Random thoughts by a Random Player

[Jetra.1238]

Apologies in advance for any misspellings or odd sentences, getting over some sick that doesn't quite want to quit. Plus, some rambling, but I'll do my best to get my points across.

 

So, I recently got back into the game after a long break due to League of Legends taking up the majority of my time (I still logged in for Halloween and Wintersday, last time I played was when SAB was up and even then I wouldn't consider that as "playing"). The last time I played was about HoT's release where I did most of the quests but put down because I struggled doing it myself as I had nobody to help me on top of the fact most people would not play at my pace. Came back and finally got to finish it thanks to some help from bro and sis-law.

 

Having done that, I had made a second character that I was going to "learn" the game with as, when I started playing back in 2015 or thereabouts (according /age, my account is 1500 days old with just under 700 hours across all characters), my brother had me rush the story to do World Boss runs, thus kind of ruining the "journey" part of the game. As of a couple days ago, I finally did get to the end at a slower-than-usual pace and really enjoyed it and the song during the celebration marking my third level 80 (wasted my insta-boost on a Human Elementalist that I strictly use for events).

 

Now that I'm at endgame once more, I've begun to ponder some things like the idea of going through LW2 and 3 again and how there's been rumors / talks of slowdown in the industry. I'm personally not too worried about it, but anyway let me get to the main part of this incredibly long post that I didn't think would get - Some ideas I have on what I would like to see in the game. I'm just one player and don't represent everyone and I'm sure that many of these have been tossed around so I won't waste too much more time on them. Even if nothing changes, I still want to leave a post in the hopes that maybe an thought would be tossed around.

 

Alright, so my thoughts:

 

1. Make Living World 1 available again / LW1 Final Event as a Instanced Dungeon

Yes, I am sure this has been beaten to death over and over and over, not much to be said here. However, I'd like it to be reconsidered as an event of some sort even if it doesn't fully come back. Classic WoW is making a comeback, there is really no excuse about "it can't be done" as well as how successful Old School Runescape still is. I want to know the story behind Kasmeer, Majory, and Taimi, who is Canache? A five minute recap doesn't really do the justice to the giant hole in the story that assumes the player has always been there from the beginning.

 

If you don't want to remake it, at the very least make the recap better in some way than just "Scarlett was bad and destroyed Lion's Arch" and expect me to know everything out of it. It's kind of unfair that seasons 2 through 4 get to stay AS WELL AS you get achievements for replaying them (more on the replay later down).

 

2. Let me Solo Dungeons

I am a solo player not by choice but by happenstance. When I started playing, nobody was really doing them. Few are doing them now and if I did run them I am forced to skip cutscenes as few have the patience to wait a couple minutes for loot. To me, once you hit level 80, the game is kind of over, you just run around the map farming. Sure there are LWs and WBes and meta map events, but it feels more like you're just farming on a bigger scale.

 

Add a Solo option and treat them like a Story mission, take away all the loot and give me a reward for playing through it, I'll be happy with a few silver and a masterwork JUST LET ME WATCH CUTSCENES AND STUFF! Sure I could get a group of players, but problem is they are as impatient and quite possibly have already done them a billion times. I don't want them to drag their feet just for me because I feel like a jerk as well.

 

3. Add the Ability to replay Personal Story

Very simply, just like LW, I'd like to be able to replay parts of my personal story OR the entire thing if I so wish. Lock my choices, if I want to do another path I'll make a new char. Why would I want to replay my personal story? Because I'm that crazy, but really sometimes I don't want to do a boss run, grinding for a few gold coins per day. This is more of of the dumber ideas, I will admit that now.

 

4. Give me the option of "Locking" content per character

This one is going to be rough to explain so I'll try my best. Earlier I said I made a new character I wanted to "learn" the game with and taking my time playing on my Guardian. Due to me owning HoTs and having done mastery stuff before, the abilities are shared amongst my characters. Because of this, gates that require a certain mastery are passed as I already have them and thus would be akin to being a level 80 in a level 1 area in most other games.

 

 

Part of the fun for me is the journey and, again, this isn't something that everyone should have to suffer. When I get to level 80 on a character, just give me a small checkbox asking if I want to link my Mastery to them to which I can say yes or no. Having been rushed on my main and the fact I couldn't really enjoy most of LW2 and HoTs, it pains me that I can't experience that again (however, I do remember having a bad time through most of it...still, I want to learn so that I can teach new players)

 

I think I've rambled on long enough and don't feel like going into details with the rest like "9 free char slots and making Skritt a playable race yadda yadda" but yeah. I just wanted to make this post mostly because I wanted to share my thoughts of a long-time player. While I might not be a veteran, I do enjoy playing the game and it's a shame that my first month had me burnt out in a month as I was doing boss trains from reset (7pm my time) until almost midnight. This time around, I am trying to take it much slower, not start a lot of projects and hopefully enjoy myself.

 

EDIT: I should have prob mentioned this but I am more than willing to pay money for LW1 content or any LW in general by the season. It does not bother me at all because of the amount of replayability they usually have through achievements and such. Also give a small reward for doing all dailies in Bitterfrost, Doric, etc like 2g or something. I really like the areas.

[Katastroff.1045]

How about they fix all the broken stuff first?

[Jetra.1238]

> @"Katastroff.1045" said:

> How about they fix all the broken stuff first?

 

Seems kind of common sense, don't you think? Besides, that record has been played over a hundred times I'm sure.

[Randulf.7614]

FYI they said a few years ago that replaying the PS wasn't something they were able to add.

 

I agree on LS1, but it needs rewriting to fit the journal. Perhaps that would have been a better use of resources than the "unannounced projects", but there you go. It requires a great deal of resources to rework it given it was just festivals intermingled with some events and set pieces. Beyond Marionette, Tower of Nightmares and Battle for LA, there is little else of note considering the dungeons are either still in game (TA path4) or made into fractals (Molten + boss, Aetherblade+Mai Trin and Thaumonova). Plus we still have Tequatl and Triple Headed Wurm. So it needs a proper working over, including an actual story.

[Katastroff.1045]

> @"Jetra.1238" said:

> > @"Katastroff.1045" said:

> > How about they fix all the broken stuff first?

>

> Seems kind of common sense, don't you think? Besides, that record has been played over a hundred times I'm sure.

 

And lots of them are still waiting to be fixed.

Im not against new stuff nor your ideas, I just think that a leaky roof should be fixed before thinking about buying a new rug for the living room.

[Jetra.1238]

> @"Katastroff.1045" said:

> > @"Jetra.1238" said:

> > > @"Katastroff.1045" said:

> > > How about they fix all the broken stuff first?

> >

> > Seems kind of common sense, don't you think? Besides, that record has been played over a hundred times I'm sure.

>

> And lots of them are still waiting to be fixed.

> Im not against new stuff nor your ideas, I just think that a leaky roof should be fixed before thinking about buying a new rug for the living room.

 

I consider this more of a "car wash for fixing the leaky roof" myself, but yeah you're right. I only know stuff like broken animations and some glitchy AI, but I don't know how many people care about PvE content when the main focus is WvW stuff. Most people just burn it and be done with it from what I've saw, areas like Silverwastes being pretty dead and Auric only populated during certain time periods, usually never having enough people for octovine. I might just be getting bad maps too which I do consider.

[Gulbasaur.1865]

> @"Jetra.1238" said:

 

> 1. Make Living World 1 available again / LW1 Final Event as a Instanced Dungeon

 

Reading between the lines, I get the impression that while they have all the art assets, LW1 stuff was kind of 'bodge' code only ever meant for temporary deployment.

 

I do think that it would be a comparatively easy revenue boost if they released a cheap mini-expansion with rehashed LW1 content, even if it's a Frankenstein's monster stitched together with leftover parts. They must be able to knock a few more nostalgic fractals out of it.

 

> If you don't want to remake it, at the very least make the recap better in some way than just "Scarlett was bad and destroyed Lion's Arch" and expect me to know everything out of it. It's kind of unfair that seasons 2 through 4 get to stay AS WELL AS you get achievements for replaying them (more on the replay later down).

 

> 2. Let me Solo Dungeons

 

I'd just like it if they scaled instances to the number of people like they do events...

 

I also secretly think they've lost the password to the guild missions and dungeons folder, which is why some have bugs in so many years later. That or it's "it works but we don't know why and every time we change anything it breaks" code.

 

> 3. Add the Ability to replay Personal Story

 

Yeah, it would be cool. Some of the Orr stuff is great.

 

Obviously, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes but I kind of have the impression that there is something actually preventing Anet from accessing core game instances somehow, like maybe it's uncommented spaghetti code or some library updated and they can't recompile something without everything breaking. They've shown they're very willing to fix bugs in newer content quite quickly, but some older content is just locked down in a state with graphical bugs and or difficulty that hasn't scaled well.

 

From a marketing point of view, it doesn't make sense as players who are on the fence might think "it was cool but kind of buggy and parts feel abandoned", which is potentially lost sales, especially as there are many level 80 areas that are positively bustling with people. Leveling, you can easily miss that.

[Jetra.1238]

> @"Gulbasaur.1865" said:

>

> I also secretly think they've lost the password to the guild missions and dungeons folder, which is why some have bugs in so many years later. That or it's "it works but we don't know why and every time we change anything it breaks" code.

>

 

To that I say if they have the files just toss them to some modders. I'm sure they could get it running. I don't necessarily think it should be a part of the game, but if it can be cool. It was just a thought, I mostly just want a better explanation than what they give you, especially for new players who will most likely shoot for the finish line and farm until they pass out.

 

> 3. Add the Ability to replay Personal Story

>

> Yeah, it would be cool. Some of the Orr stuff is great.

>

> Obviously, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes but I kind of have the impression that there is something actually preventing Anet from accessing core game instances somehow, like maybe it's uncommented spaghetti code or some library updated and they can't recompile something without everything breaking. They've shown they're very willing to fix bugs in newer content quite quickly, but some older content is just locked down in a state with graphical bugs and or difficulty that hasn't scaled well.

>

> From a marketing point of view, it doesn't make sense as players who are on the fence might think "it was cool but kind of buggy and parts feel abandoned", which is potentially lost sales, especially as there are many level 80 areas that are positively bustling with people. Leveling, you can easily miss that.

 

True and I don't really expect them to bend to my will or anything. I'm just one person who wants to play a game among many who start at the end then consider going back to do what might be considered "irrelevant content." I mean, once you hit level 80, that's it. You're farming most of the time, everything else feels like a formality. LW? Burn it and done. Dungeons? Don't bother with them cause they're not profitable. You want to waste time in a jumping puzzle NOT for a daily? Get that right out.

 

I feel like the only time the game is actually "fun" is during the special events and even then most people are doing them to farm, myself included. Last wintersday I sold enough presents to get 200g spending for whenever I was playing again. It's a shame cause I really enjoy GW2 from an exploration perspective. I'm constantly running about getting stuck in areas or finding a random Scarlett laboratory.

[joneirikb.7506]

> @"Jetra.1238" said:

 

First of all welcome back, and it sounds like the best thing you can do is find a guild with a couple of others like you, that like to do things slowly. I can completely understand that, and can definitively enjoy it myself at times, but I play too seldom to be of much help to you these days :(

 

But there are more players out there that does enjoy taking their time and doing content. One of my friends only ever play when we can play together, and he ended up spending over a year to get his first character to 80, I was about to rip out the last bits of hair from my head! :p

 

---

 

To answer some of your points, unfortunately not a lot of nice answers to give:

 

> Living World 1 available

 

The problem with LS1 was that it was made completely different from any other story stuff, they had to replace maps and stuff. They've stated in the past that they couldn't leave it in the world without creating problems (like multiple versions of maps, splitting player base).

 

And that it would simply take too much time/money to recreate it in a feasible way, compared to what they think they could earn from it. So in short, it isn't going to happen.

 

That said, look on youtube, someone put together a GOOD summary movie with all the cutscenes and stuff. Much better than the stub in-game.

 

> Solo Dungeons

 

Well, this is already possible, but is quite a challenge! Basically several players that have mastered the combat and their class/builds have managed to enter solo and beat the entire dungeon alone. It is definitively not for the faint of heart. But yes, I realize this is not what you're asking for.

 

For one thing Dungeons are considered "dead content", in that they no longer have any dev's working on Dungeons except for bug fixing if it is serious. So any kind of changes to dungeons are 99% unlikely. Fractals have taken over Dungeon's role, and you stand a better chance of asking for Fractal's Solo than Dungeons. Though I doubt they're interested in doing that, considering Fractals are the main Group content in the game.

 

I'd suggest looking for a casual guild that are willing to run dungeons with you at your own speed.

 

> Replay Personal Story

 

This has also been asked about many times, and ANet has answered that it causes too much problems. Basically PS becomes part of the character, and they can't untangle it from the character afterwards, without causing bugs and problems in the code, which could have negative effects for the characters (Dunno what, but could be you lost skills, or items or stats mess up? who knows).

 

You can however join someone else doing their story, and thus re-experience it if you want. So if you're helping out new players, or get new players in a guild, or friends that make new character, ask to join and experience their story lines.

 

> Locking Masteries

 

Yeah not possible right now, no idea how hard this would be for ANet to implement or not.

 

The most common way to solve this for people that try to recapture that "new character feel" tend to be to just opt to not use it. Take the falling damage like a man (or woman), Walk everywhere, and set some limits for yourself in the expansion maps, like not using more than X and Y masteries, and not the top ones for example (per map). Don't unlock/use elite specializations until you reach the relevant expansionpack etc.

 

Alternatively if you want the genuine experience, you can make a F2P account and start a blank new character.

 

[Jetra.1238]

> @"joneirikb.7506" said:

>

> First of all welcome back, and it sounds like the best thing you can do is find a guild with a couple of others like you, that like to do things slowly. I can completely understand that, and can definitively enjoy it myself at times, but I play too seldom to be of much help to you these days :(

>

> But there are more players out there that does enjoy taking their time and doing content. One of my friends only ever play when we can play together, and he ended up spending over a year to get his first character to 80, I was about to rip out the last bits of hair from my head! :p

>

It's nice to be back and I'm in a couple of guilds, my brother's and some random I joined simply because I liked their guild name. I'm not much of a guildy myself because real life loner. I like to join people, but usually am hesitant to join if asked as they usually have some expectation of me which usually translates to "we're four miles ahead of you, try to catch up!"

 

Also, I'm slow, but I'm not that bad, lol. I think my second character was ~40 hours over...a year? In my defense, I did half and half so it's not like I did a level and stopped. I went in sections of 10-20 levels at a time.

>

> To answer some of your points, unfortunately not a lot of nice answers to give:

>

> > Living World 1 available

>

> The problem with LS1 was that it was made completely different from any other story stuff, they had to replace maps and stuff. They've stated in the past that they couldn't leave it in the world without creating problems (like multiple versions of maps, splitting player base).

>

> And that it would simply take too much time/money to recreate it in a feasible way, compared to what they think they could earn from it. So in short, it isn't going to happen.

 

I figured the case, but also "if there's a demand there might be a possibility" meaning I just said it for saying's sake. I'm always open to the option of it being completely separate from the game if that's what it takes. I mean, it would be cool to be in the game, but I figured old code like that would have its own issues so was not expecting them to just shove it in and hope for the best like League does. I point OSRS as an example of what they could do, but I was not intent on having it split the playerbase, just being a little bit selfish because it absolutely bothers me when I'm missing a chunk of story.

 

It was only recently I've opened to the idea of playing some newer Final Fantasy games out of order. For the longest time, I absolutely refuse to play 2 before 1, though in the case of GW2 it was slightly different.

 

>

> That said, look on youtube, someone put together a GOOD summary movie with all the cutscenes and stuff. Much better than the stub in-game.

>

 

I have tried to find stuff pertaining to it, I really did, but most series do a couple episodes and just end, are long-winded discussions about the lore in general, or are memorial videos that were made after the fact rendering it somewhat worthless from an explanation. I'd go to Twitch, but video archival there is rough. In short, I've done digging and got either bad hits or worse results and I made a game out of learning to abuse the site's algorithm.

 

> > Solo Dungeons

>

> Well, this is already possible, but is quite a challenge! Basically several players that have mastered the combat and their class/builds have managed to enter solo and beat the entire dungeon alone. It is definitively not for the faint of heart. But yes, I realize this is not what you're asking for.

>

> For one thing Dungeons are considered "dead content", in that they no longer have any dev's working on Dungeons except for bug fixing if it is serious. So any kind of changes to dungeons are 99% unlikely. Fractals have taken over Dungeon's role, and you stand a better chance of asking for Fractal's Solo than Dungeons. Though I doubt they're interested in doing that, considering Fractals are the main Group content in the game.

>

> I'd suggest looking for a casual guild that are willing to run dungeons with you at your own speed.

>

 

I've been finding people lately to play them. As for solo'ing, I've done stuff like that when I had to pretty much solo Special Ops in Closers which recommends a full party to do. Shame Dungeons are dead content, I've been enjoying going diving into them as a break from doing world boss trains. I've been watching LFG and jumping into whatever I could.

 

> > Replay Personal Story

>

> This has also been asked about many times, and ANet has answered that it causes too much problems. Basically PS becomes part of the character, and they can't untangle it from the character afterwards, without causing bugs and problems in the code, which could have negative effects for the characters (Dunno what, but could be you lost skills, or items or stats mess up? who knows).

>

> You can however join someone else doing their story, and thus re-experience it if you want. So if you're helping out new players, or get new players in a guild, or friends that make new character, ask to join and experience their story lines.

>

 

I suppose I could do that, but not sure how many people would be willing to do that who have not already played through it at least once bringing back the annoyance of "skip the cutscenes, get to the end." I will definitely consider it, but for now will settle with remaking a character and playing through them. This one was more of a musing than an actual want, hence I figured they could lock it or something.

 

Although, I really wish they kind of fix them at the very least so it doesn't throw you into old LA during human's story path. Not sure what the other races are like, I'm only now starting on playing through Charr before I go Asura then Norn and ending on Sylvari who's going to be my fourth character.

 

> > Locking Masteries

>

> Yeah not possible right now, no idea how hard this would be for ANet to implement or not.

>

> The most common way to solve this for people that try to recapture that "new character feel" tend to be to just opt to not use it. Take the falling damage like a man (or woman), Walk everywhere, and set some limits for yourself in the expansion maps, like not using more than X and Y masteries, and not the top ones for example (per map). Don't unlock/use elite specializations until you reach the relevant expansionpack etc.

>

> Alternatively if you want the genuine experience, you can make a F2P account and start a blank new character.

>

 

I most likely will do that and as to F2P account, that seems a bit of a hassle just for that one time experience. My thought was kind of like how Path of Exile separates all it's leagues so I figured it shouldn't be that hard, but masteries involve achievements where that might be the issue since those are account-wide. It would be really nice to have, but there are plenty of guides out there already so me learning the game kind of seems pointless apart from my own stubbornness.

 

It'll be a while before I get to that point, though, as doing the next batch of "content" on my secondary is on hold for the moment as I wanted to explore the other races. This is probably my most wanted thing I would love to see should I continue playing. If it never happens, it's not going to be a deal-breaker for me, just a little bit sad the same way I can't experience LW1 which, by the above accounts, is pretty much nil unless a miracle happens.

 

Then again, I managed to get 5 parts to Sunrise in a row soooo I'm a betting man. Until then, I'm going to entertain myself the same way I did when I started: running around like an idiot doing whatever catches my interest like that Giant Devourer event in Iron Marches.

[Batel.9206]

> @"Jetra.1238" said:

> > That said, look on youtube, someone put together a GOOD summary movie with all the cutscenes and stuff. Much better than the stub in-game.

> >

>

> I have tried to find stuff pertaining to it, I really did, but most series do a couple episodes and just end, are long-winded discussions about the lore in general, or are memorial videos that were made after the fact rendering it somewhat worthless from an explanation. I'd go to Twitch, but video archival there is rough. In short, I've done digging and got either bad hits or worse results and I made a game out of learning to abuse the site's algorithm.

 

[appears in a cloud of smoke] Did somebody say Season One recap??

I was reading through the thread and I saw this - here's the link to the recap/summary! I hope you find this useful. :)

>!

[disappears in another cloud of smoke]

[hugo.4705]

> @"Jetra.1238" said:

>

> Alright, so my thoughts:

>

> 1. Make Living World 1 available again / LW1 Final Event as a Instanced Dungeon

> Yes, I am sure this has been beaten to death over and over and over, not much to be said here. However, I'd like it to be reconsidered as an event of some sort even if it doesn't fully come back. Classic WoW is making a comeback, there is really no excuse about "it can't be done" as well as how successful Old School Runescape still is. I want to know the story behind Kasmeer, Majory, and Taimi, who is Canache? A five minute recap doesn't really do the justice to the giant hole in the story that assumes the player has always been there from the beginning.

>

> 2. Let me Solo Dungeons

> I am a solo player not by choice but by happenstance. When I started playing, nobody was really doing them. Few are doing them now and if I did run them I am forced to skip cutscenes as few have the patience to wait a couple minutes for loot. To me, once you hit level 80, the game is kind of over, you just run around the map farming. Sure there are LWs and WBes and meta map events, but it feels more like you're just farming on a bigger scale.

>

> 3. Add the Ability to replay Personal Story

> Very simply, just like LW, I'd like to be able to replay parts of my personal story OR the entire thing if I so wish. Lock my choices, if I want to do another path I'll make a new char. Why would I want to replay my personal story? Because I'm that crazy, but really sometimes I don't want to do a boss run, grinding for a few gold coins per day. This is more of of the dumber ideas, I will admit that now.

>

> 4. Give me the option of "Locking" content per character

> This one is going to be rough to explain so I'll try my best. Earlier I said I made a new character I wanted to "learn" the game with and taking my time playing on my Guardian. Due to me owning HoTs and having done mastery stuff before, the abilities are shared amongst my characters. Because of this, gates that require a certain mastery are passed as I already have them and thus would be akin to being a level 80 in a level 1 area in most other games.

 

1) Simple, would say, add 3 fractals:

-Battle of Lion's arch with evacuation

-Battle on the Breachmaker/Or marrionette

-Battle for Southsun Cove, Canach's lair.

 

2) Easier for dungeons, there is a golem existing in raid training force area, allowing you to buff yourself (even 25 might infinite.) Why not adding it at the entrance of dungeons, appearing if you're alone?

 

3) PS, yeah would like to replay it too, we should have options to replay an episode just like living story.

 

4) Dunno, it's cool once you unlocked the masteries that you can pass the story steps easily.

[mercury ranique.2170]

A simple answer is that you have to wonder why they would put attention in existing content when they can focus on new content. There is a common thing in game development. One can not develop content as quick as people play through it. So it is always a race to make the gap between content releases as small as possible, while still making it commercially attractive. For maintanance tasks like skillbalance and worldpolish, they have specialists tot do so, but for recreating new content, they need to allocate content designers away from new content to work on existing content.

[TheGrimm.5624]

First off, welcome back. That's the beauty of GW2 is that you can come and go and refresh things by taking a break from time to time if you need. This is actually one of the few games I would say that starts when you reach max level. Some games it's about the journey to max level but to me here it begins once you reach level cap. That said I am not saying rush to max level, take your time and enjoy but realize there is much more to do once you stop with leveling. And don't let people rush you, that happens in a lot of games that have been out for a while, people you game with may try and rush you thru content to catch you up to them and that to me will quite often ruin the experience and that exploration. So take it at your pace. Feel free to explore. Now the reason I say the game begins once you reach max level is that since everything scales there is no reason you can't explore content even after hitting max. In your post yu mentions dungeons, people do solo dungeons today at max level. Outside of that there are game modes where you will want to focus on maxing your stats to reach even more challenging content, Fractals are a good example as well as WvW where your level/gear does make a difference. Collections, achievements, exploration are all examples that level doesn't matter since they are about doing and odds are good just by reaching level 80 on a couple of toons you still will have lots you haven't done. So enjoy as you will, don't rush of that not what you want to do and enjoy your journey. But no, to me game begins at max level and just goes on from there. Good gaming!

[TheGrimm.5624]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

 

> 1) Simple, would say, add 3 fractals:

> -Battle of Lion's arch with evacuation

> -Battle on the Breachmaker/Or marrionette

> -Battle for Southsun Cove, Canach's lair.

>

 

Agree for a while now I think the most direct ANet could do to bring back some LS1 stuff is via fractals since overtime they have said LS1 wasn't create using the same tools that would allow people to replay like we do with the later LSs. But in Fractals they could break down the events into subcomponents and make them into fractals that are portions of the events. Marionette for example either replicate a single platform that your group plays on. Backdrop could be the larger fight. Or create a smaller version where members are split on a couple of platforms. LS1 in Fractals I think would also fit the concept of Fractals as glimpses in time. So +1 from me on the concept and +10 to ANet that things like the Marionette fight is still viewed as a memorable experience by players years after it was released.

 

[Jetra.1238]

> @"Batel.9206" said:

> [appears in a cloud of smoke] Did somebody say Season One recap??

> I was reading through the thread and I saw this - here's the link to the recap/summary! I hope you find this useful. :)

> >!

> [disappears in another cloud of smoke]

 

I actually saw this, but the three hour length had me hesitant. Will definitely watch when able.

 

> @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> A simple answer is that you have to wonder why they would put attention in existing content when they can focus on new content. There is a common thing in game development. One can not develop content as quick as people play through it. So it is always a race to make the gap between content releases as small as possible, while still making it commercially attractive. For maintanance tasks like skillbalance and worldpolish, they have specialists tot do so, but for recreating new content, they need to allocate content designers away from new content to work on existing content.

 

It's always about player retention which is a discussion and a half. If they want new players, you're always going to have to give them something shiny which they tend to go through over a weekend before getting bored and going back to whatever they were doing before. I'm not exactly an expert on this and there is no correct answer of "should they work on old content or new?" as then it devolves into Nostalgia Vision and the like.

 

I like new content as much as the next person yet the road to endgame looks very cobbly and even when you're there there's boxes of half-done projects left behind in favor of a new shiny bauble like gliders and mounts.

 

> @"TheGrimm.5624" said:

> First off, welcome back. That's the beauty of GW2 is that you can come and go and refresh things by taking a break from time to time if you need. This is actually one of the few games I would say that starts when you reach max level. Some games it's about the journey to max level but to me here it begins once you reach level cap. That said I am not saying rush to max level, take your time and enjoy but realize there is much more to do once you stop with leveling. And don't let people rush you, that happens in a lot of games that have been out for a while, people you game with may try and rush you thru content to catch you up to them and that to me will quite often ruin the experience and that exploration. So take it at your pace. Feel free to explore. Now the reason I say the game begins once you reach max level is that since everything scales there is no reason you can't explore content even after hitting max. In your post yu mentions dungeons, people do solo dungeons today at max level. Outside of that there are game modes where you will want to focus on maxing your stats to reach even more challenging content, Fractals are a good example as well as WvW where your level/gear does make a difference. Collections, achievements, exploration are all examples that level doesn't matter since they are about doing and odds are good just by reaching level 80 on a couple of toons you still will have lots you haven't done. So enjoy as you will, don't rush of that not what you want to do and enjoy your journey. But no, to me game begins at max level and just goes on from there. Good gaming!

 

Thanks and that's something I want to bring up as most MMO players will throw out that argument - The game doesn't start until level cap / endgame. Granted it's kind of true, but it brings me back to the point I made that people start at the finish line then work their way back. How can people easily disregard the journey to 80 that kind of sets you up for the end. Something I've realized myself is that the game kind of "stops" in a way in most games once you get to the end.

 

Not making it sound like that's a bad thing, but it kind of defeats the purpose of about half of the content in the game. Why not start everyone at the end from the beginning if the journey is kind of moot. You're right in that there's a lot to do once you reach level cap yet at the same time you're not going to do Dungeons, Orr, or any of the Silverwastes since that is now unnecessary grind. You can even skip all of HoTs and move straight to PoF which has mounts which are easily better overall (and I want one to make exploration easier, tbh)

 

I've already got burnt once on the game rushing through and don't intend on making that mistake twice. This is just something I have noticed since coming back and playing through my second character of just how "standard" the game feels at times. I don't think it's the leveling that is the issue just the experience which was one of the charms of the game I adored as well as what I like to call "Verticality" which is being able to go up and down. Sure there's relatively flat areas and I don't mind, but simple slopes and little craters are just as good to me.

 

Anyway, yes there's a lot of endgame yet at the same time about 70% seems under-used like low-level fractals, dungeons, and some meta world events which kind of is better with more people. Sure I can solo it, but I really don't want to if I can help it.