76 replies to this topic

[beadnbutter32]

These guys don't talk like any human being I know. These are not the marketing droids you are looking for...

Straight out of the con mans play book, if the mark asks any 'difficult' questions, just smooth it over with something vaguely re-assuring and condescending.  Absolutely no empathy to show they hear and understand player's concerns, just slick PR talk.

Alll those bugs, looking into it.

As an experiment, whenever anyone asks me a hard question in the next month, I am going to reply with the 'looking into it' ploy.

Instead of fixing known problems, they keep making more and more promises of stuff they are looking into.

The sooner you accept that it is just another Asian grindfest Cash Shop, with the most expensive marketing department in the industry, you can go back to getting whatever value you find in this MMO.

If the buggy and ill thought out most recent 'expansion content' is any sign, we are in for a very bumpy ride from here on out.

[Carebear_Sss]

Best quote of this AMA "(...)in the near future.".

[Sephalo]

Why is this ALL about PvE.
Seriously. The PvP community is slowly dying because it's lacking a good system for players to compete.
We want something that scales the pvp progression of players. Like the arena ratings wow has!
Ofc, it doesn't have to be just like wow, but the current system is really failing. It's all based on the amount of points you get from paid tournaments, but you can't lose those points at all, so it's basically which decent team 'farms' those qual points the most.
Which makes PvP all about farming. It makes no sence.

Get something that is more casual friendly. Like, once again, Wow's system. Lose = -rating, Win = +rating. So it doesn't matter how much you play, the only thing that matters is basically your win ratio.

I'm getting quite sad that it's all about PvE in these posts and Q&A's while the PvP community is seriously dying.
All extraordinairy players I've met in GW2 (about 10+) have quit the game so far and started playing other games cus there is NO excitement in GW2 pvp at all, cus if you lose... who cares?

[Linfang]

Waar Kijk Je Naar, on 26 November 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

I chuckled when he said they designed everything with minimal grind.

What a joke.

Yea no kidding. This game is starting to get more grinding then a dance floor on prom night.

[Red Intensity]

*takes 30 minutes to read PR tripe*

Little, if anything, about the pages of skill/trait bugs affecting gameplay, why the hell it takes them longer to fix skill/trait bugs than it would to shoehorn in the Lost Shore update. For those of us asking complainers to cut them some slack, how about not?

I've grown weary of:

- them not addressing the Arah event bug that prevents people from completing their story, Dungeon Master title or token collecting.

- the constant nerfs to the mesmer's core mechanic and the thief's damage in general, the engineer's questionable viability for anything that isn't the grenade kit, the ranger's "support" skills and the lack of stun breakers, Evasive Arcana being nerfed to the uselessness, and other things that concern the professions I've yet to play

- wondering why the mesmer is lacking a third mainhand weapon (which should most definitely be the pistol)

- pet/minion/illusion AI doing crap all to distract the enemy (PvE)

A good chunk of the playerbase would be content if the skill/trait bugs were more aggressively addressed; but no, we get a new tier of gear that is extremely expensive in both time and money, and condescending answers in the AMA. They've gotta lay off the hookers and blow sometime soon.

Edited by Red Intensity, 27 November 2012 - 01:33 AM.

[Anemone]

Linfang, on 27 November 2012 - 12:42 AM, said:

Yea no kidding. This game is starting to get more grinding then a dance floor on prom night.

What exact;y do you need to grind to play the game?
You can run any dungeon in explorable mode with rare quality gear without having any issues whatsoever. But if its really a bother Exotics can be acquired in a day or two.
In sPvP gear doesn't matter. In WvWvW it rarely matters as most of the time you fight in huge numbers but still, getting the need "max" gear ain't hard.
General pve and dynamic events require gear even less as you can run fully equipped in Masterwork items and still perform wonderfully.

Only place gear comes to matter is Fractals dungeon, but that's only on 10++ for exotics and 20++ for ascended. But to be fair, if you don't find it fun to play the dungeon then there is no need to actually do it No point in reaching better dungeon lvl if its not fun for you.

And there we go. If things as prestige and legendaries are on your list then its a terrible reason and all that is your own choice and no one is making you grind for better looking pants.

Or am I missing something? I'm slowly going for my legendary but I haven't seen a single thing I would be required to grind for if I didn't want to myself.

[evilbob]

There are dozens and dozens of answers at this point; is anyone going to be updating this thread?  Reddit is a terrible format for these things!

I also have to wonder:  is perhaps Chris not a native English speaker?  His responses are rather hard to parse sometimes, and the level of typos is more consistent with a high school paper or a facebook post than a professional developer.

[Xodiak]

You have to keep people interested long term when the carrot (gear) is so very easily obtainable.

[Neo Nugget]

evilbob, on 27 November 2012 - 02:00 AM, said:

There are dozens and dozens of answers at this point; is anyone going to be updating this thread?  Reddit is a terrible format for these things!

I'm going through and updating the thread now. Sorry it wasn't kept updated earlier! Also note that the last post was a half hour ago, so there's definitely quite a few posts from Chris in there.

[Coren]

I love the way he said that they knew what the backlash was going to be... And yet they still did it WITHOUT any explanations that could smooth the transition. Quite funny.

[Carebear_Sss]

"i will try to organize an ama for PvP and WvW as i haven't really had time to address as many questions as i would have liked in these areas. We will provide details when we can."

WvW 2 questions answered

PvP 0 questions answered

[d_fens]

They could restrict ascended gear to fractals only (like it would have zero stats outside of fractals). Hardcores would grind till they eyes bleed and PvE folk would be happy with their exotics.

[AlixIcebane]

I love how he answers the same question about grind 3 times in a row with Anets very famous soon tm.

At least he didnt go fanboy on us and said that we didnt have to play fractals, nobody was forcing us.

[Milennin]

What a useless reply on the Arah gates issue.
Sure they are working on it, that's great and all, but why don't they bother with a temporary fix so it's at least open to everyone until they get the event chain fixed.

The rest of the stuff doesn't seem to be anything. Except that low-mid level zones are getting an update in the "near future".

Edited by Milennin, 27 November 2012 - 08:41 AM.

[Frizz]

Ah, people are always so pleasingly predictable with no patience, zero understanding and already had their judgements set, so that any form of communication is simply a waste of effort on some.

To be honest, I found alot of the stuff alot more clearer, even though it seems to be a huge "to-do" list.

I wish they released later and we all went back complaining on how the game hasn't been released yet.

Edited by Frizz, 27 November 2012 - 09:26 AM.

[Coren]

I wanted to know if ascended stuff would be vital to use in future expansions. I was never against agony, I mean it's a way of separating the grind hungry masses, but stats increase was a big nono. He never said WHY they wanted a stat increase.

Saying that ascended would stick around for a bit and possible.future gear means they have NO clear idea of how they want their gear progression to go.

I'm saying it now: I would love to grind FotM much more if the rewards were cosmetic only. Yes I know they want to cater to both sides, but that just doesn't work.

[Taran]

I left a previous MMO because I got sick of the gear treadmill.  Now that its been 'announced' that there will be a gear treadmill in GW2, despite the promise that there wouldn't be, I guess its time to shop for a new MMO.  Fortunately, The Elder Scrolls Online is due to come out soon (like next summer or so).  Historically, they haven't put gear treadmills in their RPG games.  Perhaps TESO will be the 'non-gear treadmill' MMO that players like me were looking for.

I really hope GW2 will recant the stat increases on Ascended gear, but from what Chris was saying, it sounds like this is just the first wave of gear stat increases.  I believe that will be a mistake (and a costly one, too).

Edited by Taran, 27 November 2012 - 11:32 AM.

[Sephalo]

Alright that's it.
All my friends left this game already and I'm gonna follow them for sure.
PvP is dead in this game, so no reasons for me to stay here and try to keep playing just cus it looks so cool.
Once again ArenaNet is replying to PvE stuff and things I don't care about.
The only things they did to PvP so far are the downed hp, new bg and bug fixes.... But that's not what's needed. The overal PvP system is lacking a competive factor.
But fckit, it's too late already. Now that all my friends went back to WoW they will surely stay there to compete for the titles instead of going back halfway through if ArenaNet decides to come up with something similar.

ArenaNet missed it's chances in my opinion.

[Chaosincarnate87]

Ok... so aside from an alleged promise made about no real gear progression aside from what was released at launch... I feel like I'm really missing what the whole outrage is about with the ascended gear... I mean its only essential for .1% of the game, and an optional part at that and only essential at a fairly high tier which your general players wont even end up bothering with and those who do quite honestly should have the ability to acquire the materials to get the items if they feel it THAT necessary.  I mean you can easily get 10-15e a day just from salvaging rares, more if you can use  BL kit.  It barely gives a statistical advantage (only +5 to 1 attribute +5 agony resist with infusion and an insignificant boost to the other attributes)  So maybe I'm just jaded from my lack of real expectations for anything but I just don't really see why it's necessary for people to feel so violated by something that is only essential (the key word here being essential) to a very very small part of the community currently.  I'm all for throwing a fit when it's essential for a bulk of the game play AND nearly unattainable... but until its essential.. why waste time complaining?

[Jason Seven]

Chaosincarnate87, on 27 November 2012 - 12:48 PM, said:

snip

People are complaining because they were sold on a game that was supposed to have the same power plateau throughout its entire existence. Meaning that there'd be no better gear introduced aside from a raise in level cap which means higher level gear to match it obviously. Now regarding the argument a lot of people seem to make about Ascended gear being so very miniscule in terms of stat boosts, here's a comparison:

Ruby Mithril Ring with jewel (Rare)
80 Power, 55 Precision, 5% Crit Damage
Ruby Orichalcum Ring with jewel (Exotic)
92 Power, 63 Precision, 6% Crit Damage
Red Ring of Death with a fine Infusion (Ascended)
104 Power, 69 Precision, 8% Crit Damage +5 of any attribute

20 attribute points and 1% Crit Damage boost from Rare to Exotic.
23 attribute points and 2% Crit Damage boost from Exotic to Ascended. I left out Agony Resist as it's of no value outside the FotM dungeons.

As you can see the difference between Exotic and Ascended is even greater than that of Rare and Exotic. It's certainly not enough for myself who would welcome a true gear treadmill but regardless. If you want to stay up to par with the rest and remain at the top in terms of equipment then you're forced to obtain this new Ascended gear, it's no longer optional. Especially in WvW and dungeons. You'll be a much bigger benefit to everyone involved if you're clad in full Ascended gear than someone who only has exotic equipment. Now, please spare lecturing me about how you and others can be just as good or even better at everything and all with just common gear. I'm talking about a pure statistical advantage not player skill, that's a whole different story. If I deal 100 damage with one attack and someone else deals 120 damage with the same attack only due to gear then that's where a game focused on player skill begins to drift away from its original idea.

[Chabby]

Quote

Q: 2) How far along is the fix for people who missed the chest in the Karka event? Which players will get it? Any one who attended any portion of the event of any specific restrictions? I know myself and many other Oceanic players managed to attend the event on Overflow servers many hours after the event had officially ended - however, and again myself included, the game had a maintenance patch and the event was removed, preventing us from finishing it, will we also get the reward?

A: Thanks for posting. Questions 1 and 2 are answered in the main body of the Best Section.

This question has been interesting me ever since the Lost Shore week-end... But I can't figure out what Chris meant by "in the main body of the Best Section"... Can someone help me on this? :x

[Paken Kai]

Milennin, on 27 November 2012 - 08:39 AM, said:

What a useless reply on the Arah gates issue.
Sure they are working on it, that's great and all, but why don't they bother with a temporary fix so it's at least open to everyone until they get the event chain fixed.

Because it's easier to fix something that's broken than to look at it while it's working and wonder why it wasn't before.

I, too, have yet to get through to Arah. But, I know that intermittent failures (as the event chains leading to Arah are) are the most difficult to fix since when they're running, there's practically no indication that they will stop. Then they do, and you hope to God that they don't go back to a working state until you find out what caused the stop.

[Naevius]

I still vaguely hope that they never put in full Ascended armor sets.

If you think about the new items in fractals, they could have been content with cosmetic grind, or perhaps even gear which ONLY added infusion slots to exotic gear. How many people would grind just for good looking back pieces like quivers or capes? Probably quite a few. Or add new exotic armors with cool appearances or different stat combinations.

Adding gear with increased power seems like a mistake to me. In fact, i think they were better off with leaving the huge gap between exotics and legendaries - it made them more desirable.

[Zhahz]

These events are kind of misleading since "ask anything" might lead you to believe you'll get answers other than political BS.  It should be called "ask anything and we'll avoid giving any real answers"

Eon Lilu, on 26 November 2012 - 09:39 PM, said:

They really have no idea what there doing, changing there minds every 5 seconds...flip flop design choices.

Seems that way.

I'm overall disappointed in how ANet has not stuck to their core design or principles and has basically caved to gear whiners.

I'm also really sick of the mystic forge.  This is supposed to be a skill based game but so much of this game ends up being about luck or ungodly grinding and there is no skill involved with either.

[Elyhem]

I really do not understand what everyone is complaining about.

It is quite possible that I am ignorant to what individuals want here.  I see people saying they are sick of the "grind" to get karma, to get crafting materials to get the armor they would want.

What do you want then?  Do you just want all the vendors just to take high fives?  

- Oh I see that you are looking for some Arah gear, that would cost you 2 high fives each.
- Oh I see that you are looking for a Legendary, that will cost you 15 high fives.

I can only imagine that people would just start complaining that their hands are getting too tired from all these high fives.


I do not see any right to complain because the game has NO monthly subscription fee.  If you are paying for gems that is your own choice, it is not like they did not give you the option to use gold to trade for Gems.

Everyone wants a perfect world, but look around you, people will always be complaining for a better way of living.   If the game is not what you expected or wanted... why not just stop playing?  You will not be losing anything -- you will actually most likely be gaining more time on your hands.

[Chabby]

Elyhem, on 27 November 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

It is quite possible that I am ignorant to what individuals want here.  I see people saying they are sick of the "grind" to get karma, to get crafting materials to get the armor they would want.

What do you want then?  Do you just want all the vendors just to take high fives?

I'm not really complaining though, but three of my friends who have been excited for years about of GW2 are starting to get tired with the amount of things required to get anything. You need to do a dungeon more than 10 times to get a set, you need 100k+ karma/gold/mat to get a legendary, you need 250 ectos for an infusion at the moment or 35 gold for an ascended... And gold: you don't earn that much. If they want to keep an armor or weapon's look on a lvl 80 thing, they need fine transmutation stones...

I spent 3 days farming, I made 5 gold. If I want something like 100 gold, I'll need at least month, and that's if I'm lucky getting 3 gold every day AND if I have the time to play. I hardly have more than 3 hours to give per day.

At the moment, we have zero interest to go back in earlier zones to explore and Cursed Shores is bugged on my server. Jumping puzzles don't give anything, exploring a cave and finding a chest either. I wouldn't mind a mysterious labyrinth-like cave with its path changing everyday that require skill, jumping, exploration, lores and puzzles with a good reward at the end instead of repeating the same dungeons or fighting through hell in the fractals for two hours each run.

The hardcore players have the time for this, casuals are having a hard moment actually.

Edited by Chabby, 27 November 2012 - 07:56 PM.

[Naevius]

Actually, the only thing I really cared about in that AMA was the hint that they might raise the level cap at some point. Imagine the weeping when ALL the gear becomes obsolete.

[Chabby]

Naevius, on 27 November 2012 - 07:49 PM, said:

Actually, the only thing I really cared about in that AMA was the hint that they might raise the level cap at some point. Imagine the weeping when ALL the gear becomes obsolete.

If they do, it will likely be an expansion. I won't mind, because release time between each expansion is always big, so a lot of time to get our things and upgrade our stats... Also, expansions likely mean thousand of ways to acquire the new said gear...

But a random update in the middle of a month, it's out of nowhere and most of the time it's not tested enough.

[Elyhem]

@Chabby.

Teaming with a group of people (Dungeons).
Mysterious Instance Mixing Skills (Fractals).
A Labyrinth that changes every day (Diablo 3?)

Each dungeon gives you 60 tokens per path and there are 3 paths...  You can literally get a piece of armor in 3 runs.   As for a legendary you need 1Million Karma actually much more than 100k but we can get back to that.   Ectos can be extracted from rare items quite easily if you do enough dungeon runs or just run around Cursed shore with your friends.

A legendary is just that, legendary.   It should take awhile to get, you should not get it in a day or even a week.   You should be working towards it.   The reason they say it is not a grind is because it depends what you are focused on.   If you are FOCUSED on getting a legendary and that is all you care about then absolutely yes that is going to be a grind because you are pouring your time into that item this theory is replicated to any other item you FOCUS on.    But if you are just playing the game for fun, doing a few runs a day, just playing with friends earning karma here and there -- you will eventually get to the point of having enough for a Legendary.  Will it be as fast as some hardcore player FOCUSING on just this ?  Definitely not, but that is their prerogative not yours.

To say that you play an hour a day (casual player) and you should have the exact same items/trophys and achievements as someone who players 6 hours a day (hardcore player) is ridiculous.  

You get what you put into the game, or life in general.  You cant get what someone else gets with little to no effort.

[Vahkris]

Chabby, on 27 November 2012 - 02:27 PM, said:

This question has been interesting me ever since the Lost Shore week-end... But I can't figure out what Chris meant by "in the main body of the Best Section"... Can someone help me on this? :x

You can sort Reddit comments by various filters...one of which is Best.  I think he probably means the huge list of questions, but not sure.

Edited by Vahkris, 27 November 2012 - 08:03 PM.