I've been playing GW2 since open day and I just hit 80 two days ago. I have a hard time finding folks for dungeons I want to do. Have no idea how to make money and don't get how people are popping to 400 with their crafts.

I love this game. And here's why...the reasons I stated above are the same (in my experience) for every other mmo I've played. Generally though, with all MMOs you cap and then farm for gear, to raid for more gear so that after all your hard work you have exotic gear. it's no different here. You level and cap your craft to make that unique piece that's exotic you can't get any other way...you do that here. you explore, you do that here. (Except here you ogetting bountiful XP for it). What keeps me playing is simply, the game is beautiful, the game is free, the game is young and with the events coming and Fractals showing up you know it's only going to get better. They ARE going to refine things, redo difficulties of dungeons. (They know which ones are being done and ones arent' and how often).

I played Rift when it first came out, it was ok....months to a year later i got back on and it was awesome and now it's only way better. but, alas, i can't go back cause I can't DODGE and move and cast which has simply just spoiled me.

At the end of the day, everyone's getting bored, but nothing has changed with End Game. yeah, there are no raids in the official capacity...but from my understanding a lot of dungeons, that I personally want to do, I can't find groups for cause people won't do them cause their too hard for their time.(they sound like 5-man raids to me) SE, CoE and ARAH. I love the skins. It's all the same no matter what game you go to. It's the community that keeps you here in the end I think. I believe that with any game.

You wait. Rift expansion, you're going to get on, level to 60, get geared for raids. they'll have dungeons and raids available and people will only do certain ones over, and over, and over, and over waiting for their drop that they have to roll for and still may not get.....Nah, those sticks with carrots are cool. You can see the carrot, you know what you're going for...I prefer the Care package. It's cool, you know you're getting one, but you don't know what's in it, but chances are it's great and if you don't like it you can trade with everyone around you cause they got care packages too. Care Packages FTW.

[hlindegar]

This game is fantastic and thriving. The new changes and anything morphing the game to becoming a gear treadmill are in the right direction and will draw and retain more dedicated players. The only group hurt by that are those coming from GW1 and prefer that style of MMO, which of course are the very same people that use the forums for the most part. These people are a small fraction and when I actually ask friends I know or people in game what they think about the changes it's pretty universal that they are loved.

[Galis666]

Not really played for a month now. Tried the new level 80 area for 15 mins. Back playing World of Tanks.

[Vayne]

I just wishfully hope they get a good designer.Based purely on aesthetics the armor in this game is pretty rubbish, especially in comparison to GW1.I have have really low end gear but I am grateful for transmutation as it allows me to stick with early game skins, which imho are vastly more aesthetically pleasing than any dungeon or late-game gear.

I've seen similar opinions on this and other forums be voiced and I freely admit I think the armor design in GW2, for high-end...is sub par. Personally I have no motivation to attain any of it, yet in GW1 Vabbian took me a long time to get....because it looked awesome.

Some of the top end armor is good, some isn't, but it's largely a matter of taste. They went for the big, not armor looking armor for the top end this time around. It's a style choice, it's not bad armor. Anyway, the stuff you get from the temple, at least for medium armor, looks very cool.

A lot of people have a problem with armor because they play like 1 character, and so they're only interested in one type of armor. If you play a thief, let's say, or ranger, you are limited to medium armor which has the lowest range of styles of all armor. Light and heavy armor have far more style options.

If you don't like a long coat, and you have medium armor, you're pretty much screwed for high end.

- - - Updated - - -

This game is fantastic and thriving. The new changes and anything morphing the game to becoming a gear treadmill are in the right direction and will draw and retain more dedicated players. The only group hurt by that are those coming from GW1 and prefer that style of MMO, which of course are the very same people that use the forums for the most part. These people are a small fraction and when I actually ask friends I know or people in game what they think about the changes it's pretty universal that they are loved.

Actually there are two types of people complaining about the new changes. One big group is the GW 1 player group (which I'm part of and I'm not complaining...yet). The other is people who have done gear grind in other games, found it took over their lives, don't have the time now and came to GW 2 for a different experience. Some of those people are also angry that Guild Wars 2 LOOKS like it's going in that direction.

But I don't believe it is. I don't believe there will be gear grind down the road. I think the gear won't be necessary, won't get content and there'll be many ways to get it. Ways that if you just play the game, you'll get it anyway eventually, without having to repeat a specific dungeon over and over. Because if it went there, that would be my objection.

If I don't need the gear to play all the content, that's fine. If I don't have to do one specific thing and I can play my own way to eventually get gear, that's fine. If I have to do one thing to get gear that I need to do content, that is in no way fine, and I will start jumping and screaming. I just don't think that's going to happen here.

[Michael5188]

Didn't they say Legendary items will always be the best? And if they add more types Legendary will just get better stats to top it? Seems to me it isn't a gear grind, it's just giving you more stepping stones to the best gear you can already obtain. (at least when they add legendary armor.)

Just don't understand all the complaints over this... the best is still the best.

[hlindegar]

Didn't they say Legendary items will always be the best? And if they add more types Legendary will just get better stats to top it? Seems to me it isn't a gear grind, it's just giving you more stepping stones to the best gear you can already obtain. (at least when they add legendary armor.)

Just don't understand all the complaints over this... the best is still the best.

An excellent point! They could add all the new gear in the world but as long as legendary is king it will never be a treadmill.

Also I agree with you Vayne for the most part, except that I would be fine with places that are inaccessible without proper gear. What would make me quit is if the game became too easy or too cute.

[Rthen]

I've played many o' MMOs. Bombix and I discuss them at length often enough. I've been playing GW2 since open day and I just hit 80 two days ago. I have a hard time finding folks for dungeons I want to do. Have no idea how to make money and don't get how people are popping to 400 with their crafts.

.

Money? The game is engineered to force people to buy gems. Its a cash shop cenric game, and there are so many money sinks.. including tradeskills to ensure revenue. Honestly, leveling trades in WoW was cheaper and faster.

Once you have yoru trades leveled, your toons leveled, and you know what your doing the need to pump any further money into the game ends though. You just need to do all that fast since Anet will nerf progression to keep peopel spending more longer.


I can tell you that there are really only 3 ways to get crafting up fast: 1. A massive guild is supporting you. 2. Your buying gems and then using them to get gold which you use to get mats (prepare to spend about 50 bucks per skill at today's prices and gem to gold exchange rates). 3. Your playing the auction house market and are super good at it and make enough gold to buy the mats to raise your trades up.

Right now crafting top gear is more expensive and difficult then simply runnign dungeons to buy them with dungeon tokens. I figured out that a torch and 1h sword I wanted to craft could be more easily replaced with dungeon tolken exotic gear from doing AC exp runs again and again.... and again. So why bother spending another 30 or more gold on mats? Still one day the trades might be a better route. And no.. I'm not doing legendarys.. bad waste of time for what you get.

My 80 ranger is stuck at 275 for Hutsman and my 33 ele is 400 for Tailor and 376 for Artifactor, did most of it the sad slow way but I am finishing all 3 of those trades for 1 big reason: It will likely allow me to outfit the ele completely without a great guild and get my ranger the ability to obtain the best weapons without a great guild. Doing the trades now before progression is nerfed and made even more costly is key. Leveling is already nerfered a little, leveling the ele seems painfully slow compared to my ranger.


You can still get pretty far into leveling using trades but there has been a nerf to the exp gained and the rarity of many mats has been increased.

[jtook]

I'm a casual player--well, in my eyes i am. I play around 2 hours a night, after the kids have gone to bed, i've kissed the wife and washed the dishes.

I've bought gems for bank expansion and a few dyes, paid for by in-game cash i might add. My ele is 80, full exotic and maxed in Jewellry and Articifer. My cute guardian is 250 in Weaponsmith and Chef, mesmer is 200 in Armour and tailor. It is sooo easy to lvl crafting, in fact it's way too easy. There are "grinding spots" out there to get mats, and there are node runs that fill your coffers with ores and wood.

TP is ridiculously easy to make money, and a lot of fun too. (i'm sooo happy noone noticed a few weeks back Ancient Bones were going for a few copper)

In my opinion this game is a good game with a few problems, that is going to be tweaked and honed into a classic, but that is just my opinion.

[Peaveywolf]

This game is fantastic and thriving. The new changes and anything morphing the game to becoming a gear treadmill are in the right direction and will draw and retain more dedicated players. The only group hurt by that are those coming from GW1 and prefer that style of MMO, which of course are the very same people that use the forums for the most part. These people are a small fraction and when I actually ask friends I know or people in game what they think about the changes it's pretty universal that they are loved.

I agree, it will widen the player base, just as long as we still have choice and not need.

[ProphetSword]

Ah, it's so nice to visit a forum where people are calmly talking instead of being fanatical about the changes. Those official forums are practically poison. Thank goodness I found this place first.

What I don't understand about the people complaining about the gear changes is how it alters their game at all. You can still do everything that you did before without worrying about the new gear. It hasn't affected me one bit as I'm leveling characters...and why would it?

I just don't get the insanity involved at all. So much speculation about what's going on and not enough facts.

EDIT:
Someone created a poll about the new gear on the official forums. You can imagine how the voting is going there. But, I'll place a link to it here so folks here can have their say too:

http://poll.pollcode.com/ttb2am