Collections are the worst thing in this game

[JDub.1530]

I like collections. I do wish a few here and there were a bit more obvious to find/figure out in game, as I like to figure them out myself and not have to go to the wiki, or sometimes even a video guide.

 

My two favorite collections are the OG scavenger hunt (Mad King book back) and the final Astralaria collection (which tells a really cool story).

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> I agree that the collections are amongst the worst things the game has to offer, a lot of them feel like you're just doing chores and force you to play old bug ridden quests thanks to A-Net being adamant about their "never fix the old stuff" policy.

 

As opposed to quest chains which have you do a bunch of chores?

 

I suppose we could request that Anet do away with collections but instead make each collection item its own quest which you must do in order as part of a quest chain.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> If the problem is that following a guide takes the fun out of it there's an easy solution: try doing it yourself and only use the Wiki if you're completely stuck.

>

> Or if you're stuck you could ask people in-game for help. It's pretty much the same thing, but can be more fun, especially if you can team up with someone else doing the same thing.

 

Some of the collections are impossible to solve alone.

And thats why they are private server for anet partners to create guides one day after release of the new content.

 

i like collections. i had a lot of fun creating Aurora, but you can not solve all collections by yourself. its nearly impossible.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Stalkingwolf.6035" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > If the problem is that following a guide takes the fun out of it there's an easy solution: try doing it yourself and only use the Wiki if you're completely stuck.

> >

> > Or if you're stuck you could ask people in-game for help. It's pretty much the same thing, but can be more fun, especially if you can team up with someone else doing the same thing.

>

> Some of the collections are impossible to solve alone.

> And thats why they are private server for anet partners to create guides one day after release of the new content.

>

> i like collections. i had a lot of fun creating Aurora, but you can not solve all collections by yourself. its nearly impossible.

 

They’re not impossible to solve alone. People are just impatient or don’t want to put the effort into figuring them out.

 

The partners get early access to help with their streams. It’s not about getting guides out on day one.

 

Again, it’s not impossible nor is it nearly impossible. Players just have different thresholds on what they want to put effort in. There are some players that don’t want to really put much thought into what they’re doing when they play as well. They’re the ones you see that purchase the player guides for console games and simply follow them step by step. There’s nothing wrong with that; just a different style of play.

[Alexa.5094]

I understand that collections don't appeal to everyone. My friend thinks they are boring but I always liked them. They can be tough to complete and sometimes frustrating, espacially when timelocked events are involved, but this way the reward is even bigger in my opinion. But I agree that some of them are way too hard to figure out without a guide.

[Alchimist.4738]

> @"Nuka Cola.8520" said:

> You made em so people solve riddles and such, but who's really doing that? One out of thousand of players? Most will be alt tabbed searching the wiki. How is this fun? How is this content?

 

That's people's fault really, no one forces you to go to the wiki, I'd say some collection are more tedious than others and might drive people to go to the wiki, but others such as the Karka at Lion's Arch are actually fun scavenging hunts.

 

> Everything new is behind collections aka chores. These same skins could've been implemented in challenging content made for team play (because its an mmo, and that's what you do in mmo's), but instead, they're made for you to be alt tabbed doing chores while watching youtube videos.

 

You have actually quite a few skins locked behind raids and other end game contents, here again I'd argue the game needs more rewarding skins (fractals armour when?), but it exists and complement the collections.

 

[Nuka Cola.8520]

> @"Malafaia.8903" said:

> I like collections

 

That's fine. But can i, someone who likes to do challenging content made for coop have more than 1 skin? Or is everything supposed to be gated behind those who enjoy playing gw2 alt tabbed?

 

A new LS is introduced, and everything is 1- behind gem store 2- behind collections. Where are the items that make you **play** the game???

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Stalkingwolf.6035" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > If the problem is that following a guide takes the fun out of it there's an easy solution: try doing it yourself and only use the Wiki if you're completely stuck.

> >

> > Or if you're stuck you could ask people in-game for help. It's pretty much the same thing, but can be more fun, especially if you can team up with someone else doing the same thing.

>

> Some of the collections are impossible to solve alone.

> And thats why they are private server for anet partners to create guides one day after release of the new content.

>

> i like collections. i had a lot of fun creating Aurora, but you can not solve all collections by yourself. its nearly impossible.

 

Which ones are impossible to solve without a guide?

 

I know some things are much easier with lots of people working on it - like the hungry cat scavenger hunt where people would coordinate looking for new cats to save time and brainstorm possible foods - but the fact that they were doing that also means it's not one where someone was fed secret insider knowledge to write a guide because Anet knew it was impossible for anyone to figure out.

[Daddicus.6128]

I LOVE collections. And scavenger hunts of all kinds. I would rather do those than combat or even storyline missions (which is a close third).

[Bridget Morrigan.1752]

I like collections too and only ever use a guide if I can't figure them out on my own.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> They’re not impossible to solve alone. People are just impatient or don’t want to put the effort into figuring them out.

 

They are, because some descriptions are wrong.

 

> The partners get early access to help with their streams. It’s not about getting guides out on day one.

yes and thats why guildnews, dulfy&Co had guides one day after release online. and ... wonder .... all on private servers.

Some ( not all ) Collections are designed that you need guides. win - win situation for gw2 and their partners.

 

 

[RoseofGilead.8907]

> @"Stalkingwolf.6035" said:

> yes and thats why guildnews, dulfy&Co had guides one day after release online. and ... wonder .... all on private servers.

> Some ( not all ) Collections are designed that you need guides. win - win situation for gw2 and their partners.

 

There sure are a lot of other players on those private servers, showing up in Dulfy's videos to show her how to get to certain objectives.

 

 

[Malafaia.8903]

> @"Nuka Cola.8520" said:

> > @"Malafaia.8903" said:

> > I like collections

>

> That's fine. But can i, someone who likes to do challenging content made for coop have more than 1 skin? Or is everything supposed to be gated behind those who enjoy playing gw2 alt tabbed?

>

> A new LS is introduced, and everything is 1- behind gem store 2- behind collections. Where are the items that make you **play** the game???

 

I'm sorry, but you're the one spoiling yourself.

I enjoy all the collections **playing** the game, exploring, killing champs, etc.

[starlinvf.1358]

> @"Kheldorn.5123" said:

> Collections are a cheap excuse for proper questing system that GW2 tried to avoid like fire, adding nothing but typical fetch tasks everywhere in the world.

 

As opposed to talking to a specific NPC to start it, then having to go all the way back to that specific NPC when you're done, and on every character? The problem with most quests is that they're usually only good for one pass as an actual experience..... and having to repeat that with no alternate outcome is completely pointless outside of getting duplicate rewards.

 

There are a couple of older side story collections where you have to repeat the whole process on each character, because the associated item is soulbound. The first time the puzzle/discovery process keeps you invested. But the second time around its tedious, since you already have the solution. And if you somehow slogged through 5+ on the off chance theres a good reward in future chapters, odds are you're either sick of it, or you've been completely numbed to repetitious tasks.

 

GW1 was just packed to the brim with quests of all kinds...... and since that too is a game that encouraged having a few alts for party play, but kept everything character specific, getting Alts up to speed was a complete pain in the corn hole. Especially in Prophecies, where the leveling speed is a lot slower and many skills were quest rewards. I loved the exploration and the story missions in that game, but the quests were total hit and miss depending on where it was leading you.

 

The questing format in video games has fundamental issues given how they were meant to mimic P&P RPG campaigns on a small scale. But the resources required to make something that can actively respond to the crazy/creative approach players take to problem solving is immense. And given the insatiable demand for things to consume their attention, quantity over quality is now a priority for any game that gains some kind of mainstream following. This even affects the indie space, as a lot of good games get hit for "lack of content" or short play through times. And as a response, many games fall back to shoving in easily crafted "content" just to pad it out.... which they get called out for if they do, and called out for if they don't.

 

So try to cite an example of a "proper questing system", and realize very few would had the resources or time needed to craft a bunch of really good ones. Because I can tell you right now, almost any example you pull up from this century is either a small sub set of the total quests made for it, or its your standard trifecta of fetch/kill/escort archetypes that are really good at covering up the fact of that is what they are.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Stalkingwolf.6035" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > They’re not impossible to solve alone. People are just impatient or don’t want to put the effort into figuring them out.

>

> They are, because some descriptions are wrong.

 

Examples?

 

> > The partners get early access to help with their streams. It’s not about getting guides out on day one.

> yes and thats why guildnews, dulfy&Co had guides one day after release online. and ... wonder .... all on private servers.

> Some ( not all ) Collections are designed that you need guides. win - win situation for gw2 and their partners.

>

 

Dulfy has people that are there explaining how to do all of the achievements and such so she can make her guides. If she had early access, specifically to make guides, don’t you think that all of those guides would have been released the second the release went live? Actually, have any guides been released in recent times upon a release going live?

 

Collections are not designed so that you need guides. They have tooltips that give you hints but the vast majority of them are pretty straightforward. Exceptions would be those that are intended to have players search the map.

 

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Malafaia.8903" said:

> > @"Nuka Cola.8520" said:

> > > @"Malafaia.8903" said:

> > > I like collections

> >

> > That's fine. But can i, someone who likes to do challenging content made for coop have more than 1 skin? Or is everything supposed to be gated behind those who enjoy playing gw2 alt tabbed?

> >

> > A new LS is introduced, and everything is 1- behind gem store 2- behind collections. Where are the items that make you **play** the game???

>

> I'm sorry, but you're the one spoiling yourself.

> I enjoy all the collections **playing** the game, exploring, killing champs, etc.

 

Same. Almost none of my collections and achievements have had a guide used. I'm even proud to say I've only done JP's where I've done them myself rather than with a portal. I find I am able to "play the game" just fine.

 

If people choose to use a guide, that's their business. Certainly aren't needed

[Lexi.1398]

You don't have to use wiki though, for the sheer majority of collections in game i did them myself- without wiki or dulfy. the clues in names and riddles etc are very easily solved if you're somewhat comfortable with the map and the events on maps. there's only a few collections that i had to resort to dulfy to do, and those are only a small portion of collections overall. I found over half of the golden coins in SW just from trying to find weird corners while map complete + RIBA, i got all but about 5 coins in dry top without dulfy too. Aside coin collectors, draconis mons + ember bay sentient anomaly scavenger hunt, i can't really think of any collection i needed a guide for...

[Mea.5491]

Collections are optional and no one forces you to use guides, you can figure out everything alone.

[morrolan.9608]

Collections go along with the grind philosophy anet has in GW2.

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Nuka Cola.8520" said:

> They're chores, chores worse than killing 10 rats for 5xp. You made em so people solve riddles and such, but who's really doing that? One out of thousand of players? Most will be alt tabbed searching the wiki. How is this fun? How is this content? Everything new is behind collections aka chores. These same skins could've been implemented in challenging content made for team play (because its an mmo, and that's what you do in mmo's), but instead, they're made for you to be alt tabbed doing chores while watching youtube videos. This is why your expansions run out of content in under a week, while GW1 expansions kept you busy until the next exp comes out, literally. People want to play content, and that content is not being wikipedia.

 

Collections are not necessary, in most cases they're completely optional and a lot of them you can complete without actually trying to do them. I have a question though, are you a veteran player or new player? I'd presume you're a newer player otherwise this would have been brought up before...and I don't recall it being brought up before. Anyways, collections, whether good or bad, are in the eye of the beholder.

[Etria.3642]

The only thing that drove me nuts about Aurora was that you had to spend most of your time on Draconis Mons which isn't my favorite map, because I had not completed the Henge.

 

And although I have complained about the Orr part in a collection it isn't the COLLECTION I mind. It's requiring the events to fail. I like collections. Even when not actively working on one it's cool to get that little pop up when completing something.

 

I definitely wouldn't be going to or doing things on certain maps without collections. In addition I LOVELOVELOVE that collections are ACCOUNT based. So I can swap without having to worry about it counting. And no doing it on every single character.

[Kal Spiro.9745]

The only collections I don't like are for weapons that require BL tickets to buy, or buying them off the TP. Those annoy me. To a lesser extent the weapons that are only accessible through a holiday event achievement, because it takes years and years to get those.

[Nuka Cola.8520]

> @"Malafaia.8903" said:

> > @"Nuka Cola.8520" said:

> > > @"Malafaia.8903" said:

> > > I like collections

> >

> > That's fine. But can i, someone who likes to do challenging content made for coop have more than 1 skin? Or is everything supposed to be gated behind those who enjoy playing gw2 alt tabbed?

> >

> > A new LS is introduced, and everything is 1- behind gem store 2- behind collections. Where are the items that make you **play** the game???

>

> I'm sorry, but you're the one spoiling yourself.

> I enjoy all the collections **playing** the game, exploring, killing champs, etc.

 

That is way too easy. I want challenge, killing random stuff in the open world is so simple you can watch a movie while killing.

[Jimbru.6014]

I played through the grinds of EQ1, where you would camp for literally days for a rare spawn mob in competition with everyone else on the server. This game's collections are kindergarten level difficulty by comparison. My necro did over half the Guide for the Lost collection last night in just a few hours. Ain't no thing.

[xuse.6817]

I'd rather buy Legs with gold. I wouldn't touch collections with a 2000000 mile pole.

The masteries needing you to do achievements is worse than the collections by far, though. Or, rather, basically needing to buy the expansions to play the game, really. I hated HoT, why should I have to buy it just for fractals? Really?!