Guild Wars 2's Biggest Problems (As I See Them)

Moving into the 2020's I thought it'd be interesting to talk about what are probably the biggest things holding the MMO back.
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[@robertburns4429]

The rewards are tied to, all too often, mindless chores rather than engaging content and the rewards themselves are poor.

[@MyN0N4M3]

Yes and you really have to ask why this is the case. I understand it for a subscription game that wants to desperately keep you playing and annoys you constantly with new roadblocks and timegated stuff. But why do we need that in a non subscription game? GW2 has the fantastic opportunity to say, "You know, we have a cool reward but since you already bought the game package back then and we have no sub fee, here is our 15 minute story, that might be short but super fun and engagin. So enjoy that and have fun with that reward" But no, GW2 wants you repeatedly to click on 100 different things all across the world, which ultimately is just you being on a third party website, working down a list of locations and then occasionally you figure out you have to friggin wait since the stuff is time gated on top. And it makes you angry because there's no reason behind that.

[@KromeDragon]

Creating new content after all these years is hard and guild wars 2 has a lot of content that need refreshing. Having builds from 2013 still working in the 2020 is a huge No no is online games. They need to go the way of games like Fortnite, League of Legends, Dota 2 etc. where every year in the game is a new season. They don't just add new skins, equipment, maps and heroes/classes/specializations, they turn the whole game upside down. Instead of adding optional content hidden behind weird quest players often ignore, force players to reassign their skill points, learn new combos, counters and item builds.

[@SifSehwan]

The rewards aren't poor, the problem is that everything holds almost no value, both emotional and functional. Since launch rewards have been more and more generous to the point where everything just feels pointless(Remember when exotics were an exciting drop?). Many people pointed this on launch, but it was the selling point of the game to be more casual and rewarding, ArenaNet did great but this concept proved very hard to sustain. The action house also is a haven for flippers and bots, which escalates inflation, which in turn forces the devs to give you more rewards, the cycle continues and motivation to play dies out. For me personally this and the uninspired story (at least until season 4?) of the Living Story updates pushed me away from the game. I didn't care about the rewards, I didn't care about the (new) characters and I felt like I was a faceless mob, which is weird to say given all the story updates. Thinking back, I would have rather had big polished expansions rather than small pieces here and there, by the point the next episode is out I had already forgotten what is going on or stopped caring.

[@robertburns4429]

@@SifSehwan I think that if the rewards have no value, as you put it, then they are, by definition, poor.

[@danicigo8310]

Agreed. After the full map complete and skyscale, I lost interest. My experience was that no one wanted to do dungeons in GW2. Not unless it was daily. Then I was flat out depressed that all my guildmates could not go and do WvW with me. Those people that I would work to bring into a guild could not join me in the biggest PvP because we are on different servers and my server was dead. WP has it right, it's very hard to make the kind of friendships that most MMO's have. After content is done by most, the maps in that area are an afterthought.

[@bitesizedhero8030]

Gemstore items are shiny. Achievement rewards are often not. It's that simple. We are all (honorary) skritt.

[@anders8461]

Thats why most times i only use my racial armor skins and its combinations. The shiny ones from gemstore is just weird for me

[@bitesizedhero8030]

@@anders8461 I like to mix and match the most. But yeah i agree, most of the the cultural sets are really good looking.

[@anders8461]

@@bitesizedhero8030 much better than gemstore stuff tbh

[@XDrakePhoenixX]

Stuff! Stuff! Stuff!

[@delos2279]

That's like the only point I disagree with myself. Having recently come back to GW2 from two other actual pay to win games, this game's cash shop is refreshingly trivial

[@patstar5]

I’m tired of each of the new maps having a unique currency

[@kennakenna5002]

Thank you

[@SvartWolf]

I actually enjoy this and teh keys (now that we have a proper wallet though)

[@HappyAchterhooker]

This! And all the "doubleclick when you collected 10 of this material to get 1x X material."

[@luiZZvv]

I fucking hate that there are 5.000.000 different currencies in this game.. just sucks

[@4450krank]

yeah dude i just got the skyscale, it took about a month grinding those unique currency i needed...

[@gethygethy]

I came back after 5 years break from the game. Honestly I like that my gear is not outdated. The prospect of re-gearing 4 of my 80s is daunting. But cosmetics are indeed bad. I miss some more basic costumes and aesthetics the game used to have. But now it's so extra. What I hated is what they did to Lions Arch. Made a pretty port city into... whatever that is.

[@Calmere]

Finally! I completely agree on Lions Arch ... what a stupid idea ... looks like a modern american east coast city including a concrete plaza and some stupid tents, instead of being really unique

[@skyesfury8511]

Coming back after five years here, too. As for the gear, well.... I took a 3+ year hiatus from EQ2 once. When I returned, it was easy to catch up to having viable gear. There were two options (at that time, don't know about now). One, quests I hadn't gotten to or finished or in the new areas, that reward gear. Two, vendors that sold basic gear for the current expansion's starter zone. I didn't feel like my gear was subpar, just that I needed to progress to catch up. Something that is naturally expected after taking a long break. Here, I don't feel any incentive to do current content. Once I get all Zerk or Assassin gear for a character, I've essentially "beat the game". There's no meaningful progression. And that's what's holding GW2 back. A large part of player retention is that carrot-on-a-stick. And GW2 is lacking the carrot.

[@TheCrystalStaff]

I have to agree with you completely, I just got back from a 5 year break as well!

[@ArseneGray]

@@skyesfury8511 I agree GW2 needs more carrots. That is truly the reason why the game dies. Lack of content. But no Gear Treadmill is not the carrot it never was meant to be. It was achievments and skins you could hunt by silently cooperating with pugs or with map chat. Arenanet fucked it up by introducing Raids and trying to cater to the elite. I left after PoF. And I am somewhat happy to see that this backfired. Because those elitist players are never happy and should never have been the focus of the arenanet. WP is telling the same story he told 6 years ago. Before even Raids. It is never enough. While he is lost in his powercreep of 120 guild lackeys zerging through newest raids in 1 week, the majority of the solo players are left behind. No one is happy. Arenanet should introduce skins and achievments and more areas to explore and expand the lore. Difficulty wise they should have focused more on uncommunicated cooperative challenges doable with pugs like world bosses and map events. But they invested heavily in raids and high level Fractals and fucked up their finances. Oh and they ignored PvP and WvW. Big mistake.

[@manictiger]

​@@ArseneGray Idk, I do hard bosses (Soo Won) with noobs and we do fine. Communication is key, though. Idk how to fix the game at the 2000+ hour mark though. I've not played that long. The game punishes people who don't speak up or have/make friends, and that's an unfortunate flaw in GW2's game design. LFO is often just empty, or worse, sometimes the map is empty. Noobs aren't told about the event timers, or how important that website is, nor are they told about LFO, or how map/squad/etc. chat works. The game has a huge wall of info to absorb and some people just aren't as mmo-experienced or even as smart as some of us, and I wonder how many leave the game because of lack of feeling included. As for content? Idk. I love story. I'm like 750 hours in, working on a legendary, and still want to run the story again with my second character. That doesn't feel like "lack of content" to me. But yeah, more content is always welcome. Having the maps change over time would be awesome! Imagine someone comes back after a few years of hiatus and it looks like a completely different meta with a completely different map... Like, wow, the NPCs are actually building and destroying things!

[@shogenx]

personally i want dungeons back aswell with new dungeon armor and tokens it shits me they just discarded them after the nightmare court update and their like heres fractals that will do

[@kevcat4581]

Indeed! I want dungeons back too!

[@StreliziaDeWitt]

Yes I loved dungeons and grinding that for the armor is as far I would grind for anything. Let alone through dungeons I met some nice folk, even tried to start a Guild focusing on dungeons but that became a flop when I got bored with the game.

[@chonejun]

We need dongeons for ascended stat armors and make it more difficult or make it require more stuff to get it

[@Cyandol]

Dungeons could be somewhat big instances with cap of 10 players,where you can hop in and hop out anytime,there could be track progression bar that get filled by completing events,there will be events, events could be are story and dynamic events (lets say story event is to guide npcs through dungeon like its now) but dynamic event like defend your base(waypoint for example) happen at the same time so you need to split from that story event and go defend or you see jumping puzzle event that if you complete people in instance get points (lets say 5 people doing escort,defend base and one trying to do jumping puzzle and after side events are done you can go to track),personal track will be personal constantly on loop (and will benefit from doing side events and rewards can be obtained immidiately) and dungeon/instance track that will show how far is story of instance (and rewards will be given after finishing dungeon,with dungeon currency and gold as reward but also chance of infusions and weapon or armor skins, and rewards will be on timer from gold to silver to bronze to FAIL so if you take your time or grind dynamic events you can actually fail entire dungeon thus get no dungeon reward)....right now Dungeons are like discount Franctals.

[@impish97]

this

[@BrendanCS]

I seldom convert gold to gems for the purchasing of gem store items, not because I am lazy or willfully ignorant of the possibility, but because there is a major imbalance between spending ten dollars and the in game time and grind required to earn and convert ten dollars worth of gems. Plus, and this matters to me in particular, if anyone else sees me using that skin, they don’t think “oh he earned that, he worked for quite a while participating in farms and doing daily fractal t4s to acquire that”, no they just see a gem store skin that 20 other people have and assume they just paid for it because it has no sense of prestige.

[@maximus2536]

How do you know what other people think? And most importantly why do you care? It's your character which you grinded for and if you are proud of it then what the others think doesn't matter. This is just my opinion, I don't let others spoil what I enjoy.

[@IcanFlame777]

I like the fact that I can hop on Guild Wars 2 anytime after taking a break and my gear isn't outdated so I can just go try the new things, also not being under geared in WvWvW.

[@kennakenna5002]

I agree.

[@rickroll9705]

Whats the point of playing an RPG if your character progress is forever stuck? Why buy EXPs if they won't add anything meaningfull for your character but useless grind spots? Get a max level gear once and congratulations you beat the game lol, the game design doesnt have to be a clear treadmill but having literally nothing is way worse.

[@Nierez]

Loved that too. My measure of expertise only determined by how familiar I was with the character and it's skills. Every time you find a creative way to use a skill. Land a combo. Fight certain classes. Stealing a tactic from a fellow class member. No grind no BS just plain old learning.

[@cursedshadow]

The bread and butter of an rpg is progression, its literaly the defining trait of RPGs since their conception, gw2 is just fucking stale, cant feel any improvement at all.

[@egorvdovin9330]

@@cursedshadow The bread and butter of any rpg is roleplay and not progression.

[@flaviomast]

This video explain the reason I stop playing gw2, and I stated playing since release. Another big problem, especially with new players, is the large amount of different currencies...laurels, karma, dungeons tokens, fractal tokens, maps exclusive tokens, etc... It's really a mess. Also the bag space soaking items that are really useless. Great vid... I love gw2,and there's definitely space to improve.

[@missk1697]

@Shimohira Reika "realistic" XDDDDD

[@CupOfWhiskey]

@Shimohira Reika the fuck?

[@jordirapper]

I feel like my biggest problem is the rewards. Everything is fodder. Everything is just used to turn into mats. For the last 1000 hours, I never got excited for what I would get. Instead you just buy cool stuff on store and only on the store and grinding takes way too long.

[@tuna1803]

Gw2 lost itself within the gem store

[@oORoOFLOo]

I dont believe gem store killed the game. Gem store seemed like a patch because they started failing financially due to complete lack of marketing (which tbh is very expensive) and then of course very bad updates, completely lackluster content, so noone would talk about the game positively. PoF was the worst thing for the game. If their content was good if they were willing to take risks to make the game feel fresh, they wouldnt need to milk gem store.

[@jordirapper]

@@oORoOFLOo I don't think the gem store killed the game. I think the gem store killed the game for me.

[@findrst3295]

well, if you grind for a legendary weapon, of course its gonna take time. grinding doesnt take long if you dont go for the very special items. you have that choice. also about the gem store, its just cosmetics. really i dont understand. if its pay to win then people will complain. if its cosmetics people will STILL complain. if you want an 100% free to play game then try rock paper scissors with a friend.

[@jordirapper]

@@findrst3295 So you not understanding must mean that everyone else is wrong? The reason I don't like it anymore is cause why grind for a legendary weapon or outfit when the cosmetics in the store are way cooler looking? And no. It is NOT just cosmetics. What about the home instance nodes? What about shared inventory slots? What about inventory bag slots? What about those passes that take you to an area with crafting stations and such? What about character slots? What about bank slots? None of those are cosmetics. My biggest problem with the game is that the events in game are not rewarding. It seems like most of the focus is on the store and while I understand that cause that brings in money, you have to also bring in customers. People have been sending comments on the raids, dungeons and fractals and fuck all is done about them. Oh and don't even get started on gem farming. It is soooooo boring. And I don't play games to get bored. If you love the game, that is great. More power to you. I used to play it all the time and now .... meh. I feel like I am just wasting my time playing it now. The store killed the game for me. For ME. And pretending the game is perfect helps no one either. Some are tired and will just move on.

[@WoodenPotatoes]

Don't forget I did a roundup video earlier this morning about tomorrows big patch! Which I'll obviously be covering tomorrow, as well as streaming and all that good stuff. Enjoy!

[@Johnny-ub6yu]

I want to add to number one cause I agree it is my biggest problem with the game and one of the reasons I stopped playing 2 years ago. My problem wasn’t that endgame was so focused on cosmetics but the fact that they thought it was smart to put 98% of the cosmetics into the gemstore. The amount of incentive to play their game in all aspects was thrown away because all you had to do to get their “endgame” was open your wallet and turn off the game.

[@Borando96]

I miss the first Idea they had what events should be: A change of missions which change the whole map either good through continuousness succeeding or bad through continuousness failing. If I remember correctly, some event should have up to 20 event chains 10 "up" 10 "down". For example let's say there is a normal village like you already know in gw2 and it get attacked. if you complete the event, the villagers can expand their village and merchants have better goods/unique items. If you manage to clear all the upcoming harder and harder events, the village will turn into a mini city with auction house, bank, Waypoint and so on and will stay that way for maybe 1/2 an hour until it resets. Ofc that can go the other way around. if you fail more and more the village will not only disappear, there will be a small enemy camp. In Plains of Ashford you can even find a small/pre-version of this system. There is a event chain to clear a graveyard of ghosts. First you have to def a NPC, who then makes a small camp. then you have to clear the graveyard. Upon completing the event the whole graveyard stay clear for awhile.

[@Nierez]

I still remember the centaurs crashing down Queensdale water ducts from the trailer =) The chain of event as you say is one on things I was looking forward to. They happen but are very short I think Just like in Orr where you can unlock waypoints via the temple events. I think the pacing it's whats wrong with dynamic events. Variety too the events are missing a wild card to spice them up, keep the tension. Otherwise you become the time traveler who has seen it all a million times before. I loved this during the first days of Tequalt 2.0 you were never sure if you were going to win or not, a lot of players were clueless but every victory I treasured. It's timed too so you only get a few tries a day, can't rerun like a dungeon.

[@Borando96]

@@Nierez Literally had that in mind while writing the text, although the event chain I wrote about is a much better PLAYABLE representation IMO. Might have to search for the vid where they showed and talked about the centaur attack. I also can't really follow, what Tequatl has to do with event chains.

[@_caith]

Basically, we'd either have all dead "chains" or, all completed (and overkilled/easy) "chains" and nothing inbetween, depending on server activity. *cough* Orr *cough*

[@viviennevanjayjay1960]

they sort of did that in the HoT maps.

[@aspektx]

I think most mmo's in general are deeply in need of serious innovations in mechanics. I think GW2 did this when it launched. I hope they can do it again.

[@elenil.5907]

Finally someone said it. I don't think that the game itself is problematic. The whole genre of MMORPGs is problematic nowadays because it is stuck. The mechanics and philosophy of the first MMORPGs still linger after 20 years and people are tired with that. Maybe we must face the fact that, unless something truly new surfaces, MMORPGs are going to be an out-of-fashion game genre. And I think that it somehow is true, as the most famous games (or at least the ones that are being discussed and have made an impact) are now either FPS / RPGs or fortnite-like games.

[@StreliziaDeWitt]

Definitely but also the way to present story. Good story telling is very important for me and if the gameplay is good too that makes it perfect. Sadly enough the genre is just a copy paste with maybe some different graphic themes.

[@ngv2646]

@@elenil.5907 I think Dunky touched on this same idea with 2d platformers. They were THE dominant game genre up until around the turn of the century, and now theyre a niche, and when they are made, only 1-2 are gems every so often. It's a shame, because I (and maybe others) have different needs for different games. I play league of legends as an extension of my need to be competative from soccer. I play Pokemon to relax and play something that I can enjoy without much thought. And I played GW2/MMO's for the pure joy of enjoying sinking time into content. But maybe that's not there anymore for a lot of people. Name any MMO, and the content has hit peak MMO, there's not much more the do, and I think WP is right, as long as Anet builds content to the lowest common denominator, there's nothing for me to put time and effort into for playing. If I want something casual...I'll go play pokemon.

[@Pappy_1775]

Like Helena said I see the advancement of FPS/RPGs as being one of the next big innovation but with that I will add survival/mmo's like Atlas/Ark. My hope is that games like Star Citizen will go the route of Eve and Star Wars Galaxies (pre-NGE) in which players can immerse themselves in a alternate world and start businesses, form corporations, or just join guilds, clubs, tribes or associations of like minded players be it pirates, miners, warriors, doctors, bounty hunters, etc. to be able to provide a resource or services for other players along with fps play that the game is adding now.

[@greenfox1991]

@@Pappy_1775 give a try to Albion Online

[@MrDannyWright]

I feel like Guild Wars 2's biggest problem can't be fixed because it happened before launch. They never figured out what they wanted the game to be, or if they did, they didn't commit hard enough.

[@grivza]

I think they wanted to make an MMO that had the capability of becoming an e-sport but that vision was short-lived.

[@DodgeThisBam]

100 fucking percent. There are so many remnants of what it was trying to be. it could have been amazing.

[@Centrioless]

Nah they found their own target audience, but then they neglect it when the first expansion came. Gw2 was easily one of the top 3 most popular mmos. It's supposed to be a casual mmo, but the expansion neglected their main audience so bad. I dont mind more challenging stuffs, but neglecting your main audience and activity (like a map that doesnt revolve in times event and DUNGEONS) is defly not how you should do expansion.

[@MrChristophSteininge]

I remember the early access period. I played GW1 for 7 years and GW2 was a huge letdown. It was like my favourite game morphed into a wannabe wow. It was sad, really!

[@DodgeThisBam]

@@MrChristophSteininge It was REALLY good in BETA. Then it got dumbed down :(

[@sephapplewhite8477]

Guild Wars 2 makes me sad when I play it, sadly. I get more enjoyment out of thinking what the game could be than I do actually playing the game

[@ArseneGray]

I played ESO and WOW heavily after I quit GW2 after PoF. I am playing FFXIV now. I ENJOY the thinking of what GW2 could have been more than I enjoyed any of this games. VERY SAD

[@wisniamw]

@Iron Tusk how its going my dude? I jsut started HoT story and as for now, I am having very good time

[@doomatan]

The original Guild Wars required more strategy and thought to complete the aspects of late game that were difficult and the hard mode counterparts to normal play as well (such as doing the Vanquisher title or the Post Nightfall Zones) which required a really good understanding of different builds and cooperation with other players. I found one of the most enjoyable things about the original game was the fact that there was a great balance to the way the game was played and plenty of builds in which had different advantages and purposes and it gave a lot more incentive to capping skills from elites and this was also incentive for alts as you could, if needed, fill any role necessary. There are many things in the original Guild Wars that in my opinion were superior, the aspect of a diverse and ultimately very compelling stories and gameplay from expansion to expansion, great alternate forms of progress such as getting heroes and giving them cosmetic looks for completing different mini missions, which included leader-boards for the best groups. The Kurzick and Luxon faction battles and zone capturing which basically created a faction arms race to gain control of certain zones. Titles both novelty and gameplay related and a truly challenging and rewarding pvp experience. I also feel compelled to mention the in game economy was one of the most fun aspects of the original game as it fluctuated regularly which made it possible for everyone including the more casual players to become avid traders and fund most of their in game antics no matter what it was through following the economic trends. I personally think that guild wars should reboot guild wars 1 with relatively few changes beyond cosmetic updates, bug fixes and changes to world interaction on top of maybe expanding the world further and creating more expansion content of various types. Other than that Guild wars 1 was perfect in my opinion and would need fairly few changes. Even today playing solo I can manage to have fun and enjoy playing Guild Wars 1, whether I do it to relive the story in game or just mess around during one of the seasonal events.

[@adenforst230]

I feel the same. GW1 was a very nuanced game. It felt like an adventure.

[@Xenitag0]

@@daisy9181 WTF has communism got anything to do with GW2 and WoW ???

[@DrakorthaProductions]

I uninstalled a year ago when the game and it's tasks started to feel like chores and to-do lists. The feeling of organic exploration, discovery, and character building feels completely absent in the newer content. They should never have brought hearts to the newer maps - especially not repeatable ones! Hearts were acceptable in the early game as a way to help guide new players. But max level characters needed something better. Silverwastes comes to mind. Innovation in that direction would have been far better for the game than going backwards to what is essentially brain numbing, dull, and repetitive.

[@KromeDragon]

I agree, the new content is just tedious busywork. The most successful online games these days partially overhaul the game every year or season, leaving things that works, buffing or removing underutilized content, refreshing balanced but stagnant old content, items, builds etc. Instead of trying to get high and imagine new designs , update old content to matches the current standard and expectations.

[@tenryuta]

theres always entropia, classically grindy times 9000 to the 23 power, going broke means spending $, but still more meaningful when you get nothing for finding that one hangout spot across a map that is atleast 10 times bigger than tyria

[@tenryuta]

@Nater DEs are the saving grace and kryptonite(some events, and some classes can't handle them well), living world is an odd concept that could work if saos cardinal ai was used, renown hearts are gw2s side quests

[@Potatosti]

The Silverwastes are incredibly repetitive lol. Not that that‘s inherently bad, it’s a good map.

[@RedNomad395]

It just feels like Nothing changes from level 1 through 80. When you're 80 you still have the same damn thing to do.

[@deeliriyum]

1. Player interaction. This was a huge problem for me since the release of the game. There's very little reason to heavily lean on other player's abilities. It's like we are living side by side in separate universes without interacting at all. Feels so sterile. To me, one of the most meaningful interactions this game ever provided was 3 rangers warhorn #5 and even that was just a novelty. Potential never further explored. 2. Crafting. Since the initial knee jerk reaction with ascended gear, crafting system continued to tumble down into abyss, turning into such a mess, so hard to follow, that I need to alt+tab to wiki for every single thing. Another thing huge hit was walling significant portion of it from TP. This goes against "play how you want". 3. Skills and traits. I think that huge damage difference between new and experienced players comes from the fact that each class has few skills and traits that do too many things at once, when it should have more skills and traits that do just one thing. Hell I am with this game since release and I hate when balance changes come out, so I have to read all the fucking traits all over again to figure out what changed and how they interact with each other. Fuck walls of text! 4. The World. I think we have enough of it, now those maps we have need depth. 5. Factions. Omg what a wasted potential. During your story you join one of three factions and month later you cant even remember which one you joined because they have no meaning. Imagine if they actually expanded on them so that you could earn faction points for rewards. Going on archeological missions with Durmand Priory, or get assassination contracts and stealth missions for Order of Shadows or raids and patrols with the Vigil. GW2 basically sits on a chest of gold and simply refuses to open it.

[@ludekmaly3900]

1-3 are a you problem, and 5 is ridiculous if you think about it properly. 1.Simply said, while it's true that the general game plays mostly solo with little to no interaction than Co-op which doesn't influence the actions, and it would be nicer to have options provided, it's not possible without rewriting the entire narrative of everything. It's obvious that because you're considered the one and only commander that it wouldn't make sense for "Another" commander just appearing. I dunno about you but fanfic level of character introduction isn't pleasant. The lack of combat character interactions is not a problem of the game, despite the nerfing they did on Tempest. If you want the feeling of meaningfully helping others in combat, just pick the skills for it. Heck combo interactions exist despite having minimal influence, it depends how you use it, it's fun to use properly, and incredibly rewarding when it does so. Or just play like, a Druid and be a healer in raids I dunno. 2. This is you being big lazy. Ascended gears only plausible problem for me is the sparcity of vision crystals, since i forget how to get them sometimes, yet everything else is doable? How is it locked behind TP? Is it because you hate crafting one ascended ingredient a day? Like, dude, just farm it, craft it, wait, if you can't because time reasons then you can certainly sacrifice 5 mins to do just the crafting. 3. What are you talking about, the traits posses upgrades or changes to skills, and they're described as such, like some of them upgrading skills are generally just: X skill but better/lowerCD/FasterAS etc. You big lazy 2.0 since it doesn't take an hour to go through them and decide on picking what you like anyway. 5. Wouldn't be so amazing as you'd think it would be, these instances would have to be made and added slowly, and you'll get the same issu with the current LW releases, you play it for a week, abandon it and then wait for the next time.

[@elizeugerlach2954]

@@ludekmaly3900 about 5. They could make runescape like quests, they could do a bunch of them without the need make new assets besides the rewards.

[@KifKroker]

I agree, the original idea of GW2 was no defined classes; by doing so they created a grey character that doesn't need anyone or anything. I can play elementalist as a tank a healer or a glass canon. The events on the map are really innovative, but a single player or 10 players can push it back; It doesn't even matter. I came back after a 4 year quit; I left cause I payed 60 euro for the game that is now a free-to-play game full of fancy gemstore items.

[@salviniusaugustus5541]

5- Factions are only part of the story and are irrelevant in open world. And since you become Pact Commander you automatically leave your "faction" because you are above all 3 factions. So you are member of one of these factions for only 3 chapters of the story. Factions are there only to give different scenarios in the story that's all.

[@Jay-gh8vr]

I think your right on with number 1. The community, what community?

[@elykus793]

It just feels like once the story is done the question is, do I want to go for cosmetics or uninstall?

[@CupOfWhiskey]

For real, there is no sense of progression. All other mmos have this style of game because it gives a goal for you to work towards. Gw2 doesn't and you kinda just sit there and wonder wtf to do next. Grind for legendary? Takes forever and is a marathon goal. Cosmetics? Locked with gems. Raids? For what? No gear progression and sucks for new players. Honestly surprised the game hasn't died.

[@FirstDagger]

I spend 400 gold on getting a single mount skin that I wanted. Getting Gem store items with Gold is just not feasible for the average player.

[@ihappy1]

I'm a fairly casual player, I've had the game since launch and have moments where I get really into it again but never really look at it as a main game to go to. To be fair the best part about GW2 is the lack of a subscription fee, so that even when I stop playing for a few months I can jump back in and try it out without having to keep paying and feel like it's an obligation like other MMOS or subscription based things. I log in to get access to Living world chapters but usually wait until I have a bunch of episodes to play through since I like the story but don't go too hard on the content. I do love Fractals and I think they added that nice sense of vertical progression without actually invalidating anybody's gear. I hope GW2 gets a lot better, and maybe even has a whole "Realm Reborn" overhaul like FF14; overall the amount of stuff that arenanet has been releasing, whether that's gemstore or living world or updates, has been nice to see, but often it feels so shallow and uninteresting.

[@LuisFelipe-nm6vj]

Dude, I feel so contemplated. I've been playing since the beta. Played a lot when it launched, but never on a hardcore lvl. I've committed to some WvW for a brief time with my guild (pre and post-Heart of Thorns), playing more regularly, but that didn't last long. Most of these years I've been in and out as new content were released, like now, with the new Living Season. Might not be a surprise, but in all this years I've never tried to buy/make Legendaries. Like you said, the lack of subscription allied with the horizontal progression is one of the main reasons I keep playing. As a casual player, I believe there's no better choice than GW2 out there (since it's release).

[@ok_listen]

The greatest thing about gw2 is not p2p model. I would drop it instantly, no matter what. I believe WoW is so overrated because it ties the entire playerbase to it, while in the meantime is outdated and imo really empty. Gw2 has potential to be the best mmorpg out there, and the amount of general freedom help it.

[@chriskappa]

So sad looking at the MMO with one of the greatest and best Combat Systems out there, while none of the content types that rly Push the Combat System are getting pushed.

[@WipZedKay]

I think _some_ of the raid challenge modes really pushes the combat system but the amount of people experiencing that are so small that it rarely gets spoken about

[@G.Giorgio]

@@WipZedKay well yes and raids arent getting development focus, same for spvp or wvw

[@MyN0N4M3]

GW2 is the game you want to play but you just see no reason how to continue or why you would come back While other MMOs are deeply flawed within their core gameplay, so you actually start to hate them, yet they continue to push so much relevant content/classes/entire gameplay layers/modes/cosmetics/item sets etc down your throat that you just have to check it out repeatedly

[@arnox4554]

One of the biggest problems I see is that they tried to combine skillful play with WoW's gear grind. It's not that it's difficult per se to get legendaries or even ascended, but it takes so fucking long that a lot of people, me included, just stopped caring and looked for other things to do. GW1 didn't have this problem (mostly) since anyone could change their base stats at will, but stats now HAVE to be tied to gear now, and it's irritating as hell knowing that there's a better system out there that they just abandoned. If you're gonna focus on getting good gear, do that. If you're gonna focus on players delving into the deep combat system you created, do that. But don't hamstring them with both. Besides that, there's huge problems with PvP and just general player interaction, but I won't go into that unless someone actually wants to hear about it.

[@MARMOTAPLAY825]

@@MyN0N4M3 Thats why people play OSRS to this day. There is just so much content that unlocks more content that unlocks new quests that unlocks new gear that makes it possible that you kill this boss and get this better gear and it goes on and on and on. The combat is outdated and clunky, the graphics are old af but the content itself its engaging, the progression its meaningful and you feel that the more you play the stronger you get, just like an RPG should be!

[@ganjalord42]

never found an item in guild wars2 that made me go , noice....

[@MinionMeatshield]

Only 1 for me, it was the Charzooka

[@iakovos16]

@@MinionMeatshield Yeah even today if i equip a rifle with that skin on my char people are like ' The fuck is that huge thing and how can i get it ' .

[@ves138]

Have you done raids?? I cant explain to you the hype i was feeling when Dhuum’s ScYthe dropped for me on Dhuum.

[@mist1714]

@@ves138 not even that good, i stopped play gw2 at around 600 Legendary insigth, never wantet use raid staffs, it wasnt even close to my nevermore

[@noelic6744]

Lol, even as a very new and leveling player every item I come across I just go "ooo, more stuff to salvage". lol But I kinda like its low emphasis on gear. I can literally go against higher leveled creatures naked and still win if I play skillfully. So that mostly takes my attention away from gear since I know I myself am the part that I should improve most to win.

[@jesusflores7323]

Wow, WvW actually got 40 seconds of discussion in a 30 minute video! lol pretty much underlines our issues with this game!

[@moobs]

pvp got 5 seconds

[@Wellshem]

Played the game of 8y, I dont care about the WvW and PvP lol, I may have 50h doing pvp at best lol

[@TB-sj9si]

sir, i think you are being kind of closed minded in a way. if there is better and fun content, cooler gear, better questing and more ways to earn things in game to show your power, like something to i beat the boss in hard mode, that fun transitions into wvw and pvp. right now the game feels cluttered (visually) and segregated (content wise/socially), and it all get fixed with the core game first then the others.

[@Rex_Smashington]

Because GW2 has the worst pvp of most mmos out right now. It's why it's the least played game mode in an already low population MMO.

[@ghostymytoasty7007]

@@Rex_Smashington Least played game mode compared to what? Dungeons and raids? At peak hours there are more people in Eternal Battlegrounds than there are in the newest living world maps. By no means is it comparable to PvE players who play the living story patches. But compared to any other gamemode in this game? I'd say WvW is the 2nd most populated unless I'm forgetting some major gamemode. Anet could easily fix WvW/PvP problems if they took their foot off the power peddle on the full speed living world train wreck. Unfortunately I don't ever see that happening lol

[@regendo]

Me, seeing the old magazine cover on the youtube frontpage: "Man youtube just loves recommending ancient videos I've watched early last decade doesn't it?"

[@TheSafetySmith]

Too many legendary and mount quests feel like an overbearing chore. WvW has so much opportunity and has been neglected.

[@gregjross852]

I just got into WvW and I love it. But I'm also a newer player coming over from wow. Even though I love it and it's super engaging for me I've already noticed multiple things they could to make it extremely cool and a bit more competitive. First off reaching the last rank of diamond in WvW needs to offer a better reward because getting diamond alone takes a good amount of time of your week up only to restart you at the beginning. Also map completion and being able to eliminate or conquer a certain world would be extremely cool maybe make the reset every two weeks

[@TheSafetySmith]

@@gregjross852 Many players, unfortunately have leaped frogged to higher levels, by setting their skills to auto so they can level while they sleep. You may see a player that keeps running and some skills be set off in a far corner of a main spawn area. They get XP from others doing the work and they do nothing. If you find this dont complain because nothing happens other than you being verbally abused left out of groups and by their buddies

[@ToastedSynapseGaming]

Some thoughts that could help: - Player Housing (instanced) could add a whole new tab of cosmetics and useful items such as crafting benches, etc. And they could also couple this with a Weekly/Monthly contest where people can vote on the coolest house that they visit. - I agree with the difficulty slider. Let's call it "Hardcore Mode" with great rewards (maybe from the gem store or even exclusive pets/cosmetics/housing items) - Also replayability of Living World could be something like: "Now that you've completed this instanced story map on hardcore, we destroyed this wall that revealed a boss/a mining area/etc." So go back and get new stuff.

[@marinhrabric6162]

I agree very cool. To have your house in the main city of your race or anywhere you want to would be cool. Imagine playing as a human having a cozy house in the starting area among the villagers

[@boliveto]

You want the game to turn into a rat race. Better rewards are not the way, they'll get "less better" every second and would cause power creep

[@demenion3521]

as a fairly new player to the game (playing ~200h), i am shocked that almost all comments come from people that have played the game for several years or even since release. i can understand that there might be several problems with long time enjoyment in the game after you fully understood every single detail. but the video doesn't really take into account the view of new players (probably because WP is not exactly new to the game). it really takes an enormous time to get to know all of the features of the game or even play through the story. i think that many players won't reach the point very fast where they are just waiting for a new story episode which they complete within a few hours. also concerning the difficulty, i think anet is certainly not coming down to the lowest common denominator. when you first reach lvl 80, you are most definitely overwhelmed by the difficulty of the HoT and PoF maps. when i got to lvl 80, i started with PoF and really had problems against almost every single enemy and i'm pretty sure there are lots of players that don't inform themselves as much as i do. in the HoT maps (first even without the glider), you simply die at every second corner and there are far too few waypoints to quickly get back to the same point. i think the game really is missing some kind of bridge region that bridges between the easy content below lvl 80 and the significantly harder content above 80. or from a different perspective, the game is missing guidance for the new players as soon as you complete the personal story. there are sooo many features and content options that you could take, but most of it is very intimidating or overwhelming. i never really felt the need to play any dungeon in the game and always felt that i was probably too weak to complement a team. i heard that fractals are just above the difficulty of dungeons, so i also never touched those, don't even mention raids. i recently looked at WvW, but i was really discouraged by my server being always on the losing side and never having many players online at once. therefore i after more than 8h playing, i am still nowhere close to unlocking the warclaw and without it, it is extremely annoying to run around the map. also alone you die really fast as a new player, so you spend most of the time reviving and running back to battle. after this experience, i as also scared of entering any other PvP environment. in my opinion, the main problem of the game is not pointless character progression, but the inaccessibility for new players when most of the people around you have played for several years. you really feel pressured by everyone expecting you to know everything about mechanics of your class, of other classes or of bosses and meta events. you are really discouraged to try any harder content because other players are always angry about the bad coordination or the bad preparation. your best option really is to run with a group of players and do what they do, even if you don't understand what you are doing or why you are doing it.

[@Marsipaanimies91]

Yes the enemies in expansion maps are fairly challenging but I think WP was talking about the living world story instances. Those are super easy.

[@Oryyyt]

While I see where you're coming from, I think any MMO is supposed to be a long term process of learning if you really want to dig into the content. It does require failing the 1st attempts and getting confused at 1st esp if you're new to an event/meta. But nothing a few stupid questions in the map chat couldn't answer.

[@ArseneGray]

I am a little bit late but I will expand on your view. I played GW2 for since LW season 1 (before lions arch was destroyed) up to the late content draoght after PoF. So I vetereaned a lot. I moved to ESO for 2 years then to WoW now to FFXIV. But my heart will always be for GW2. It is sad because it truly is the better game. I completely agree that difficulty is not the problem of GW2. But that and "meaningful rewards" are the 2 problems WP is always complaining about and so do all the "elite" players in the game. I can completely undertstand complaints of PvP WvW players, they are 100% accurate. But the complaints over PvE is skewed lacking perspective. One of the main Selling Points of GW2 was solo play. not Casual Play mind you, but solo play. In comparison to other MMOs you can completely Go through Gw2 Solo. And I do not mean "alone", I mean not in a group. The dynamic grouping and the LFG tools and the gameplay developed in such a way that people did not need to communicate with each other eliminated the BIG hurdle of joining Guilds, making friends, comminitng to set Hours to do content etc. In fact, these fact alone made it so that people DID communicateed more. GW2 was the best communicated MMO I've ever played. If you needed help or ask something in map chat there were ALWAYS people. In ESO people close the chat the moment they arrive in the game. In WoW people ignore all but the guildies or the friends. It is samein FFXIV now. The moment guilds and pre-made groups are in focus of content creators the map chat dies. And the community feeling dies with it. GW2 was more social because it does not force you to do it thorugh unsoloable content. Also the rewards are for everyone, You can tag mobs easily. There is no competition in PvE but only silent Cooperation and it is PERFECT. Also the Achievments , Collections , and Skins being a horizontal progression, and Gems being buyable with Gold meant that you could at least play GW2 for 10 years almost solo, in an ever expanding world, and story, and working towards an 100% which was itself ever expanding. The Idea was perfect. But then the "elites" of the game who are constantly bored and constantly unhappy complained. And Arenanet broke their Direction. The difficulty spike in HoT you experienced is the result of that. They desperately tried hard to introduce "HARD" content. They also introduced RAIDs mit massive difficulties, which was undoable without extreme coordination. Amongst these stuff they changed the nature of the rewards in a way that they were also incrasingly harder to get solo or became outright exclusive. That splitted the PvE player base. Also took the game in a very wrong direction. As WP always says (altough he talks down to those people by calling them Casuals) majority of the playerbase did not even try to raid. I as a completionist and collectionist was sadly eyeing the exclusive raid rewards (achievment points, skins etc) but could not do it even when I was in many guilds with many people. it was WAY TOO much of a hassle. too much coordination. Sadly Arenanet thought following this idea of catering to the top 10% elites of the game was the direction and spent valuable time creating content which was never meant to be in the game : raids That is not what killed the game, ignorance of PvP and WvW players, and general lack of content is the main contributors of players leaving. But the main problem is a missing direciton. I think GW2 needs the OPPOSITE of what WP is saying, and it was like this since ever. ArenaNet has to acknowledge the reason other MMOs are successfull is not "hard" content or "exculsive meaningful" rewards to show off and play the social hierarchy game , but simply a feeling of "group identity". Gw2 players lack the feeeling of "belonging" to the game because the game does not have a clear identity. Arenanet needs to accept the DNA of the game and steer towards it and exliminate all the side distractions and focus perfecting that what makes GW2 "different" than all the otther WoW clones out there. Just make the game as it shoul be. There should be hard content, but not behind raid gates but cooperatively doable without communication. All the rewards should be achieveable with the sole gate being time invested. Not "skill cap" or "amounf of friends cap" or "right time right place luck".etc. Expand the achievments system, introduce LW season 1 back, make all achievments and titles NOT time exclusive. Expand skins. Introduce and expand more Horizontal progression systems. Focus on storytellng and lore. The solution is not "more pre-made group content or shiny rewards only 1% can get or harder to kill mobs"

[@Avaruusmurkku]

@@ArseneGray I disagree extremely on the notion that raids should not exist and there shouldn't be any raid-like content. You should have solo-coop content in the open world like the map metas, light group content with low-tier fractals and hard content on both heavy and light group content, being CM fractals and raids. Ironically, the newer fractals are too long and mechanics heavy and IMO should be mini-raids, but the older fractals are great group content.

[@boliveto]

Hell yeah what you said, I have like 2000h on the game (not even close to some players) and tried making a thief and soloing some HoT and PoF HP's. THAT WAS HELL, it's so hard if you dont know every single aspect of your class. The game is really deep and well made, I remember having fun learning all the things u said, but i can see how even harder it would have been withour a Skyscale. The game is awesome, and u need a better guild for helping you haha

[@mikalemadden1762]

Just wanted to comment, when I first started playing I quickly figured out that you could buy gem store items with gold, but it seemed like so much gold was needed to convert into gems that I never really considered it an option. Especially because I had no idea where to start making gold. I've changed my mind about that since then, but I thought I'd offer that perspective.

[@C.hrisis]

As someone who struggles to get gold, even after doing research and trying it out... converting into gems is barely feasible. I should try the farming tracker on gw2effiecieny, but it's going to be pretty low.

[@Morvagor82]

Daily login bonus, parking all other characters beside great chests = easy 2 gold per day

[@robinwesterbeeke1498]

Chrisis That’s kind of on you, not on the game. While the game has very few meaningful rewards, it does throw a lot of gold at you. What’s wrong here is that you are the targeted demographic (if you knew how to make loads of gold you wouldn’t make this post and be considered a veteran), but for some reason aren’t able to farm enough gold to get gemstore items. Normally I’d say: play more then? You can’t expect everything to be handed to you! If you only have limited time to play you’re entitles to limited rewards. But then I realize this is GW2 and the literal target demographic is people like you. And therein lies the problem. Structurally, mechanically and by design, the game should appeal to hardcore players, you can see this by looking at the combat alone, but also by the amount of grind necessary to get most of what you want. But Anet always wanted to appeal to the masses with GW2. So they added rewards that are easy to get and not meaningful, on average only about 10% of their combat system is used in current content and events, and everything is so easy, my dog could probably do it by walking over the keyboard. There is a huge disconnect between the game’s design and systems and the target group the company has in mind. And that’s why you can’t get cool gemstore items Chrisis.

[@Zoiyya]

And then there is the big problem of Anets shitty RNG system. People always compare themselves to other players, those who have tons of gold, skins, legendarys and... luck.They see others getting pres, expensive skins and other stuff while getting only a few gold or nothing at all. And they get far less rewards and gold for the same work and get frustrated. And with frustration they play less, farm less and get even less gold. Imo RNG destroys so much fun in the game!

[@badalrana10]

Play other game modes..don't be a one trick pony. Branch out and try some pvp. Get better mechanically at the the game. Do higher level fractals. Do raids. They are all fun then doing a mundane farm and also gives you sense of progression. People who struggle with gold are usually just people who pigeon hole themselves

[@MyN0N4M3]

Last time I played a few years back, the best method is doing "RIBA" runs in silverwaste (don't know if ppl still do this nowadays) and then collect all the bags and open them on a lvl 55 alt character, salvage them and sell the mats.

[@MrVivi0001]

ADD DIFFICULTY LEVELS TO LIVING WORLD AND INCISE REWARDS ACCORDINGLY.

[@GaleOfTheVale]

At this point I'm just waiting for GW3

[@Captainkrieger7]

18:00 We are broke WP. Many of us can barely rub two gold together. I used to play this game 10-12 hours a day, but still couldn't get over the hurdle of getting enough gold together to get a character expansion slot. I just WvW 2 hours a day now, because I can't find anything else to do in this game that feels meaningful to me. Honestly, I wouldn't be playing this game at all if it wasn't for my guild friends running WvW every day.

[@Roldegar]

I'd say that this is also because the game is designed to NOT allowing you to make big money with casual content. Let's be honest here, the amount of time spent doing boring and repetitive stuff to get the gold for acquiring gems is absurd. Fact is the game does not teach you how to gain gold, the community does, and are all meta systems, like flipping the Trading Post or following patterns in maps like Chest Farming in the Silverwastes, all boring stuff with no actual relation with the game immersion. That in my opionion is the BIGGEST problem of Guild Wars 2 PVE, the repetitiveness of boring things to do to actually have a meaningful amount of gold to improve one's character or account. Serioulsy, how much time do I have to spend in this game to convert 2000 gems from gold just to buy a mount skin? And I agree that the Skins in gemstore are too much prettier that those you can acquire normally... I mean, armor design is lacking big time compared to other mmos, expecially the korean ones. I'm so sick of skirts on heavy armors... really! JUST STOP! I don't understand the appeal!

[@BrianEdwardAshmore]

@@Roldegar You can get 40ish gold a day just by doing T4 + rec fractals. It adds up fast.

[@jafar5112]

@@BrianEdwardAshmore 40ish gold if u sell all mats. Probable 15g in pure gold :p

[@NeoSaturos123]

@@BrianEdwardAshmore Oh is that it, just do tier 4 Fractals. Yeah, that's easy. Max difficulty dungeon.

[@eazyv2069]

@@NeoSaturos123 Lol T4 Fractals are easy. I've two-manned every T4 Fractal in the game consistently except for Underground Facility because of the pressure plates. That includes Swampland and Aetherblade, you can activate the orbs and switches in time with a Mesmer. On slow days that's been all T4 dailies with just two people in under 45 minutes total on average, including runs which had Deepstone/Shattered Observatory/Twilight Oasis in the mix. There isn't a full party group in existence which can't do T4 Fractal dailies unless they are comprised entirely of mentally disabled chimpanzees or paraplegic invalids. You can even get those Fractal-specific buffs if you really struggle from the titles - personally, they ruin what little fun there is in the difficulty of a game mode which only seems hard until your brain switches on.

[@evilbonesx42]

For me as much as I love this game I honestly feel your first point ties to the choice they made for killing the traditional trinity. It made the game devolve into a massive DPS fest for the most part. And that made character progression flat.

[@marinhrabric6162]

I actually like that you are not forced into anything like "you have to be a healer, tank or dps if you play a certain profession. You have the freedom to play how ever you want to. It's one of the reasons I like gw2. I keep wanting to start playing Wow but when I think about the trinity that's when I start to be indecisive. If u can't play how ever you want to, but instead there are things you have to do and in a certain way just because you are a certain profession/class, for example you're a shaman so you have to be a healer, it feels like a job you have to do and not something you want to do because it's fun

[@missk1697]

@@marinhrabric6162 your opinion

[@farlonmuentes6004]

i was put off when "horizontal progression" was used as a selling point. to me it sounds like you just find something to do for the sake of just having something to do.

[@adenforst230]

Each time you left an outpost in GW1, it felt like embarking on an adventure. Particularly in Hard Mode, mobs were usually challenging and you had to coordinate well with your party of people or Heroes/Henchmen, otherwise things would go south very fast. Exploring felt good (despite the awful way the game counted % of map completion) and you had to plan your approach to mobs and unknown areas. Nightfall, Factions and EOTN had more fleshed out maps, but Prophecies had very organic map design, with unevenly spaced outposts that made exploring an unknown area, not knowing where the next stop would be, a very tense and rewarding experience that no other game I played managed to replicate so far. Going from Beacon's Perch to Camp Rankor with absolutely no outpost in between felt like a real accomplishment the first time I did it with an underleveled warrior and a couple of henchmen. Finding, for example, Fishermen's Haven in the middle of nowhere, despite it having no reason to exist at all in terms of gameplay or story, after simply going out to explore from Bergen Hot Springs or Beetletun and being desperate to find any outpost, made the world feel much more real. Builds were also richer due to the hundreds of skills available and tended to become very party-oriented, with party members completing each other. Bosses were tough, specially in dungeons and elite missions, and you had to face them with limited party members that had to make their skills and positioning count. Dying too much in HM made you start stuff all over again. It all felt much more inteligent and nuanced than the standard zerg that GW2's bosses usually are. Going places in GW1 felt like adventuring with a party of people or npcs that had to work together in a organic world, going places in GW2 feels either like a chore, an experience to be skipped as fast as possible with mounts in order to avoid bothering with boxy, unnatural maps that feel more like artificial playgrounds with dozens of currencies and irrelevant items than real places. Everything is too big, too loud, too shiny, too fast. It lacks some of the slow, careful, even minimalistic aspects that made GW1 so special among a market full of MMOs that insisted on going louder and bigger as a substitute for actual quality. I like GW2, it is certainly the better game in terms of QoL, combat dynamics, map freedom and character movement, but it lost much of the soul and nuance that made the first game so good and unique. GW2 feels like a shiny empty husk that tries to get bigger and bigger in order to compensate for its utter lack of substance, GW1 feels like a small but brilliant gem that is a bit rough around the edges.

[@UltimateWeeGee]

Well said, WP. You touched on this, but one of the biggest issues I have getting my old pals to return, or convincing new ones to join, is lack of character progression. To someone who's a vet, and I'm sure to the devs as well, we already know of many ways to find enjoyment in GW2 -- But when I talk about GW2 with my pals, their response has always been "so does it still not have any endgame?" and even after explaining the existence of fractals and raids and the pvp modes for the fifth time, their response is always "Ok, but the rewards are just some skins? Nah, I'm good." I don't agree with the gear treadmill philosophy and the constantly moving finish line and power-creep, but Anet definitely has struggled addressing the greater philosophical phantom that gear treadmills are the only way to have meaningful progression in an MMO. And as you say, our replacement systems like Masteries just aren't up to par with their current implementation. Final thought: when you say the gem store stuff is easy enough to just buy with gold, my WvW-welfare earning heart cried a little bit. I don't even consider gold-to-gems an option these days unless I need less than 100 gems for something... Not that your point doesn't stand for most players, heh.

[@CShee3]

Great points. We had HM story missions in GW1 which, for some, weren't to be sneared at, so I just can't understand why they don't give us HM living story missions with achievements tied to them like Migraine which I spent hours and hours figuring out how to solo. It wouldn't mean much more dev time since the assets are being reused. I guess strikes are their answer to that and it's debatable whether that's a good thing or not, but solo HM stories would be fun too

[@Kiroshima1]

If we had HM Story Missions, they should be accompanied by selectable NPCs like GW1. We have a huge cast of surviving characters just waiting to be used in GAMEPLAY. Just let us adjust their builds slightly and let us use some preset AIs and boom, solo friendly HM Story Missions and a way to reuse surviving allies. Just tie the characters to the Home Instance for interacting/customizing.

[@egomaniacXFR]

Not only HM story missions. They could even make HM areas where you can group up and clear a complete map that's scaled up. For every map clearing you could get some kind of tokens that you can use to buy a Gift of Exploration and other stuff. Would be more interesting and challenging than running down billions of hearts.

[@ctg4818]

It took 8 years to get templates so maybe in another 8 years we'll get hard mode lol /s

[@EyesOfGehenna]

The difference is that GW1 was party based and GW2 is solo based when it comes to story mission. The HM missions you could with players but also solo with mercs/heroes that you could deck out yourself with gear and skill sets. GW2 you do not have companions and whereas GW1 had defined roles for tanking, dps and heals, GW2 doesn't have that same definition. And for group content those roles make all kinds of things possible that GW2 cannot do. For the raids they did introduce some sort of trinity but it's not the same and as a raid healer in other MMOs, this game could never be my main game even just because I can't play a proper healer. In GW1 I could play a monk healer and have team members (real or npc) that played the other roles. In GW2 I do not have the companions to fill other roles. I think that if they want to do HM missions, there will be a problem because there is such a difference between classes and adv classes that they wouldn't be able to bridge in solo play to create a HM experience that will work for all classes alike and be more challenging at the same time. So GW2's classes and lack of companions make it impossible for HM story missions because it would depend on grouping with other players which a lot of people would want to be optional and not required for something like that. I will admit I haven't been in those Strikes yet but then I generally don't care for group content in this game because I don't like their core combat system and skill trees. So I when I play GW2 I just do solo and open world content. Speed runs and raids that are about maintaining buffs just aren't my cup of tea. Fixed skills in fixed slots aren't either. And the huge and I mean HUGE difference in output between classes and advanced classes make all the variety meaningless as it is. So yeah, HM missions and Vanquishing were great activities in GW1, but GW2 just isn't set up for that type of content afaic.

[@JorikPar]

Story should have always been repeatable and NON-solo content from the very start. But with their excessive branching that wasnt an option. Really a shame they made so many bad decisions back then.

[@antoniobn]

The "no vertical progression" aspect is one of the major reasons I play GW2.

[@x64h22]

What do you mean?

[@antoniobn]

@@x64h22 in most games we spend hours and hours to achiev top level and gear. So in six mounths they launch an update with a new level cap and new equipment tiers and all our stuff became trash, requiring another huge time to farm all over again. In GW2 this never happen and I like it, we spend time in game doing other things, not just griding.

[@CIA.Langley]

antoniobnerd same. I couldn’t agree with you more.

[@OmarSaleem]

absolutely agree. it's so much more casual friendly as a result, which is compounded with the lack of a sub. i feel like i can leave for months, come back, and still have fun working on whatever i was working on, exploring content, messing around with friends, etc. in other games id have to grind my way back up to level cap / power cap / dps expectations etc. the slow pace works for me, im really not into gear treadmills

[@Shadamehr100]

Fudge no, never bring back the endless gear grind. Its what made me absolutely sick to death of WoW and FFXIV.

[@BEEVIN]

Exactly, main reason why i play gw2 i dont like my items losing value

[@Blizzhobbs]

I played gw2 for a little while when it released but never got to endgame content so forgive me for my ignorance.. but what's the point in playing the game at that point? If there's no sense of getting stronger or quantifiable reward for your struggles I can't see my self staying on. If I wanted to just "experience" new content I'd just play a newer game with a deeper story, If I wanted to get better from a skill standpoint I'd play something like Counter strike or rocket league. I just want to know what meaningful things keep you invested in the game, Im sure there are plenty that I'm just not aware of.

[@dziewiaty]

@@Blizzhobbs GW2 has no real endgame. You can call WvW and Raids engame, but there are plenty people who competitively stick to pvp, go into TP flipping, try to become the richest player on the server, or just enjoy RP and fashion wars. GW2 gives you so much freedom everyone has its own sense of "endgame"

[@dziewiaty]

@Nathaniel Walker not really. WoW has better items every expansions and what? First you go grinding again, and you gonna hit best items anyway, so you need to wait for another update, knowing your great reward is going to be outdated someday. It creates endless circle of chasing imaginary carrot and if you finally got it, bigger carrot appears. I get that some people need to have clearl goal, but for me it is not a system that gives player satisfaction. In GW2 the best gear is always the best so you can look proudly on your achievements and get some rest before going to look for next goal. This is the beauty, game do not force goal on you, it's your decision to keep yourself entertained with exploring what else game can give to you. And if you did it all already, maybe it's just time to stop. Every game, every thing ends someday and MMOs are no different. If you did it all and no new stuff is coming you just completed the game so you can stay to experiment or move on. That's it, casual players still have a lot to do while hardcore veterans got this simple choice and forcing infinite grinding for new gear every expansion would kill it.

[@Adama.1]

@Nathaniel Walker As someone who has played this game on and off for years without ever getting a character to max level, I must say the leveling process is 100x more fun than any mmo.

[@ProtonMK8]

The gem store remark on being able to still get it with gold never sat with me. It devalues the item becuase everyone will just assume you used a credit card.

[@yvesgingras1475]

and because of the gold conversion I have a feeling they pump up the price more than waht they should, I would be in favor of just removing the conversion at this point

[@Neox999]

It also devalues the gold you earned. First you lose about 15% value when you convert your gold AND you increase the gem price for gold (meaning gold loses value).

[@glennewdick]

and who cares if you did or didn't? stop worrying about what some stranger thinks online.

[@EyesOfGehenna]

Personally I don't mind some grind for a specific item in game but I can't get myself to grind or farm regularly. My brain just dies from boredom. So if I want something from the gem store I would buy it with real money. In fact I buy gold with gems rather to take some of the boring grind out of the game. So the whole idea of grinding for gems so I can buy it from the gemstore just doesn't work for me and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[@Roldegar]

@@EyesOfGehenna I agree, expecially because the grinding methods in this game are absolutely braindead repetitiveness.

[@lextalkaboutgames]

How this game missed so many chances in the years to be great thanks to poor management and direction still baffles me. I used to look up to this company and I actually got into the industry thanks to them, hoping one day to join ArenaNet. What a shame :(

[@IGotTheBrothority]

Can someone tell me more about what wooden potatoes uses at 5:15 to pick between mounts? Is that something built in the game or its a 3rd party add on? Thanks in advance, I'm so tired of click on the different mount every time i want to switch between them.

[@flavioromano8754]

the first issue is why, in 2017, i stopped playing gw2, at the end of 2019 tho i decided to play it again, accepting it by what it is and not by what i expected it to be back in 2017. im having a lot more fun at it right now, which is great coz back in 2017 it was unbearable to me.

[@Sombre____]

There is a lot of class to get max level. Every class has different playstyle, i really don't understand why people would want to criticize the fact than most of the area are high end content. There is no real challenge to come back on a low level map, even if the mobs adapt to your level.

[@nateking510]

I wonder if anyone remembers "migraine" aka hard mode for the last boss fight in hot. It was a pain in the ass to find people and beat it. Rip

[@SinWeissfell]

I do and it was a pain to solo it on a druid of all things

[@XXXkazeXXX]

... i’m still missing it and it annoys the heck out of me

[@owophia]

i remember learning how to cheese it with a bug, and joining lfgs where people were trying to sell it and saying hey ill help for free lmao, probably still cheeseable knowing anet

[@SinWeissfell]

@@owophia The "I'll just fuck off to the root during the flight sequence" bug?

[@jafar5112]

@@XXXkazeXXX I managed to do it with stealth to do the last channeling part (stealth gyro). I choose a different boss than what dulfy recommended by mistake but found out it was much much easier. Used stealth gyro to ress during mob spawn. Did it like 2 years ago and remember it was difficult to find an LFG. Might help out one day if u want?, but I do not remember the fight lel Kinda busy for the next 2 weeks due to work load tho

[@TheMikkelet]

I actually miss traditional quests.. they were means of exploring stories of npcs, and new and old places.

[@Sientir]

Traditional quests would have been an excellent way to make personal story steps continue to feel meaningful by following up on them. While I applaud ArenaNet for questioning what things are truly necessary back when first making Guild Wars 2, I feel like they threw the baby out with the bathwater, as the saying goes.

[@Samfreche]

the last episode had a quest basically, the hungry kodan, you get his story, and learn more about the boneskinner too, we also had the burden of choice during season 3, so it's possible to have quest in the game

[@riddixdan5572]

tbh, achievements are those traditional quests, the thing is tho, people miss that certain NPC that gives them lore that no one ever reads.

[@TheMikkelet]

@@riddixdan5572 I would love to see traditional quests where NPCs had actual dialogue! I recently binged the Mass Effect and Witcher trilogies, and I'm sad that GW2 doesn't have the same level of NPC engagement, both in terms of individual quests but also in terms of individual NPC personalities. In those games, I exploring small communities and whack characters was why I loved them so much.

[@nmace12]

@@riddixdan5572 You are totally correct, though silly, if Anet would rename Achiement panel "Questlog" and Achiement Points (AP) " Quest Points", a lot more people would play them and see them as content.

[@jackperales1076]

I’m curious about the resentment towards paying for content you mentioned. I see this as the reason games like WoW, FFXIV, and ESO, via their subscriptions and paid updates, can push out more quality content on a regular basis because of the cash flow. I would think that more of this would be a positive thing for the game in general? (When the content you’re paying for feels sufficient in quality, ofc)

[@Bolazer]

It's simple, gamers get pissed off by Pay to Win models, but then when companies listen to them and only sell cosmetic and utility on their cash stores, gamers are still pissed. Ya just can't win.

[@miguelmolano6611]

Very interesting video. Real good content here. How do you do the thing on 23:15?

[@LuisGonzalez-dx2cy]

I started playing this game a year ago and I noticed that guild wars 2 has little to no content around guilds. there should be some events or arenas were guild battle can happen or something involving the participation of all the guilds members like in raids

[@SinWeissfell]

All three big communities have been waiting for that since HoT came out. We hear you

[@micdrop-jh3pf]

This video has sparked some excellent comments. My favorites: 1. Ask the guilds what they need to be more robust and foster more social interaction 2. Improve the Friends list so it's meaningful and we can remember individuals with whom we've connected 3. Make Living World stories meaningful and interesting. Provide a hard mode if that will help some players, but allow less-able players and casuals to still enjoy the stories. 4. Make WvW, fractals, and raids crazy hard if that's what people want, and keep adding content to those areas so hard core players feel challenged and adequately rewarded. 5. Add a "Need Help" feature to LFG so players looking for teaching groups can learn from others - game mechanics like how to "cc," how to play the game, how to craft, how to earn gold, etc. And people wanting to teach others can offer/advertise their services. *** Thanks, WP for highlighting issues that need to be addressed.***

[@CreepyLemon25]

Okay, so any recommendation for a better MMO to play right now before i start working on Ascended gear crafting? :p

[@88Spint]

GW2 dev's could look towards Warframe. They too had horisontal progression but added in new weapons, new fighting styles, new story and more things to do. Instead of adding emotes and cosmetics alone why not look toward new ways of fighting? Add new styles and more verity. Also all characters need a axe mainhand and shield! My norns feel so sad when they don't have that lol.

[@regendo]

Just yesterday I walked out of the crafting area in the Armistice Bastion (the WvW lounge) and remembered that there was a full, if small, map outside of the building. I'm in that map every day, and I had actually forgotten there was a large outside area. That's not resources well spent. It feels to me like the game has too many map designers and environment artists and too few developers for actual content. Especially content I'm guided to, which in the case of this game sadly means convoluted nested achievements instead of proper quests. I can love the environment, but I can't play it. And if an event triggers but nobody sees it because they're just not in the area, it's not content either. We might also have too many artists working on skins and outfits and the like but that's probably an unpopular opinion. As for meaningful interaction in-game, I feel like our excellent wiki and other online resources like dulfy and the reddit really hinder that. I believe our franchise has two of the best maintained wikis in video games period, and I think that's really awesome, but outside of rare examples ("woah what's that skin you're wearing") I've got 0 reasons to chat with a player in-game. Yes, part of this is because the game itself doesn't give me reasons to talk to people, but it's also because everything I could ask, I could just as easily get from /wiki with more details and images and guides and fancy interactable maps.

[@yvesgingras1475]

Game its too easy, would love to see a bunch of ''noob'' or less good player asking for help, I would love to help them, the rare moment it happen (rare is an understatment) its always nice, while the game is easy I feel some reward in the fact I can help a low level low skill player

[@zenith110]

You do realize that you wouldn't even be able to do anything if well, there weren't any maps in the game right? I know that's not exactly what you're insinuating here but it's really easy to say something like that and not realize that well... maps are everything in Guild Wars 2. You couldn't have real versus world PVP or anything else without map designers so I really don't understand what you're complaining about. Also I've been there that map is not very big it probably didn't take too much longer to make

[@JorikPar]

Playing (MMO-)games without an up-to-date wiki is so horrible though. I am very glad that there are enough people out there who are willing to put time into the wiki and keep it as the main source of information. However, you are right that player interaction is very very underdeveloped. Meanwhile I just play pug-raids because it is challanging and you need to talk to each other. I dont even care that much if we fail. Its still much more fun than running around in circles (which is literally the newest content with the Lunar New Year Challange).

[@broomemike1]

Yeah, the amount of new art is crazy... More story!

[@diomedea13]

Actually you can fight on that entire map with anyone on the map. My guild uses it to fight each other using wvw builds since pvp stuff is not quite the same. Sometimes folks from other guilds kinda bust in, which is part of the random fun. I wish more people used the map, it's actually a lot of fun and one of the few free for all pvp areas where you can glide and use a mount etc.

[@esperjace6677]

Hey WP ty for the video ! I know streams are a more steady income and you have the achievement project going but I really like the video format, opinion videos, in-game lore videos (even if it have been a while), speculation videos, etc. Following streams on WP2 and having tuned on live stream a few times, I know you cover those topics during them and you don't really feels speaking twice about the same topic, but the video format like this one has a great atmosphere and I miss them sometimes. Yes you still do patch note and trailer videos, but the essence of it is a bit different. I guess the points you raise in the video impact you as well as a content creator to some level. Btw I still like your content, and I am glad to participate to the patreon. I just wanted to give my opinion as someone who doesn't engage much with you but still watch stream vods, videos and share your content.

[@vitrums]

That LBA2 soundtrack in the end always gives me chills.

[@PoPmyThumb]

Simple fact is that the modern MMO player wants to play the stat game, that’s why people still play WoW, Eve Online, SWTOR any MMO that’s popular is playing the stat game. I realize as a GW1 original player that arena net has always stayed away from the stat game and in the beginning it made sense. But I believe the time has come for more dungeons, raids and pvp seasons to come to GW2 that instead of rewarding cosmetics instead it should reward stat items.

[@RandomRageDude]

I've been playing GW2 since headstart (and betas I suppose), but for the first time since then I've actually burned out. The only thing that kept me entertained was maintaining my guild and trying to get as many people into raids by hosting weekly raid trainings. At this point I just feel like I've done everything that I wanted to do, and I can't seem to stay motivated to get people into raiding anymore since it seems that arenanet barely cares themselves. I know that's not the case, but that's just what it feels like to me.

[@SinWeissfell]

Same man. I lead a trainings guild for raids and fractals for years and the last eight months really were my nail in the coffin to a point where I left both the game and the guild

[@ctg4818]

I felt that way 5 years ago

[@RandomRageDude]

@@ctg4818 fair enough, there was a big content drought back then so it's easy to see why. I think that that was gw2's first 'mistake'

[@Phantaram]

I'm a huge mmo player and have played gw2 spvp for... well however long gw2 has existed. I've played not even 24 hours of the actual mmo part of the game but outside of GW2 I have played countless hours of mmos. The rewards feel so empty. I was able to get optimal gear for WvW with basically not even touching PvE. For me personally without pvp in the world it feels a lot less meaningful too but that's just me.

[@grivza]

Well that would be a whole other direction entirely, a different game. Wvw was supposed to scratch that itch but, dare I say, it failed miserably.

[@Winterbay]

And as a person that's been in WvW roughly 2 hours and in PvP of any other kind roughly 0 times since launch I'd be completely fine without any kind of PvP in the game. We are all differemt :)

[@theyeetler8776]

greatly appreciated! thinking about trying the game, you brought my expectations to a more reasonable level so I won't have crushing disappointment. however, that it about never having to play with others is now the reason I want to play. best up side to any game ever, solo for life!

[@Chapien]

The solution to Living World sounds pretty simple. Hard mode.

[@Pufferzsola]

Players are a problem too. I quite enjoyed to get the Skyscale even it was timegated. LOT of players started to cry out when they realized it... :/

[@yvesgingras1475]

Arenanet havbe a bad habit of giving to crybaby what they want, the result, they cry more and more because it seem to work, if arenanet would stand on their point, design, view, maybe the game would have been more fun more challenging and more rewarding

[@einherjar4902]

Timegating is one of the worst things in gw2 in my eyes. It artificially prolongs the time you need to get the item basically just waiting so you can finally progress Thats the dumbest way to make the content feel its more than it actually is

[@ctg4818]

Time gating makes no sense without a subscription

[@Pufferzsola]

@@ctg4818 what subscription? You have bought the game forever, there is no mothly fee. IMO it was a good move to separate the parts, so you came back more frequently in this period of time. It feels like you did not watched the whole video...

[@Pufferzsola]

@@einherjar4902 Why? you login every day, aren't you? You get free stuff, also you even can have gem store items free if you have gold. This is a big thing, not every game offers such an option, and it is a bit suicidal to aNet, because there is a chance that you will never ever spend money on the game. Where is the profit then? They need to make a living from it. Compare it to short tasks that are timegated, it is not so bad.

[@jakubzahradka8644]

Problem is that ArenaNet not even talk to us so we cant hope they will listen to us

[@Lastlux]

Bit of a noob question but what class are you playing as? Only just started playing GW2 and the class you're playing looks pretty interesting.

[@DaveSimkus]

I'm glad to see you are still making videos. I played for a couple years since launch and absolutely loved the videos you and that other bloke (Matt?) did. I would love to get back into the game. I just wonder if my old character skins and gear, pets, will still be there or did some old things get deleted from the game? It would be cool to rock some old school gear.

[@adas.6202]

I feel like they need to change the leveling system - if I didn't look online, I never would've known about combo fields, for example. I didn't understand my class - I still don't completely, because I'm a fairly casual player, and I don't need to, I can just faceroll through everything. I'm too scared to do raids anyway. If it wasn't for the story, I don't think I would still be playing.

[@dragoneye9595]

Every level you get tipps. Also on one level up they tell you about combo fields. You also unlock one thing after another with the hero points. So I totally don't understand your point here.

[@ok_listen]

@@dragoneye9595 Yea, it's all about ignoring what you have in front of your eyes basically. But its common.

[@Oblivius33]

If I may merge point 1 and 3 together. One problem I have with the GemStore and the hunt for horizontal progression in the form of cosmetics, is that these items are not just better looking (altough often outlandish) then the stuff you can get by actually playing the game. But the fact that a lot of these are behind a paywall, RNG AND they are themed around the events that are going on in the story you're supposed to experience. In the episode Head of the Snake the Bloodstone weapons are thematic, you see or have seen them everywhere while you play, but the only way to acquire them is by playing the in game lottery with chests. That stings double. And let us not forget of turning armors into costumes. What even is the point of armor if you can dress up as Iron Man in a click? For once it's something that in other games may give you as part of the story itself (example in FFXIV where they give you a bloody dragon to fly towards the later parts of the 1st expansion), second the method of acquisition is gold, but the best way to get the gold is often not related to the new content. If you want gold there are a few surefire way to get them, crafting, fracts and maybe PvP. It's a very off putting thing personally, that takes your mind off the Living World and into the gold farm. Farming gold is just not fun, but that's just me, but I'm willing to leave that point if one REALLY loves the combat.

[@phieryone]

Thank you WP for this video. Thanks for telling it how it is. Speaking only of my experience I also feel the way you do about the state of the game. Your candor and bluntness are why I keep coming back to this great channel. So glad there are player advocates out there like you WP. Later.

[@SurrealLeaf]

Heres my list: -MAJORITY just mostly focuses on "BEST GOLD PER HOUR" (those 8h istan farms then SW..then Dragonfall etc) or some niche stuff like dragon stand for...legendaries. This goes TOTALLY away from the original selling point "you do whatever you want because its fun". So you ask people: "Why do you farm gold and not do X"? Most dont know. Gold just IS literally only meaningful currency. Karma is worthless. Spirit shards give you Tenosynovitis. Gear is done once you get runes and sigils. Compare to other MMOs or RPGs, there cosmetics are usually not bound to gold but other currencies. Imagine if there was chair or mount skin for 10 million karma? Most people farm gold because you can change them to gems. Which is good for customer and player, but its not without problems. Which makes those 8 hour/day istan farmers. They just want enough gold to buy that next mount skin or UNLIMITED glyphed gathering tools. -Playerbase thinks GW2 is hard. Ive raided WoW 10 years and other mmos in between (rip wildstar), and GW2 raids and fractals are like easiest things ive done on grouped PvE content. raids are easier than WoW mythic dungeons (before you outgear it). So you have these people who ask for 150 LI for "NOOB groups". 1 boss = 1 LI. So you need to kill 150 bosses to get into "noob groups". Plus lets face it, most DPS players dont want to do mechanics - thats why you have "why cant mesmer/druid do EVERYTHING" people in most of your pugs. Also the time I did high fractals I got laughed at because I didnt have "meta spec" (power reaper apperantly is shit tier despite being 1% less dps than 2 button thief). I just dont understand why people get so triggered if fractal lasts 10 mins instead of 8 mins. I get that some people in GW are like stay-at-home dads who keyboard turn with their soldier core GS mesmer but like..yeah. Only way aNet can fix this is automated LFG for fractals (t1-3 not 4) and few first raids. -MMOs are dying genre. Nuff said. Its mostly "quick bites" of Path of exile, destiny or Fortnite nowdays. -When GW2 came out it had lot of innovations. Hell, even some WoW blatantly copied. But then it just...stopped? Now its been years of "we have this and we keep doing same thing". They really shouldve added more stuff or lets face it, literally just do like WoW and steal from other MMOs. id write more but dont think anyone even read half of first part :P

[@BrannedAortal]

2 words “battle royale” imagine actually taking advantage of the mmo aspect and easily putting 200 players in one map to kill each other

[@SurrealLeaf]

@@BrannedAortal WvW? Game can't really handle 3 squads full of 50 people without massive strain to server. Kinda sad because that's best Part of WvW

[@BrannedAortal]

Inkdrocket honestly I know what you mean just seeing 50 v 50 people run into each other and their skins not even load due to the amount of player movement and AOE just popping off

[@Ph33rTheDens]

@@BrannedAortal At the end of Beta they put everyone into a battle royale game mode. Imagine being that far ahead of the curve and then completely forgetting you even did it when it comes into vogue.

[@NovaBushido]

I agree with your first 3 points a lot. Something I've been telling my friends that still play the game on and of. Since the start people fell off GW2 due to lack of knowing where to go. I've never heard someone call the game boring while first playing, but once they reach the end of level 80 or exotics they wonder where do I go from here? At launch ofc there wasn't much, legendaries were too much of a grind for the casual player, so most of them would leave. I wish they did focus more on replayable content that is fun, and changes, rather than a gimmick you'll see once in the game and never again. So much missed opportunity in places in the game.

[@michaelengelby732]

I've had this game for years, nearly since it came out and I've never really played it with any regularity. I played for years and then burned myself out on EverQuest and then World of Warcraft (why yes I am older than dirt). Life dictated that no longer could I dedicate that amount of time to a game. Under that definition, I fall squarely into the casual player these days. But, recently I have been playing GW2 and am enjoying it immensely. First character is still a level 30 and I am looking forward to being able to access the end game stuff. After I get there it is quite likely I will burn myself out again since there is no real progression at the end game. That's what I am hearing you say for point #1. I've always felt that blending of many different difficulty levels should be simple. At face value, just add a difficulty slider that players can tweak as they see fit. Higher values of difficulty allow for higher levels of rewards. But then again, I am old school where I believe the amount of effort put into something should yield the appropriate outcome. I've always been dismayed at the decision of the current crop of publishers/devs that listen to the lower commitment players that whine about not getting the high end stuff because they are not willing to put in the effort - and then finally cave and acquiesce to their 'demands'. That was one of the things I enjoyed the most about EverQuest. It was freaking hard to progress and took tons of time. But when you finally got the item you were aiming for, it meant something significant. In later years, when I couldn't keep up with the expansions of EQ, I didn't frustrate myself with trying to attain it. Yes, good to have goals, but they were unrealistic because of 'gear checks' in the content (2 minute rage timer for the boss is a classic mechanic). So I just moved on. Maybe that's where GW2 is at. It caters to a specific style of player and doesn't have any significant content for massively invested players that know all the game mechanics by heart and have a near encyclopedic knowledge of everything in game. It's freaking difficult to make content for those types of players. Those people consume content faster than you'd ever think possible. Without a complete redesign of the way the game is played, they just get bored. Sure, this new boss within this new zone is fun, but after 2 weeks when our guild has figured it out - it become boring again. More content please! Anyway, I ramble. Love watching your content regardless!

[@violatress]

Great comment, I agree wholeheartedly! I'm an adult, I have a job, a husband, a cat... I can't burn through the content in 2 days even if I wanted to. Been playing GW for 7 years. I do have breaks sometimes but then I pick it up after a few months and the fun factor is still there. For casuals like us - Guild Wars 2 is ideal. I'm too lazy to raid, but even without that there's enough to do to keep me entertained.

[@MyouKyuubi]

I was you way back when i was nooby in GW2, i mean i guess i still am, but.... I reached endgame. You feel good about the game, you have fun levelling, you get an exotic gear, you are then told about ascended gear, and how that and infusions is the next step for you, and then you get full ascended gear about a week or two later and then you realize there's raids. Except, there's no reason to do raids, you already have the best-in-slot ascended gear, you don't need anything else, legendary items are entirely optional... Raid rewards would be meaningless, bosses drop ascended gear, and there's achievements for legendary armor and that's it. Oh, i finished the game... How anti-climactic... I guess ill just roam the world and... smack mobs in the face aimlessly... Okay i'm bored. *Quits game*

[@Just_Joe]

Does a corrupted launcher with no working fix and infinite download count as a problem too?

[@qwertyness3565]

what is that pop up with your mounts id love to use that in-game than the current one

[@Le_beaubrun]

Uh living story is still the main reason I play and I wouldnt consider me a casual. Ive been trying FF14 recently and what struck me is that every single mechanic is linked to an actual story with cheap but present cutscenes that make you feel invested in everything you do. Learning a new job is fun because of it and hell even grinding side quests have an overarching story with cutscenes. GW2 should have linked their achievement to in-world story instead of the narrative only being one or two sentence of text, it makes it much more rewarding. (now gw2 combat is still miles better than FF14.)

[@kevingomez5869]

Bring back Gw1 2020 remastered

[@_.Waylander._]

Hey WP just wondering if it would be worth doing a follow up to this video looking at other mmo's and how they tackle these issues and maybe see where Anet can learn from them and make other ideas work for them in their own style?

[@faye_liyah]

What is that wheel to choose the mount?? How do you get it?

[@ShiningStarArts]

As someone who has played the Guild Wars Franchise from the start, I can say that pretty much everything that WP said in his video, I wholeheartedly agree with. I basically do dailies in GW2 now and the event stuff but even that doesn't take much time to complete all the achieves for it. I totally forgot about the new LWS tomorrow. My hubby reminded me today. Neither of us is super excited like we used to be about this game. It takes us maybe a couple hours to do these episodes and then we're bored again. He raids and I work on the GH but hardly anyone is on anymore. I'm very concerned about the franchise as a whole. It will be interesting to see what happens this year.

[@Aurinkohirvi]

Nothing kills a game more effective than doing daily missions.

[@arutemisemtrai9769]

As far as social engagement I find being the one to initiate contact is pretty rewarding. Granted I usually tag up somewhere and just start barking orders between casually talking. I miss the old guardian staff.

[@LNYuiko]

The first issue you brought up is the main reason why my friends and I stopped playing GW2 as soon as I got a character to level 80.

[@gamersparadise743]

ok, that zone ur in at 14:00 looks beautiful. im looking for an mmo to play and not even sure if i should come back to gw2... again.

[@TheDanielMSmith]

I think that Strikes are ArenaNet's way of bridging that gap and, from my limited experience, it seems to be working. The strikes are genuinely challenging to the lowest common denominator and, at least in Grothmar, they locked rewards behind there (the chair, the shoulders) that players could get interested in. The Bjora Marches ones seem to lack that cosmetic incentive, which is weird, but they have made them much more challenging. I imagine a player who is that lowest common denominator does the Grothmar strike, sees how easy and potentially rewarding it is, and feels confident going into Bjora strikes, only to get slapped down. Beyond that, ANet can't force players to improve. If that player decides that they're not interested in changing their build to beat the encounter, then the devs don't have an obligation to force them. Maybe they could do something with tooltips when the players wipe suggesting they experiment with their build, but beyond that I feel like the devs are giving the players the tools to improve and it's up to them to raise the skill floor. I know I've been in multiple groups where, after a wipe, players are talking about what changes they're going to make, asking for advice, etc. It also has that spark of valuable co-op interaction you want to see. I've made several friends in strikes, particularly a really good healer! But I'm not the average player, I don't think. And I pay more attention to these sorts of things since they've been concerns of mine as well. But I do think it's improving. I think there's also something to be cautious about when making content too difficult in the open world. Enemies in the expansions are much harder than in core, and there are several places where they feel like a genuine challenge, but more often than not, the combat feels like a restriction or punishment. You yourself have experienced this when trying to waypoint and you get in combat! It's even worse when you get dismounted and just want to get through an area clogged with properly challenging mobs. Combat doesn't feel good then, it feels like a slog. It feels like a chore that has to be endured in order to let you get to do the thing you were doing before you got in combat.

[@BeenThereBefore_UK]

As a casual player I have never managed to get into a Strike area as getting a team of 5-10 people who are happy to take a complete noob on board is nigh on impossible. Same goes for Fractals, Dungeons and Raids. Sorry... just seems to be my experience of it after 7 years of 'casual' PVE playing.

[@tokyodrifttt]

I think many of us tend to roll our eyes at people who whine “no communication” and “game is dying” everyday on reddit and map chat. But deep inside we all wondered and hoped for real constructive criticism like focusing more on the cooperative and social aspects of gw2 becasue that what keeps a community going. The longest running groups are usually the own community made ones whether it’s raiding, or HP or the triple threat guild. Imagine arenanet giving more resources to these people and the possibilities. Woodenpotatoes is the few people who takes time to think about the larger and long term picture of gw2 without ever being toxic and express it in a well spoken manner. I hope the dev team considers his opinion as it is the voice for many players like me.

[@NatHolmeaa]

My FAVORITE part when playing guild wars was the big attact on Lion Arc by Scarlet deal. that whole living world event was amazing. I spent so much time in my winterbreak, waiting for the mannequin fight, and was i one of the first attempts to save Lion Arch. it was so wild, and seemed like it.

[@Kalidann]

Thanks for making this video. I'm am MMO hopper, and ive tried GW2 a couple times, it just never stuck. I genuinely never understood why, because on paper GW2 seemed to check most the box's for a good MMO. It was very informative to hear an experienced players point of view.

[@aspektx]

As an aside the mmo ESO is beginning to use more clearly linked concepts from GW2s Living World.

[@zenith110]

Additionally in a twist of fate, they have a much more robust Guild system with better rewards and interfacing with multiple areas of the game. I will never ever accept the reasoning that the "Guild Wars", in the title only refers to the historic Guild Wars in the game lore and the entire emphasis of the game. It's baffling. You barely encounter different guilds in the game anyway. The Hamaseen and those other trade contract chests that you find in the desert could each be considered Guild but they rarely even make an appearance in any other way in the game. Even NPC guilds are only just now getting referenced (Since Destiny's Edge) by Bram in particular and we immediately kill some of his ex guildmates.

[@Eamil]

@@zenith110 The only issue I have with ESO guilds is that there's no guild housing. Guilds just use a designated member's personal house, but if that person gets pissy and leaves you're fucked.

[@zenith110]

@@Eamil sure, that's a big problem. However the fact that your Guild's give you so many benefits and interface with way more portions of the game is a crying shame when you look at Guild Wars 2 has problems. They don't interface with very many things, The Guild missions are extremely limited, they are not rewarding, they don't incentivize much group play, and they're mostly used as additional storage for a lot of people. those are only a handful of the problems with Guild Wars 2 guilds that I don't see you Elder Scrolls Online is guilds.

[@furiosa1203]

Eso is good tho and seems to be always improving. Gw2 seems to be stuck.

[@goat1373]

My hype for the game was killed when they did the 40m "saga" presentation (plus 10-15m of merchandising adverts). It seemed like they were hyping that presentation up all month and even did a count down timer for it. I was on board that hype train, ready to be blown away. Watching it live meant getting up at the ungodly hour of 4am but I did it. We didn't get an expansion announcement. They didn't distinguish a saga compared to a living world season (so basically just a rebranding). They didn't justify at all how a saga could take the place of an expansion. After the content of that presentation it didn't feel like I learned anything more than I would have from a regular living world trailer. It was a very hollow feeling sticking through the merchanidising segment only to realise that was it. They didn't have anything else to show. The disappointment for me was very real, not only at the presentation but also that (presumably) anet thought it was a good idea.

[@adgato75]

Yes , it was pathetic. When I watched it , I realized something. That merchandising segment was literally the whole point of the presentation. Because all of the other stuff they showed was just a normal trailer , as you said.

[@Saimeren]

But as someone who's been a very on and off casual player, should I come back to the game? WoW doesn't do it for me anymore, and I was looking to move on to something new. Although GW2 isn't new to me, I'm not as well versed with it as I am with other games. Every time I jump into it again, it feels new to me. With all the issues it's having, is it worth playing in 2020? Should I come back and pick up my old characters again, or should I move on to something else?

[@erdbeerpanda1804]

Short answer, find something else. Long answer: As a new player GW2 has a lot of content to do. Starting with the story (where you have to buy the Living Seasons if you want all the story, ~20€ per season) up to crafting legendarys and raids. A lot of stuff. ISSUE here is, you can achieve these goals in less than a year. And I am not joking with that, there is literally a streamer who started GW2 a year ago, and has a shit ton of legendary weapons, the trinkets, backpieces and raids, rare infusions and she is at a point, where there is nothing really new for her to do, besides the daily stuff. As you stated, you already have played it before, so there is even less things for you to do. I would recommend you FF14 if you don't have an issue with subscription fees. It has way more content, gives you way more freedom (you can literally play every single class on one character if you have the expansion for the classes) and you have way more interaction with other players. They bring out regularly new raids and new dungeons, and with that new weapons and gear. It is casualy friendly, as in, you can cancel the subscription and come back to the game later on BUT you will stay behind and that is something you have to accept with every MMO (except GW2 because there is no gear progression). Still, beeing behind in FF14 is not a bad thing, you don't get severly punished for it and you can still enjoy the game at your own pace. Back to GW2, with everything the company has done, I wouldn't recommend supporting their behaviour with your playtime. Gemstore-Content beeing the only regular thing they bring into the game and even then they fuck up the designs so hard (legionairs chair and pegasus for example), putting quality of life features (like templates) behind a paywall, even tho every other MMO has that for free and since the beginning of their game, having a shitty reward system (why even do a World Boss if you get literally NOTHING out of it) and bringing no new long lasting content, don't play it, not worth it.

[@z0h33y]

For me the biggest issue with GW2 was working towards full Ascended gear and not feeling any stronger afterwards.

[@gamithemighty5932]

I would genuinely appreciate the ability to replay through the entire personal story on any of my characters that I have already completed It on. I know its a silly desire but I always liked the idea of going back and seeing what I might have missed if I did things a different way ^^

[@StreliziaDeWitt]

If they would add Hard Mode (like in Guild Wars 1) on the entire story missions and add some better rewards then that junk they offer you now. That would be neat.

[@user-lc5bu9bm7v]

@@StreliziaDeWitt Curious, whats your idea of a "better reward"?

[@fingolduin]

I may be crazy but I wish GW2 didn't have achievements or mounts. The feeling of free exploration, gameplay pacing, and RPG elements the base game had were truly special, and it's missing from the game now.

[@Noobie2k7]

I personally feel like Roller Beetles should have been the only mounts to exist. Or if they did introduce all these mounts make them locked to certain areas of the game worlds. Roller Beetle racing will always be fun for me but i find a lot of the mounts just completely trivialise parts of the game that were really engaging at launch.

[@blippedyblop]

I completely agree. Every zone now feels tiny, bland, and the challenge has been removed.

[@Noobie2k7]

Zones also need more fun timed events and bosses in them. I know there's a few on the timetables but i don't think there's enough really. Also need to make them more memorable and group focused. I only really remember a couple. There's obviously the kind of entertaining Suwash pirate event, and i also remember a big worm boss. Also the strait of Devastation event where you have to defend the Alliance base wiuth the cannons and stuff. Need more like that, help the world actually feel more full of stuff going on. Currently the game's really only enjoyable at all when you go through it the first time and experience all these things. After that it all just becomes a chore.

[@marthdaeglin]

What do you think of taking instances from "Story Mode", such as the instance inside Gandara, and turning them into replayable dungeons with various difficulty options? Two of your points are very interesting when combined. You pointed out that one of the main forms of enticement to play the game has been the cosmetics for a long time. Later on you mentioned that frequently players can get more interesting looking skins from the gem store than as rewards for playing the content (other than grinding for gold). I want to be rewarded for saving Tyria or excelling in PvP, not just for grinding gold. I feel like an answer to the Gem Store issue is finding an answer to the question of "What should I be aiming for in the endgame?"

[@justawfulgamer7738]

I've tried to play this game a few times over the years, every time i do, i still feel lost and have no idea whats going on or what I'm doing

[@davidg4612]

Come back to gw1. Better than ever, though it can always use a few more players. But great to see how many still gather on events.

[@gantzuka]

I hated Guild wars 1. It was dificult as hell to progress. I died more times than I care to count.

[@davidg4612]

@@gantzuka and that is bad because what? Try dark souls as well. Or go play ubisoft games so you dont have to worry about death.

[@TheFunkyfeelings]

@@gantzuka Some people are just trash at gaming.

[@cralo2066]

@@gantzuka So you hate a game because you are bad. Makes a lot of sense.

[@mikestarace6654]

"One week of playtime every few months" That's quite generous of you WP. I get about one day of playtime out of LW updates.

[@mgu-vx4ib]

A week is assuming u do all the useless title, ap and skin grinds. A day is generous, i usually hit story for 3-4 hours, maybe spend another 2 hour exploring a new map and off we go.

[@mikestarace6654]

Yeah by a day I don't mean 24 hours of in-game playtime, I just mean a daily play session which would be around what you said, a few hours of gameplay.

[@jimbotheimpaler4756]

I’ve been grinding the hell out of gw2 lately and the open world wandering is definitely my favorite part. I find myself wishing for skip options in story mode which sucks because I really had fun doing the original story mode. I’m gonna go work on map completion see ya. 😬

[@LuckyFoxes789]

I have never in my life felt like someone was talking for me word for word. Well put!

[@XanthasSilvermoon]

About your thing with Gems and Gold: I cannot speak for a lot of players, but I can tell you I rarely have anything more than like 10 gold at a time. That's not enough to get any gems what so ever.

[@CupOfWhiskey]

I'm honestly surprised this game isn't dead.

[@xc4liber520]

I’m new to this game and I love that light blue shield that appears on your left side how do I get that?

[@HowYouDoin611]

That's the animation for the aegis boon

[@LuX7251]

my biggest issue with gw2 is the lackluster performance on a modern system, even with the dx12 "fix"