"3 Reasons why Players and Creators QUIT GW2" by

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[@SilhouetteGaming1]

Hey Mukluk! I was excited to see your takes on this video outside of what you had already stated in a comment a few days ago. I honestly cant thank you enough for considering this worthy of sharing with your audience. I have only started creating content back in October of 2023 and got a sneak behind the monetization aspect only a few months ago. The content creators i mentioned in my video were actually the creators i watch! You are the largest NA streamer/creator in the space so its hard to mention content creators without you! I wish you nothing but continued growth and a full pantry of ramen! Thanks again and i hope you find my next ASMR-i mean video, just as interesting.

[@danielbridges5081]

gawkgawkgaming? \

[@SilhouetteGaming1]

@danielbridges5081 I got that gawk gawk 9000 bro. Don't forget to like and subscribe homie.

[@SilhouetteGaming1]

@@danielbridges5081 yes

[@janu2997]

I don't understand why having insanely hard content in the game that 99.9% of people will never do is a problem. It's no unique content so they can see it in easier modes but it gives hardcore no lifers something to strive for. Can only be good for the game. That whole part of the video was just off. Also about gear message to your WoW friends - git gud. I love that this game is more about skill and not so much about spending 3k hours getting a specific bow that has the best stats. Like I love OSRS but holy shit is it annoying getting gear there. Especially on an ironman. I mean it's part of the journey but that just doesn't work in GW2. If they suddenly made gear like that with massive differences 3/4 of the people would just up and leave.

[@SilhouetteGaming1]

@janu2997 the issue is opportunity cost for developers. Why develop shit people aren't going to play? Why waste time on it. I understand in other games it is expected to have those kinds of encountebutlike FF or WoW. In GWs case, it's a pick and choose game, we will see how the raid goes but if it's a mess like the encounters of sotO then people are going to bounce hard. Even now most people have returned to their old routines which is away from JW. Additionally this video is fairly old, so my scripting has improved significantly since I put this one out- sorry if the message was messy

[@HermesGO3]

I am currently on a break from the game (launch vet here) and the reason why I leave from time to time is because I know I'll always be welcomed back when I return. Love this game.

[@elitearmy9093]

You leave just to be welcomed back? 😂

[@MinDeRien2658]

Lauch vet here too. And also former hardcore WoW player. GW2 is a game that doesn't punish you for taking breaks. You don't feel compelled to play lest you get too far behind to participate in the content you enjoy (instanced PvE). You can take a break, and your gear is still relevant. You can jump right back into doing stuff (maybe check if your builds are still functionnal), without having to re-grind everything from scratch. So I definitely get you. It's the game that welcomes you back, doesn't punish you for leaving, so it makes it kind of the "home" game.I love it.

[@TheGreyone44]

I feel the same way. You can return where you were and not feel like you've been totally left behind.

[@JIMRbach193]

Yeah its nice to not have to cancel a sub and then find my credit card again when I come back after summer. I just start playing whenever I have time. Jump in and do a strike or fractal and go back to adult life. Winter I can take some hours and grind out a crafting, mount, legendary, or character goal.

[@AzureRoxe]

That's one very stupid attempt at making a negative look positive.

[@bridgetboyle687]

I'm a casual player. been playing for nearly 12 years. 3 years ago I started doing leggies. and... I'm not nearly as far along as many. but I play for my fun. sometimes I just walk through the areas. I'm also not the gamer most people are talking about. I still dumb about alac builds and whether or not I have a tanky DPS or a DPS with padding. There are days I just want to kill Risen. and other days when I want to learn more. anyway going back to my 200th death on the damn race to get Ravenwood completed.

[@glaziumtck8593]

Keep on enjoying the game. You're doing it right. ^^

[@JIMRbach193]

11 year casual. Have full ascended mostly crafted. No legendaries. I still play regularly 😊 I love that there are people who have far more knowledge of the game that I can enjoy content and help from.

[@bridgetboyle687]

@@JIMRbach193 isn’t it the best to have a knowledge base where when we get stuck we can go to. I have friends in game who have put up with my Leroy Jenkins tendencies, and Who laugh with me. I have guides from Mukluk and Ayin maiden to help me learn things. these guys help me finish up the tasks that maybe others are faster at by myself. 55 years old and I can do things by myself. Woo hoo.

[@ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.9777]

Whenever Im gonna take a 30min break, I will occasionally /kneel and afk infront of a grave that belongs to a character from the books. Core Tyria might be the roughest and most dated in terms of asset use, but its the richest in terms of presenting a breathing world that has already seen much.

[@xander9460]

Chat made a good comment to the SOTO story. The Wayfinder feels like a bystander. Just getting talked at and sent places. As the commander, you and the gang were working at it together. And well. You as the commander made the final calls.

[@taylorgarrett793]

i think the reason why they did that is cause the comander is getting sick and tired of always being in charge, being draged into conflicts etc iirc they didnt even want to be the comander in the first place and are only that because of threherane dying who was in charge of the pact and we were the 2ic

[@ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.9777]

A part of me honestly misses the very early hours of being "Savant" and "Agent" before becoming "The Commander"

[@AzureBeatPony]

​@@taylorgarrett793 Which I would have less of an issue with if the scenario was not "the end of the world" again. With big stakes, a veteran, world saving adventurer shouldn't be willing to rollover when some people we have no reason to trust tell us to do something.

[@taylorgarrett793]

@@AzureBeatPony to put it simply They r tired of it They r doing it cause they have to. Not cause they want to

[@Doge-zg8lc]

I just wanna be the"Boss" again

[@Realblack_m0nster]

Soto has kinda sucked. My static and guild memebers have quite or are on break. The only redeeming thing about soto is the wizards vault and the new weapons. I can do without everything else.

[@TheRodentMastermind]

I agree, I don't feel it has given me anything to work towards. And even if I didn't already have legendary armor, I'm not sure the PvE legendaries are great as they don't feel like an accomplishment more of a grind.

[@NightRavvvven]

yeah it felt short... the story just begin and then we had to wait for an update and when an update comes its very short as well... the new map is just not it for me.

[@mikael393]

Soto is so bad. New players without skyscale are 90% fighting the map

[@Sac-chan]

@@mikael393 the only reason i got soto was bc of the Skyscale and the glider's masteries, literally no other reason. And it was worth it at least, i got good amounts of gold by farming there, i unlocked my Skyscale and masteries. Everything else sucks tho, and ffs i hate Amnytas Meta event or whatever it's called, the only worse meta is the Dragon's End meta, just bc it's on a tight timer and ppl don't know that space button = Jump the wave lmao

[@RyanBedecki]

Yeah I'm totally checked out on SotO, it is uncomparable to the masterpiece that was PoF or HoT. I've stopped keeping up with the story content because I know I will run through it within 30 minutes gaining no satisfaction or intrigue whatsoever. SotO isn't it for me, but I've always had WvW to keep me busy.

[@jurare89]

that´s basically exactly the same for me. While i´ve always been a WvW-main (ever since back at launch after the first time i experienced WvW, it has been and stayed my primary game-mode), i´ve basically used PvE as a "distraction" when i get bored of WvW for a short while (be it just not being enjoyable fights/"content" in WvW in a week, outside of guild-raids and/or public squads being active, or bad matchups, whatever). I had a massive break from pre-HoT to shortly post-PoF due to RL, and came back to just enjoy the game once again. I´ve been always been enjoying the story at all points of the game, and i usually soak up new story and lore like a sponge does with water. But SotO just completely lacks in bringing up any excitement for the story (which previously, i always loved). It´s basically the same that muk said in the video, at times in the SotO-story, i didn´t even remember what i did in the previous chapter. And it´s heartbreaking, considering what Gw2 did on the story-front previously. So yeah, if i wouldn´t have WvW as my basically primary mode, and if it weren´t for my guilds in WvW (where in fact, one of them is currently on the verge of dying), i´d probably have already quit the game for at least a year by now.

[@Static-EN-]

Yeah, its not intriguing at all but hey i got my Rifle Chronomancer and the Light Female Obsidian Armor is an actual suit with pants so WE ARE BALLING

[@RyanBedecki]

@@Static-EN- facts

[@RyanBedecki]

@@jurare89 yup sounds like we play in exactly the same way lol. I just wish there was incentive for ANET to give some attention to WvW as well :/ at least even without changes I can enjoy it but man it could be so much more!

[@milandjukic4583]

you are saying that like if pof story was any fun lol.content is what matters and content in soto is trash tbh compared to pof and hot fk story

[@zenith110]

I've got about 7k hours on GW2 since launch. I loved the game but haven't touched it since May of 2023 or so (Thanks Zelda, then BG3, respectively). My disappointments with the game may mirror some of these points, but I'll try to use my own words here: --- GW2's content is like a gigantic puddle. It's wide, with many options, but not very deep. ------ Additionally, it almost exclusively revolves around combat. Now, I *like* GW2 combat, and it took me forever to get to grips with this, but it really should strive to do more. --- Content is too slow to come out and too short for the amount of time it takes for the studio to have produced it. Whether it's within their capabilities with their workflow or not, I've seen it all. I've been through all the droughts. I had enough. I'll play SotO when I'm good and ready and it is good and fully released. --- The Game forces you to make your own objectives due to a lack of options, rather than a lack of how fun it is to do something. --- It lacks RPG elements. This means narrative. This means ways to interact with the class fantasy of each profession. This means other objectives for systems that include but are not limited to combat. I understand not every game can be everything to everyone, but the lack of agency is palpable. --- GW2's ability to do side content is severely limited by the achievements tab. --- The GW2 community is in fact, quite resistant to even incremental changes in difficulty or rewardability. See the Dragon's End fiasco from 2022. And I'm speaking as someone who has done raids, but not completed a single set of Leg Armor from raids. I thought Dragon's End was super good. But I was a part of the community that was in the minority, but blown away by the devs guts to even try to release DE in the state it was in at launch. I'm happy to have completed it before the nerfs, even if I had nothing to show for it, per se. There are probably more things, but this is my short list. And I can still love the game, despite this.

[@galath9242]

There is a reason why gw2 player base are stereotyped as devoted, toxic casuals.

[@jhmi7877]

One thing I can highly agree with this as a vet for this franchise, is the lack of RPG elements (along with the very first point about big puddle, shallow waters thing). When they had it so Sylvari were solely affected during HoT, I felt like they were going the right direction. They included players into the story that made it more personal. And even in the vanilla stories, where we got to choose little story beats that we then saw play out as part of our quests. Or made choices, like the Order of Whispers, etc. that changed some aspects of the journey. They had some good ideas, but they abandoned them and I wish they made the opposite decision.

[@ginster458]

The funny thing is, while I never thought GW's storytelling was a masterpiece, I mostly played for the story, the world, the lore. I just like to be immersed in Tyria. The gameplay itself, legendary gear and meta builds or endgame didn't interest me at all. And now with SOTO, it's the other way around. I suddenly have several leggies, I do enjoy the wv and grinding dailies and weeklies, I do enjoy what the expansion has to offer game play wise, the actual content I play is way more varied now and I am having a lot of fun with it! I started raiding! But... why are we here? Why are we immediately trusting Peitha? ( I mean... I GET it but I feel like The Commander should be less of a horny bastard than I am). Oh, Zojja is back. Oh she forgot us. Why are we floating in the sky and not interacting with others? Why are there fractals? Who, what Eparch? Why exactly do we care?? Apparently these are worse than the Dragons but we are winning every battle easy why are we worried? Who are you? Where are my friends? Are Jory and Kas married yet? Why are you calling me that? It's SUCH a weird feeling I have towards the story, I don't necessarily hate it but I feel like I slept through it?? Like, when a new patch drops there is SO little actual story and often times I get the feeling I missed a ton of things I SHOULD know even though I am paying attention. And at the same time the story feels so lore-dense and we are acting so familiar with these characters??? IDK it feels like there was a living world season before SOTO that did the lead up to the story and I just missed it and now I am mostly confused. But ngl I'm still having a great time with the game atm.

[@belfastclrq]

I think a lot of veteran GW2 players grossly underestimate how bad some aspects of GW2 look when you are coming from other big MMORPGs as a new player. I know Anet has to make money, every company does, but having to deal with bagspace hell or paying 5 dollars per bag - per character is a pretty dismal experience.

[@AzureRoxe]

Don't forget that, in games like FFXIV and WoW, if you see a dude with an awesome transmog or an awesome weapon, you almost always just need to go to a dungeon or raid and get it to drop. In GW2, weapon transmog is so massive, yet most of the interesting weapons come from the lootboxes, same with glider skins, mount skins, ship skins and even a lot of armor transmogs involved cash shop armor pieces. There's so much in GW2, yet so little of it is actually earnable.

[@SuperLutinmalin]

Well, actually i take it as part of the end game too. I bought only the original game and expansions, then all other stuffs from the gemstore like living seasons and others are paid from ingame gold. Not bc im poor, wich is right, but bc I like it.

[@Skadi.-]

pack your bag guys gw2 bad

[@Jeezloxxy]

I don't know of any other MMO that has a "deposit all materials" button. Also, an 18-slot bag is very affordable. I do agree that the bag slots available to F2P players is not great. That's 1000% true. But the rest is negligible imo.

[@ghosty9966]

@@Skadi.- 5$ per bag so u better not have alot of stuff to pack

[@jasonthaler7328]

There is ONE feature i want them to do soooo badly but they will never add: LET ME SORT MY CHARACTERS IN THE SELECTION SCREEN! I want to sort them by so many things but they just switch around like crazy after just logging in for a sec. PLS ANET!

[@Jonaleth]

I also want to sort my items in myy bags, would be nice to have several ways to do that (type, time etc.)

[@kevinwestermann1001]

It's almost like the predecessor had at least several sorting filters.

[@screamingopossum7809]

@@Jonaleth Exactly. The fact that theres no way to sort items in inventories is a GD crime.

[@C4_Anon]

not money. anything that costs you time or money and doesnt make them money stays in the game no matter what. its too much a loss for them to create a double negative for themselves by fixing a problem.

[@ossianb5089]

I've been bouncing on and off GW2 since launch, and quite honestly the one thing that always makes me pause is that first look at my inventory after a long time away - just makes the game feel like a chore

[@Surokkh]

I had this exact experience when I logged in again a week ago, after almost 2 years. I looked at my lvl 80 character's inventory, and had _zero_ idea what any of it is. It's been a bit of a challenge easing myself in, but I know I have gear that's okay and I just started hitting stuff😅

[@jhmi7877]

They can really tone down on the stuff we get. I have so many bags, that open into more bags, that finally gives me gear/mats but also sometimes still gives bags D: And I also really wish there's a separate tab for "quest items".

[@axender269]

I'll admit that every time I come back to the game looking for stuff to do, I see content valued by 'gold per hour' metrics, then I get less interested.

[@CorwynGC]

Right, as if somehow it was real gold instead of just a way to play the game a little differently.

[@frechesferkel2749]

Well this would be in any game that have this kind of payment/shop. Look at EvE Online. Every Sh.. is about ISK per hour even the big battles are like how many isk are destroyed and how much real money that would be.

[@Eldar7431]

I agree, but the bigger ticket items require just so much grind that I understand that after doing activities a few times u just go for the rewards and want to save some time so u go for activities with most profits/mats while not too boring/painful. I'm not doing it that way yet cause there's a bunch of fun and usually worth doing activities, but I'll try to do more weeklies/dailies so I can get more stuff before like 2030 😅

[@CorwynGC]

@@Eldar7431 Bigger tickets items are worse than worthless, if they are not actually generating enjoyment.

[@matenagy9244]

I've had the most fun in GW2 when I stopped caring about gold. It's an easy game anyways, so better just sit back, get some tea or coffee and some snacks, and just go explore.

[@allessa670]

I love the game, I love my mesmer. I stick with one profession most of the time, don't like playing alts a lot. The thing that kills the game for me is the need to stack. Like seriously I hate it to the core. Plus well every profession can do everything there's a lack in uniqueness. So yeah. Hiatus for now.

[@tercropin]

It's not even "So Much Content" it's "So many directions that are actually GOOD!? Wtf. DO I do!?!?" There's SO MANY ways to play this game differently that are actually fun. Which is GREAT. But ANet has 0 systems that are good at filtering people into the maybe 1/5 Main Directions, and sending them on their way. The new player handbook-achievements are annoying and don't actually reward you for reading or doing them. So these detract from inducting people more past just the intro. Imo. *May be a Hot Take but: If The ANet Devs who designed these systems, played their game outside of using their dev design tools to blast through them, they'd know that and be able to DESIGN BETTER SYSTEMS.* This extends to Specialization Design / Updates / Balance as well imo. (*cough Deadeye, Bladesworn, etc.) But none of them seem to in 2024.

[@cryhavok8257]

amen ^

[@guardianlamb9962]

Wytb? Game lacks contents. That is why most leave. Only new players get overwhelm mostly.

[@jhmi7877]

I've always felt that new players should: 1) not get to use a level 80 booster until they've reached max level+finished the vanilla story naturally, and 2) that new players get their own world instance until they get into the first expansion. Maybe we can have it so these "new player maps" can have a number of veteran players that can volunteer as mentors. And we can have a chat system similar to that of FF14 where there's a channel dedicated to helping new players with questions. GW2 has systems that work quite differently from other MMOs, AND it has a ton of content. A new player being thrown right in the midst of that without guard rails has more of a likelihood to bounce around chasing shiny things without any real idea of what to actually do. If new players (read: new accounts) were given an experience that's closer to how it was for the rest of us when the game first came out (with tweaks of course, so it's not so dated), then I feel like these players would come out the other end with better understanding of how the game works. Mainly because they were given the time to take in the content that's in front of them, which Anet can then tailor even more to fulfill that purpose. Not sure what to do about events though. There's a lot of new players that can't get a handle of the game, and it's not for a lack of smarts or trying either. The game just needs to be designed to accommodate for its sheer size and the fact that it was designed to work just a tad bit different from other games of its ilk. So I definitely agree with you in what you've said.

[@dragonspit77]

There is a reason why Guild wars 2 hasn't blown up like other MMO's like WoW or FF14 or Lost Ark. The marketing for the game sucks and Anet as a company have been making bad decisions again and again.

[@llIlIlllII]

It's very frustrating, as a returning new player. It'd be so much greater to see new influxes of players in the I've zones

[@yorshka6955]

Everyone wants more cosmetics. Most of the gemshop outfits look ugly as hell and you can't mix parts. Everyone wants Skins for Jade Mech or Necro Minions. They could print money but they are not doing it.

[@1980Shadowwolf]

I remember i thought i would never make legendary or raid when i started. I am now all three raid suits and trinket most my untamed gear i like that may not be top dps is legendary all 8 sigils and 7 runes. And i still like to raid because found chill people to go with. I am autistic and learning disabled so i use to be scared now im more relaxed in raids.

[@traveling.down.the.road56]

Why can’t Anet give Raids and Strikes a level system like Fractals? Four tiers of difficulty for all of them would work for 99.999% of the players. And it would encourage players to improve their skills so they could work their way up through the difficulty levels. Maybe add the Challenge Mode on top of the fourth level to make a total of five levels. This would be great for all of the players, because having more levels of difficulty would allow Anet to justify making more higher level content that would help retain some of the try hard veteran players.

[@MuklukYoutube]

I like this idea!

[@traveling.down.the.road56]

@@MuklukKZbin I’m glad you like this idea, please spread the word and maybe we can get enough players to agree with this, that Anet will take notice. I guarantee that more players would participate in Raids, if there were this kind of difficulty levels, and that more players would do Stirkes too, even though they are already fairly popular. The great thing is that it wouldn’t take much development effort to make this happen. Anet could make existing Strikes that are easy, the second tier and increase their difficulty to make tiers three, four and CM. Bone Skinner could be tier three or four, and a CM could be added at a higher difficulty level. Same concept for the Raids. Easy existing Raids could be tier two or three, while harder ones could be tier three or four.

[@galath9242]

Because gw2’s community is inherently ultra casual. Those that raided have long left for FFXIV. Even if they introduce such concept now it probably won’t accomplish much, since it definitely will not be on WOW/FFXIV lvl. I personally wouldn’t return

[@DaosIures]

I totally agree with you on the niceness (can we say that ?) of the GW2 community. I have rarely had bad experiences aside from the odd angry player shouting in the map chat and those jerks who block chests in auric basin (remember kids, aviator box is good, Black Lion merchant is bad, so don't be naughty !). I remember players following me while we were doing a jumpin puzzle (I won't name the jumping puzzle in Ember Bay because I don't want to trigger people's PTSD), and some of us were jumping back to help players that were stuck behind. Plus, as you said, it is rare that someone doesn't get an answer to a question they ask in the map chat. And how often have we seen people sprinting towards a hero point that they have already done at the other side of the map just to help someone who's struggling with it ? Some of the "help" that we provide each other might be motivated by the fact that it gives us something in return (XP, some loot or simply some entertainment while we grow old in front of the wall in Tangled Depths) but overall, GW2's community is great !

[@danielfreitas9301]

There are so many angry nerds doing pvp… my block list increases every night of matches :/

[@DaosIures]

@@danielfreitas9301 Ah, that might factor a bit in my own experience, I never did pvp in GW2, I see enough annoying people in CSGO :D The only pvp content I do in GW2 is WvW, and this one goes quite smoothly because there is no chat with your ennemies, so the worst I ever face is a DD or a WB that kills me and teabags me, but it only happened twice to be fair

[@opusfluke2354]

I spend a lot of time doing Auric Basin as a solid gold grind for gems. Now I entertain Map Chat by critiquing the chest trolls. "See, sticking an Aviator Box in the first chest like that is just standard. Stick it in one in the middle chambers so people forget to check. Could Do Better." Or "Crafting Tables? In the Big Chests? It'll never catch on. We just loot around it and come back waiting for it to vanish. Thanks for the free Bank access, kind troll. I was running out of inventory space and wanted this Exotic for an alt." Ooh, the salt I get. Trolling trolls is fun, especially when others join in with their own scoring.

[@Seb7an]

😂😂😂😂 The pvp community in GW2 is literally the most toxic community I encountered in over 30 years of gaming. LOL is a safespace compared to this. Same goes for the raiding community and even in fractals. Keep coping dear white knights.

[@nyappynen]

I played gw2 religiously for years. But lack of content, inconsistencies and gemstore items receiving more news articles than actual game information made me not want to return.

[@WingedGlider]

The SOTO story just doesn't keep. It's got no stakes, it feels uninspired and flat. The characters and stakes we worked with before are just gone, and the new stakes are low and uncompelling. We don't feel like we or anything else is a real threat, and the characters all feel disposable. The pace of content is cripplingly slow. I don't see any real value in strike missions, either. They're necessarily derivative and just boring. The way that post-expac content is now being cut into the tiniest pieces possible was what made me quit in Icebrood Saga, and NOW? the problem is even bigger. "Content" is just more and more gold sinks. Leggy armor and weapon skins. They have some direction and the rest just forces you to farm for abstract "currency" to get everything else you need. The reason I played the game before has been cut to the smallest possible slice of what's being released, and I don't see the point anymore.

[@Wenedi]

Personally I hate how they don't seem to care about updating old content (core classes' skills vfx as an example) and instead just push for stuff that makes them the most money. Also the lack of "Ultimate" abilities per say really takes away from the hype you get when in combat compared to other MMOs

[@elocfreidon]

The era of LW3, PoF, and LW4 will always be the golden era of GW2. The only way it will be outdone is from years of setting up a content cadence where we get a new map or expansion every three months, keeping it up through those years. Still don't know how they managed to do all that with even less staff than they have now.

[@altarium4220]

Daybreak to me will always be the pinnacle of GW2 patches. We got new story, a new map (Istan), a new fractal (Twilight Oasis) AND a new raid (W5) all at once. We were so spoiled😭

[@elocfreidon]

@@altarium4220 Going right into LW4 just 3 months after an expansion release with no chill, was a show stopper! All the way into the season finale. Kourna's launch issues that cause account rewinding and Suns's Refuge false advertising was the only noticeable hiccups in the season.

[@noobs12332]

And that is the worst time for dev

[@elocfreidon]

@@noobs12332 Living World 1 was the worst time for the devs. As we approached LW4 finale, they significantly directed the devs time away from GW2 for other projects. Not even a third of Arenanet's devs were working on the game anymore. That was when NCSoft came down on them hard. It was "the worst time for dev" because they set themselves up for that fall.

[@rainingnights1409]

yeah for real, 2017 - 2019 were the good good days, and I just started playing in 2016 so I was spoonfed new content everytime, feels like I pretty much hit the perfect sweet spot for gw2

[@xiaodaoputh2548]

I have to agree that purchasing living worlds separate from expansions were a huge detractor. Bought 3 accounts for my brothers, but they end up stop playing after landing in HoT without a clue who Dragon's Watch were.

[@71775926]

To be honest, a world's first race essentially between two racers, SC and HS, is a joke. GW2 is supposed to be among the 3 biggest MMOs in the world and only two groups competed for world's first. If this doesn't speak of the insurmountable chasm between casuals and the very elite, I don't know what else will.

[@MuklukYoutube]

Original Video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXLNpYCwqrmtqK8&lc=UgwfvOcd_BdfJiOHhaB4AaABAg.A0nEd_03_tpA0nJNPbZNLM His other content: www.youtube.com/@SilhouetteGaming1

[@xander9460]

Once you understand horizontal progression. You start liking vertical progression less. With horizontal you can pick WHATEVER, and it will be useful and help you progress. The difficult part is you have to set a goal yourself. No handholding. Farm gold? Build an item? Finish a collection? Etc. But you have to choose.

[@piedpiper1172]

My Ultimate Alexander Gunblade is weaker than vendor trash from the newest patch. My Caladbolg Viper Dagger will always and forever be a max power memento of a meaningful bit of content I did. As someone who played FFXIV non-stop from 1.0 beta to the end of Shadowbringers, endless vertical just leaves everything hollow. None of the many challenges I overcame-even those which were the hardest ever at the time-have any remaining value. I adore horizontal progression where genuinely meaningful rewards can exist.

[@cathan.]

It would be fine if the game didn't have 100 different currencies and so many different things you need to do just to complete one goal. I've been playing on and off since beta and even I get tired of going over to gw2efficiency or some other website just to find a big list of things I need to do just to craft say 1 legendary. I don't even mind how long it takes, It's just exhausting figuring out which currencies you need, what map completions you should do, what exactly is timegated etc. All of that and you have to play inventory management simulator since you get showered with a ton of drops that aren't exciting at all. I love GW2 but at some point they need to figure out a better way to make goals more easy to follow.

[@LuminusZebra]

Genuinely this is my problem with the game, love gw2 but the list of things you can do is way too long without any good way in game to organize yourself either in questing or crafting

[@robertzink4943]

And at the same time it makes every activity pointless. Why should i be motivated to do anything in end game If i can just swipe my card and get the best cosmetics without moving my character? Why should i do fractals or raids? I wont get any cool weapons or armor. Thats the big problem players of other mmos have with this game.

[@TohnR]

​@@robertzink4943 Heard of legendaries? That's your thing to grind if you need a grind to enjoy a game. Most people don't and just want interesting content and gameplay that don't require an endless grind to reach them

[@noctoi]

The sole reason I stopped playing is the overwhelming emphasis on group zerg content at "end game". I get overwhelmed, nobody is willing to slow down, and even if the group "leader" DOES slow down everyone else just runs over you like a swarm of ants on a carcass. I almost always get left behind or yelled at in chat or on main, then left alone in a lethal map where I die within seconds wondering why I even bother. The maps are beautiful, the game is brilliant and unique, but I never SEE any of it. I'm too busy staring intently at the ass of the 'leader' trying not to be left for dead - "Not even understanding why I'm even there" is exactly the problem. As much as I despise WoW, even that game has a breather between zergs.

[@Nellyaa]

Finding a guild is the answer.

[@noctoi]

@@Nellyaa nope, I hate running with guilds. Never been in a guild where it wasn't either a waste of time or an excuse for bullying. Never again.

[@frankberger7035]

One of the things that, be it concious or subconcious, made soto laughable bad (while the map design of 2 maps in eod are terrible beyond pale) is the "some demons are your friends frame". Can we just have the bad guys be the bad guys again? Storytelling who doesn't want to offend anyone, who doesn't want to take a firm position on whos bad and who is good, storytelling that makes you feel like the third wheel. There is so much infantilism in story telling in stories "for modern audiences". It is really notacible that storys are written now by people who never faced a real hardship in their lifes. Not even something more or less trivial like changing your broken tire in a severe rainstorm or something. it's all cuddle feel good mundane boring bullshit. no one dares. look at helldivers 2. dare. and. win.

[@missk1697]

18:20 Thief axe is perfect example of bad weapon. -Insane dps ON GOLEM. -Feels clunky like hell to use -Forced teleport on axe 3 -The projectiles outright bug on some encounters Basically its neither fun nor balanced.

[@taylorgarrett793]

it doesnt teleport u if ya use it with pistol for some reason

[@missk1697]

@@taylorgarrett793 Typical anet's "lets make it unique for no other reason than making it unique"

[@33gles]

High-performance weapons that feel ass to use are almost WORSE than terrible weapons, since you don't have FUN. You know, the point of gaming?

[@AzureRoxe]

And the worse thing is that ANet looks at that golem DPS and makes fights focused on constantly reaching THAT level of DPS, despite the fact it's nearly impossible for 99% of people to even get close to it and even the pros that can do mistakes.

[@Bananas4n]

Im a main thief with over 2k Hours on this class. I can say for sure the axe made thief viable again. I had no chance to win any 1 v 1 in PvP or WvW. The Axe builds made a huge impact on this class and i main Thief Axe now. So i would say it is the best thing that could have happened to thiefs.

[@PannkakaMedSylt]

I feel content in GW2, atleast of late, has aimed at either beeing completly fool proof / young children can clear it. OR Super hard where 99% of the player base can't clear it. And this leaves a huge gap inbetween, for people who are looking for a challange, a fun challange one could say, to enjoy with their friends, but get bored TOO quickly with the fool proof stuff, but also aren't interested in tryhard grind training 1 sigle thing for weeks/months, and not even getting to do it with all their friends as basically some of those or them selves will never get good enough. A perfect challange should aim for something like 40% of people Actully good enough to clear it, but leaving room for perhaps carrying 1-2 people underpreforming. Thus with some time invested to learn/getting better more might clear it or getting lucky with a friendly group, eventually 80-90% of players can clear it if they really want to with time! Then you can have like a hardmode ontop of that beeing really hard if they wish, where only 90-95% or so might clear it, but thats like a bonus, and not what most are looking for, kinda says so itself by the numbers, 95% might only clear it, meaning it's aimed for 5% of the player base at best. Meanwhile the fool proof content everyone can clear too easy, basically 85-99% of the player base clear it week one, that content fast become super boring content that no one wants to engage with, and just bad design besides if it's open world story driven, thats fine that all can clear, but instanced content by it self should give players something to aim for.

[@Evenaardez]

I kind of stopped playing after seeing the constant decrease in quality and amount of content.

[@SerrisMerosi]

the LFG is trash, one of the worst systems in any current MMO

[@warlocksm1]

Can you explain what is so bad in lfg? I have seen many people say "lfg bad" bat never seen anyone explain why is bad.

[@sanguin3]

​@@warlocksm1I guess people like to have auto matchmaking similar to other popular MMOs instead of forming or joining a group by themselves.

[@xikirito_6809]

@@sanguin3While I think that wouldn't be too bad, what most people want is an actual LFG where you can see who applies to join and then decide on if you want to invite them, making it easier to create a group.

[@warlocksm1]

@@xikirito_6809 but i join with my reaper and then relog to what is needed (i have every role). If i need to 1st relog to the needed role, by the time i am past loading screen usually someone is already joined with that role. So it woild be worse it that was implemented. And i am not only one, most people can play at least 2 roles.

[@SerrisMerosi]

@@warlocksm1 in other games, you choose what you want to play and it autosorts you into the party. In gw2, you have to spam refresh in the hopes of catching a group, or make your own and sit there waiting until the party fills up. "but autogrouping removes social contact!" says someone who has never tried the gw2 LFG, which is used in the exact same way with people just joining and AT BEST saying their role. it doesn't help that the LFG tool doesn't integrate with the game at all. did you put someone on your blocklist? they can still join the group. kicked someone 5 times already? post on LFG and they can come right back. it should be absolutely embarrasing to have such a poor grouping tool in an MMO, but considering we used to have to use community run websites to get even this basic functionality I guess we can't expect more.

[@critical-thinker666]

Im just glad that ppl finally see that writing in gw 2 is dogshit. ppl blamed that on DRAGONs and how it must fit into that story. but with SOTO they had free hands to do anything and again... they delivered dogshit. 2 maps and 3rd released every 3 months is embarrassing at best, its basically back to one map per year.

[@kesamek8537]

Joko, Lazarus, Caudecus, the game had many excellent complex 'big bad' enemies who were written out of the story for no clear reason. ANet needs to hire and empower better writers. It would help such a lot not only for the sake of narrative but also generate gameplay ideas for meta events and strikes rather like raids previously did.

[@puladan9296]

I am going on my 3rd hiatus because i am unsatisfied with the last SoTo patch. Mediocre story, no cuscenes, boring story no exiting PVE content (Temple of febe tbo is boring, the most fun i had was HTCM. I dont have the same feeling with febe). No new fractal etc.... I miss and wish we get pve content at the quality of LWs3 / PoF era.

[@moody5763]

For me I have to have faith in the developers, after all it's hard to party on a ship if you know it's the Titanic. I love GW2 but Anet is... astonishing.

[@miroto9446]

Compared to previous expansions, and living worlds, SoTo feel kinda half baked/rushed (extremely buggy relics as example). Just like The extra map for EoD felt like a time filler. Once anet find the pace with next expac, it will definetly be great, because if we look on how many things and QoL patches we got betweed EoD launch and now, game pretty much doubled in stuff to do. Just hopefully next expac wont feel half-baked aswell, because at that point the interest by people will go down.

[@odin13th76]

I feel next expansion will be just as half baked this one. Still worth 25 but no more then that. I know my streak of buying ultimate edition ends when the next one comes out. Which makes me wonder how many others will stop with ultimate or how many ultimate did they even sell lol one thing for next expansion I hope they keep rifts going, just new monsters or something other wise they'll really feel like a waste of there dev time.

[@Nooctae]

This is more a video from someone burning out on content creation and the reality of the business than anything really GW2 related. He pushes frustration towards the game, but those are clearly born from his frustration on the content creation side.

[@abardnamedspoony]

Something that's been echoed a few times in the comments is that GW2 is very forgiving of you taking breaks- I've never "quit" GW2, I simply just explore other things for a while, because I know when I come back, I'll be welcomed back. By both the game and the community. I continue to watch content creators (well, mostly Mukluk lol) in the mean time and I never feel this pressing urge like I have to justify my time in the game. It's fun when I'm there, and when I want to do something else, I can. It's genuinely one of my favourite things about the game and something I mention when getting friends into it.

[@MinDeRien2658]

Yes!!! After years of hardcore WoW, where you're kind of "forced" to grind, all the time, if you want to do competitive PVE, can't take breaks, have your gear become irrelevant every single tier (with all the rng this involves)... Having GW2 is so damn nice. You don't feel pressured to play, and you can get straight back to raids if you take a break. It's the best feeling, and my favourite thing about the game.

[@mingyenwu9621]

I agree 100%, veteran players will come and go but never leave gw2.

[@kurt759]

​@@MinDeRien2658 same for pvp honestly in wow not just pve however they have completely trashed pvp from last I heard and I find gw2 not terrible with the pvp

[@InimicusSolitus]

@@MinDeRien2658 I quit years ago. At launch it was amazing. 5 years later, it was meh.

[@HummingbirdSound]

I HATE the green bars. It just signals time gating and the lack of freedom when it comes down to the things you can do on that particular map. Especially when certain parts of them map are not even available until a whole meta event is done and then you can access them for like 15 minutes because fck you… like… why…?

[@R_SENAL]

Oh now for my serious response. I quit making vids/guides because it became too much work and I never made it to 500 subs, admittedly my fault because I refuse to do social media so it got no promotion. Same thing with Twitch. I realized all of what this vid was talking about and coupled that with my aversion to ever making a social media account, and realized I have other things I want to do more with my time. BTW, I appreciate all your help whenever it was that I asked questions, and that assistance isn't wasted, it may come in handy when I start my Doctor WHO channel in earnest, whenever I get around to it. What I'm actually spending most of my time with now, aside from still playing about 30 hours a week, is writing my novel, which has a greater chance of doing something for me long term than streaming was, for me at least. Only 80 pages in so far, so we'll see. Fingers crossed. I'm having fun though, which is what making guides had stopped being: fun.

[@TheAniki94]

Good luck on your novel mate 😊 enjoy the process 😊

[@MsGamefr3ak]

I agree that the LFG UI is trash, it doesn't even show what elite specs the players are running only shows the class icon. For group leaders there should be a way to limit what classes/elite specializations can even join so if you're looking for a quickheal you'll at least get someone that could be running it instead of a HAM or spec that can't heal at all.

[@warlocksm1]

Problem with limiting what specs can join is problematic, because you can join with any character and change spec or even relog to different profession if needed. For example, when i am on my reaper and see group looking fo alac dps i can join and then relog to alac renegade. But if its implemented what you want i would need to relog and then join in which time someone other can take that place i would maybe see another group looking for quickheal and again relog to my guardian just to see someone other already joined.

[@DafuqModeOn]

About the horizonal progression. I've came back to the game this January after quitting in 2012 (xd pc exploded) and sunk 400 hours into it now. I had some degree of understanding back from 2012 that the progression is horizontal, and coming back to the game I set my expectations that learning game mechanics, currency exchange, what metas are worth doing etc as the actual progression in the game and this approach made things so enjoyable for me that I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

[@chrisindie]

Yeah I also quit GW2 (15k+hours in) when the first episode of SoTO was released after my playthrough. After the Gyala Delve fiasco, SoTO came to seal the deal for me. I am heavily driven by the story in every game I play and sadly SoTO was a major disappointment for me. Can't say I am not missing the game, but I don't want to even open the login screen since August. I am currently playing ESO again, after a long time and its kinda fun. Plus I love the Housing and Antiquities hunt it offers. Oh and the rly frequent releases and events. Game maintenance sucks tho lol. Hope Gw2 gets better. Or hire new writers.

[@wafflingmean4477]

I honestly don't think I'll ever bother playing GW2 story again if Peitha doesn't turn out to be a villain. Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable, but by that point I will simply have had enough of GW2 flavoured storytelling, and I'll wish the best to those who still enjoy it. I am utterly sick of the Commander going "I trust Peitha with my life" when me as a person simply DOES NOT trust the obviously untrustworthy person who is not trustworthy. I think it would be way more interesting if we'd confronted Peitha and been like "You're only helping us so you can rule Nayos!" And she was like "Okay fine sure, you got me. But you still need my help so if necessary we can all try to kill each other later." GW2 needs more nuance with its villains. Joko was so charismatic that his cliche evil because evil character was still awesome, but they misfired hard with Jormag and Bangar. Jormag just had all character potential deleted because Anet needed to end the Icebrood Saga, and Bangar, while he was a d**k, was ultimately just declared an ultimate evil from the get go rather than the plot indulging in the very real geopolitical conflicts and charr culture that he is responding to. He still should have been an antagonist, but more could have been done. And now we'll never see him again, and the Frost Legion has just been deleted when it could have been an interesting faction going forward. Frost started as what Flame SHOULD have been. Flame sought to bow to greater powers in hopes of reward for the Charr. Frost believed in subduing greater powers to force them to empower the Charr, until Ryland took over. Bangar should have reformed them after Ryland's death but nope, gone.

[@Faerl2]

The new Soto story annoys me with every character having the "we must complete the objective" personality. The writing also makes my commander seem like a pushover talking about feelings way too often. Little presence established in the world and the surroundings. No time to mess around. Fill up that green bar! Amnytas is way too same-y, Nyos is not a place I'd ever wanna hang out in, and archipelago was awesome minus the meta event. I'm not sure it's a good thing they have this brand new release timeline system.

[@99LitOs]

After seeing this new mini expansion cycle play out i feel i'll skip the next expansion and play it when the final release happens. The content patches are too small and forgettable. 2 hours story feels as bad as expected when Gyalla Delve gaves us a glimpse of how it was gonna work. I don't like the piece meal map release style either. The best thing they've done this year were the various QoL stuff they've developed / fixed and the new weapons and uncoupling of weapons and elite specs. Soto itself was okay considering the price point and the 30 hours or so i got out of it with the maps, story, strikes and optional (lets call them what they are) sidequests via the achievement panel. Nayos looks cool, the events are nice and when the map is complete it will probably be cool to do , same for the story beats , but getting it in these small piece meal bits doesn't engage me at all.

[@xander9460]

Non guide/lore videos that are insanely popular. Pint comes to mind. He basically makes videos about epic adventures in MMOs. Story time stuff. I dunno.

[@MuklukYoutube]

Ah I've seen many of Pints videos! Great stuff.

[@Curianer]

Hmmm... So in the last 3 weeks I brought 2 of my friends to GW2, after XX years of World of Warcraft. And after a few days they are still excited. We're finally playing together again and it's fun to show you the game... People will always be leaving and coming back, that's part of being an MMO player. But even if I take a break for a year or months, I will always come back to GW2 because it has everything you could imagine ;)

[@GW2Pseudo]

Muk, you continue to be a light in the hatoraide-echochamber that KZbin is unfortunately starting to favor. 😄 Imo. Like most, Silhouette isn't 100% wrong here. GW2 Has always been a very "create your own content / play with your friends" game and it's AMAZING for that. If ANet were smart(er) they'd support the systems that encourage these trends more. Like more Guild-Oriented tools or making the LFG not suck. But he's quite clearly just playing the clickbait game. Not that I can talk lol Still awesome job Muk, thanks for reframing this in probably the most balanced take I've seen. And asking Creators before you do React' Videos is amazing man. Cudos.

[@Koakoa45]

Even though I am in a guild, what gets me is the game is pretty much solo. You join guilds and no one talks ever, no one wants to help do things unless you do WvW. Sure you can do meta's but it really is the silent pug group. GW2 is a large solo game. I remember in WoW and FFXIV people talk, they hang out and when doing things together they get on discord and hang out, laugh and have a good time. That just does not happen in GW2. The game is amazing and if I had to chose one thing that would really get new players to walk away is the total lack of explaining what to do. The "do whatever you want." is actually confusing to many people. The inability to make gold easy also gets a lot of people. I ran my first fractal and afterwards deemed I would never do it again. They power ran it, explained nothing and it is where I learned that there is no trinity. So I was left to heal myself, run from a boss who decided I needed to go, even though I saw myself as dps he felt I was a tank. I died over 22 times in the dungeon, fell from jumping areas, cause I suck at jp's, and had a group literally laughing at me and making fun of me. That was 2 years ago, never did another one and I probably wont. No one runs dungeons and raids. Just a lot of interesting content ruined or ignored does not help.

[@Primal_Chaos]

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience, but I can possibly suggest that you might have not found the right guild. Good thing GW2 lets you join up to 5 guilds at once! I would suggest that if you do want to give it another try at some point, try finding another guild that actually talks to each other, 'cause they ARE out there! :)

[@007kingifrit]

yea it has the worst community it is utterly silent

[@JR41N3]

Sounds like you joined the wrong guild. My guild is always chatting, always running a variety of content together, there's always 10+ people in discord chatting in voice. Fractals are actually quite fun if you find a group who is willing to teach you the ways.

[@lancemckenzie1074]

When you zoom out and see the brand scar stretch across the map from the Elonian desert to Ascalon 😮

[@DemonOfMyMind]

I left the game because I was unsatisfied with lack of playstyle diversity in the game. Not just its builds, but how the classes and the fantasy they promise by having a specific name or aesthetic play. After a decade of advocating for more Minion, turret play, some of my personal favorite styles of play and how shallow those styles of play are in GW2 I had held out hope since the Totem style was strongly represented in Scourge. When they reduced Shade duration from 20 seconds to 8 that was the breaking point for me. Other builds I loved were stripped of what made them fun prior and watching my favorite build lose what made it fun was devastating. Scourge was my most used spec even in open world were the duration made it so much fun to set up against mobs and have that battlefield control. Now unless you have quickness and alacrity you can't keep up with the shade demand and can't always have it out, the thing that defines the specialization. Power, being meta, was never the primary focus of why I chose builds. Enjoyment was and this change STRIPPED the last vestige of what I loved about the spec. And It was the last elite spec I really enjoyed. Never cared for Reaper, it wasn't created for me. Harbinger was disappointing. Scrapper had previously had its identity eroded to something else, Revenant another class I really liked had always felt incomplete and way too constrained in its builds. This has been a trend as the game strips class identity to chase a perfect balance that they can never get, enjoyment of the class be damned. I've got other issues with the game as well. That was just what finally broke me... Lets go over a few even if YOU don't think my reason is valid, these other's might. Abandoned Content: Guild Wars 2 hasn't updated the old content they have to better suit the new ideals of the game. Going through level 1-80 is a very different experience than the early seasons and the later seasons are even further different. Dungeons for example are just abandoned. No updated mechanics, no updated rewards. Just a change in currency so you can ignore the worst of them. Cash Shop: I've really started to despise how predatory the cash shop is. It being "Not as bad" as other games doesn't make it good. When you buy gems you'll always have gems left over which is a predatory practice to get you to buy more gems. Its a psychological trick and it is absolutely scummy. Another thing about it is many exclusive skins which have higher pixel quality or just nicer styles are gemstore exclusives. You'll be waiting over a year for a new Strike, raid, fractal or dungeon and in those the rewards are mediocre with a thin little dagger or a back piece which is a Mausoleum that's just gaudy and in the cash shop they have dynamic transforming weapons, back pieces and armor. What rewards that could be there to get people rallying behind new content is instead limited time offer in the cash shop so you better buy it now. Don't want Fomo do you? Slow releases: I've been following the recent releases for the current content. it doesn't look any quicker than it was previously. And by now we should have an announcement for the next expansion. But I haven't heard a word of that. Even if it is faster, the previous methods or lack there of were multi year waits with near complete radio silence. Just being Deceitful: I wont forgive this one in context of the bigger picture. Anet promised Expansion like content with Icebrood Saga and didn't deliver. Nothing they gave was even close to what people expected. It was Anet's "Don't you own a phone?" moment. And one they barely learned anything from(or at least didn't learn the right lesson, although that's subjective.)... Let us not forget about the WvW promise. I never played WvW much because I hated it. However it was world alliances or something that's been promised for half a decade now? I wouldn't be surprised if over half or all of the staff who were originally working on it aren't there anymore. Inability to correct mistakes: If Anet makes an unpopular decision it has stuck in the game for YEARS! Even with a lot of vocalization from the community of how much they hate it it stays for months to years. And if they do try to correct their mistake they almost never revert it to its previous form they just keep building on top of garbage until its tolerable but still not liked... This right here is why i have no faith that my issues with the game will be corrected. Arena net has made it abundantly clear that this game isn't for me anymore. And that's fine... Y'all enjoy it, I can't anymore.

[@Azsharah]

Honestly, for me, SoTo killed it! I was so excited about the trailer and the fact that they got Zoja and a freaking mursaat and a seer back, and then I played it. Uhhh…so bad. Looking back I would not pay 5 bucks for soto. I stoped playing after I played the story and then went back to wow!

[@Madd_Jack]

He's absolutely right that there just isn't much here for creators. Only seems like guides/builds are some of the biggest content to farm for gw2 creators. You can only do so many of these... IMO Anet needs to add player-generated content. This sort of thing is what kept Skyrim alive through 10 launches on various Samsung smart kitchen appliances. Home decoration that doesn't cost an arm and a leg like a guild hall. A Roller Beetle/griffon track builder and track browser outside of just inviting people to your guild. A free camera and effects like green screen built into a use-anywhere jade drone camera. Maybe some way to interact with your streamers game like spawning a mini-boss into a fractal or other instanced pve with the viewers name on it, or even spawn in one of their characters, IDK. Skyrim mods are proof that players would love to make content for their favorite game. IMO this would give the game a fresh breath of life as well as endless content for creators who want to review their viewers creations. I also agree that this new form of expansion release is DUMB. Every time I talk about it, I'm hit like a truck with cult-like retribution of the overall community, anywhere I go... "But it's cheap" . "But we get steady content"... The content has been super short, and super small. 1/3 of a map per quarter? maybe an hour worth of story? half that if you remove the "Complete events to progress story" green bar... This community doesn't take criticism of the game we all love, well. Well Anet already have your money, their financial incentive to make something good is now gone. A whole lot of content got pumped into the gem store though, like that greatsword that looks cooler than some legendries... IMO they need to address the reasons that old expansions were so slow to release, and maybe find a way to make things more modular for the design team to build quickly with. They already re-use a lot of the character bone rigs and animations. At this point though, I think most of their dev team is working on the 'untitled Unreal Engine project' that they're still hiring people for. So I doubt we'll see any changes to their new process anytime soon. PS. @ NOXXIE! Can we get a compilation of "WEIRD THINKING SOUNDS" 46:18

[@wolfer5486]

"Guild Wars 2 is a budget friendly mmo" *shows google search that lists every large MMO with that search term as proof*

[@AndrewVisse]

One of the things that bothers me a lot in GW2, and I like the game, is the amount of stuff that fills up your inventory real fast, and makes you have to constantly manage inventory or just buy bank/materials space. Sometimes I want to play but just can't be bothered to spend 15 minutes figuring out what is trash and what isn't.

[@tombocai]

I agree with the CM comments you made. I'm far from an expert fighter capable of doing CM modes and I think it's ok to have things that are not for everyone. it's a chalenge for a reason, and it doesn't give you anything that gives you an advantage over other players on the rest of the game. it really is just a game mode for try hards to have fun and I think that is good. I play gw for almost 8 years, and I keep hearing some people complain everything is very easy (even things that are way too hard for me and a lot of the player base). you can't please everyone with just one level of dificulty, we don't all have the same definition of fun, so please, do give them things that motivate them to try harder, they deserve to have fun. I'm ok with never doing those things. Just a quick note about the story in Soto, I agree it's not up to par with season 4 (neither is the playability). But I do like the base idea for the story, I just don't think it's well executed. I do like the fish out of water story, I like that we are stripped of our army, I like that we don't have our friends to solve everything for us (coff Taimy), I like we're in a world we know nothing about and where we're no longer the top dog that knows and solves everything. Those ideas I think are great, they needed to shake things up and take away everything that was familiar after 10 years of dragons, so we can build anew. I don't think they executed that well though...

[@hayimemaishtee]

i played this game since stress test, i quit gw2 because i didnt see the last expansion interesting

[@evenhasawatermark]

I walked away because I really only play MMORPGs for raid type content. Once I had raided enough to get all 3 sets of armor, and the ring, and then **still** had >100 LI that I can't even use, the rewards were gone. There is nothing left for me in raids, which means there is nothing left for me in GW2. Great game, tons of fun, and I met a lot of good people. But after 4000hrs, I have seen everything this game has to offer me. It was worth every penny, and I don't regret buying/playing it. I might come back someday, just to see how the story ends. But the days of me playing 8+hrs a day are over.

[@slnnful8735]

In a game where people can simply hijack ur party .. yeah no thanks

[@silvercat18]

I left when i had to say goodbye to Aurene. That was the end of the story for me.

[@CeresOutpost]

I bought GW2 on day one, as a long-time GW player. I played it on and off for many years now, but after HoT, I just sort of got bored with it. For me, the game always feels more or less the same no matter what content I'm doing. That, and I come back from breaks and have to navigate the absolutely insane amount of loot trash in my inventory, not being able to remember what it was for. At this point, I'm out until (if) there's a GW3. There are so many new games out and so many coming that I don't imagine having time for the old games I've dabbled in for years, especially since the thrill is largely gone.

[@ironcomic]

Ive been having more fun in guildwars 1 lol, wish they just wouldve made that game better

[@AliciaOnlineGameplay]

My gripes with gw2 is in no particular order: 1. The story sucks ass, like he said it's a big bad and the bad is just evil and we are good guys so we win. Taimi, braham, kasmeer all of them have been stuck with us for YEARS, only one character they killed, and introduced no memorable new ones. There are no plots, no mystery, nothing, but most importantly theres 0 world building in the game, you will learn nothing about the world of tyria unless you google gw1 lore and read the wiki. Also why is "the commander" written so bitchy and narcissistic? I dont want my character to act that way lol. And i dont wanna be a commander, a hero sure, but why am i a commander of all things. 2. Doing events and metas in gw2 gives you 0 rewards... unless you take these mats and go to a special npc that requires karma too, buy this item and then consume that item, and then go to another npc and buy that item that then give you crafting mats, that you now can sell on the TP to get gold. Why cant we get something fun for doing a meta, or a raid, fractal, pvp or what ever? Why are 99% of unique skins exept legendary only aviable through the gemstore? It feels like you do all this work and all you get is unidentified green gear and bags that have bags in them with more bags that gives you unidentified green gear and a broken spoon that sells for 2 copper to a vendor. - inventory restrictions suck, period. - every class can do everything and no one has any class identity left because everyone can have every weapon and everyone can heal or dps/cdps. Seriously a guardian with double pistol? Are we holy cowboys now? - PvP has 0 rewards compared to everything else - anet sucks at balance - anet sucks at advertising their game - SotO is just bad compared to HoT and PoF, so is cantha. - stop making outfits and chairs please. Istg they must have like 20 people pumping out chairs for the gemstore lol - masteries stopped feeling like good new game features after PoF now they only make you unable to open chests in metas until you get the mastery. They should discontinue masteries until they can come up with something on par with gliding, mounts, uppdrafts etc. - they force players to play game modes they dont want to play. Gift of battle for every legy, yet you dont have to do PvP only WvW. How about, you can get gift of battle from any game mode so youre not forced to spend 4 hours in WvW while trying not to exit your life just for a legy. - griffon and skyscale should be one mount that can fly up and dive - achievements give no lucrative rewards - dungeons are obsolete???? - they dont update or add more customization options (makeover kit) - the only thing the game consists of is grinding. Endless amount of grinding. And the thing you are grinding is gold, but you have to do conveluted stupid conversions to get it. - Unnecessarily conveluted crafting - time gating - too many currencies Like just give us 2g for a meta instead of 9492028r64 bags with bags and random ass currencies and trash items that we have to spend more labor on to convert, thanks and delete WvW and chairs 💀

[@AliciaOnlineGameplay]

The only thing that kept me playing was screenshot community but it died. Now I craft a legy, make my character look the way I want and then what?

[@TonightWillBeEarly]

This so much. I enjoyed FFXIV a lot more.

[@Repli_force]

I have loved story up until EoD. SOTO feels like empty shell of ideas, without much soul.

[@Tybal65]

It's true that SotO offers very little compared to a non mini expansion. I have grinded all 3 obdian armor so it's kept me busy. Every update there's something that's geared towards me. But for people who already have full legendary armor from raids and don't care for skins, there isn't much they can do with this expansion. It almost offers nothing else maybe beside "some" story and new weapons-which aren't really interesting. It felt like they were added into the epxac so it feels like one, but these weapons are uninteresting which don't hold up to the standard to that of say, PoF. Relics are just some reinvention. Could be cool but so far it's flat and boring. The metas's replayability heavily weighs towards "needing it for legendary" more than "this is fun I'm gonna keep doing it", which is something I look for since Dragon Stand. As much of an open world expansion, while the metas are impressive to look at, it's very boring game play wise. They all have the potential to be mechanically interesting and fun, but Anet didn't go the extra mile to push the open world content up another notch. That is the most disappointing part. I think the thing I get most value out of, might just be the combat launch and updrate mastery. One update left and I don't think that will wow me. It's 7/10. It's $25 I am willing to pay for more things to do. But I am convinced they are incapable of making good quality content anymore.

[@ittadakimaho]

soto.. to me sadly feels like a bit weak and like anet is back down on their knees unable to pay bills and barely keeping lights on. I get bad flashbacks to dragon response missions.. and they just should not do filler content. If there is no story to tell, dont try to tell one or waste my time with nonsense. The release cycle is also horrible for any immersion. The dripfeed .. just feels bad an sour and this just should not be handled this wasy

[@michu1247]

I am not playing new CM not because I don't want to but because I don't have time for organized static group. I want to enter the game make a group and start fighting the boss when I have time. Not planning one run for a month for 10 people to have free time together. If it was the same level of difficulty but single player content I would play it. Making group for it is a pain.

[@TheRodentMastermind]

I'm pretty sure Cerus difficulty was a mistake, when it came out it had a bug. By the time the bug was fixed 2 things had happened, 2 teams had already beaten it's intended HP and there was huge community and even extra-community hype over the race to beat it. If they had just went with the bug fix it would have negated this race instantaneously, so they upped the HP to be higher than the DPS either team had put out to that point, allowing to the race to conclude. I'm pretty sure what we will see on the 19th is the boss as it was originally planned.

[@Jaeger460]

Been playing gw2 on and off for 8 years, about 7k hours total. I go through phases of playing a lot of gw2. Right now im startign to play more again, but less than i did maybe a year or two ago when it was all I was playing. I feel like thats healthier. The MMO mindset of "you must be playing only that mmo for 12 hours a day every day" is asinine. Thats a quick way to kill the enjoyment from anything. Hopping in for a few weeks to months every so often is how ive always played the game, and I enjoy it much more for it

[@ChaosRevealsOrder]

I played GW2 for ove 4000 hours back in 2020, but since then I just couldn't get back into it. I feel like whenever I boot up GW2 I don't know what to do, so I play a bit of PvP, get borred and unistall. They need to add the adventure sugestions system from WoW.

[@wiedzmin2908]

Im guild wars 2 there is an issue with content itself. Lets look at osrs - super grindy mmo and yet considered one of the best mmos as of now. There there is interesting content variety - gold making, pvping, wilderness - hunting players in open world - bossing (INCLUDING SOLO BOSSING!), skilling guides, lore and quests, memes and i think most importantly - challenge runs. Settled is amazing at that but many more have interesting videos about it. Guild wars 2 in its core is very different but at the same time yet it lacks at least half of that. You cant grind for some unique cool, best in slot weapon, you cant go solo boss, quests is just 1 quest, continous questline that you complete and takes you to next step of the same story. Humour is shoveled forecfully in those quests. Now there is absolutely no variety in challenge runs, no seasonal big, main game events (leagues, deadman). Everything in the game is rather cheap and easilly obtainable if you look how to obtain that stuff and then you want to get legendary and it costs hundrets and thousands of gold. And other than qol new gear is not an upgrade and does not unlock new, harder content. Endgame is endless cycle of raids->fracs->optional wvw/pvp->meta events that are just pretty much follow group on the filled map. But in the end i get some inventory clutter and a bit of gold (maybe 1/600 of a legendary). Like i come back to gw2 and then what? back to fractal grind? back to raids grind? Back to wvw that i join and my progress is reset each friday? i dont know. Getting back into guild wars 2 is not exciting. Getting back to osrs is exciting that you can get new goal - learn new boss and obtain it's gear upgrade, get some fat $ in wilderness where you can die in any moment from other palyers, join 3 month leaggue. And content variety is reflected in youtube videos for osrs. In gw2 you have build and guides xd I stand by that gw2 is amazing, it is great but when you get up there there is very little to go or aim for or challenge yourself (solo content)

[@aoiyuki9040]

For me, PoF story,events,maps,mounts etc gonna always be best content in gw2.

[@Nokomak]

They walk away because this expansion sucks ass through a broken bottle. Completely broke the game. Creators give up because there's no content to be made on this game. I know you like to say it's false because of your numbers. But your numbers are what they are because you're two turns from a full monopoly. Just go look. All videos at this point are build videos that spend more time whacking on the test robot. Non-content. Every fucking little thing you might wanna unlock in this game is a month's long grind. Pair that with WoW completely destroying them in quality, fun and world building. This is why GW2 ran off a cliff.

[@NewNecro]

Gotta say, it sometimes feels like Gw2 community is on life support of so few unsung heroes and content creators who are endlessly passionate about the game or work pretty much out of goodness of their hearts for several years. Then again reality may often be even more harsh in other MMOs. I still miss Dulfy's cosmetic showcases but being content creator is almost always a thankless effort. Thank you for keeping up with the game up until now and for however long you're able to support us and all the other future gamers out there.

[@TheTolnoc]

When you tell me "Snowcrows was the first group of people who actually managed to clear this content", I seriously question what the design team was thinking.

[@TheRodentMastermind]

I'm pretty sure Cerus difficulty was a mistake, when it came out it had a bug. By the time the bug was fixed 2 things had happened, 2 teams had already beaten it's intended HP and there was huge community and even extra-community hype over the race to beat it. If they had just went with the bug fix it would have negated this race instantaneously, so they upped the HP to be higher than the DPS either team had put out to that point, allowing to the race to conclude. I'm pretty sure what we will see on the 19th is the boss as it was originally planned.

[@monalisa-bs4zs]

The longer it takes players to complete the more value they think they are getting from the game.

[@rhodan74]

I think Peitha is a very interesting NPC but the way they integrated the "wayfinder/commander/whatever" into the story is a little lackluster. I'm totally down for some geo-political intrigue, backstabbing and powerplays. Which means they shouldn't have frontloaded the story so much with the wizards' court and get to Peitha much sooner. They could have flipped the story: Get contacted by Peitha first, then witness the whole wizard debacle which makes her seem more sus again, then let peitha team up with the wizards, demons attack and nearly wipe out the wizards, then stream onto tyria. That way you get a back and forth and even explore the "I should not have intervened, now I'm the bad guy" vibe that is missing from the story.

[@SimplyCozy777]

they destroyed the lore after 10 years and not have expansion for primodus, jormage and kralk.. And destroyed Ascolon and rytlock is not khan ur.. I love world building and story writing, they dropped the Gods and the dragons lore and interacting which could of been amazing! and it was a real insult to Guild Wars fans for over a decade. i left after EOD. Goodbye aurene, i beat Guild wars 2. now its a cheap rip off of other games. I miss you old Gw2

[@michu1247]

How is vertical progression good? Your character is not getting stronger if enemies are also stronger. If enemy has 100 hp and you have 10 damage you will kill it after 10 attacks If enemy has 1000 hp and you have 100 damage you will kill it after 10 attacks nothing is changing. Bigger numbers means nothing. It is just making old content too easy. So I think people enjoy feeling of getting stronger even if its just getting their strength back. Its not for me I think its just locking me from content I want to do for no reason. What feels bad is mastery system recently we were getting skills like crafting legendary armor (when I already have one from different source) that's not fun.

[@reddfranzen9072]

It is sad because im starting to get to the point to where i believe arena net peaked, and are now losing focus on what they were trying to accomplish. Even with all the changes to pvp and wvw it is still hard to have fun in it, unless you are playing a one shot build/class that can also survive forever. They still have bugs in the game that have been a problem since releases. They keep changing classes to the point where what made them fun before arnt fun anymore, and we are forced to play the new way that, yes can be fun, but wasnt what attracted you to the class in the first place. The story content has fallen hard, specifically as everyone has already stated, this recent update (which mind you they were super excited... for this..). LFG is indeed bad but i dont mind it, what i actually mind is the community that use it, as one of your chat members mentioned, CM fractals, must have title and infusions, or something like that. Sure there are discords that train but the average average player isnt going to do that, especially if the people who can do the training arnt available when you can actually play. GW2 has a ton of issues, and end of dragons was amazing, which is probably why whatever is happening now feels bad, its a shadow of the greatness they had and instead of building off of it, it feels like they are resetting everything from scratch and making mistakes that NEW developers make. I can understand developing a game is hard and its a lot of work, but they also never say if they are actively working on anything specific until patch time (other than weapon and profession changes which imo, make things worse or unfun or broken like thief axe). Are they even looking at LFG? do they know that these bugs from 8 years back are still there? do they care to fix them? a lot of that isnt well communicated. a bit of a rant, but there you are from a frustrated lover of gw2

[@ouuchyie]

the thing is though. Guide videos are so much more search-able. There's so many times I have a random question while i play the game and ill go look it up on youtube, since i would rather have it shown to me/explained in that format rather than long text...idk that if i search ''gw2 meme video'' ill get the same successful results, especially since a meme video can be titled anything. tbh it never even occurred to me to do that. i think that happens naturally as you watch more content about x topic u get more and more niche content. for example, ive began to get more recommendations of your videos on my home page that i just click on cus im familiar with your channel from your guides and im curious to see what you would have to say.

[@miroslavchladny983]

Only thing i hate on this game is micro disconnections during instances... repeating 30 minutes fight 8 times at last bos in personal campaign is realy bad in 2020+. And yes, itemization is only about cosmetics... not stats (12 year same power)

[@poppularcomputer]

Hi man maybe guide are the most watched video cause people replay them many time. if you search a guide video, it's because you don't understand or know a thing and you will probably not got it at the first time so you replay (sorry for this English xD)

[@MiTxGam3r]

Id love to play but single dad life is higher priority. Problem with raids is the amount of networking required to get one going. Or people wont take on new players. Also theres no replay ability for raids once you complete them for the week.

[@bamboozled_again]

i will definitely turn away again from Gw2 after i finished the story, i own the game almost since launch but stoped after the base game story, i cant with the dumbshit the devs think s fun or make you do in order to have progress in the game ....

[@dopractitioner]

i hate game is becoming grindy, look at all stories, quests, achivements, soto legendaries. its dumbass design which forces you do x time x event, get x much thing. this does not make the game vertical progression or hard, just makes dull and repetitive.

[@humanbugman]

I absolutely love this game but I find returning to EoD or SotO land a chore unless I am doing one of the strikes or convergences. The maps are so dull to me and the metas are just not very fun imo.

[@kuronoxz]

Honestly i walked away cause glamour options are awfully, I hate that armors with fire and ice all over, and weird stuff,

[@theamazinghaole2384]

I have been playing Guild Wars 2 for about 4 years now. The non-pay to win style and friendly community is what got me to stay. The only hump I had to get over was what to do after 80. I was privileged to having a friend who was a vet. He got me into the level 80 content and I was hooked. Downloading Arcdps and Tacco also got me hooked because I knew how I was performing which boosted confidence in LFG.

[@ChasseurTueur]

"The non-pay to win style" so you often lose to f2p? "friendly community" increasing prices on market :) Slava

[@Tessa_Ru]

I love discussion vids like this as a newer player, because it gives some insight on how a vet player views the game in comparison (I end up in the same boat with ff14, my views are a lot different from the people who joined in Shadowbringers or later, when looking at it as someone there at start of Heavensward). Idk GW2 became my main MMO last year. I've been progressing chronologically through the expansions and living worlds... like VERY slowly because I will sometimes just do daily events in an area I take a liking to for a month or two LMAO. Slow and steady is my way, I guess. I've been told it's a good way to approach this game, at least.

[@R_SENAL]

"Nothing happened?" Muk! Don't you remember that awesome battle we had with the Kryptis General at our side, triumphing over the hordes of enemy forces! A legion of demons to our right and our left clashing with a legion in front of us of vastly superior numbers and coming out on top to save the day!!!?? That was just Nothing to you!!?!? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@MuklukYoutube]

Oh yeah our forces were amazing that day. Both of us.

[@Trygvar13]

I started playing again in December and the stopped in January. I'm just not sure why. Something is missing but I can't quite put my finger on what. It's just that I suddenly find myself not sure what to do.

[@SupraSav]

Game is too dumbed down, and fashion wars has gone crazy. Another thing, it's the fact that every newb that doesn't even have 75 mastery points has a skyscale - AND THAT COMPLETELY RUINS GW2 - for them! When I started playing GW2, exploration was a HUGE part of the game. Walking up certain routes and taking in the landscape, the chatter, the NPCs moving about. Now, everything is a birds eye view.... just a back drop. The irony is, the new players love it but it's actually diminishing their own experience of an honestly fantastic game.

[@TheAniki94]

​@@SupraSavI just came back a week ago after 7 years without playing 😂 (mid PoF), I don't have the skyscale and to see how much grind it needs to be unlocked makes me feel overwhelmed af 😂 still grinding those masteries points by feet bro, and I love it 😎👍

[@sdbana]

yeah meanwhile the rp community asked for a simple /roll or /dice command since beta. And they got..... a lfg panel. Yeeeeeeeeeeeah.....

[@HarmonyOfTheVoice]

Settled swampletics was one of the most popular video series in the mmorpg sphere because it brought storytelling, twists and basically told the heroes journy through his gameplay, i wish more people would do stuff like that.

[@GeorgeUnruh-f5l]

Reason number 1: Modremoth is an asshole and people can't stand him so players leave and hop onto FFXIV to deal with Fandaniel instead

[@majinpvegeta]

That "Gw2 Sucks" video is quite hilarious, but not to be taken seriously.. it's a good watch though.

[@bigbigu8671]

The green bars...i just finished the last chapter of soto yesterday and omg it's only green bars after green bars after green bars 😭

[@steffibiegger5373]

I've played on and of since launch. I'm a mostly solo player, say no raids. I'm never out of things to do. I'm working on my 3 legendary right now and I loved every part of it, really. I don't see grind. I play the game. If I don't want to do something anymore, I just.... stop and do something else from the long list of things. I don't need things to be efficient or lucrative. I need them to be enjoyable to me. And most of them are. I just like running, riding and flying around the beautiful world, being my toon, play my built, do things. GW2 is THE perfect game for me and that's why it's the only on I come back to over and over again.

[@cameirusisu1024]

this. whatever I do, it all contributes to what I am working on. Sure I may have to go do specific things at some point, but whatever I play I get unidentified loot, which salvages into ectos and luck and crafting mats....which helps me on my crafting journey, or I can sell. So if I want to go do metas, i can, or WvW, or whatever. I can literally do what I want to do and it never feels wasted time.

[@freereinvoltaic]

I’m not digging SotO. The release schedule sucks. I would rather binge play.

[@JacoKruger.]

TIMEgates, that is what is killing the game for me, sure, some can be avoided by throwing gold at it, but most you HAVE to do, and we are not talking about a 3-8 hour thing here, MONTHS to get 1 item, sad thing is, you dont get rewarded for playing the game more hours, you get punished for it, they also spend more time in creating "new looking loot boxes and bags" than they are making content lol