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Frustrating ZAM video on Ascalon catacombs

2

Comments

  • OrsonDiturnoOrsonDiturno Member Posts: 35

    LOL, Darnell would be awesome.

     

  • demonic87demonic87 Member UncommonPosts: 438

    Members of the gaming pressa are Journalists first, very casual gamers second. They are terrible at games because people don't hire gamers to fill these positions.

  • MMOarQQMMOarQQ Member Posts: 636

    Originally posted by demonic87

    Members of the gaming pressa are Journalists first, very casual gamers second. They are terrible at games because people don't hire gamers to fill these positions.

     

    So they're basically speaking out of their asses when they review games. That, or superficially at best.

    I think the above is the major hiccup.

  • NBlitzNBlitz Member Posts: 1,904

    Originally posted by demonic87

    Members of the gaming pressa are Journalists first, very casual gamers second. They are terrible at games because people don't hire gamers to fill these positions.

    If this isn't a blanket statement then I don't know what is.

  • aesperusaesperus Member UncommonPosts: 5,135

    Originally posted by Creslin321

    So I thought that the Gamespot podcast video was the most frustrating one I have seen on GW2 up until now.  But man, this one takes the cake.  Here's the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plsd0eK36lY

    This guy runs through Ascalon Catacombs as an elementalist and basically complains the entire time that the dungeon isn't properly balanced because he is dying a lot.  Yet...

    1.  He never changes attunement.

    2.  He insists on meleeing with his elementalist for a long period of time.  Even after stating that he is a 'ranged class" and takes more damage due to cloth armor.

    3.  I don't think he dodges once.

    4.  He is a clicker.

    5.  He typically only uses the "1" skill unless he is trying to describe another skill to the viewer.

    I mean...at least try to learn to play the game.  Seeing this video just makes me worry that there are going to be tons of "it's too hard" QQ threads because players think they should just be able to faceroll through difficult dungeons.

    Also...wouldn't you think that people that play and talk about video games professionally should be at least moderately good at them???

    To the part in green I would say that, yes, they should. However, not all game journalists are writing about games because they are good at them. For some it's just a job, some are striving writers, some really like games but are just bad at them, etc.

    That said, GW and GW2 are both games that cater to those who actually think about what they are doing. Instead of trying to dumb down their games to the lowest common denominator, Anet designs their games to try and push people to strive to achieve difficult tasks.

    Because of this, it's always inevitable that you will get people playing it who don't really think about what they are doing. They just kinda drift through the game instead of trying to think about it / figure it out. This is only reinforced by the number of MMOs that attempt to handhold their players the entire time. That said, I'm really surprised it took this long. I was waiting for videos like this to crop up, didn't see much in the way off this from the con events.

    He also mentions at the beginning that he's doing this thing sleep deprived. Which begs the question, why wait until you can only do a half-assed job to do your review, but I digress..

    There will be bad reviews, there will be negative reviews. Not all will be fair, but I'd be prepared to see more of this as the game gets closer to launch.

  • ZeroxinZeroxin Member UncommonPosts: 2,515

    Originally posted by ariboersma

    Originally posted by Master10K


    Originally posted by ariboersma


    Originally posted by Master10K

    The video is an interesting contrast to MikeB's video on the dungeon, since he also works for ZAM.

    dammit I cannot stand his high pitched voice >.<

    Would you have prefered it if Darnell did the commentary. image

    yes! way better than squeeky >.<

    Psst, Darnell is Mike B.... at least, it sounds like him to me.

    This is not a game.

  • Jimmy562Jimmy562 Member UncommonPosts: 1,158

    Originally posted by fundayz

    Oh wow, I didn't think anyone could be so bad at video games.

     

    I get that people are new to the game but you would think that common sense would tell people to do more than mash "1" when they have buttons 1-10 available....

    Don't mean to derail the thread but do you have to mash 1 if its your auto-attack? Noticed the border around that skill and was wondering if all you have to do is press it once and it will cycle all the time?

  • ariboersmaariboersma Member Posts: 1,802

    Originally posted by Zeroxin

    Originally posted by ariboersma


    Originally posted by Master10K


    Originally posted by ariboersma


    Originally posted by Master10K

    The video is an interesting contrast to MikeB's video on the dungeon, since he also works for ZAM.

    dammit I cannot stand his high pitched voice >.<

    Would you have prefered it if Darnell did the commentary. image

    yes! way better than squeeky >.<

    Psst, Darnell is Mike B.... at least, it sounds like him to me.

    no way... then I didnt listen to darnell long enough because thats a totally different voice, at least in the first few sentences

    image

  • dageezadageeza Member Posts: 578

    I suspect many of us will be kissing the ground frequently as we learn when and what to do, but still as a media rep its pretty unprofessional to whine about dying a lot in a dungeon and it being to hard when you just jumped freshly onto a mid ranged character and you know little or nothing about the way it works..

    Frankly i would be seriously concerned had they been able to ace it or even easily get through it without being the one that leveled the characters..

    Playing GW2..

  • CursedseiCursedsei Member Posts: 1,012

    Originally posted by Skuall

    Arenanet never nerfed dungeons as far as i know :) even when dungeons were hard as hell ^^

     

    Depends on your definition of "nerf". Recently a Factions dungeon zone did recieve an alteration. To pass through an area at one point, you required  skills not native (or available) within Factions. This was changed so that you could access the required levers without said skills.

    They have nerfed things before, but generally its to rebalance everything. Hard Mode enemies have had their health upped, but armor decreased to make other classes more valuable and usable. Plus, most skills enemies use, are the same skills players have, so any time "Fireball" gets changed for instance, its for both players and NPCs alike, unless specified.

     

    As for the mashing 1 question, 1 is the first skill available to your weapon, and thus changes when you change weapon loadouts (or equip a toolkit), it isn't an auto attack.

  • AnirethAnireth Member UncommonPosts: 940

    Originally posted by Jimmy562

    Originally posted by fundayz

    Oh wow, I didn't think anyone could be so bad at video games.

     

    I get that people are new to the game but you would think that common sense would tell people to do more than mash "1" when they have buttons 1-10 available....

    Don't mean to derail the thread but do you have to mash 1 if its your auto-attack? Noticed the border around that skill and was wondering if all you have to do is press it once and it will cycle all the time?

    No, exactly this is the point of auto attack. You do NOT have to mash the button. You still have to use the others sjkills yourrself, and obviously it's not full auto, you still have to choose a target first etc., but you do not have to mash the auto attack skill.

    It's like in Warcraft III if you ever played that, you can set skills like the Priests heal to auto cast and they will use it whenever applicable. Probably other games/MMOs (Never played WoW, but seeing that Blizzard used it for WC3..) that use such a feature, too.

    I can also only agree that the majority of the press was really bad. They didn't have much, if any, prior experience, okay, and they obviously have to cover games they do not like that much and/or are bad in, too, but seriously, some of them play a lot more then the average gamer, they should be able to understand how it works, and adjust accordingly. And it's not like there was no info about how it's supposed to work, either.

    If this is the standard, if unless it's some lucky coincidence, this is how they play most games, i can totally understand some ratings. Or not, as it still doesn't make sense how they arrive at different ratings if they never have a clue about the game. Drawing straws?

     

     

    I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
    And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
    Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
    And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore

  • A new condition is born - GW2 Backseat Driving - guaranteed to drive you insane until the miracle cure is released.

    Best advice - once it gets too much to bear just move onto another video or at least don't look at the hot bar or alternately turn off the sound and then you don't have to listen.  The Ascalon dungeon appears to have been very frustrating for some of the participants.

    Many of the videos drive me nuts but I do appreciate that we got to see them.

  • ComfyChairComfyChair Member Posts: 758

    Originally posted by Cursedsei

    Originally posted by Skuall

    Arenanet never nerfed dungeons as far as i know :) even when dungeons were hard as hell ^^

     

    Depends on your definition of "nerf". Recently a Factions dungeon zone did recieve an alteration. To pass through an area at one point, you required  skills not native (or available) within Factions. This was changed so that you could access the required levers without said skills.

    They have nerfed things before, but generally its to rebalance everything. Hard Mode enemies have had their health upped, but armor decreased to make other classes more valuable and usable. Plus, most skills enemies use, are the same skills players have, so any time "Fireball" gets changed for instance, its for both players and NPCs alike, unless specified.

     

    As for the mashing 1 question, 1 is the first skill available to your weapon, and thus changes when you change weapon loadouts (or equip a toolkit), it isn't an auto attack.

    Having to take a skill only available to necro's or necro seconaries was bollocks anyway, never mind you have to own other campaigns aside from factions :p

    That wasn't a nerf, that was someone rectifying a complete and utter balls up :p

  • stevebmbsqdstevebmbsqd Member Posts: 448

    Originally posted by Creslin321

    Originally posted by Superduper69


    Originally posted by channel84

    Adapt to the new gameplay or go extinct like the dino ^^

    Plenty of gamrs still satisfied with old gameplay.. so nope not getting extinct like dino any time sooner. 

    If people still want to play "WoW-style" tank and spank games, then there are plenty of options for them.  I think all he was saying is that they shouldn't come to GW2 and expect to be able to play it like WoW.

    WoW has a lot of things that one might bash, but most of the real raid bosses were far from "tank and spank"..... Raid bosses were one thing that Blizzard did quite well.

  • moosecatlolmoosecatlol Member RarePosts: 1,530

    Frustrating ZAM video? Try Frustrating ALL VIDEOS!

     

    Except for that one warrior who was soloing veteran mobs, that is how the average player should be playing. Kudos to that person!

  • ariboersmaariboersma Member Posts: 1,802

    Originally posted by moosecatlol

    Frustrating ZAM video? Try Frustrating ALL VIDEOS!

     

    Except for that one warrior who was soloing veteran mobs, that is how the average player should be playing. Kudos to that person!

    one of the first vids I saw from the weekend was Cynical Brit's wife.. she didn't do too badly which surprised me also the one done by his other staff member, I think the vid was about guardians. He was comentating but it was his staff's playtime.

    image

  • NBlitzNBlitz Member Posts: 1,904

    Originally posted by moosecatlol

    Frustrating ZAM video? Try Frustrating ALL VIDEOS!

     

    Except for that one warrior who was soloing veteran mobs, that is how the average player should be playing. Kudos to that person!

    I appreciate more videos of melee professions that are well played. Way too many videos of ranged professions that we've seen ad nauseum.

  • UnlightUnlight Member Posts: 2,540

    Were probably going to see a lot more videos like this as we close in on release day.  The wider the ripples spread, the more non-MMO gamers are going to be taking note and chiming in.  Not only will they be unfamiliar with GW2's mechanics but with MMOs in general.  The p/reviews coming from them are likely going to be a scattershot of gushing and frustration.  Keeping the community's damage control civil is going to be tough.  That's something I'm not really looking forward to...

  • fonyfony Member Posts: 755

    this is no different than the first game. peole could not play it like they played WoW, some quit and some learned to play.

  • VaultarVaultar Member Posts: 339

    Oh gawd..not those gamespot podcasts. i couldn't even get passed the 3 minute mark with their first postcast they did on GW2 weekend beta. Just soooo boring and the crew are just clueless.

    Gamebreaker tv and Totalbiscuit do a far better job.

    Looking forward to EQL and EQN.

  • NaughtyPNaughtyP Member UncommonPosts: 793

    You mean people can't rely on FOTM and gear to carry them through content?

    /permasubscribe!

    Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.

  • aguliondewaguliondew Member Posts: 95

    If I get into the open beta i plan on testing out an elemental's ability to melee as earth/water attunements. Being melee makes dodging one of the most important mitigation skills. All weapons should be viable as long as you are skilled enough to use them.

    The thing I noticed is that they can graveyard zerg the final boss. Hopefully arenanet will tweak the rez timers so something like that will not happen so often. I can understand them doing this to a story mode boss but it needs to be changed for exploration mode.

  • HomituHomitu Member UncommonPosts: 2,030

    Originally posted by Creslin321

    Originally posted by Zeroxin

    We must remeber that this person probably didn't play all the way from level 1 to level 30 so he would be understandably noobish but that doesn't excuse the fact that HE doesn't remember that himself.

    True, and to be fair, he does says "maybe it just seems hard because I suck" at one point.  But he says the dungeon is not balanced properly far more often that that ;).

    Regardless though...you would think that, if for no other reason than to show the viewers more of the game, he would have switch attunements and weapons more.

    Watching someone stumble through a dungeon pressing "1" 500 times just isn't very exciting.

    At one point he said something along the lines of "the downfall of being fire spec is I have to be in melee range for most of my abilities."  It seems he's under the false belief that he's stuck in fire attunement based on where he allocated his traits?  Or maybe he just thinks that because he didn't place his traits elsewhere, the other attunements are automatically useless.  Either way, the thought process seems silly if he's followed the game at all.  

  • Creslin321Creslin321 Member Posts: 5,359

    Originally posted by Homitu

    Originally posted by Creslin321


    Originally posted by Zeroxin

    We must remeber that this person probably didn't play all the way from level 1 to level 30 so he would be understandably noobish but that doesn't excuse the fact that HE doesn't remember that himself.

    True, and to be fair, he does says "maybe it just seems hard because I suck" at one point.  But he says the dungeon is not balanced properly far more often that that ;).

    Regardless though...you would think that, if for no other reason than to show the viewers more of the game, he would have switch attunements and weapons more.

    Watching someone stumble through a dungeon pressing "1" 500 times just isn't very exciting.

    At one point he said something along the lines of "the downfall of being fire spec is I have to be in melee range for most of my abilities."  It seems he's under the false belief that he's stuck in fire attunement based on where he allocated his traits?  Or maybe he just thinks that because he didn't place his traits elsewhere, the other attunements are automatically useless.  Either way, the thought process seems silly if he's followed the game at all.  

    I don't know what the heck he was thinking, but the reality was that it was the dual daggers that caused most of his abilities to be melee, not fire attunement.  Dual daggers has a lot of very close range abilities.  And I would guess they probably aren't advisable for DPSing very heavy hitting mobs inside of dungeons.

    The crazy thing was that the video was like 40ish minutes long, and his dungeon run was even longer than that because he said he wiped a bunch of times.  So it just baffles the mind why he didn't start trying different strategies instead of banging his head up against the "dual daggers 1 spam in fire attunement" strategy over and over.

    It reminded me of the Simpsons where Bart and Lisa play rock paper scissors:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMxzU6hxrNA

    Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?

  • AIMonsterAIMonster Member UncommonPosts: 2,059

    Originally posted by Homitu

    At one point he said something along the lines of "the downfall of being fire spec is I have to be in melee range for most of my abilities."  It seems he's under the false belief that he's stuck in fire attunement based on where he allocated his traits?  Or maybe he just thinks that because he didn't place his traits elsewhere, the other attunements are automatically useless.  Either way, the thought process seems silly if he's followed the game at all.  

    This doesn't make sense either if he read the abilities.  The most you get is about a 25% overall DPS increase in fire attunement which is insignificant if you consider all the utility (and damage from waiting on cooldowns) you'd lose by staying in fire the entire time.  There are even abilities that activate as you attune to fire, which would imply you should be swapping out to more attunements in combat.

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