Guild Wars 2 anno 2018

For some reasons ArenaNet only referred to (and priced) Eye of the North as an actual expansion as the others could be purchased as stand-alone games. It's a detail I don't think anyone but them was particularly worried about.

The cosmetic 'grind' was in finding rare skins. I'd tried that once, I think, farming Bogroot Growths for a frog scepter skin. I gave up and bought it instead, for something of a bargain as not many were looking for a Fast Casting scepter, even low req. Probably because it was a mesmer-only stat I suppose.

The only reason to pay so much for items like that was the skin - if that wasn't a priority, you could find an item with the same stats lying on the ground all the time.

AH true. They created all new starting areas for all three of the chapters. And as much as I'll always love Pre-Searing, both factions and nightfall had incredibly good starts as well. God damn I miss that game.

Drok runs were an art form.

They killed WvW way back, no reason to play anymore. rip

WvW was dead on arrival sadly, it just took a few poor balance decisions to drive away most of the remaining players who didn't care that it was a non-functioning game mode.

The design never even gave players the illusion that they had any control over the outcome of a match, or that the outcome itself mattered.

In a different way, it'd be similar to the FIFA World Cup where the winner is not determined by who makes it to the final and wins, but who scores the highest number of goals across the tournament. Most of the matches would be meaningless, and whoever came top of the pool with North Korea in it would just about win by default. Beating strong teams would achieve little; thrashing weak teams would achieve a lot.

It's far from a perfect analogy, but I think it illustrates quite well how poorly-planned scoring and design can make a mockery of what's supposed to be a skill-based game.

The outcome of a WvW match has always been determined by whoever could exploit the other teams' timezone coverage holes better. If you don't play during one of those periods, you really don't contribute anything meaningful to the outcome of a match at all. If you do play during one of those periods, but you're on the outnumbered end, you have very little ability to hold back the tide.

ArenaNet either needed to strictly enforce even teams at all times, or make the state of the board irrelevant to the outcome (for example base "winning" on personal/group achievements rather than holding territory). For a game to actually be fun, a player's achievements need to result from that player's actions, or at the very least result from the actions of a group of players who they know and have some influence over.

As it was (and still is), the only realistic thing a player on a losing server could do to win was transfer to a winning server. When that's the only way a player has any agency over the outcome of a game, it's quite difficult to call it a game at all.

I've not enjoyed any sort of WvW since DAoC's Realm vs Realm. Now that was how you do large scale faction warfare.

They wouldn't let me name my character Crack Killer

Oh im so wounded now.

The name's CK

- CK?

Crack Killer, motherfucker!

Am not usually a fan of mario type stuff but this jumping puzzle is great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJVY2s3eUJk

"After this, i think i will never ever do any jumping puzzle in guild wars 2. It is completely ridiculous. I have little to no free time because of my time consuming job, and i've just spent like 3 hours trying to do this jumping puzzle but without success, so complete waste of time. I am playing games more than 20 years, but i've never played or seen anything more infuriating than this!"

"I love this. In like that Stockholm syndrome kinda way. IT'S WONDERFUL! HI...HI HI HA HAHA send help."

"I broke my keyboard because of this.
Why do I waste my time?
They should shoot the person who made this JP
total waste of time.."

"i hope those that designed and approved this die really soon"

Rofl rofl, whole youtube comments filled with whining :D

And at the end you only have to make this jump right to get the achievement thing

https://youtu.be/sNO5Ekd94fU

The tricky part about that one is hitting the water but not anything else on the way down... and it can take quite a while to get back up if you miss.

There was a worse jumping puzzle than this, but it was made a lot easier by the addition of gliding and then trivialized by mounts. This one doesn't permit either within its zone.

Chalice of Tears in one of the more recent areas is also known as an unpleasant puzzle because it's often completely unclear where to go next. It's a bit more forgiving once you've figured it out though.

And yeah, they're all designed by the same bloke. He's alive and well, by the way.