An End and a New Beginning

[Centaur]

It will probably not come as a surprise to most of you that I have not really been enjoying GW2 as of late... to the extent that I just stopped playing and have gone back to playing the kind of games that I do enjoy... such as single player RPGs.
Based on many of the things ArenaNet said during their development stage, I came to believe that Guild Wars 2 would be something that it simply isn't. Despite many innovations (some of which are very good) and despite some fun personal stories and some great zones, once I had completed those, I realized that the game is still very much a traditional MMORPG, and it focuses on several of the things that I do not enjoy and do not want to spend my time on (such as fairly traditional endgame and gear grinding). I definitely will keep my eyes on this game, as it has a lot of potential, so if ArenaNet do decide to improve on the aspects of the game that I find the most important, then I will absolutely give it another try. But at the rate they are going now, I don't expect any of those changes to happen anytime soon.

Because of this, and because even after I stopped posting I found myself forced to regularly read posts from some people claiming that I was twisting ArenaNet's words, taking words out of context and making them into something ArenaNet had never said, and that I was digging up lone quotes where apparently there would be many other quotes stating the opposite (believe me, if there were, I would know) - in other words that this was all my own fault and that ArenaNet had basically done everything right - I also found myself less and less enjoying visiting this forum.
So over the last few weeks, I have limited my attendance here to cleaning up the spam and occasionally moving threads to the appropriate sections.
As the number of visitors on this forum has decreased anyway, and the forum doesn't really need 3 moderators as it is right now, this will be my last week on this forum, after which I lay down my function as moderator. It might mean that the occasional spam message isn't deleted as fast as it used to, but other than that, you shouldn't notice much of this.

So I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for making this forum your home, for helping us make it into the nice alternative to the official forums that it has always been, and for generally making our moderator jobs fairly relaxed and easy. I've been on this forum for more than 2.5 years now, and most of period I have enjoyed very much.

[bokiz333]

I am a very very sad panda right now. Sorry you feel that way Centaur. Even if you don't enjoy the game; sucks that you can't enjoy the community. You're a mod, put Vayne on ignore! I for one am going to miss your well thought out, rational and intelligent posts. This forum is worse off with you out of it.

Hope after a while, you find that you can enjoy this forum again and come back as a poster if not a mod. Don't make me threathen you man, you know I can outrun a Centaur.

[Centaur]

Thanks for the kind words. It's definitely not just Vayne though. In general I just find it difficult to enjoy spending time working/being on a gaming forum for a game that I don't enjoy anymore. So whether or not that will ever change is entirely up to ArenaNet now...

[Yarnia Kills]

I just want to thank you, Centaur, for your contributions to a great forum. For the most part, I try to stay out of forums because they are generally stages for angry folk who love to insult others. However, I did not feel that way about this forum. You, Centaur, were primarily responsible for the tone. It was so refreshing to see folks taking the "high road." Your writing, information, and mature attitude made the forum something special. People participated in equally noble ways.

I hope this forum can continue to keep to that "high road" even when we feel disappointed in the game.

[chiria]

Your words shall be missed by me as it was those that brought me away from eq to here. May you find whatever pastures of green you are trotting to.

[Vayne]

We may not agree on everything, Centaur, but we agreed on a lot of points. The one point I don't agree on is that Guild Wars 2 feels like or plays like any other MMO. I've played a lot of them, and it feels completely different TO ME. I understand where you're coming from, but my experiences are different from yours, and you seem quite put out that I didn't agree with what you were saying. It's not that I don't respect your opinion, because I do. I simply didn't feel the way you worded it was fair. I still don't.

That said, I mostly did try to emulate your moderation style and much of what this forum is is down to your even handed, thoughtful and intelligent posts. Nothing that happened between us will ever change that, or lessen my respect for you. I don't disrespect you, I disagree with conclusions you've drawn, as they don't equal my observations. It could be that in the end, I had different expectations all along than you did.

At any rate, I hope you find a great game that you can enjoy playing and get behind. You should have fun. After all, that's what games are about.

And you will be missed, despite the recent disagreements between us.