Is this game dead or?

[Modern Angel]

I got the chest drop for an amber insect weapon with the last key I had. Quick craft of the staff. It looks cool as hell.

[Sir T]

Malchor's leap is currently being deforested industrial scale as its one of the best places to get elder wood for foxfire clusters :D

The drop rate is ridiculously low however, but the price of them is going down on the TP as everyone is chopping wood. I recon they will stabilize eventually at around the 40 silver mark.

[Crumbs]

Started playing again.  Edge of the Mists is super fun.   

[Sir T]

Part 4 of the new living story deputed yesterday. To be honest its pretty damn fun. Ended with yet another "OHMIFKNGOD" moment. They are pausing it till "the fall" so this is a mid season finale. No major bugs apart from a howler that made it impossible to make the new improved backpack if you had completed it before the patch. All in all though the story is pretty legit.

For those needing a guide to making the new backpack (or just want to look at pics of it) here it is.

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/29/gw2-mysterious-vine-backpiece-guide/

http://dulfy.net/2014/08/13/gw2-cultivated-vine-backpiece-guide/

http://dulfy.net/2014/08/13/gw2-mawdrey-ascended-backpiece-and-pet-crafting-guide/

If you think "holy fuck that's stupidly complicated" yep I agree with you. I may or may not make the backpack as I don't really like the way it looks.

[Lantyssa]

It looks like more work than a legendary, which I have yet to make, and since all they do is back items for events I have a dozen I already like the look of.

[murdoc]

A couple of guild mates are making at least the exotic, and it's the Foxfire clusters that are the pain. ANET just can't stay away from stupid low RNG.

[Threash]

It looks dumb as hell, but i love the name.  And that it eats bloodstone dust.

[murdoc]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/the-game/releases/feature-packs/

So far this feature pack has been pretty meh, but I was pretty interested in the changes to Commander Tags. Originally in an interview at Gamescon, one of the Devs said that the price of the Tag is going up to 300g, will become account bound and all each additional colour would be another 300g.

This didn't sit well.

After a few days of yowling on forums and reddit they announced the Commander changes today and have adjusted the functionality. 300g for the Commander’s Compendium and that will include all colours and be account bound. Changes made over the weekend a direct result of the loud amount of feedback they received.

Mission accomplished? Personally, I am pretty happy that my Commander Tag is getting a bit of a functionality boost, but more importantly I am glad it is becoming account bound. It's a good start at least.

[Fordel]

The problem will be this won't be a 'start', this will be 'it' and wait another year for anything else to change. 

[Threash]

They blew their load on the first feature pack, i'm not surprised there isn't much left for this one.

[murdoc]

Did ANet just NGE'd GW2?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-On3Ya0_4Y

This Feature Patch has been a trainwreck, from the three week annoucement of basic QoL stuff to the QoL stuff not really offering much quality.

I've been a pretty staunch supporter of ANet and this game - but good lord, this patch has been a disaster.

[tazelbain]

Every since the "You know when we said you never have to grind for max level gear? Yes. We never said that, here is our new system to grind new max level gear." they can choke on a dick.

[Lantyssa]

The mini-wardrobe and mini slot are things I've wanted a long time.  And several of my characters are already 80.  That's about the only nice thing I can say about the dumbing down of the game.

[Ingmar]

Those are some baffling changes.

[Nevermore]

Did ANet just NGE'd GW2?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-On3Ya0_4Y

This Feature Patch has been a trainwreck, from the three week annoucement of basic QoL stuff to the QoL stuff not really offering much quality.

I've been a pretty staunch supporter of ANet and this game - but good lord, this patch has been a disaster.

Is that video supposed to be sarcastic?  Because the whole time all he does is say how glad he is that ANet has taken away all his choices.  

Edit: Ok, finished watching it.  The sarcasm is more apparent at the end.

[Lantyssa]

He did a good job if your sarcasm meter isn't registering.

[Nevermore]

There are way too many people who's view of games is just like that, only they're being sincere.

[Kageru]

Good video...  I don't understand the GW2 development process at all. They launched with really strong foundations and have basically just randomly staggered about making incomprehensible changes, very slowly, since.

[Lantyssa]

I'm glad I don't watch many video game reviews then.

As for the mind-boggling decisions, I'd guess it's because the live team is different from the pre-release team.  If that's not it then I don't know.

[Ingmar]

"You know what's wrong with our game? Leveling is much more fun than playing at 80. Let's dial that back a bit."

[Threash]

The only thing they should've been working on since launch should've been a) heroes and b) expansions.

[Fordel]

Anet has always had a very odd idea of fun. They've also had internal 'battles' over the direction of their games more then once.

[Rasix]

Wow. That video.  



Well, I never wanted to play those low level alts anyhow. 

They was really no need to ever touch the leveling experience except to perhaps make it even shorter for veterans (like what Marvel Heroes does).  There's a lot of ways they could just print money, but they're just too fucking stupid to do it.

[KallDrexx]

Wow is that video for real.

lololol

[Morfiend]

People on the forums are also reacting pretty much as expected.

[Threash]

That dudes voice made me turn the video of after five seconds, what did they do that was so terrible?

[Rasix]

Play the game.

edit for less snark:

He just showed off the new changes and contrasted them with how it previously was.  The changes come off as completely absurd.

[Lantyssa]

Also he showed a new character being directed to Frostgorge Sound by the helpful single-item "what to do" feature.

[Tmon]

At what level does the hand holding restricting choices end?  I've got about 10 of those level a character to 20 scrolls and I'm hoping that's high enough to skip the changes.

[KallDrexx]

Pulled from: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating

The following are level gated items:
Weapon skill 2 (Unlocked at level 2)
Weapon skill 3 (Unlocked at level 3)
Profession skill F1 (Unlocked at level 4)
Rally(downstate) (Unlocked at level 5)
Off-hand weapon slot (Unlocked at level 7)
Weapon skill 4 (Unlocked at level 7)
Underwater Combat (Unlocked at level 8 with underwater weapon skills 1 and 2)
Personal story (Unlocked at level 10 in chapters every 10 levels)
Weapon skill 5 (Unlocked at level 10)
Utility Skill 1 (Unlocked at level 13)
Underwater skill 3 (Unlocked at level 14)
Weapon Swap (Unlocked at level 15)
Down Skill 3 (Unlocked at level 19)
Profession skill F3 (Unlocked at level 22)
Underwater skill 5 (Unlocked at level 23
Utility Skill 2 (Unlocked at level 24)
Profession skill F4 (Unlocked at level 24)
Adapt Tier Traits (Unlocked at level 30)
Elite Skill (Unlocked at level 40)
Master Traits (Unlocked at level 60)
Grandmaster Traits (Unlocked at level 80)

The following items are not locked but do not appear on the minimap until the specified level.
Points of Interest (level 7)
Gathering Nodes (Level 9) – Nodes may have been removed in areas before this level. No there is no potato famine there is plenty of potato in Metrica Province.
Vista (level 10)

However, there are discussions below that there are more stuff gated than what's on that list

[Nija]

What in the ever loving fuck are they doing? That's the only thing I would have possibly considered doing in GW2 again - leveling an alt.

There still isn't anything to do at max level. Their living story is complete bullshit. Release a fucking expansion already with actual worthwhile content, thanks.

[KallDrexx]

A lot of things I've been reading is this was done for the China market (speculation is to support some VIP service coming down the line) but even the Chinese audience balked and complained about that.  So anet decided to do the sensible thing and push it out to NA as well   

Other complaints I have seen is the teleport to friend option is now gone, and one of the leaked/data mined pictures of the VIP stuff announce that as a VIP feature, so lol.

[Lantyssa]

WTF?  Teleport to friend is gone?  That was a major fucking innovation!  Dammit Arenanet.

[murdoc]

Colin Johanson chimes in:


To be fair, I haven't tried any of these changes and no matter what, I wasn't going to like them. I HATE the new trait unlock system and that in itself was enough that I didn't do anything but zerg up an alt.

This is all fine and dandy, but really the big thing is going to be what are they going to do to keep the veteran players going. I now have made myself two legendaries, have one of every class at level 80, dabbled in crafting ascended gear and spend most of my time in WvW. I am not interested in fractals or dungeons and have only done them out of necessity, the living story is a 2 hour run every couple of weeks, sPvP mildly interests me but I get too caught up in the trashtalk and trolling to really enjoy it - plus it's a dull gameplay.

I love that this game allowed me to level up and gear up without much trouble. I do quite enjoy WvW where I can both roam and zerg if I want, but it has it's many issues too. I have never been a fan of dungeons in any game which meant I was never at or near the top of a gear curve - in GW2 I am.

It's a really good game, I stand by that - but the lack of new content that I enjoy is really starting to get to me.

A lot of things I've been reading is this was done for the China market (speculation is to support some VIP service coming down the line) but even the Chinese audience balked and complained about that.  So anet decided to do the sensible thing and push it out to NA as well  

Other complaints I have seen is the teleport to friend option is now gone, and one of the leaked/data mined pictures of the VIP stuff announce that as a VIP feature, so lol.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating/page/4#post4397142

Colin, just clear up one thing – There is 0% chance EU/NA GW2 gets a VIP system?
We’re absolutely not bringing the China VIP system to NA/EU, correct.

[Threash]

To be quite honest none of that seems so terrible.