AuntieI

Regina Buenaobra for Arenanet gets my thanks! My dealings with all of the Arenanet CM's has always been great, but I have dealt with Regina the most.

Yay! *dances around desk*
Woohoo!

World of Warcraft has an app that allows a certain number of features without a fee, but adds more features if you pay for them. Being Blizzard they also offer additional features for a fee.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/services/iphone/

I won't pay extra, but a companion app with features like the ability to check on your guild chat I can see the use for...

Oddly enough, the answer is Yes and No.

I play Guild Wars and take part in the community.

I have played World of Warcraft and wouldn't go anywhere near the community. Well, the official forums at least. That place is dangerous!

I play Lord of the Rings Online and do not take part in the larger community.

Darn you Rubi Bayer and your adorably cute guard Charr!

Arenanet Rules!

Happy 6th Birthday Guild Wars!

I currently play / have played several MMOs over the years. The only beta I participated in was the one for Guild Wars. I don't play Guild Wars as much as I used to, but I do still play from time to time.

Whaaaa.....

Really!


Ooooooo!!


Sounds intriguing! Count me in...

Ahh, yes, now I see your point. "Balance" is the wrong word for some of what they do. Some of the things they are doing are to change the Meta of the game. They are neither buffs or nerfs. (Although opinions will certainly differ on which are which)

My question to you would be, "Are they failing because of the Skills available for their character? Or is it because there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what is needed to succeed in a particular area?"
In other words, is it the PLAYERS skill or the GAMES?

The biggest misconception I see is that player think that they should be able to do it "their way", rather than looking at the situation and figuring out how it needs to be handled. "Balance" may be needed to adjust a "Odd" requirement that is just outside the experience of the majority of the players. I think this is what happened to THK. Focus fire is much better understood now than it was then, as well the advances in Monking (I can remember when a Protection Monk was laughed at, as I'm sure you can too) skill mean that prevention is at least as important as healing. Knowing what we know now (about the tactics of the game) THK would be manageable. Then, it needed "balancing". I agree, it probably shouldn't have, but it did. Reality sucks.

As to the way the introduction of additional skills affected older areas, even Arenanet has admitted that one bit them on the butt. The new skills combined in ways they hadn't even considered. Plus the older areas were simplistic compared to more recent additions. UW certainly did not have Mobs with secondary professions, like some of the newer content has. (Just as a example, I know that there are many more ways that the older content is simplistic) The work to go back and rework those areas is however, extensive and unfortunately I do not see it being a priority ever again.

I still think that the majority of the content does not actually need the specialized builds that people claim are essential. The overall tactics needed for a particular area may require certain things, which require that certain TYPES of skills be available, however I think that there is too much focus within the community on SPECIFIC skills which MUST be brought by certain PROFESSIONS. Down that road, you get cookie cutters. I like cookies, but not in my Guild Wars. It annoys me greatly!

LostSoviet

I am puzzled by your assumption that PvE should never need balancing. It is impossible for the developers to take into account the way every skill (and GW has lots of skills) will be made to interact with every other skill in the game. Relatively speaking, there are only a few developers working on the game (Even at the height of work on GW1) compared to the number of people playing the game. Even after almost 5 years, there is no way that they have had the time or the need to balance everything. Add on top of that that they regularly change skills and mechanics within the game, which will introduce new issues to be dealt with and you can expect that there will continue to be balancing issues until the day the game dies.

On the concept that they have the right to dictate the way that the game is played..Yes they do, it's their game! I think they have done a fine job of allowing a variety of play styles. They do consider farming a legitimate way of playing the game, they just think it shouldn't be as easy as it has been. You can play it as a single player game, you can play it as a multi-player only (No AI NPCs used at all) game. Lots of choice in between too.

I also dispute your comment on Thunderhead Keep. Until the change when they made that nuisance dwarf stand still, it was almost impossible to do with just Henchmen. Heroes didn't exist, neither did the ability to Flag them to particular spots. That came much later. That pesky Dwarf would get involved in the fight and move completely out of the fort area if you weren't watching him carefully. Chasing him half way to the middle of nowhere was not fun. You could do it, but man it was a pain. I do not remember that "Good old day" with fondness.

I think that the constant updating and changing is part of what has kept a relatively old game active and interesting. The game released is a long way from the game we play today. The game has evolved. As long as Arenanet is willing to continue to support the game, it will change!