So is the fanboy honeymoon over yet? I want to hear the real dirt on this game.

pagb wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:37:
I just hear my guildmates bitching about it at vent, getting disconnected after 20mins of gameplay and having to queue again for as long as 90mins.

There is no traditional MMO queuing outside of PvP. If there is not enough room for you on a specific instance server then you get moved to an overflow server which is an identical copy where you can continue going about your business as usual. Anyways, MMOs certainly have issues and this one is no different but it's mostly the games tertiary systems that have been affected - the trading post and party/guild invite functionality. Actually playing the game has been fairly smooth with a few hiccups.

And 400k isn't that much... we're in 2012 you know.

Maintaining 400k concurrent users is a lot more than you seem to realize, potentially requiring a pool of millions. That was just the headstart as well. I doubt it will be as successful as Diablo 3 or WoW but it's still impressive numbers.

If this game was by another company, the devs would have been tarred and feathered on here.

Nah I can't agree with that statement at all. ArenaNet is just another company without the kind of brand loyalty that a company like Blizzard has built over the years. I think the reality is that most of the people simply missed the downtime since most of it occurred in the AM. TOR had wonky login servers and other problems but it was still considered a smooth launch overall.

Ok, if there is anyone interested in a Blue's guild please PM me in game. I will try to keep everyone updated. I myself am on Tarnished Coast, but guild do not have to be server specific.

My in game contact is Mixma.2539

Is anyone playing it on a "less-than-optimal" connection? If so, can you share some of your experiences? Is it laggy? Does it take forever to load new areas?

I'm worried that an MMO might swamp my internet connection...

Creston

Undocumented Alien wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:01:

I approach it more like an ARPG with MMO trappings and find it pretty damned fun.

Same here, the game is non-stop! I head to do a quest and along the way a new event pops up and I do that for 15 minutes or so then go back to my quest, ALWAYS something going on.

I also like to play solo a lot, but the events allow me to "virtually" group for events and execute a common goal with complete strangers for a short time (no commitment) and then do my own stuff again, it's a GREAT design. Travelling is very easy, not much time wasted running across a map for no reason.

Playing a Norn Guardian and currently at level 7, been having a great time. It really does merge the feel of an ARGP and MMO together, will be playing this one for a long time.

as a solo player at heart, your quote won me over, will migrate from Diablo3 to this. never played WOW, but I am curious what this GW is all about. should tie me over until Generals 2.

Verno wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:30:
I know this was just a silly troll but it helps to know what you're talking about, overflows are an intentional game design to prevent queues. It's actually a really well implemented idea that other MMOs should take note of, you can keep playing the game while waiting to enter the world instances.

I just hear my guildmates bitching about it at vent, getting disconnected after 20mins of gameplay and having to queue again for as long as 90mins.

And 400k isn't that much... we're in 2012 you know.

People should start to accept that any mmo will have issues at launch.

pagb wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:22:
Gotta love Blizz haters, if this game was made by Blizz, there would be a huge outrage about Error 7, queues and overflows.

Arenanet's farts must smell like chanel no5.

Also note that goldfarmers have hacked accounts so using the same logic as some of the genius around here, that means anet is TOTALLY AT FAULT AND UNSECURE, and this has nothing to do with morons with malware//keyloggers on their computers.

Verno wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:30:

pagb wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:22:
Gotta love Blizz haters, if this game was made by Blizz, there would be a huge outrage about Error 7, queues and overflows.

Arenanet's farts must smell like chanel no5.

I know this was just a silly troll but it helps to know what you're talking about, overflows are an intentional game design to prevent queues. It's actually a really well implemented idea that other MMOs should take note of, you can keep playing the game while waiting to enter the world instances.

I posted a full list of my issues further below in the thread. For something that already had 400k concurrent users on the Saturday headstart, I think it's generally been a fair launch.

Verno, what he said was fair. Servers were down for quite a while Saturday morning, and the overflow joining system was bugged for a lot of people, seriously ruining their experiences.

If this game was by another company, the devs would have been tarred and feathered on here.

So, for those who were able to play it for a good period of time, care to share some early impressions/review?

StingingVelvet wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:29:
Stupidest question in the world I know, but hype is a bitch. Is there any reason someone who hates MMOs would like this game?

I jumped in during one of the beta weekends... Played for like 30mins and left like 'meh'. But there's no reason a mmo hater should like it, it doesn't offer anything new.

pagb wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:22:
Gotta love Blizz haters, if this game was made by Blizz, there would be a huge outrage about Error 7, queues and overflows.

Arenanet's farts must smell like chanel no5.

I know this was just a silly troll but it helps to know what you're talking about, overflows are an intentional game design to prevent queues. It's actually a really well implemented idea that other MMOs should take note of, you can keep playing the game while waiting to enter the world instances.

I posted a full list of my issues further below in the thread. For something that already had 400k concurrent users on the Saturday headstart, I think it's generally been a fair launch.

Stupidest question in the world I know, but hype is a bitch. Is there any reason someone who hates MMOs would like this game?

If you hate MMOs I doubt Guild Wars 2 would change your mind. It has a hybrid combat system thats part ARPG, part MMO and I find the PvP very appealing but you'd still have to do 80 levels of MMO PvE to fully enjoy it. So yeah, I'd wait for Borderlands 2 or something.

Stupidest question in the world I know, but hype is a bitch. Is there any reason someone who hates MMOs would like this game?

Gotta love Blizz haters, if this game was made by Blizz, there would be a huge outrage about Error 7, queues and overflows.

Arenanet's farts must smell like chanel no5.

Verno wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 11:03:

Darks wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 10:54:
Anyone else finding crafting a bit frustrating?

Copper ore being one of them, the conversion ratio for ore per bar for one. Then trying to make weapons requires a lot of bars. I’m finding that per weapon, the amount of bars required seems a bit high. Plus finding copper isn’t exactly and easy chore either.

What race are you? The human starting area Queensdale is drowning in copper ore, particularly around the quarry to the west of the Divinity Reach entrance. You can take the Lion's Arch gate thing to there if you're a different race or hunt around for better spawns. Ore spawns aren't shared btw so don't worry about people hitting "your" node or vice versa.

Playing a human, and yea I know about the nodes not being shared, that was a great idea on their part to not share them.

Ill have ot run over there. Im always short on Ore.

I'm enjoying the game (as I did the beta)... the only thing I can say that concerns me, in regards to looking at the future, is that 95% of the pop-up events aren't going to be doable when the lower level populations taper out a couple years down the road. There won't be enough of a horde of players to take out... say that troll in Queensdale for example. And since the game scales you down to the level of the area you're in, you won't be able to come back and do it for fun at a higher level.

Granted, this isn't a problem they're going to have to deal with for quite a while, but at some point, it will become one.

Darks wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 10:54:
Anyone else finding crafting a bit frustrating?

Copper ore being one of them, the conversion ratio for ore per bar for one. Then trying to make weapons requires a lot of bars. I’m finding that per weapon, the amount of bars required seems a bit high. Plus finding copper isn’t exactly and easy chore either.

What race are you? The human starting area Queensdale is drowning in copper ore, particularly around the quarry to the west of the Divinity Reach entrance. You can take the Lion's Arch gate thing to there if you're a different race or hunt around for better spawns. Ore spawns aren't shared btw so don't worry about people hitting "your" node or vice versa. Some crafting stuff depends on mob drops so it's always good idea to deposit your collectibles often instead of vendoring everything in your pack. You can quickly do this in the field by clicking the gear icon in your inventory and selecting deposit all collectibles or do it individually by right clicking on any collectible item.

I think the discovery stuff will frustrate people a lot more, I really like it but I prefer some depth and complexity. I think most people are conditioned to that static list of recipes like in WoW. My biggest beef with the crafting system is that some of the stuff you make like say boot panels or shoulder guards can't go into the collectibles inventory and instead has to go to your bank.

how big is the digital download?

With everything unpacked and patched my client is around 15GB. Many many textures.

I was invited and tried the beta and I don't know. It didn't grip me initially like the first ones did. The camera angles were bad and too much was going on and just seemed confusing so I just gave up. With a revitalize Diablo 3, and Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 coming out soon, I probably wouldn't have time to stick with this.

I approach it more like an ARPG with MMO trappings and find it pretty damned fun.

Same here, the game is non-stop! I head to do a quest and along the way a new event pops up and I do that for 15 minutes or so then go back to my quest, ALWAYS something going on.

I also like to play solo a lot, but the events allow me to "virtually" group for events and execute a common goal with complete strangers for a short time (no commitment) and then do my own stuff again, it's a GREAT design. Travelling is very easy, not much time wasted running across a map for no reason.

Playing a Norn Guardian and currently at level 7, been having a great time. It really does merge the feel of an ARGP and MMO together, will be playing this one for a long time.

Verno, thanks for the headsup!

I bought this yesterday evening and started downloading it as soon as I got home from work. Sadly, as of midnight, it was still downloading at about 300k/sec. I don't know if their servers are inundated or if it's a BitTorrent client like WoW and Comcast is throttling me; but I have their 105mbps service and most files and torrents download at 50-70mbps pretty easily. Maybe tonight will be my lucky night.