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[Column] Guild Wars 2: A Grindy Halloween
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The latest holiday event in Guild Wars 2, Blood and Madness, arrived in game last week. There are some new features and content, but how do they measure up to last year's inaugural event? We examine Blood & Madness and offer up our thoughts. Let us know what you think in the comments.
I really enjoyed the scavenger hunt from last year, and I was hoping it would make a return. It was a neat way to progress the story while also using a spooky theme for Halloween. Story is even a major priority in Guild Wars 2, with a huge focus on the Living Story part of the game world. Now we do get some new story because they have to introduce the Bloody Prince somehow, but instead of a nice story that progresses with some small tasks, a simple and short instance is used to start things off. After that, the event has you grind to gain achievements just so you can get to the end.
Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: A Grindy Halloween.
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While I didn’t enjoy the story content, the new tombstone shield skin looks amazing!
Comments
Smile
I honestly don't mind the grind, but maybe that's because I only do it for a tiny bit and offset it with playing another game, like EQ2 (no heroic character in case you are wondering).
Maybe that's the secret to avoiding feeling bored by a "grind": playing more than one MMO at once and/or moderating your time on them.
Since when is Tuesday a direction?
I really hope that they expand the story with next Tuesday's update, but I completely agree. There was next to no additional "content" added from this update aside from a few new skins from BLCs/cash shop and achievements to grind.
As a whole, ANet has been actually doing pretty well recently with giving actual content to do with some permanent consequences (Domain of the Winds, Clock work, Tequatl update, Scarlet's TA Dungeon, etc.).
To be fair, we are starting a WvW season and we did get a preview of a new WvW map, so they HAVE been working
And the brightside is that even if there is a crappy update, there's only 14 days for something better. Hopefully this lazy addition is giving the devs time to increase the quality of the next portion. I have a feeling next Tuesday will be better.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
Yeah but it seems to be their only major content updates really... Sure they work on PvP and added an LFG tool (over a year after the game was released I may add), but PvE content in this game is extremely uninspired.
I try all the time to get back in the game to make most of my $60 but it feels like a chore.
Smile
I know a few people who feel that way. Worst case scenario, come back for 3-4 hours every other week until something clicks. Or try sPvP.
Personally, I've enjoyed the majority of the last few updates except this one and SAB 2.0. When I don't really feel like doing new content, it's usually a great time to catch up on old content.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
Why are most reviewers of GW2 fixated on the "Legendaries, no grind" narrative? This was Anet's pre-launch mantra, and I can't believe it's still being repeated.
Legendary, no grind has long been replaced by Ascended, yes grind. You now have to max your crafting (even if you hate crafting) to a tune of 200g or its equivalent in materials for Ascended weapons. There is also the huge time gate for Laurels that must be used for all Ascended gear. Also, Ascended Armor is coming by the end of the year. Anyone want to guess how bad the grind will be on that?
Get the facts straight!
Rithwis, Righteous Golem of Camelot | Skritha, Orc Archer of Tamriel | Bloodwod, Sawbones of Auraxis | Thrumdi, Blue Norn of Tyria | Gwidwod, Spider of the Ettenmoors | Gideon Slack, Hunter of Alsius
Mostly because the only people who are grinding ascended weapons either find it enjoyable or are doing ridiculously high level fractals.
There's no need for ascended gear in any other facet of the game, though I do wish that WvW players had a more viable way of gaining ascended gear so that naysayers lose their only argument.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
I was a bit confused about LFG tool is it still in beta and if not where is it?
Smile
Thats like saying raid gear in wow is not needed because you can do everything else without it.
GW2 has gear gating, a point they sold the game has not haveing.
Achievement for carving pumpkins... che... err, nope!
Achievement for talking to NPCs about the holiday... che... err, nope!
Achievement for opening trick-or-treat bags... che... err, sometimes...
Yeah, overall, this holiday is very lackluster and grindy. And coming off a segment featuring everyone's least favorite salad (more hated on my server than Trahearne), this makes a solid month of bleh. Yes, Inquisition is fun, but I can only take so much of the same game redressed over and over again. We've done this one during Dragon Bash. We did it during Bazaar of the Four Winds. And we're probably going to do it all over again during Christmas, too.
W...what? An article that isn't praising GW2 blindly on the sight (for advertisement purposes through being in news that EVERYONE KNOWS its there for). I'm completely shocked I must say. *slow claws* bravo!
I was starting to think this site was paid off completely not to just spam news (which I KNOW it was) but also to constantly praise the game and worship it unflinchingly like the 2nd masia. Good to see actual flaws being pointed out to such an extent so I know its just news that they pay for you to push all over on the site to advertise for them "subtle' in an obvious way (which to be fair thats most games here, just its in over abundance here).
A while ago I just started ignoring the achievements in the game and I've been much happier for it. I understand some folks need goals set out for them to enjoy games so there is that. But I've found that just by jumping into the game whenever I felt like it and just playing that I've enjoyed it so much more.
This goes for any mmorpg really, trouble is that most mmos you just can't ignore the skinners box type goals in the game. So I just don't play mmorpgs anymore except for GW2 a few times a week.
It's still in beta and it falls incredibly short of what it should do. It simply organizes your advertisement. Once again, they're falling short of standard functionality.
GW1 was grindy as well, but the skill system was what made it fun for me.
GW2 comes along and removes the biggest feature from GW1 that kept me playing GW1 rather than other games like WoW. Then GW2 adds in features that I find completely boring like harvesting nodes etc. just to make it 'feel' like an MMO (aka WoW).
Anyways, I have been done with this game for a long time, I just wish I had not missed the refunds that ANet was handing out way back when.
Little forum boys with their polished cyber toys: whine whine, boo-hoo, talk talk.
It seems to do exactly what it is designed to do. Are you wanting it to be an automated everything like it is in WoW? The system they currently have is a lot more robust than that, it just won't automate everything for you.
It also helps to do other things in life as well, I don't notice grinds until after 4 hours pending on what it is, but since I do a lot of other things than just play video games it helps.
Essentially everything or majority of things especially in a video game are going to end up being grinds, it's just all in how you play and use your time. WHich is why I never caught myself leaving something because it's too grindy.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
There wasn't a whooole lot to the Halloween story, though if you hang around in the labyrinth and listen, there is a surprising amount of talk between Prince Edward and the Mad King. You get a lot more background if you just sit around and listen to them.
Also, they totally snuck in a pretty big story update in Kessex Hills by the Moogooloo Waypoint.
One of the towns went from ruined to completely razed, a whole forest was chopped down, there's a bunch of NPCs talking about things, and there's a double layered impassable forcefield blocking off the whole lake.
GW2 is really big on sneaking in story into the world where nobody notices unless they're really on the ball and/or listening to the parts of the community that pays attention and checks out these things.
It makes it really easy to miss a lot of the ongoing story if you don't know where all to look and what to pay attention to. It's actually their strength in storytelling, the background sneaky storytelling. But it also means most people have no idea it's there.
IMO the event is just more unplayable content!
WHY: because if You live somewhere other than USA you will not be online at the same time as enough players to be able to actually get through the event.
Last time I tried, I was with about 12 other players and with one hit from the legendary boss they were ALL downed. How many players do we actually need to be able to play this game!!!
Scaling You up (I'm lvl 80) for some events needs to be taken the other way as well and scale the event down for less players than it was designed to handle!
I no long even go near the doors because there is nothing there that gives anything for You effort!
The game is getting more and more boring every day because it is not playable in small groups or solo and most likely never will be!
I'm glad people are able to enjoy this game. I found the whole experience to be a grind and it never did it for me.
All the comments about how innovative, how exciting etc. - I just never got that. I was playing the Secret World when GW II launched and a massive sucking sound was heard as people left to play GWII. I never got that either. I thought TSW was a much better game.
Seaspite
Playing ESO on my X-Box
I think the main thing may be the sense of reward that you don't really get in GW2 with everything always being about item skins and achievements. I'm sure there's a way to do it even without a gear grind but it seems every events just more of the same with a different coat of paint rather than actually trying to add any new systems. For example you have that arena in Lion's Arch with the battle pets near it. I assume that's a hint to them eventually doing something like pet battles and a system like that could genuinely give people something else to do and make those pets serve a purpose.
I still think it's kinda silly how they say they don't want to do expansions but a year later we still don't even have a new zone.