A question on behalf of veteran players

#1 - Aug. 28, 2014, 11:46 a.m.

ANet, What do you have against us?

We went through the somewhat lackluster personal story, getting even more lackluster rewards. Now you announce that you’re updating the rewards to be mildly interesting, but those of us who already completed it get absolutely nothing. This is only one of many gripes about the announcements so far, but this one seems particularly irritating.

“A Fresh Start” is an interesting choice of words. If you continue to alienate the people who have supported this game (financially and otherwise), recommended it to friends, and done everything they can to be helpful to new players in-game, then it really will be a fresh start, because there won’t be veterans around anymore. This should not be read as a threat; I don’t have immediate plans of leaving, but I think I speak for most vets when I say that, especially on the 2nd anniversary of the game, it would be nice to feel appreciated as a loyal player. With more than a title and a cake gun, that is.

Follow up question: What use is it to make a blog post that only really affects people who don’t yet play the game?

EDIT: Now that this thread has a red post (merci, Stephane!), I’d like to request we try to keep the discussion civil. It’s OK to be disappointed, but it’s not OK to be a jerk about it.

Stephane Lo Presti

#7 - Aug. 28, 2014, 12:03 p.m.

Puddles.6385:
Follow up question: What use is it to make a blog post that only really affects people who don’t yet play the game?

Hi Puddles,

First of all, we at ArenaNet very much appreciate the support that all players that have played the game for so long have given us. Without you guys, your love of the game and how you spread the word around you, things would clearly not be the same.

Today’s blogpost about the New Player Experience will not have as many visible effects to you specifically as it would have for a brand new player, that knows very little about the game. The new direction system should help you get a clearer and more useful top-tight UI, but also give your new characters better rewards.

As you noted, it is mainly targeted at new players, those that need it the most. We want their learning experience to be better so that they, too, can become veteran players of Guild Wars 2 one day! Learning to play a brand new game, and MMOs tend to be more on the more complex side of videogames, can be a daunting and hard task.

We want more people to be able to walk this path you walked and this is why we implemented the New Player Experience system, to create a route that new players can walk and feel rewarded along the way.

Again, thanks for your support!

Stephane Lo Presti

#38 - Aug. 28, 2014, 2:15 p.m.

The Feature Pack announcements will continue next week and some of them will definitely contain information that’s relevant to those of you who’ve been playing the game for long. We won’t tell you about them until the articles are live though, to keep the element of surprise!